Triple Play Going Down
When I researched who to get my TV service from, the consensus was not to get it from satellite as it can be victim to the weather. While this seems to be less of an issue as time goes on, I decided that cable was a safer choice. After tonight, I'm starting to wonder.
The beauty of these triple pay offers is that by bundling the services, there are savings to be had. However, when things go down, they can crash real hard.
This evening I had about 10 minutes of lightning, thunder, and rain. In short, a summer thunderstorm. Next thing I know, all the channels have garbled audio, and the pixels are falling apart on the screen. I'm wondering if my wiring got wet, because folks have said they had cable for years without an outage. On my analog setup, I still have a picture, but there are lines and static that weren't there before.
I go to call Optimum. They give a list of towns with outages, and mine isn't on the list. I'm holding for 10 minutes when the phone, also from Optimum dies. The pictures on the screen is now completely black on all channels. The internet is down as well. Hmmm- triple play outage.
I grab my less than trusty cell phone, but I'm glad that it still works (at least from the house). I call Optimum back, and stay on hold for 15 minutes and get to speak to someone. They tell me my town is "level one" because the calls are coming in, but the whole area is not out yet. They also want to schedule an appointment to come by tomorrow in case when the network comes back, I'm still not up. They tell me things will be down for around 4 hours- give or take.
I end the call, and work on plan B. I break out some DVD's, and switch the TV back to the antenna feed. Ha! I have a picture again. I'm wondering if the local cable news, produced by Optimum, will cover the cable outage, but I'm not holding my breath, and pretty sure not. I'm glad my antenna still works, and wonder what I would do after 2/09 when things go digital and my antenna won't pick up OTA, but that's for another day.
I pop in a DVD, and within two hours, the triple play is working again. My conclusion is that cable is just as susceptible to the weather as satellite. Is your experience any different, as my sample size is limited here. Think about this experience before plunging into triple play, and keep a cell phone handy as you're gonna need it sooner or later.
Jonas
The beauty of these triple pay offers is that by bundling the services, there are savings to be had. However, when things go down, they can crash real hard.
This evening I had about 10 minutes of lightning, thunder, and rain. In short, a summer thunderstorm. Next thing I know, all the channels have garbled audio, and the pixels are falling apart on the screen. I'm wondering if my wiring got wet, because folks have said they had cable for years without an outage. On my analog setup, I still have a picture, but there are lines and static that weren't there before.
I go to call Optimum. They give a list of towns with outages, and mine isn't on the list. I'm holding for 10 minutes when the phone, also from Optimum dies. The pictures on the screen is now completely black on all channels. The internet is down as well. Hmmm- triple play outage.
I grab my less than trusty cell phone, but I'm glad that it still works (at least from the house). I call Optimum back, and stay on hold for 15 minutes and get to speak to someone. They tell me my town is "level one" because the calls are coming in, but the whole area is not out yet. They also want to schedule an appointment to come by tomorrow in case when the network comes back, I'm still not up. They tell me things will be down for around 4 hours- give or take.
I end the call, and work on plan B. I break out some DVD's, and switch the TV back to the antenna feed. Ha! I have a picture again. I'm wondering if the local cable news, produced by Optimum, will cover the cable outage, but I'm not holding my breath, and pretty sure not. I'm glad my antenna still works, and wonder what I would do after 2/09 when things go digital and my antenna won't pick up OTA, but that's for another day.
I pop in a DVD, and within two hours, the triple play is working again. My conclusion is that cable is just as susceptible to the weather as satellite. Is your experience any different, as my sample size is limited here. Think about this experience before plunging into triple play, and keep a cell phone handy as you're gonna need it sooner or later.
Jonas
Labels: Optimum
posted by digitaldoc at 9:58 PM
4 Comments:
When I had cable, we lost the signal MORE than with my sat! We had majopr storms yesterday but i never lost the signal, while my neighbors cable was out :) Normally in real cloudy/rainy sonditions I will lose signal though ;)
Mike
Thing that gets me - where does cable get their signals from? - satellites..lol
Well, that makes me feel better, not! Reportedly, the newer dishes for satellite are a little larger and hold the signal better. My friend is getting Fios installed today so we'll see if he found nirvana or not.
BTW: Was I the last to know that Garblevision is giving out 8300HD boxes (the DVR version) with the box for free the first year but you pay $9.95 for the DVR fee?
Special deal for new customers. I didn't pay for the box, but I only have one.
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