TheBanyanTree: Cable Boxing

[Laura]

We decided as part of our budget cuts, cable television was one of the things that 
could be trimmed back. Not pruned out completely, but cut back a little. So two of 
the DVR/HD boxes were scheduled to be picked up and replaced with the old-
fashioned, plain ol´ cable boxes. We still get all our channels, but you can´t pause and 
rewind, or record. Just that one simple change will save us $300 a year.
The fella who was supposed to be here "between 2:00 and 5:00´´ hadn´t shown by 
4:30, when I got a call from the cable company. She told me the technician had a 
couple of calls run long, and he was not going to be able to get to my house until after 
5:00, was that ok. I told her sure, I was home anyway. He didn´t show up until almost 
6:00. No worries, it´s just a simple box switch-out, right?
Right. Visualize me rolling my eyes here.
Larry and I had already unhooked the big fancy DVR/HD boxes, and had them ready 
to go. The technician checked the numbers on them, and started to pick them up. He 
paused.
"Do you want to keep your remotes?" he asked.
"No, I´ve already taken the batteries out of them; I thought they went with the 
boxes."
"Oh, no. They´re universal remotes, you can use them with any of the boxes, but since 
you´ve already pulled the batteries out, I´ll just take them and get you two new ones."
Which he did. The old boxes and remotes went out into the truck, and he came in 
with the two `new to us´ boxes and new remotes. I told him because of the way Larry 
has the downstairs rigged, we just wanted the new box tested on the kitchen outlet, 
and Larry would put it in place downstairs later. No problem. He hooked the box up 
to the cable, plugged it in, and we realized we were missing a cable. Normally, the 
cable from the wall goes straight to the tv, but with the box, you´ve got to have an 
additional cable to make the extra connection. The technicial said he could just make 
one up, it would only take 5 minutes, but I told him I thought it was silly for him to 
do that when we weren´t going to be needing it once the box was moved downstairs. 
I knew we had some extras in a box in the garage, so he went ahead and hooked the 
second box up to the tv in the living room while I hunted for a cable. I found it pretty 
quickly - one of the benefits of being slightly OCD - and had it back upstairs before he 
finished connecting the second box. I connected the cable box to the tv, and he came 
in, opened one of the new remotes, put the batteries in it, programmed it for our tv, 
and turned on the cable box. It came right on, and the logo displayed on the screen. 
One down, one to go.
We moved into the living room. He opened the second new remote, put the batteries 
in, programmed it to work the television, and turned on the cable box. Or he tried to. 
No response. He checked all the cables to be sure they were plugged in right. They 
were. He changed out the power cord. No go. He called the company and asked them 
to "hit" the box. They did, and nothing happened. We discussed it, and I told him we 
could move the working box into the living room, and if we had to wait for a good 
box, we could put that one downstairs later. 
While he was out in the truck talking to the company, I moved the good box into the 
living room, and just for shits and giggles, put the bad box on the kitchen outlet, and 
pushed the power button on the remote. The box came on, and the logo displayed on 
the screen. Huh?!?
I went into the living room and tried turning on the "good" box. Guess what. 
Nothing. 
To make a really long, frustrating story a little bit shorter, the technician spent the 
next hour and a half doing everything he could think of to get that damn box to work. 
Eventually, he called in another technician with more experience to help him. The 
were outside checking the incoming lines. They were downstairs checking the split, 
and under my computer deck checking that split. They disconnected the modem and 
checked the signal there. The checked the signal at the originating line. Blah, blah, 
blah. I pointed out that the DVR/HD box had been working fine on that same line just 
a couple of hours before. Well, I´m just a girl, so I obviously don´t know what I´m 
talking about.
Finally, the second tech decided the darn thing should be working, because he 
couldn´t find any reason for it NOT to be working. He unhooked the box completely, 
checked all the connection points, and hooked it back up. When he plugged it in, a 
yellow light came on, then went off as a red light came on. The red light went off, and 
the box "clicked". I told him both boxes did that each time we hooked them up, but 
then wouldn´t come on again. He said it was weird, because that sequence was 
normal - the click indicated the transformer was active, and the box just had to be 
turned on with the remote. He pushed the power button on the remote - and nothing. 
Again. He looked at the remote, then at the cable box, and back to the remote.
"Hey, go get me another remote." he said to the original tech.
"Whut?"
"Go get me another remote!"
"Why?"
"You´re gonna kill me when I tell you..."
"WHAT!?"
"I think you have a bad remote."
Sure enough, with the new remote, everything worked perfectly.
I groaned. Over an hour and a half of frustration, all for a bad remote. These boxes 
have no buttons on them, so the only way you can control them is with a remote. 
There is no way to check the remote, and we never even thought of it!
Larry and I are now talking about getting rid of all the cable services except the basic 
cable - you plug the wire from the wall directly into your tv. That would save us $840 
a year. Do you think that technician will be mad?

-- 
Laura
wolfljsh at gmail.com
http://wolfsinger.wordpress.com