1 Weak Tuner and What To Do?

[MurrayJimW]

Lately it seems one of the two tuners in my S3 is weak. While tuner #1 will handle DTV with a signal strength of around 72 just fine, tuner #2 will not. When the signal level gets in the range of 70-75 it will freeze and pixellate to the point where the television is not watchable on one of the tuners where the other remains perfectly fine. I am unsure what a normal cutoff in signal strength for these tuners is, but I would think low 70's would be sufficient. This signal is being supplied by Time Warner and they have already replaced the drop into the house and I have a rather expensive drop amp doing its thing in the basement. I am considering an exchange on this unit for a shot at a better tuner but would rather not just because of the hassle.

I'm looking for opinions on what to do here. If it was yours would you exchange? I only have about a week left to decide if this is the course I wish to pursue. Thanks for any insight here.....

[SCSIRAID]

Originally Posted by MurrayJimW

Lately it seems one of the two tuners in my S3 is weak. While tuner #1 will handle DTV with a signal strength of around 72 just fine, tuner #2 will not. When the signal level gets in the range of 70-75 it will freeze and pixellate to the point where the television is not watchable on one of the tuners where the other remains perfectly fine. I am unsure what a normal cutoff in signal strength for these tuners is, but I would think low 70's would be sufficient. This signal is being supplied by Time Warner and they have already replaced the drop into the house and I have a rather expensive drop amp doing its thing in the basement. I am considering an exchange on this unit for a shot at a better tuner but would rather not just because of the hassle.

I'm looking for opinions on what to do here. If it was yours would you exchange? I only have about a week left to decide if this is the course I wish to pursue. Thanks for any insight here.....

72 is not all that high... On a cable system, I would expect the signal level to be in the 90's. Can you describe how your coax is wired starting at the entry to the house? I would assume that the inbound cable from the outside goes straight to the amp and then fans out from there.... how many splitters and what sizes are in the path to the S3. How are you supplying power to the amp? What is the gain of the amp. How many outputs are on the amp?

[hookbill]

You say you have an expensive drop amp? Why? If you need an amplifier Time Warner will install one for free.

My suggestion is to call TW and have a tech come out and check all your connections for signal strength. What you see on the TiVo strength meter is an indication to me that your expensive amp is either in the wrong spot or not the correct kind. I don't think sending your S3 back will help in this situation.

[SCSIRAID]

Originally Posted by hookbill

You say you have an expensive drop amp? Why? If you need an amplifier Time Warner will install one for free.

My suggestion is to call TW and have a tech come out and check all your connections for signal strength. What you see on the TiVo strength meter is an indication to me that your expensive amp is either in the wrong spot or not the correct kind. I don't think sending your S3 back will help in this situation.

TWC Charged me for mine.... I had it installed when the house was finished and the cable was being initially hooked up. I had 8 drops throughout the house. I believe it was 100 bucks. They put in a 4 port amp and then had to use three splitters in the outside box to wire everything. The box was so full, it barely closed.

I replaced it a month or so ago with an 8 port that I got for less than 50 bucks. The box on the house actually closes properly now.

[hookbill]

Originally Posted by SCSIRAID

TWC Charged me for mine.... I had it installed when the house was finished and the cable was being initially hooked up. I had 8 drops throughout the house. I believe it was 100 bucks. They put in a 4 port amp and then had to use three splitters in the outside box to wire everything. The box was so full, it barely closed.

I replaced it a month or so ago with an 8 port that I got for less than 50 bucks. The box on the house actually closes properly now.

How can they possibly charge you for something you need to deliver a clear signal? Well, we live in different areas and different systems, mine was Adelphia when they gave me my amplifier.

[MurrayJimW]

My system has one drop from the pole to the grounding jack in the outside box. This line runs directly to the dist amp inside that splits to 8 outputs with a signal measurement of 0db at the Tivo. There are no splits prior to the amp or after. This problem is actually only showing itself on certain channels. Others have a 99 signal strength so I'm of the opinion that the drop is fine. The pixellazation only concerned me at 72 because the other tuner in the same Tivo showed NO signs of having any difficulty with that signal so obviously there IS one weak tuner. It seems most of you are of the opinion that a swap would be pointless. As I stated in the original post I would be reluctant to go to the hassle but it is an $800 box afterall - I would expect it to work equally well on both tuners.

