Cable Box Messages

There are some very simple solutions.

Get a DVR, and set a manual recording for the entire night, and the channel will not change, until after the recording ends.
Or fall asleep watching a Local channel, none of those should ask for a prompt.

Also, once Cox goes All Digital in your area, all the Starter and Essential channels should no longer time-out and ask for the prompt.

Twig: "There have been a couple of discussions about the COX box demanding every few hours that the TV viewers answer the question, are you still watching.  If you don't respond in the time period that Cox deems appropriate, they take control of your cable box and switch the channel to a single digit channel.  For those of us with loved ones who like to doze and watch TV, Cox kindly says, thank you for your money, and screw you."

If they are snoozing, I'm sure that they are oblivious to the channel change. SDV wouldn't do much good if everyone left their STBs on and tuned to a SDV HDTV channel (without Cox's intervention) whenever they weren't watching TV.

@Twig

It sounds like you've looked into and been told many of the details of how this works already.  In short this the only way to keep a switched digital video channel working.  If we disabled the prompt to push select the channel would simply go dark because nobody in your neighborhood is watching it.

The only way to keep the channel working is for me to pay the bill. 

If I have to push a button to keep the channel workin, how often, or why that that particular time period? 

Every fifteen minutes?   Every hour?       Every four hours or eight hours or 12 hours? 

If it is only four hours, why was that period selected? 

How does the system know at 3 hours 50 minutes, that someone is still watching? 

If I am using the TV as a 'sitter,' do I have to get Cox's permission in addition to the monthly $230+?   

Having worked with information systems, going back to the days of punch cards, I've heard every flavor of excuse - always condescending, in technical terms.   Funny enough, the technical excuses are always why a paid for system, can't do something the user paying for it, wants done.  

Switched Digital Video Channel -- great gobbleygook.   To be honest, I'm not paying over $2,700 a year for a vendor to delineate how I use a TV in my family room.  Poorly designed, operated systems require a full staff out in the field making excuses. 

The time-out period should be no less than 2 hours, but may be much longer.  It all depends on the other current traffic on your node. SDV is controlled at your neighborhood Fiber to Coax node.  It may be that your node needs to be re-balanced, or your node is oversubscribed or has more traffic than it can handle.

I can leave a SDV channel on all the time and rarely ever get a prompt or time-out.  I happen to be on a relatively small node with little traffic.

The most popular HD cable channels most likely do not use SDV, like FoxNews HD, USA HD, TNT HD.

MSNBC HD and CNN HD usually are SDV. (although CNN HD is not SDV in Arizona)
Every channel above Essential is SDV, the Bonus Pak, Variety Pak, Movie Pak, Faith & Values Pak, Sports Paks, and will most likely stay SDV after the switch to All Digital.

As I said earlier, later this year as Cox moves to All Digital, all the Starter and Essential channels should be moved off SDV and back to Linear, and the need for the Prompt will be gone.