Intermittant degrading picture quality

[Rich_A]

Our picture quality has been intermittant for several months.  At first it was very rare but the last  few months it has gotten increasingly worse to the point where the shows are not even watchable at times.

Problem is very intermittent.  When it happens the video becomes pixilated and jumps all over and sometimes goes completely out.  Audio stutters and goes out of sync.  Important ... when this happens it seems to only affect the higher frequency channels.   Switching to a lower frequency channel results in perfect playback and recording.   I've gone as far as to run a dedicated single new quad sheild short (10 foot ) coax line directly from the coax to my house from the street to the Comcast DVR .. no splitters, modem etc.  And the problem is still there.   I have other TVs and computers with their own recording devices and ALL of them are also being affected. 

Trying to stream live or recorded TV from my Xfininity account using a computer connection also has the problem.  BUT  ... I can stream, HULU, Netflix, CBS All Access and other web based streaming PERFECTLY all in the highest definition available perfectly. But my Xfinity TV viewing and recording is now just about useless.   Also of note is that my cable modem downstream signal quality seems to fluctuate from -7dBmV to 0dBmv  but over the last two days has been averaging -3 to -1   However never have "any" problem with my house LAN or Internet speeds etc.  

A couple times I called for service only to cancel as the problem seemed to clear up automatically. 

Is there any way to contact a higher tier of customer service where I don't have to spend hours going though all the normal service steps?  (which I've already done many  times with them finding no problems)  

I'm pretty sure this is a problem out in the comcast network outside of my home.  We are in a remote area .. and I believe the only house on the road using Comcas t, and I may be at the end of the cable feed from Comcast.  I believe the problem is possibly an amplifier or it's output line near to my location and I'm only being affected because I'm the only one on the downfeed side of the amp.  Other people located before the amp don't see the problem.  Of course this is all just an "un-educated" guess based on a few months of trying to solve this problem myself.  

How can I get comcast to service this?  The problem has only recently become so bad we can no longer watch most of our channels ... sometimes for hours at a time .. and sometimes for a few minutes.  Then for several hours it clears up. 

This problem is very intermittant and I've recorded blocks of 12 hours of shows on high and low channels at the same time and can see that having a tech come to the house is going to be a "hit or miss" thing.   I don't see any reason to waste everyone's time when it's going to involve dozens of house calls before they can get here WHEN the problem is happening. 

Anyone else run into a problem like this?  

[lesmikesell]

It has been a long time since I had signal problems but I thought when you call customer service they could check your levels remotely to decide if they need to come out.  Not sure how they diagnose intermediate cable runs or other equipment.  Usually I blame the squirrels.

The part that makes the least sense is having trouble streaming xfinity recordings while other internet services work.   Those should be 'cloud' copies not affected by your local cable conditions and using the same internet as other services.  

[Rich_A]

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@lesmikesell wrote:

The part that makes the least sense is having trouble streaming xfinity recordings while other internet services work.   Those should be 'cloud' copies not affected by your local cable conditions and using the same internet as other services.  

I'm confused as well .. that is why I believe the problem is out  there somewhere in Comcast's own LAN environment and not not anything  to do with anything physically here at my home.  (Squirrels not-withstanding)  <grin>   And all the tests done by Comcast from their end show everything working normally.  Sigh I guess I'll have to make an appointment so the tech can come out and look over over everything and "find no problem here" as it will be working then.  Then later the problem will indeed come up again.  BTW attached is a couple examples of what one of this morning's shows looked like for about  15 out 45 minutes of the show on and off during the show.

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[CCAndrew · Accepted solution]

I’ve escalated it up to a colleague who can assist getting a tech out. If you call in they can only see the signal levels (which your modem and box use) not the individual channel’s frequency signal levels

[Comcast_Support]

Hey there Rich_A,

Thanks for taking the time to post on the forums and let us know about your reception issues.

At first, I thought this might be a symptom of a Sun Outage. Twice each year, sun alignment causes brief programming outages to our video services. It happens every winter/early spring and again in autumn. Sun outages will normally affect networks for 5 to 20 minutes each day and do not affect local broadcast stations. Each year, fewer Comcast customers are affected as we have been moving off of satellite reception to fiber connections, which are not impacted by sun outages.

But, it sounds like this is affecting both your internet service via the stream app/portal and the cable service as well. Let's take a closer look into this. Typically, water in the line outside of your home can be the culprit to tiling and pixelation. We'll take a look at your signal levels and go from there.

Please send me a private message with your full name for assistance. Just click my name "Comcast_Support" and then on the next page, you'll see an option to send a private message on the top right side.

Ken

[Rich_A]

Thanks Ken,

  I tried to reply to you via email but got some kind of "validation" error and could not send it. 

I don't think this is a "sun" problem.  The intermittant frequency of this thing happens 24/7 any day any night.   Besides solar flares are at their lowest as we are currently at the very bottom of the 11 year sun spot cycle when such problems occur.  I've been a short wave listener and later an amateur radio operator since the late 50s.   Have been into electronics for a very long time.  

I do agree it looks like I have a water contamination or loose or broken connection and I have an idea where it might be.  It's gonna take a tech with a bucket truck to fix it.   But I could be wrong of course.  <grin>  

Can you contact me at my Comcast email of record?   

Thanks ... Rich

[Rich_A]

Oh forgot this .. There is no problem with my Internet service.  Very reliable, and extremely fast.  Have no trouble streaming the highest quality video from various on line sources like Hulu and Netflix.   Never a problem with the Internet end of things.   Problem is solely with any video received from comcast TV. 

[Rustyben]

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@Rich_A wrote:

Thanks Ken,

  I tried to reply to you via email but got some kind of "validation" error and could not send it. 

I don't think this is a "sun" problem.  The intermittant frequency of this thing happens 24/7 any day any night.   Besides solar flares are at their lowest as we are currently at the very bottom of the 11 year sun spot cycle when such problems occur.  I've been a short wave listener and later an amateur radio operator since the late 50s.   Have been into electronics for a very long time.  

I do agree it looks like I have a water contamination or loose or broken connection and I have an idea where it might be.  It's gonna take a tech with a bucket truck to fix it.   But I could be wrong of course.  <grin>  

Can you contact me at my Comcast email of record?   

Thanks ... Rich

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the comcast employee wants you to PM (private message) them on this forum. touch his username (top of the post) after signin in to the forum and the upper right corner of his username link will say message me. click that and you are ready to PM>

[Bill8859]

I'm having the same problem exactly as Rich A describes. Tech have been out here several times, they never find anything. FRUSTRATING!!!

[donnac616]

I have been having the same exact issue for a month now.   The screen breaks up and pixelates to the point we cannot see it.   Mostly on the higher channels.   I had my box replaced, a service rep come out and say everything inside my house is working properly.  Now waiting for a service rep to look at the line outside from the pole to my house.   Very annoying and cannot seem to get a resolution.