---

 wrote:

I stopped in the office today and was told there have been many calls asking "where is my bill"?  "Why do I owe nothing"?  etc.  When I paid my bill last time on June 3 about 3:30PM there was a mob there spilling out the doors and the computers were up/down.  I was told that they were in the throes of the billing changes and it was a mess.

 

Oceanic has always been very unique within the TWC system and before that too.  Our billing was entirely different from the other TWC franchises and if we had questions or wanted to upgrade part/all of our package or add/drop something, if we tried online, we got a message saying "Sorry, you must call Oceanic directly for any and everything". If I went ahead and called the TWC sales number or whatever on the screen, a human would tell me they could not help and they would transfer me to Oceanic in Mililani, Oahu.  So, we are "trained" to not try to upgrade/downgrade, etc a package or do much of anything online except pay the bill if you liked doing it that way.  Of course, that is all gradually changing with Spectrum. 

 

The billing changes were poorly handled.  The CSRs told us there would be NO customer changes just internal ones as that is what they thought.  Plus, evidently most did NOT get the June 7 letter or any email about the changes to billing that would affect us customers.  Anyhow, I learned that the bill is now generated on the 1st day of the month (had been on the 7-8th) and we have somewhere between 3 to 5 "tiers" for billing due dates and, no on knows, but likely the tiers are divided alphabetically by the first letter of the last name of the customer (with 3 for this island, 5 for Oahu and don't know about Maui).  My bill is due now on the 17th (had been all these years on the 5th).  The CSR graciously let me pay it today so I would not have to come back until the middle of August. 

 

They even finally got new payment terminals BUT THEY STILL DON'T ALLOW APPLE PAY OR SAMSUNG.  That makes them look backward and old fashioned as most places here take Apple Pay.

---

Hopefully, Spectrum can work to improve the communication  and billing structures of their Oceanic-Hawaii markets.

Satch

---

 wrote:

      The last several months my wife and I have been noticing degradation in our tv picture. We have a less than 1 year old Sony XBR-65X900F, connected directly to the Spectrum cable box/dvr. The picture becomes very "blocky" whenever there is movement and/or dark colors (especially red). The worst scene so far was the helicopter crash n Dante's Peak. We have had Spectrum techs here 3 times and they have checked the signal strength at the tv and said all was good as well as checking all connections and replacing our cable box/dvr with a new one. The box/dvr is connected directly to the tv (previously went through a home theater receiver) and I have swapped out the HDMI cable with a new one.  This poor picture quality is evident regardless of the channel we are on (appears the same on the 100's as well as the 1200 channels). When using our Blu-Ray player however, all dvd's and BD's are flawless, with none of the macroblocking we see on the cable channels.

      I realize that the tv signals are compressed, but this is more than a bit much. We are seriously considering switching to satellite due to this, but not sure if their signals would be similar in quality. Has anyone else noticed this issue, or am I in an area (zip 12180) where this is just the way it's going to be? Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

---

Questions?

1.) What is the make and model of the cable box you have now?

2.) Were all the same makes/models of boxes involved in the box swaps?

3.) Do you have your box outputed to it's highest native resolution?

4.) Can you provide a screenshot of the Macroblocking?

5.) What have the techs said about the quality of the picture?

6.) Does the Macroblocking occur on one channel more than others?  At certain times of the day, more than others? Or is it random?  My guess is that it is worst involving high speed sports events?

7.) I wonder if there is a cable box setting or a picture setting that has been overlooked?

8.) Have you always had this problem with Spectrum Cable?

9.) Where are you located?  City, State, Zip?

10.) What guide do you have on this list?

https://www.spectrum.net/support/tv/which-guide-do-i-have-t?edirected=true

Satch

---

 wrote:

Thanks for the prompt reply Satch. Here, to the best of my abilities, are the answers to your questions.

1.) What is the make and model of the cable box you have now?

       technicolor 9865HDC

 

2.) Were all the same makes/models of boxes involved in the box swaps?

        No, the new box is a different make/model. I do not remember the make of the original

 

3.) Do you have your box outputed to it's highest native resolution?

