If You Want Something Done Right...

I added an 8300HD cable box from Cablevision last week. It's the one with the hard drive in it and I'm reviewing 3 external add-on drives so it's useful. Then I come down the next morning and see this message on the screen: "Press any key to continue to view programming." I can hear the show but I can't see anything but that full-screen message.

I call Cablevision. The support lady says that the 8300HD needs to be shut off at least once per day or I'll get that message. (I usually leave the TV on 24/7 but the 8300HD needs to shut down the hard drive or else --so it does it on its own.) All right, I'm game. I shut the box off and then turn it back on.

Looks good. Except now I don't have any volume or mute control. The box has forgotten how to control my TV and continues not to do so until I re-enter the TV code. Well that's not so good.

Three days of e-mail exchange between myself and Cablevision and one replaced box that reacts in the exact same manner later and they insist on sending a service guy. I'm game.

The guy shows up promptly at 10:35am Saturday morning (I had an 8:00am to 10:00am window), putzes around for about 20 minutes, and accomplishes absolutely nothing. He leaves me with a spare remote and departs with nothing else changed.

I can't leave that alone. It's a problem in search of a solution! So I putz around for a while, find an "Audio" option under the "Settings" and see that it's default is "Variable." I have absolutely no reason to believe there's any reason for that option to do anything. Still, I change it to the only other choice, "Fixed."

Shut the box off, turn it back on --voila! Full volume and mute control. I do it again. It works again. It's fixed. I'm sending Cablevision a bill. ;-)