Please, digital ATT cable help
 

Ok. the ATT guys just left my condo. The one guy reeked really bad, but that's beside the point.

They connected my cable line to the box, ant the box to the vcr (explained below). This worked in both rooms. I was changing in the channel on the cable box with my vcr on 3.

Then they made a phone call. I noticed I had a blue screen on both tvs - it wasn't working anymore. THey said it was downloading the program information and would come back on in an hour or so. I said that didn't seem right since it had been working. THe one guy went and looked at both boxes. He said they were fine and would come on in an hour or so.

They left. My cable never showed up again.

I called the help number and they say that it should have not stopped working. And there is no need to not show channels while downloading information.

I know the cable is coming into my condo since I found out that I get all the channels my VCR can show but only if I turn the cable box off. If I turn the cable box on, I don't get any channels through the VCR. So I can go up/down on my vcrs channels. I get blue screen if I turn the VCR off or turn the Cable box on. It is supposed to work with the cable box on and the VCR on 3.

THe exact same thing is happening on both vcr/tv combos

There are 6 cable type connectors on the back of the General instruments box:
My VCR is connected to "RF out"
"TO RF IN " is connected to "RF IN" -- seems like that's correct
"Conv in" is connected to "to tv/vcr" -- that seems a bit odd
the cable line connects to "cable"

One other thing I just found out. I can turn the cable box on and still use the VCR for channels as long as I hit the 'a/b" button on the cable box.

Does anyone have ANY ideas what is happening? I'm really pissed they bold-faced lied to me. And now the next service date is in a week and if I can't fix it, I'll have to stay home on Saturday again.

Look for a "Video" button on your TV or "Line 1" Line 2" "L1" "L2" on your VCR and press it while the cable box is on.

THanks, but changing the lines didn't do anything.

Have you tried going back?

Just go from wall to cable box to TV. If it works, start adding stuff until it stops working. Then you know what's wrong :)

The cable line has to go into the box first since it's digital. I've tried connecting a the "to vcr" line to the VCR, then the RF out to the tv, but then I only get channels on the TV, and not on the VCR or the cable box. I followed the directions in the user guide I found online for the Motorolla DCT2000 which is the box I have. In trouble shooting it doesn't have anything like my problem.

Read my post again... it's digital but works mostly the same way... from wall to box to tv. Skip the VCR. See if that works. I have a digital box too.

Sorry, I had misread that.

Well I tried connecting both the RF out and the To TV/VCR to my tv (skipping the VCR completely) and neither way worked.

Ack, what did they do to my system !?!? :-(

Not because I'm a Dish Dealer but "GET A DISH"!! AT&T is EVIL! You'll experience their garbage customer support now that you have a problem! I have AT&T cable Internet (no cable TV of course) and their customer support has been atrosious! There are some nice promos going on right now (with Dish) sooooo what are you waiting for!

Where in Chicago area are you? I'm in Buffalo Grove.

By the way, even though the cable service you are supposed to get is Digital you still should have some analog cable going through your cable (before it enters the cable box). Just connect the cable before the cable box up to your TV and see if you can tune in any channels! You then will know for sure if a cable signal is actually coming in on the cable. Of course some idiot CSR probably put the wrong code in and had you digital box deactivated which will take a long time for them to correct! By law cable companies MUST have analog cable still!

I'm on the north side of the city.

I know the cable is working to some extent, since I can get channels on my TV and/or VCR depending on how I connect the input/outputs on the back of the box. But I can't get anything to wok when the box is on.

Do this 1st. set tv and vcr to channel 4 instead of 3. see what happens. let me know. i then have some other thoughts for you. i'll keep an eye on your posts. Also call att and ask them to send a signal to your boxes. this will check for problems, and reboot the box. Make sure the phone lines are hooked into the boxes, also, you'll need to set the boxes to a high channel number i believe above 127, but ask them. these sounds like an easy fix.

you can only use your cable box to change channels as well. DO NOT change any channels with the TV or VCR(back of vcr switch to 4 not 3) leave them on 4

there are some other hookups to try as well. If my post above doesn't help, i'll give you some other hookups.

Thanks for the suggestions.

WEll the 4 channel thing didn't work, BUT this time when they sent a signal to my box, it actually did something. Last night nothing happened. So I'm supposed to wait an hour and see.

In an additional I hate ATT moment I discovered that when the guys used my phone last night to call in to their headquarters, they dialed 0 rather than a number so I'm going to be charged for operator assistance. I can't believe they are this bad.

I'll post again when I find out if this worked.

if the box reboot doesn't work, then I'd take the vcr completely out of the loop. try just running the cable from the wall to the box, then from the box to the set. Make sure the TV is on channel 4, and change channels with the cable box only. Good luck. Once you dget it to work, i'll tell you some better reception hookups as well.

I called ATT again. They reset my box again since nothing happened this morning. Now it actually works. I finally found someone who had me try a few different things till she found that the codes to my 2 boxes were switched or somthing like that, so it suddenly started working in both rooms.

What do you suggest for a different hookup?

Instead of running the coax cable from the box to your set. I run composite(rca) from the video out on the cable box to the back of the set. I don't know what your set-up is, as far as sound, other components, etc... but the only coax i run is from the wall to the converter box. this should give you a much better digital cable reception. i even hooked up an composite to s-video converter, but that's a story for another day. Try and use a decent quality video cable. You'll get rid of some coax noise doing this. Digital cable signals are compressed to fit all those extra channels. therefore, it degraded the signal. you'll always get a softer, more pixelated picture. But, doing this hookup should make it much better. i traded my 2 week old xbr tv down to the analog set, because the cable reception is so poor, the xbr showed up every artifact. let me know how you make out.

I looked at my system to see if I could do that, but I dont' think it's possible. All the outputs/inputs that I'd need to do that are already being used. My system is a nightmare of wires. I did replace nearly everything with shorter gold connectors and did notice a difference, and I got smaller gauge speaker wire (I didnt' notice a difference there).

true! found this today when i added hbo to my program line up.
i have cable hooked-up directly to my set (analog signal) and the digital converter box (motorola) comes in as video 1.
in short i get regular hbo in channel 4 and 550, but my channel 4(hbo analog signal) is 1/2 second ahead of the hbo digital signal. (i have a xbr split screen)so i can play both channels side by side. :)
another surprise..is that i get a better picture with the analog signal. both my reception is above average with rare pixelation as other sony xbr owners commonly complain. i have a sony 36xbr-450 and the analog hbo signal that i get in channel 4 shows more details and the colors are more vibrant as compared to the digital channel found in channel 550.

bently

That's the mis-conception with Digital Cable that it somehow is BETTER picture wise then Analog cable. Some cable companies even try to suggest their Digital cable is similar to High Definition which is an ignorant/outrageous suggestion but the still do it. All Digital cable is (except for some premium channels) is analog channels compressed digitally to allow the cable company to jam more chanel into their cable pipe. Almost alwasy you tend to get a better video quality from the analog signal.