        Yes, I had checked that previously and the tech also checked that.

 

4.) Can you provide a screenshot of the Macroblocking?

      Yes, two photo's are provided. Both scenes from a movie on OvationHD

 

5.) What have the techs said about the quality of the picture?

        Tech agreed that picture quality was not good in some scenes, as I've described.

 

6.) Does the Macroblocking occur on one channel more than others?  At certain times of the day, more than others? Or is it random?  My guess is that it is worst involving high speed sports events?

        While I cannot state for certain, it does seem somewhat worse in the evening hours, on all channels. You are correct that high speed scenes in general are the worst offenders. 

 

7.) I wonder if there is a cable box setting or a picture setting that has been overlooked?

       If there is, I can't find a setting I haven't tried tweaking both on cable box and tv. Spent almost an entire evening going through different permutations of settings to try and correct this.

 

8.) Have you always had this problem with Spectrum Cable?

      No, this issue seems to have cropped up about 5 or so months ago. No new equipment was installed, nor were there any events ( e.g. electrical storm, etc) at that time.

 

9.) Where are you located?  City, State, Zip?

       Troy, NY 12180

 

10.) What guide do you have on this list?

         ODN Guide is what we have.

 

Thanks again for any help you can provide with this!

---

Oh Man!

Those pictures do look horrible!  Since you have had multiple, techs, box swaps, line checks and the whole 100 yards.  Let's see what a moderator recommends.  I think that there is some problem in your node someplace.  A moderator might ask you to PM some account information and get a ticket opened on your account.  This REALLY should be expedited to a Techical Operations Supervisor in your area.  They take node issues VERY SERIOUSLY.  The account notes should say that the repeated tech visits, box swaps, and signal checks show no problems, but the techs note the bad pictures.  This needs to be expedited to Tier 3 support.

Thanks for the screenshots!  Keep us posted!  But make sure that any account information that the mods may need goes through PM only.

Satch

---

 wrote:
Thanks Satch, appreciate your input on this! Do you think I need to call Spectrum myself and request Tier 3 Support or is this something they should do with just another regular service call on my part?

---

Greetings,

We only offer limited mod support at this forum on weekends.  My recommendation would be go to Twitter and get a Twitter account or log in if you already have Twitter.  Follow the "Ask Spectrum" page here so that you can send a Direct Message to them with your account information.  Here is the 24x7 Ask Spectrum Site on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ask_spectrum?lang=en

In your DM state the following:

1.) You have had picture break up and macroblocking for several months

2) Line-checks, signal checks, and box swaps with multiple tech visits have not solved the issue.  You can even send the link to this post in your DM.

3.) Provide your account information.

4.) Say that techs think it is a problem in your node. 

5.) Have them open a ticket on your account and request that your problem be forwarded to a Technical Operations Supervisor in your area.  A bucket crew may be needed in your node to investigate and fix this.

6.) If they want to do ANOTHER service call, let them, but don't reboot anything for six hours prior to your tech visit.  Do not reset any boxes, modems, or routers prior to your tech visit.  Doing so will reset the error codes on your equipment back to zero, and the tech needs to see the error codes.  They may have to initiate one more service call to get this expedited.  You want this looked at by at least Tier 3 support.

7.) When this gets resolved, get some kind of credit or compensation.  (Free On Demand Movie Coupons, a free movie channel for at least 1-3 months, something.)  This is because of this going on for so long.

Note that you can't do #7 until this gets fixed.  You can keep us posted here!  Good luck!

Satch

---

 wrote:
Has anybody had issues getting Cloud DVR. I signed up for service on Tuesday, but still no Cloud DVR. Customer service can't seem to figure it out either.

---

Hello,

Sign up or log into Twitter and follow the Ask Spectrum Page here:

https://twitter.com/ask_spectrum?lang=en

Send a Direct Message (DM) with your account information and they will look at your account and begin an investigation inquery.  Give your City, State, and Zip code along with this information.

