Suddenly Poor Picture Quality and Missing Channels After Years of Perfect Reception

[stampman1]

I don't understand it.  We didn't do anything!!!  Last Friday evening, we are looking at television and suddenly all of the channels blacked out.  Verizon schedules a tech to come out the next day, then the upstairs TV starts partially working.  I guy comes the next day and gets all the TV's working.  Then around 10 PM, we start losing channels.  A guy comes in yesterday and gets the channel working again, replacing every wire in sight.  By the time I get home, Velocity channel, the only darn channel I look at starts breaking up, along with several other channels.  They want to say its our fault but we have had cable in the house for 30 years!!!  And FiOS for about 3 years.  We can get bad reception from a satellite disk for a tenth of what we are paying.  Does anyone know what happened all of the sudden?  Did FiOS change their signal?  Is it too weak?  Too strong?  Is there some kind of line filter I can purchase to fix this, or is this a house that can no longer have FiOS?

[CRobGauth]

Did tech replace all coax and splitters?

Is issue with all STBs?

If all coax and splitters weren't replaced, more than likely one of them is going bad.

[stampman1]

All splitters and cables were replaced.  STB's were not.  So you think if I just start eliminating STB's the problem will eventually clear up?

[CRobGauth]

What model stb do you have?

If you have VMS and ipcs, do the following:

Hit d button.

Select my connected devices

Hit ok.

Chose one of the stbs.

Hit ok.

select advanced

Use the down arrow.

Go to page 2.

See what moca speeds you have. Should be 600+.

Also, do menu system system info.

hit info and see what RX level is.

do this one on all boxes.

[stampman1]

I have QIP7100 STB's.  There is no "Advanced" button to select.

[CRobGauth]

Did you try this?

Also, do menu system system info.

hit info and see what RX level is.

do this one on all boxes.

[stampman1]

The thing is, if we had bad boxes, they would have fixed that already.  We had techs come in twice a few weeks ago.  When they leave, things are working perfectly, but as the hours go on, things start getting shaky.  I suspect they call for a signal boost, which works, then they take it away a few hours later.  

I did an experiment today.  I bought a 50 ft cable, connected it directly to the Verizon junction box in the basement, and ran it to the STB/Internet splitter in the living room.  The signal was worse.  I then connected through the MoCA bypass amplifier that added a few weeks ago and it was better, but still a lot of the channels we used to watch regularly are still badly distorted.  I have come to the conclusion that whatever the problem is, it is not in this house and can be fixed, even if just temporarily, with a phone call to Verizon.  I just don't know what to ask them to do.  There is nothing for me to check, nothing for me to fix, no numbers for me to report.  I just have to wait for them to realize that they are sending out a messed up signal and fix it...

or just live with paying full price for half service.

[CRobGauth]

Why was an amplifier added?

Did you do the check I suggested that looked at SNR and RX level on each box?

[stampman1]

A few weeks ago we lost ALL channels. They came in and replaced old splitters.  A few days later we a lot, but not all channels so they sent a 2nd guy out.  This time they replaced all wires and splitters and put that amplifier in.  Bear in mind we watched cable TV for 30 years in this house and switched to FiOS about 3 years ago.  Nothing like this ever happened to us before.  We replaced a few TV's but besides that we did nothing different.

The photo above shows SNR values for a STB and one of the many distorted channels.  I am not sure which SNR you are asking for but this is what it looks like on the big TV in the living room.

[stampman1]

Sorry, the previous image I posted had personal info on it and got deleted.  Here is my 2nd attempt: