Temporarily off air
At least 50 of my channels show "Temporarily off air" for the last four months. They didn't go off at the same time, but a few at a time over a period of a few weeks. Some went off for a couple days and then came back, only to go off air permanently later. I have the Starter service plan. Only channel 8, 17, 42, and 1008, a few local government stations, all pay per view channels, and a few shopping channels have clear video programming. All major network channels and music choice channels 1914-1950 are off the air. I have no splitters. My box is connected with a single new cable to the Cox cable on the outside of the house with a new coupler. The box has been restarted by me several times, by two technicians over the phone, and by the Cox automated troubleshooting system on the phone. the last technician today couldn't solve the problem. he also couldn't answer my question "What is the origin of the message 'Temporarily off air'?" I suspect that this message is generated by the box because if there is no signal coming through the cable, there would be no message either, unless it's generated by the box. ColleenD seems to have answered this question in her comments on 19 Feb 2013 11:54 PM, but she didn't exactly say that. She just compared it to the check engine light on a car - "When a box gives the message "Temporarily off air" or "unavailable" the box isn't receiving signal for that particular channel(s). It's a generic message similar to the "Check engine" light coming on in your car. The car can't tell you why the light is on without the help of a mechanic having hands on access to your vehicle and taking computer readings. " So, Colleen, does the message originate in the box, such as in read only memory? What about the message on channels that I need to subscribe to, or are in a higher level plan than I have "Call customer service to subscribe to this service"? If it originates in the box, it makes sense that the digital TV signal is below the threshold in the cable, or the input amplifier in the box is malfunctioning. There isn't anything wrong with my cable connections. I don't have analog TV, I have all digital. The signals come from the Cox servers and multiplexors. Why would some digital signals be strong and others weak on the same cable? As an electronic engineer, that doesn't make sense to me, but maybe it's correct. Anyway, it seems more like the input amplifier or some demultiplexer inside the box. So, I will try replacing that before calling a technician.
Cox Degrades Signals and Prohibits Cable Box Resets
As soon as Cox went from analog to digital the degradation of reception has steadily gotten worse while they continue to up prices by 8 - 12% per year - supposedly "upgrading" their "infrastructure". SYMPTOMS: Black screen, no audio with a displayable info bar. This went from occasional on one channel to this year multiple channels every night for hours at a time. MPEG macro-blocking with audio drop out. Again initially once in a while, now multiple channels for hours at a time EVERY night. Typically it is 5 sec of audio and video, followed by 30 seconds of macro blocking or picture freeze and no audio repeated for hours on end. Tune to a channel, get 20 - 30 seconds of black before they re-route you to a non-HD channel which takes another 10 seconds to display. The instantaneous freeze with no audio that can only be corrected by switching channels. The usual fix - going to your online account to reset your cable box - still appears in the account. For the past several months they would not allow it after reporting the network was working fine. You select to reset and it denies you saying there IS a network outage they will fix in 12 hours. This past week they simply report "There was a problem and we could not reset your cable box. Try again later" but it NEVER works. I believe they have actually disabled this capability of your account and just won't tell consumers they have done it. Charge you for services they deny you access to. I am being charged for HBO Max, something that should come from my HBO subscription through COX but I can't access it unless I pony up an additional $29 a month for a DVR box. My smart TV would support it through network / internet connection, but I would have to pay HBO directly for it because they say,unlike the old HBO Go I must get it through COX if I want to get it as part of my subscription. They regularly take the entire cable sometimes including internet service offline for hours at a time for "upgrades" which make no changes to the crappy signal quality, bogged down internet connections and glitchiness. Yes, this "improved service" is why our cable bill doubled in 5 years. COX - say it out loud - its all in the name!
