Rant "on"...
For the past couple of years, I've had to put up with an annoying "drop out" issue with my cable reception.
The drop out is basically a loss of audio for about a half second, sometimes with a line across the screen. The speaker indicators on my AVR also blank out.
It can happen once, twice, or in bursts of several times in a few seconds. It's irregular enough that one is never "ready" for it. It occurs on standard def, HDTV channels, and can be captured with the DVR.
Most annoying is being half way into a movie glitch-free, only to have the dropouts suddenly occur so frequently that the rest of it is unwatchable.
I've checked/swapped cables and inputs. I've used a toslink connection and bypassed HDMI on my DVR. I've also plugged the DVR right into the TV.
A year ago, Rogers Cable swapped the DVR and reterminated connections. It seemed to go away, but started up again after the technician left. I feel I have the "Michigan J. Frog" of glitches.
I've had some time on my hands. so in January of this year, I had the techs out again. They replaced wall receptacles and splitters. They've run a temporary cable outside from my house to the street. I've offered them as much assistance and feedback as I could. I soon learned that I'm not the only one experiencing this issue, and those that do are on different nodes. Like me, they have more advanced home theater systems. I also learned that it is only on certain channels, and unfortunately, most of them are the stations I watch.
They've thanked me for being patient and for letting them contact me for troubleshooting purposes. Apparently, other users haven't been so patient. I told them that, being a tech myself, I can empathize with their frustrations in chasing a seemingly moving and intermittent issue.
HOWEVER...
I half-joked that I had a deadline of sorts: The new season of Game of Thrones.
First episode starts tonight and as of last night, the channel in question still has the problem.
I have Apple TV, and see that I can get a "season pass", however, I'm not paying for something that's already included in my cable package.
There was a flurry of activity by the techs when I first complained, and they promised to keep me in the loop with their troubleshooting; however, they haven't had much to report as of a week ago.
I've been a loyal customer with the local cable company for about 25 years, including after it was purchased by Rogers, but I've waited as long as I could. I don't want to cancel cable outright (yet), but will have to cut back to eliminate some of the overlap in service between Itunes and Netflix.
Rant "off"...