Satch

---

 wrote:

Ours has been like that since last night(WI). Usually all channels say unavailable, but's it's sporadic this time around. Annyoing since Sundays are when we set our recordings for the week, but obviously cannot do it w/out knowing when the stuff will be on.

---

Same thing in Wisconsin last night,

Have not checkeed the Guide today though.  Could be a Gracenote listing problem?

Satch

---

 wrote:

Solved the above problem.  One letter in my password was not capitalized when it should have been.  The app could be clearer as it just wouldn't load the next page but didn't say "your password doesn't agree with our records" or something like that.

 

The app is a sort of a mess. It keeps saying it needs to install "wifi profile" but that has been installed. The phone pops a message up warning me it has been installed but the app insists on installing it over and over.  How do I fix that?

 

The app invites me to get Spectrum Mobile but that is not yet available in Hawaii and I'm told probably not until the end of this year at the earliest.  (The local office has to move first as there is no room in the current building that is not very old to include phones for sale).  The app can't determine my connection speed, doesn't know what modem I have or what HD box I have, etc.  Maybe that will clear up as earlier this evening I was getting a blank page when I tried to look at my current (and back) statements, but just now that page populated with a year's back statements.

 

How do I add my mobile phone number as the app is showing my landline number only?

---

Glad to see Spectrum-Oceanic customers on board!  Wondering how your billing is changing?

Satch

---

 wrote:

We are experiencing problems consistantly using Netflix (channel 2000).  Almost anything we play will play for a while correctly, but then mid-way through the video starts to buffer, and the audio cuts out. Eventually freezes totally. The box is hooked up to the cable. We have a 110 box upstairs also hooked to the in house cable, and it never experiences this. An Amazon fire stick hooked up to the same TV with the cable box (the 210) and using wifi is able to access Netflix just fine (using Spectrum internet service).

 

Don't know if this is related or not, but "on demand" through that cable box requires us to restart the box every time before it's functional. The 110 box doesn't. ALL other channels on the cable box function fine (including HBO).

 

Any ideas or suggextions are welcome!

---

Greetings,

The New Spectrum Guide/World Boxes can be sensitive to signal and line problems.  Recommendation is to contact Spectrum for a signal and drop line test.  Most importantly, do not reboot any boxes, modems, or, routers for at least six hours prior to your tech visit.  This will reset the signal error codes and the tech needs to see them.

Tune to the Netflix channel when the tech is there so that he can get the most accurate signal reading.  This is not a box issue.

Satch

---

 wrote:

Thanks James!

 

I apparently have an older Guide (ODN) which doesn’t appear to have a Library feature. 🙁.

 

I do see the Library feature in my Spectrum app.   Now I know what to do with it! 

 

Thanks again.

 

Rich

---

Hi Rich,

ODN's Guide DOES have a Progress Bar, which serves as a bookmark for 24 hours in most cases:

1.) Order or Select any On Demand Movie  or TV Show episode. (Press On Demand on Remote) Select a category, Browse, find a show, play the show.

2.) Take a break within the 24 hour time from selecting the show.  Go back to On Demand, and select the "In Progress" option.

3.) A list of shows appears with fill in blue color indicating the progress for that show or movie.

4.) You will be able to control whether to Restart or Resume the shows in ODN's progress List, similar to Spectrum Guide's "My Library" function.

5.) ODN also offers, "Recently Viewed" (Turned on by default, this can be turned off in Settings.)= When On, press the up or down arrow on your remote, a list of the last 14 shows watched or showing on the stations for Live TV, DVR, or On Demand appears.  Use the arrow keys and select to go back to your most Recently Viewed selections.

Satch

---

 wrote:
Has anybody had issues getting Cloud DVR. I signed up for service on Tuesday, but still no Cloud DVR. Customer service can't seem to figure it out either.

---

Hello,

Sign up or log into Twitter and follow the Ask Spectrum Page here:

https://twitter.com/ask_spectrum?lang=en

Send a Direct Message (DM) with your account information and they will look at your account and begin an investigation inquery.  Give your City, State, and Zip code along with this information.

