atcomsystems.ca/forum Forums General General Telephone & Systems Information TV's with Guide Plus+ Gold

OK, I know this is a bit off-the subject for this board, but I have run out of ideas and the cable company won't help me. I apologize in advance for another long post:

I own three RCA and one Zenith TV's. All of them came with the Guide Plus+ feature, something I was willing to pay extra for when I bought them. Up until six months ago, the guide worked perfectly fine until we had trouble with a cable TV line extender down the street.

We had lost our high speed Internet (cable modem) but it would only go out when it was freezing cold. After many technicians came out (during the day of course when it was warmer), we finally had a day where it didn't get above 20 degrees. Shazzam! I finally got them to witness (and correct) the problem.

Since then, we now no longer have the Guide Plus+ service on the TV's. It wasn't exactly that day, but since the TV's hold about a week's worth of programming, it's hard to say exactly when it went out. I think it's an awfully strange coincidence, but I can't prove anything. I have simply lost reception of this signal for no apparent reason.

Here's where it gets worse.....The cable company (Adelphia) claims that they have no control over this signal. I have no way to prove them wrong. I am reasonably intelligent when it comes to CATV. They also did a major head-end modification and moved channels around, etc. at the same time. I brought this to their attention, asking if maybe some kind of filter may be in place that's notching out the frequency. They swear that there's just nothing there.

I have been told this by the company's area supervisor. He seems to be pretty concerned and willing to help, but he claims he's at a dead end. He's gone as far up in his company as he can and nobody has an answer. He has given me his personal contact numbers and offered to come over anytime on short notice to help me troubleshoot. The problem is, THERE IS NO TROUBLESHOOTING that can be done. You simply put in your zip code and 24 hours later, you have an interactive guide.

Four TV's, two different manufacturers and they all stopped working at the same time. The TV manufacturers won't return my calls or answer e-mails. Gemstar (the signal provider) says to talk to the TV manufacturer. I don't buy the "we don't notch frequencies" crap I'm hearing from Adelphia. Maybe they don't intentionally, but... Still, I have a hard time believing that I am the only cable subscriber of 250,000 that is having this problem. That's why I think it has to do with the line extender they replaced when this all started. There are only eight subscribers past this point and it's possible I am the only one with Guide Plus+ on my TV's.

So that I have some form of ammunition, does anyone out there have any information about how this service works (frequency, etc.)? I haven't had much luck searching the Internet, nor has the cable TV manager. He claims that if I can locate some better information about the service, he might be able to figure it out. He's basically told me he has no clue, but I respect someone who's honest with regard to his abilities. At least he's willing to try to assist.

My wife has been driving me nuts about this forever and I need some help. Anyone have a clue? Thanks for your time.

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Ed
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How come there's always enough time to go back and fix it a second time?

The only thing I can suggest is get rid of that cable and get a dish! I had been a Comcast cable customer for years, then signed up with Dish Network when we built our house a few years ago and there is no comparison...

DW:

I already have two DirecTV recievers delivered to all sets via a Channel Plus distribution amplifier on seperately-derived private channels. Got all of my premium stuff on satellite; just using cable for basic channels that aren't available on satellite and of course, for high speed Internet.

Can't get GTE (Verizon) to bring DSL; my distance from the CO is so far that it will NEVER happen. Up-front and monthly costs for Internet via satellite are too high.

Lastly, I don't like having all of my eggs in one basket. When the cable goes out, we have satellite and vice-versa. Bad weather doesn't help your satellite signal much, so being the TV-holics that we are, we need two lifelines.

Just in case, all TV's and computers in the house are on a whole-house UPS to tide us over until the generator kicks in. I'll tell you, my family, myself included, can't live without TV's and Internet! It's sad, but with teenagers, you know how it can be.

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Ed
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How come there's always enough time to go back and fix it a second time?

[This message has been edited by ev607797 (edited August 30, 2005).]

