Why am I paying all this money?

Your issues do sound like a signal problem,  If you do not have the expertise and tools to diagnose, then a Cox tech visit is probably a good idea.  Cox usually gives you a 3 hour window for an appointment.

Do you have any idea what your signal levels are?  It could be a bad splitter, connector, corrosion on the connector, frayed coax cable, the drop from the pole or pedestal to the premises could be bad.

Any work done outside is at Cox's expense, any work needed on your inside wiring, could be at your expense.

Hbeln: "What the f am I paying for, the picture breaks up every other day, most channels say they're "temporarily unavailable" but they're never available, I reset it and it works for 5 minutes then never again... And then their solution is to devote an entire day to wait for some dude to come dissect the wires that should just work in the first place."

I give up. What the "f" are you paying for?

Typical Cox service.   They want you to wait hours on  your time instead of just scheduling you for a certain time.  I had even had times when they don't show up at all.

Thinking that everyone should just charge Cox by the hour for their time which means money for them. How much out of pocket are you due to the time  you wait? I will be it is plenty.

So when you figure out what you are paying them for their service and then your time, is it worth it?  I am getting rid of my Cox TV due to bad service.  Everytime I have a problem I call Tech support and they give me the same old story that they need to send someone out to my house.  I say "NO".  Been there, done that. everytime they come here they tell me it is a software update they are waiting for and I just have to *** it up until it happens.  Months go by from the date they give me for the update and no change.

GOODBYE COX TV!!!!!!

Hbelrn,

I have similar situations: watching live or recorded HD TV through Cox DVR (2-recording model) , we often get video black out, sometimes audio drops out too, then comes back on in a few seconds. Cox Support recommended cycling the power on the DVR/STB (set top box). I'm always uncomfortable simply powering off the DVR - not very elegant solution and kind of tough on the DVR hard drive.

We also see a fair amount of aliasing with video resolution and audio stutter - we got off of Dish Network and that issue. I thought TV via cable would be so much smoother. Maybe its the DVR being underpowered and not handling traffic. The new Roku3 we took back was quite responsive - of course, it wasn't recording anything, just acting as a pass-thru.

Funny - watching Netflix on a Logitech Revue (Google TV) connected to TV via HDMI and we never have video or audio drop-outs. Netflix might be a bit laggy to start up, but rarely loses it completely. We recently tried a Roku3 - no issues there either (but we took it back.)

I have a HD/DVR (2channel) converter.  Over the last 3 months I have been having more and more problems with the picture and sound breaking up.  Some chanels heve the problem a lot, some only ocasionally and some not at all.  It even effects some non HD chanels.  The first time I rebooted the system the problems were much less for a couple of days but now a reboot does nothing.

I would think that if it was a signal problem it would effect all chanels.

I replaced my 4 year old converter about 5 months ago but instead of giving me a new converter for my $9.95 a month, they gave me a refurbished 6 year old converter.

So 2 days ago I sent in a e-mail detailing the problem and asing what I should do.  Yesterday I "recieved" a answer I think.  Unfortunatly The "free" McAfee anti-virus software Cox gave me decided the answering e-mail was spam and deleted it!  It did not move it to the anti spam folder it just deleted it.

So On Monday I am going to take the converter in and see If I can get a new one.

I had my signal steadily deteriorating once.  I found a splitter on my main feed buried inside my wall.  First resident had Cox (Cox was labeled on the splitter), next resident had DISH and then I subscribed to Cox.  When I first subscribe, the Cox tech installed another splitter.

My telephone would be the first to drop...then my Internet would crawl...then the TV had problems.  I took off the wall plate and pulled on the massively coiled slack.

Of course, that was back in the analog days.  But it never hurts to inspect the feed immediately behind your outlet.

We had the same issue and my husband unplugged the DVR, marched into the local cox store and came home with a "new box".

Twice.

We never had this issue until everyone had to convert to the "new" dvr box. They also wanted to send someone out to us, between 8 and 5. No thanks.

gtcowgirl said:

We had the same issue and my husband unplugged the DVR, marched into the local cox store and came home with a "new box".

Twice.

We never had this issue until everyone had to convert to the "new" dvr box. They also wanted to send someone out to us, between 8 and 5. No thanks.

Hi gtcowgirl,

Different equipment does require different signal levels. It's possible the signal levels might not have been optimal and changing the box made it more apparent. I'm not sure who told you are appointments are between 8-5 but I want to apologize for that mis-information. We schedule appointments 7 days a week, in 2 hour time slots, 8-10, 10-12, 1-3, 3-5, and 5-7. If you are still having technical issue, I'm happy to get this scheduled for you. Please email me at cox.help@cox.com.