Time Warner appears to have no set proceedure for what they charge for and what they don't. If we had an alternative here such as FIOS I would be on it in a second, but alas I am stuck with them. I was using DirecTV up until the S3 was released because of Time Warners track record with me, but the S3 was enough to make me give them another shot.

I've also had them out here 4 times in an effort to get the cablecards working correctly. I still cannot receive a few channels I'm due, but I'm so tired of dealing with them I've been ignoring it for a week or so.

Thanks for the responses. If you guys feel 72 is marginal and I wouldn't do much better with a swap then I'll try to get the signal up a bit another way.

Once again many thanks,

Jim

[SCSIRAID]

Originally Posted by MurrayJimW

My system has one drop from the pole to the grounding jack in the outside box. This line runs directly to the dist amp inside that splits to 8 outputs with a signal measurement of 0db at the Tivo. There are no splits prior to the amp or after. This problem is actually only showing itself on certain channels. Others have a 99 signal strength so I'm of the opinion that the drop is fine. The pixellazation only concerned me at 72 because the other tuner in the same Tivo showed NO signs of having any difficulty with that signal so obviously there IS one weak tuner. It seems most of you are of the opinion that a swap would be pointless. As I stated in the original post I would be reluctant to go to the hassle but it is an $800 box afterall - I would expect it to work equally well on both tuners.

Time Warner appears to have no set proceedure for what they charge for and what they don't. If we had an alternative here such as FIOS I would be on it in a second, but alas I am stuck with them. I was using DirecTV up until the S3 was released because of Time Warners track record with me, but the S3 was enough to make me give them another shot.

I've also had them out here 4 times in an effort to get the cablecards working correctly. I still cannot receive a few channels I'm due, but I'm so tired of dealing with them I've been ignoring it for a week or so.

Thanks for the responses. If you guys feel 72 is marginal and I wouldn't do much better with a swap then I'll try to get the signal up a bit another way.

Once again many thanks,

Jim

When you say 0db (I assume you mean 0 dbm) at the Tivo... is that for the channel that is reading 72? What is its strength measurement (by the tivo) on the other tuner on the same channel (still 72?)? If you have a big disparity between channels, the cableco would seem to be a part of the problem.

[MurrayJimW]

I do mean 0 dbm. This reading was taken at the Tivo in question by the fancy little boxes the Time Warner techs carry that I don't have. I have no idea what channel (if any) the reading was taken on.

As far as I know there is no way to differentiate between which tuner the Tivo is getting the signal strength reading from. If there is a way to look at them individually please let me know. I had assumed it was an average between the two or that the Tivo was alternating in some way between them, but this may be completely inaccurate. This being the case, perhaps one of the tuners is well below that level now that I think about it. In any event, if the signal strength displayed by the Tivo is above 75 I have no problems with either tuner - below that level one of them gives me trouble.

I agree that a portion of the problem lies with Time Warner. When I was browsing through channels this afternoon I was getting 99 peak 100 readings on some channels and 72 on others. Once again though, my luck with having them actually fix anything has been shaky at best.

Thanks once again for the responses....

[hookbill]

0 dbm is actually a good reading. I'd still have them check again just in case something has changed.

[SCSIRAID]

Originally Posted by MurrayJimW

I do mean 0 dbm. This reading was taken at the Tivo in question by the fancy little boxes the Time Warner techs carry that I don't have. I have no idea what channel (if any) the reading was taken on.

As far as I know there is no way to differentiate between which tuner the Tivo is getting the signal strength reading from. If there is a way to look at them individually please let me know. I had assumed it was an average between the two or that the Tivo was alternating in some way between them, but this may be completely inaccurate. This being the case, perhaps one of the tuners is well below that level now that I think about it. In any event, if the signal strength displayed by the Tivo is above 75 I have no problems with either tuner - below that level one of them gives me trouble.

I agree that a portion of the problem lies with Time Warner. When I was browsing through channels this afternoon I was getting 99 peak 100 readings on some channels and 72 on others. Once again though, my luck with having them actually fix anything has been shaky at best.

Thanks once again for the responses....

Thats a big disparity. I would scan thru and note the channels with low strengths per the tivo and ask the cableco to come back out and check strength on those channels. As hookbill said... 0dbm is about perfect. If you have a cable box that you can get into diag mode on... you could see what it measures on those channels. The SA boxes can directly measure strength in dbm per channel.

[ashu]

(possible smeek)
Perhaps the S3's internal splitter/tuner is faulty? Not impossible, ya know!