Intermittent pixelation and signal with TW cable

[Capefear]

Greetings. Great site! Hopefully someone out there can shed some light on a situation that has recently raised its ugly head.

The Players: LC-52D62U 52" HDTV Flat Panel TV, