Got AT&T Digital Cable? I need some help...
...aside from their attrocious online "help" and lack of support numbers and such, I can't get a straight answer to this question:
When you have Digital Cable, and the set top box is setup properly, does it make a difference how long the coaxial cable is? That is, if there's 10 feet of cable between the wall and the box on one TV and 30 feet on another, will the latter experience more problems with the picture quality?
I have one TV that almost always shows this annoying dither/banding effect whenevr there is a dark image on the screen (film shot at night, underwater, whatever). Daylight or otherwise brightly lit scenes appear fine. Anything that is dark or in the shadows looks like crap. Really blocky to the point where you can see bands of color like on a badly optmized JPEG.
Ideas?
The other issue is the standard of co-ax. The guy at Home Depot seems to think there is no difference between the generic stuff ontheir spools and the stuff AT&T uses (which definitely has more sheathing, and which has a thicker looking cable prong too). Are there different technical designations for the cable AT&T uses (RJ-something or other vs. RJ-this that and the other)'?
Help.
[ 11-25-2001: Message edited by: Moogs ? ]</p>
When you have Digital Cable, and the set top box is setup properly, does it make a difference how long the coaxial cable is? That is, if there's 10 feet of cable between the wall and the box on one TV and 30 feet on another, will the latter experience more problems with the picture quality?
I have one TV that almost always shows this annoying dither/banding effect whenevr there is a dark image on the screen (film shot at night, underwater, whatever). Daylight or otherwise brightly lit scenes appear fine. Anything that is dark or in the shadows looks like crap. Really blocky to the point where you can see bands of color like on a badly optmized JPEG.
Ideas?
The other issue is the standard of co-ax. The guy at Home Depot seems to think there is no difference between the generic stuff ontheir spools and the stuff AT&T uses (which definitely has more sheathing, and which has a thicker looking cable prong too). Are there different technical designations for the cable AT&T uses (RJ-something or other vs. RJ-this that and the other)'?
Help.[ 11-25-2001: Message edited by: Moogs ? ]</p>
Comments
It sounds like you have a much more severe case of this, though. The blocks I see are not bad enough to make me think something is wrong.
Is there a telephone number you can call? Adelphia has been very helpful on their telephone support...maybe AT&T would be too.
Good luck!
The problem I have is definitely not a perceptual one on my part. A QT dither is a good description too, but in my case, it's enough to distort the picture to the point where you can't really see what's happening. All you can see is bands of color morphing around....
I'm hope it's just the cable (since I can get them to give me another for free) but if not, may be time to switch to a dish. At least with a dish you can order pretty much whatever you like and not have certain channels be dependant upon geographic location, etc.
Seems the color banding within dark scene areas is gone for the moment....
Make sure your cable has no kinks in it. The stuff they have at Radio Shack isnt very good either.
If you have multiple TVs hooked up, you have a splitter somewhere, and splitters will up the dB interference on the other end.
If the dithering returns I will take your advice and shorten the existing wire, as there's probably an exrta 10' I don't need (but might find useful later on if we move the TV again).