Satch

---

 wrote:

---

 wrote:

Yea toolman1990, thats what i'm afraid of! Nice hi-def tv shows off Spectrums shortcomings even better now! Might have to consider switching to some other provider, if they can provide better pipcture quality. Have the tech coming out Saturday to see what they can do as a final resort. We'll see......

---

If that ends up with you getting the run around file an FCC complatint. That tends to get you the TQA supevisor for your local area and some competent employees assuming if it is not normal compression for your local area.

  https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us

---

I am shocked that it looks that bad!  If this was an MPEG 2 issue, you would think that this would be reported all over the place.  I know people with new sets and Spectrum, and the picture is amazing!  I hope that it is something in your node.  Please keep us posted on what the tech finds!

Satch

---

 wrote:
Oh, I will absolutely let you know what this "Tier 3" tech finds. I even have saved some more examples to show him on other channels. It's very frustrating to have nice equipment for a home theater system and to watch such poor quality . Thanks for all the input everyone!

---

The other reasons why I would rule out MPEG-2 issues:

• This is way too severe to be that.  If it was, other tickets would be reported on this.
• You said everything was fine several months ago, and if there was an MPEG-2 to MEPEG-4 conversion for your whole node, every set with Spectrum Cable TV would be behaving the same way, and people would be livid until this was fixed!
• Multiple boxes produce the same issues
• Previous techs said your signals are fine.

Just remember not to reboot anything for six hours prior to your tech visit, (Modems, routers, boxes.)  so that he gets the most accurate reading possible.

Satch

---

 wrote:

---

 wrote:

Yea toolman1990, thats what i'm afraid of! Nice hi-def tv shows off Spectrums shortcomings even better now! Might have to consider switching to some other provider, if they can provide better pipcture quality. Have the tech coming out Saturday to see what they can do as a final resort. We'll see......

---

If that ends up with you getting the run around file an FCC complatint. That tends to get you the TQA supevisor for your local area and some competent employees assuming if it is not normal compression for your local area.

  https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov/hc/en-us

---

I agree with the FCC complaint, if this does not get fixed after Saturday's appointment. Past experiences with helping customers, they have told me this works great!

Satch

---

 wrote:

What is the process to bulk delete my emails?   I have 18,000 + and can only delete 100 at a time.   It would take me days to do this 100 at a time.

---

Hello,

Assuming you have Spectrum email, I would recommend actually switching to a free web-based email that is not ISP dependent.  Cable providers were never intended to be email providers, so their email is only provided as an "average" base-line.  Support is not trained as intently for email as they are for cable's strongest services Internet, Phone, and TV.

Switching to a free email provider is the way to go here.  You will be able to do bulk email deletion, have tons of free space, and have more up-to-date security than Spectrum mail can provide.  Gmail and Yahoo Mail are really good, and Outlook.com is good as well.  You also get full compatible MS Office suites with Gmail (Google Drive) and Outlook.com (Microsoft Office Online.) for cloud storage and file collaboration.  Yahoo Mail does not have a free Office compatible counterpart, but is very good.

Just make sure you have one ad-blocker in each of your web browsers to block the ads,  More than one will conflict.  I recommend Ad Block Plus, just search for it and install it in each of your browsers.

If Spectrum were to remove email services in say ninety days, you would lose your Spectrum Mail account, but a free web-based email provider will stay with you for the rest of your life.  All you have to do to keep it current, is log in from time to time.

Satch

---

 wrote:

Thanks for the reply, Satch.   I do have gmail  but I get regular alerts from spectrum that my old roadrunner email is full or something to that affect.    It's mostly annoying but they once had the option in roadrunner to delete the entire file.   

---

Hey,

I found what might be a solution on the forum!  See if this works for you:

https://forums.timewarnercable.com/t5/Email/Delete-e-mails-in-mass/td-p/153543

Satch

---

 wrote:
Oh, I will absolutely let you know what this "Tier 3" tech finds. I even have saved some more examples to show him on other channels. It's very frustrating to have nice equipment for a home theater system and to watch such poor quality . Thanks for all the input everyone!

