TheBanyanTree: Cable Boxing

[Laura]

(Let's try this again - WITH the line breaks!)

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