Survey Says…. It’s the Cable
I have a fairly modest middle-class home. Attached to the main structure is a 14′x22′ family room. This is where we watch television. We have cable television, which means that a coax cable runs from the services closet (cable, water, electrical) across the whole main structure of the house, approx. 33′, across the 14′ family room to a jack, which I use to run even more coax to the cable tuner.
I’d always had some problems with the reception, but the channels affected weren’t on my list of channels to watch, so I didn’t care much.
Five weeks ago, Comcast changed their distribution format from analog to digital, so spaketh the wiring guru. This format makes the system a little fussy, but improves reception. Unless you want to watch television in my family room, that is.
The Comcast wiring guru did his best. He tried everything. He put in a 4 port signal amplifier. He brought in two new cable tuners. He probed and prodded and begged the signal to make it to the television in one piece. Alas, it wasn’t to be. Somehow, the 45′ run of cable, buried in the walls and stapled along the sill and covered up with a plaster ceiling, got damaged. When the distribution format was analog, the signal was able to make it through the damage a bit worse for wear, but usable. Not anymore. The digital signal says, “Eh? What’s this?” and gives up.
Fixing the cable is not in the purview of the Comcast wiring guru. It is a job for an electrician, who will have to figure out how to run at least 45′ of new cable to the furthest point of the house from the services closet without getting it dinged.
We do have other cable drops in the house. The formal living room, the master bedroom and the finished basement all have cable drops. This, of course, means that either the living room now becomes a den or the tv watching moves to the basement, or we hire an electrician and have him work his magic for a small pile of money.
Meanwhile, we’re taping shows on VCR through an antenna. So much for Tivo and digital television.