Island Cable

[Islander]

I have been told that metrocast is going to wire the islands for cable tv, internet and telephone service. Anybody know when this is going to be available?

Thanks

[Aquadeziac]

The phrase "When pigs fly out of my butt" comes to mind. Metrocast has trouble running cable and maintaining service on land.

[Mink Islander]

According to Metrocast, they start work on Bear Island in October.

[mrylmbt]

speaking of metrocast, if anyone here has them and has digital. have you been having problems with the signal. my HD channels have been sputtering
on and off for a few weeks now. it's like watching a bad dvd. I called last night for service and they never called back.

[Bear Islander]

Metrocast has been forced to wire Bear Island because ten homes within a cable mile paid a deposit for a years service in advance. No other islands are being wired. If other islands want cable they should do the same.

Crews have been out on Bear for a couple of months replacing poles, and lowering the telephone wires. Any day now they will be burying the cable from Cattle Landing to the island.

Watch out for those flying pigs!

[DRH]

Originally Posted by mrylmbt

speaking of metrocast, if anyone here has them and has digital. have you been having problems with the signal. my HD channels have been sputtering
on and off for a few weeks now. it's like watching a bad dvd. I called last night for service and they never called back.

We have had much the same experience with the digital channels. We got digital HD from Metrocast last February and we immediately noticed considerable "tiling" on the digital channels, which we learned is what the service techs call the effect when the digital picture breaks up. We've had three service calls to address it. The techs replaced several connectors and "junctions" both inside our house and out on the poles, replaced a cable splitter, and checked the condition of the cable coming to our house from the pole. That eliminated about 90% of the problem, but we're still occasionally getting picture breakup. In our case the picture "tiling" is sometimes accompanied by a momentary loss of audio, which would indicate a loss (or reduction) of signal strength somewhere along the line.

During the last service call the tech. measured the cable's signal strength at our television and said it was very good, and that he doubted the problem was related to the wiring in our house or to the pole on the road.

Neighbor friends of ours up the road also have digital HD from Metrocast, and they have experienced the same problem with the digital channels. They've also had a service tech. come out and replace connectors, etc., but they still get occasional "tiling".

At this point the situation has been improved to the point where it isn't really objectionable, occurring maybe twice each hour on average. Seems to me they should be able to completely eliminate it, but this is our first experience with digital/HD television so perhaps occasional "tiling" is fairly common.

I suggest you call Metrocast again and tell them you are getting serious "tiling" of your digital picture and request a service call to replace your connectors and splitter(s), and check the signal strength at your television. Based on your description of the problem at your house, the techs should be able to significantly improve the situation.

Please let us know how you make out.

[Weirs guy]

We have been lucky for the last several months (knock on wood), but metrocasts customer service is HORRIBLE. mrylmbt, I've found that e-mailing them gets better results then calling them. You may also want to be fairly disgruntled in your e-mail as that seems to help. Not knowing what part of the Weirs your in, my experience is that a lot of our infrastructure is outdated, including the cable, phone and power lines (and the street, water lines....). I'd suggest nagging them until they get it done.

To those of you on Bear, good luck. I keep a picture of their service trucks at my house so I can remember what they look like!

[RI Swamp Yankee]

Originally Posted by Bear Islander

..... Watch out for those flying pigs!

[mrylmbt]

well now that I know it's just not me it will be esier to talk to them about the problem. the house that I live in is only 3 years old and all the connections are new. they were just here 2 months ago for a lightning strike and check all the connections. the cable box was wiped out but everything else was fine.
my tiling as you call it is actually very bad. I also notice that on the reg cable channels you see lines pop up on the screen. so it is not just the HD channels that are effected, but is not that noticeable if your not looking for it. I will email them. thanks

[codeman671]

Our Directv on the island works great. As much as I would like to see broadband internet come without going satellite it is not worth spending a lot up front to get it. I can get satellite internet and turn it off during the off season.

[rander7823]

I have the same kind of problem in CT as well. We have Comcast Cable down here. When I call Customer Service they send a single out....yeah I believe that...to test and then recommned a tech come out. They will also blame the network for sending a bad signal and there is nothing they can due but report it to the network. I usaully ask them if I should start sending the newtwork my check for the HD instead of them. I have noticed that CBS is usually the worst as far as reception goes.....
If all else fails I have found that standing on one foot with my hand on the cable box with tin foil on my head with the kids running a circle around me tends to clear up the reception

[rrr]

Rander - do the kids run clockwise or counter-clockwise?

[Bear Islander]

The main reason we want cable on the island is to get high speed internet. The phone lines are to long for DSL.

The minimum cable cost is only $16 per month, so the deposit we had to make was less than $200 per household. And after Metrocast agreed to come to the island they returned the check anyway.

[Kevin C]

Originally Posted by Aquadeziac

The phrase "When pigs fly out of my butt" comes to mind. Metrocast has trouble running cable and maintaining service on land.