The guide plus comes in on the VBI part of the channel freq. This is the same part that closed captioning comes in on, is that working? Your cable provider can block this by limiting the bandwidth, but they are not supposed to be allowed to. Is the guide plus working on sat? You can also try bunny ears on one of the tv's and it should also work. Remember the plus info comes in when your set is off and it must not have anything blocking the "ant" in such as a cable box (have to leave it on) or a VCR (have to leave it off) for it to come in.

Twisted Pair:

I knew you would have the type of information I am looking for! I thought about contacting you directly, but figured I would spread the love. Yes, we are receiving closed-caption AND SAP signals, but not on every channel. I figured that has to do with the broadcaster for that channel as to whether or not these services are offerred.

I have done the "all night off" thing many times, some sets for a week, just in case. There are no cable boxes, everything goes through the Channel Plus amplifier where the signals from the dish receivers are injected. None of that matters, though. I have literally tapped the cable at the pedestal in my yard and run an above-ground drop directly to my big screen. That's eliminating about as much as I can think of when troubleshooting; a lot more than a customer should feel the need to do.

One more thing. In researching, I received suggestions to use Zip code 00000 or 99999 to "default" the TV's Guide Plus+ memory, but that didn't have any effect.

Satellite has it's own guide built into the receivers. Using rabbit ears isn't an option because due to my rural location, there isn't a decent off-the-air signal from any of the nearest major cities.

Thanks for your interest in my dilemma.

[This message has been edited by ev607797 (edited August 30, 2005).]

The verticle blanking interface (VBI) carries the cc and guide plus. The cc will be on that actual channel freq. if that network is transmitting it. The guide only comes in on certain local channels for the entire guide. When the set is off, it scans for that info starting at channel 2 and works up untill it finds the info. There have been some cable companies that blocked that info because they were trying to get extra revenue from their digital boxes doing it. From what I heard, they were not allowed to do this anymore.

My next suggestion was to default the tv by entering 99999 for a zip, but you've tried that already (the RCA's work that way, not sure about the Zenith).

Our Canadian sat. up here brings in the guide plus as well as it's own guide. I thought Direc would do it too (I can't try it because my Direc doesn't seem to work anymore ). The only other way we test them is by hooking up bunny ears, but you have to receive a PBS station.

I'll check with another tech tomorrow and see if he knows any other way to test it.

Ok, I checked with my buddy today, he is a retired RCA tech now working part time as a bench tech in an electronics shop. He said when customers would call in to repair on this issue, they would have them do a self check on the tv. Most RCA's follow this pattern:
1. Press Menu
2. Select option 7
3. Then Select option 1
4. With "Set-Up" highlighted press menu
5. Then press "Go-Back"
6. Then press "TV"

If "BUS" fails, then your television needs to have module replaced.

If "VBI" fails, the signal needs to be reset with the "99999" reset.

He also suggested the other tests to; ant hooked up overnight, cable directly to ant "A" from the road, etc.

He agreed though, it doesn't make sense that 4 sets are all doing it with 1 being a different brand.

He also said to try the zip of the city of your provider if it is different from yours.

Thanks, Twisted. I will try that idea and see what happens.

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Ed
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How come there's always enough time to go back and fix it a second time?

Well here's what happened. I connected one of the sets directly to the cable coming in from the street with a temporary jumper. I then ran the test sequence your friend gave us.

The test itself works fine, but it indicated VBI, GLink and IR failure. I know that VBI has to do with the Guide Plus+ signal, but I am unclear if this test checks for the presence of VBI or if it's an internal check. Do you think there's any way to get more information? We are on the right track here as far as proving the cable company is at fault, but before I stay home all day waiting for them, I would like to have my gun fully loaded for a battle.

Again, I have a hard time believing that I have four bad sets and they all failed at the same time. Especially since I took one to another area and connected it to a different cable system and it worked fine.

Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.

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Ed
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How come there's always enough time to go back and fix it a second time?

Good question. I am assuming it checks the presence of a VBI signal. The reason I am saying that is because it knows if you don't have the IR sender hooked up, and it fails that test as well.

I will quiz my RCA tech again. I'll try to get as much amunition for you as I can