Pixelation Issues - only a couple of channels

[GregAG]

Been having this problem for about a week. AMC HD & Comedy Central HD (that I am aware of) - are pixelating. At first, they would not even tune in - but after doing a complete system reset they now tune in but are pixelated. Every other HD channel seems fine. I have power cycled the main box to no avail. Any advice of additional troubleshooting  options?

[CCAndrew · Accepted solution]

Check your cables are tight, remove any unnecessary splitters, and possibly have a tech out. Channels come in on different frequencies, there is something impeding the frequencies of the channels that you noted (maybe others you don’t watch or get). The signal levels are probably borderline and fluctuating from good to bad

[nvrpayretail]

The first answer to this type of problem is always "check your connections, remove unnecessary splitters, etc." but I've never seen this fix anything. When everything has been working fine and suddenly fails it's usually something on Xfinity's end.  I too am seeing a weak signal on just a few hd  channels (A&E, TNT, AMC, SYFY).  There may be more but I'm not interested in going through every channel to find out.  Most of my channels have excellent signal strength (98% or greater).  The ones that I see failing are around 68 to 71%.  I having checked SNR on other channels, but A&E is about 27 which is below minimum  requirement (which I think is 30 or 31 if I remember correctly).  In any event, I think the only way to get this resolved is to get a line tech out, but trying to get Xfinity to send one out without having them send an in-home tech out (which in my experience will be a waste of time since they always blame in-house wiring, etc.) will be next to impossible. For now I'm just watching the SD channels for the few failing channels.  If I really want to see something on those channels in HD I can always use my Roku. If it wasn't for my better half I'd cord cut and just stream. 

[CCAndrew]

The first answer to this type of problem is always "check your connections, remove unnecessary splitters, etc." but I've never seen this fix anything.
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It’s the first answer because it’s the troubleshooting that you can personally do before having a tech out. It’s a process, you’ll never get a line tech before an in-house tech, unless there’s an outage going on. SNR can be directly related to bad/loose cable or splitters.

[GregAG]

The only solution was to bring a tech out. He changed the line in from the street and that fixed the issue. Why this all of a sudden was a problem years and years with no issue, I will not understand, but it is fixed for the time being.

[nvrpayretail]

Thanks for letting us know @GregAG  .   Like I said, it's always outside of the home.  You're lucky to have gotten someone to fix this.  I've had nothing but trouble with the in-home techs trying to blame inside wiring for problems in the past.  My local office has been good about getting line techs involved, but I'd have to go in to their office and I don't even know if they are open with the current lockdown's in place.  As I noted before, I have workarounds - especially using streaming when needed, so for now I'll probably just wait until the current health situation subsides.