.......That's gonna hurt. OUCH!!

[66WINN]

I complained to Comcast and they sent a tech out. It was happening on my premium channels (HBO). Basic channels were fine. They ended up putting in a signal booster and it cleared the problem.

[Waterbaby]

Originally Posted by 66WINN

I complained to Comcast and they sent a tech out. It was happening on my premium channels (HBO). Basic channels were fine. They ended up putting in a signal booster and it cleared the problem.

Did they charge for the booster? The reason I ask is Comcast told us ours was split too many times inside the house (and they did the splitting, go figure!) which was causing the signal to weaken and that was why we were having problems.........

[gtxrider]

I love it! I have switched to a digital cable box just so I can continue to get channels I had before but have now gone digital. The reception is bad the picture freezes, sound drops out, total loss of the picture... I never had this when the channels were analog.

Reminds me of a phrase a teacher I had for a data transmission course over 30 years ago used. He would say "there is no such thing as a free lunch". As the data (baud rate) increase so do the errored seconds. Remember the old Sprint Pin Drop Commercials? We could get almost the same noise levels both C-Message and C-Notch on our analog facilities. We actual inserted noise so people would know they still had a connection.

[RI Swamp Yankee]

Originally Posted by gtxrider

... Remember the old Sprint Pin Drop Commercials? ....

Vividly .... Sprint was using AT&T facilities for most of their traffic when that aired. (I worked for AT&T at the time)

[gtxrider]

Originally Posted by RI Swamp Yankee

Vividly .... Sprint was using AT&T facilities for most of their traffic when that aired. (I worked for AT&T at the time)

you are correct sir. I did and still do work for at&t pre and post divestiture. We had the labs tell us digital would not have troubles, but it does, only different.

[SIKSUKR]

This thread got me thinking about my own "tiling" problem.I switched to digital about six months ago to recieve Hi Def and I too had a weak signal inside my house from me splitting the cable about 8 times.The tech installed a signal booster which only took about 10 minutes.The reception was improved greatly which fixed some of my downline tv problems.I had not thought about my tiling problem till I read this thread but now that I do,I can't seem to remember a problem with tiling since I had the booster installed.I think the booster was about $25.Money well spent since it seems that I was the one that screwed it up.

[Mee-n-Mac]

We have a similar problem with the upstairs cable in "Mee's" condo. I inserted a DVD recorder between the cable and the box and it's insertion loss was enough to cause all manner of freezes and drop-outs at random intervals. The signal level issue arouse because the splitting of the cable in the condo wasn't done with much thought about losses. Each divide by 2 splitter causes a power reduction of slightly more than 50% (yes, kinda obvious I know). So long runs that have 3 splits end up with at most 12.5% of the original power level, just due to splitters. We'd be better off with a 4 way splitter, installed where the cable comes in. This means running the cable lines differently but we'd have ~20% of the original signal level instead of the 12.5%. So if you can, I'd advise people to look at how the cable is split and distributed. You might find some "free" power.

ps - Anyone had any problems with signal boosters and high-speed internet ? I'd be concerned that the amplifier might stop or reduce the signal going back out onto the cable (ie - you have to be careful where in the line you place the booster).

[Merrymeeting]

Mac,

I have an amp in my house on the cable side of the connection. Cable comes into the house to a splitter put in by the cable company. One side goes to broadband modem, other to amp that then goes on to tv's.

No problems so far.

[DRH]

For those of you who are using cable signal amplifiers , I am curious where you purchased them and how much they cost. (SIKSUKR said his was about $25 from the cable company.)

Thanks.

[rander7823]

Originally Posted by rrr

Rander - do the kids run clockwise or counter-clockwise?

I have 3 so two run clockwise and 1 counterclock wise unless we are trying to get ESPNHD then we reverse it. But only in March.

[RI Swamp Yankee]

Originally Posted by Mee-n-Mac

{snip} ps - Anyone had any problems with signal boosters and high-speed internet ? I'd be concerned that the amplifier might stop or reduce the signal going back out onto the cable (ie - you have to be careful where in the line you place the booster).

There are "boosters" made that will pass the "upstream" frequencies for cable internet, they do cost a bit more. M&M is correct, you have to be careful and plan ahead. .. I don't remember where I came across it though ...

You can get a amplifier at Wally World for $25 to $35. No special amplifiers or antennas are needed for digital, it is a UHF signal with "baggage".

All of my digital HD is "off the air" using a small antenna and digital receiver. I can get Boston digital stations crystal clear that are only fuzz on regular TV.

[codeman671]

Originally Posted by DRH

For those of you who are using cable signal amplifiers , I am curious where you purchased them and how much they cost. (SIKSUKR said his was about $25 from the cable company.)

Thanks.

Comcast got me for $40.00 for mine.

[SIKSUKR]

It looks like my booster was about $35.I told the tech I was looking at buying one at Radio Shack and others and he advised those were not very good.Take that for what it's worth.