---

How was your appointment?

Satch

---

 wrote:

Also...email is ridiculously slow!!!!

---

I recommend switching to a non-ISP (Web-based) email.  Get one Ad Blocker for all your browsers, more than one will conflict, and use Yahoo Mail, Gmail, or Outlook.com. More modern than Spectrum Email, and you will have the webmail service for the rest of your life.  Not to mention free Office Suites with Gmail (Google Drive) and Outlook.com. (Office Online.)  Really nice cloud-based file sharing and great integration as well!

Use Ad Block Plus for each of your web browsers if you don't already have an ad blocker.

Satch

---

 wrote:
About ten minutes before I posted this, the box in my bedroom rebooted on its own. I checked the one in my living room and it did not. I could tell because that box showed the correct time on the front, whereas the bedroom box did the booting process (you know, the whole front panel display lighting up, then “boot”, then “OCAP”, etc.). Both boxes are Arris DCX3200-M models. What could cause this? I know it’s not a software or firmware update (I looked in the Guide Diagnostics to be sure), because both of my boxes would’ve rebooted if that were the case.

I’m in Los Angeles, CA (90024).

 

Hi Joey,

 

You're in LA.  There were some serious Spectrum issues related to the two earthquakes and Spectrum had some data repairs that needed to be done to it's databases.  I heard reports that there were some other areas of the country that were also affected by this. The network is huge.

 

One box may have had to do a diagnostic reboot relating to the same operational procedure that it would do if there was a software update.  It could be a data sensitivity thing affecting one box but not the other.  No  need to worry unless the box starts repeatedly rebooting.

 

Satch

---

---

 wrote:

Hey Satch! Well, I ended up with two appointments actually...the one Saturday and another today, Sunday. Saturday, the tech that came out was a supervisor and took over two hours here. He listened to my complaint and saw the pictures on the TV, agreed they weren't very good at all. He ran his checks and even though both cables (one from the outside terminal, which happens to be in our backyard and the other from the splitter in our basement to the cable box) showed that they passed, he said the readings were on the very low end.  He told me that the the outside cable which is at most 85' , was reading over 250' on his meter.        So, he replaced both cables, checked all connections once again and also stated he wanted to put in a ticket to "balance the frequencies", which I have no idea of the meaning. He seemed thorough enough and said he'd follow up with that balancing, which had to be done by someone else. Today, a bucket truck pulls up and another tech gets out and tells me he's here to check out my cable some more. Off to the outside terminal he goes and again checks everything out. All is reading "just about perfect" according to him. He then tells me he's going to go and check the node in the neighborhood, but he's not confident that it will show anything as the reading from there is very good. He did call me after he checked the node and told me it all looked good to him.

       So, we're watching tv and it does seem somewhat better, but of course now my eyes are tuned right into this problem.   it is still there, but not as bad, but still annoying and not what this tv and cable should be producing. I'm going to try and switch the cable box to my other, older flat screen thats now on an HD antenna as soon as i can record a show/movie that I think will show this problem pretty well, just to make sure it isn't the tv (which I doubt it is, but, just in case). Lots of money tied up in home theater equipment (we don't really go out to the movies much) and ending up with subpar picture quality. Ahhh, the joys of cable tv!! 

       Thanks again for checking in Satch! Hope you had a good 4th, by the way!

---

Thank you!

Did he get rid of the splitter?  Every time I see the word "Splitter" in a cable issue, that turns out to often be the problem.  Splitters can cause picture quality problems.  OK, they passed his meeter test, but I would look at connecting this cable set up without the splitter at all.  That would be first task.  If you can't, let me know, and I will ask around for what is the best quality splitter to get that does not cause this issue.   Can you post a screenshot of the splitter in your basement and tell us what you have going to it and from it?

Satch

---

 wrote:
Cables are good, as are signals.

---

Sup Joey?

My feeling is Spectrum stablizing data after the earthquakes.  You have some good boxes, so try to hold on to them!

Satch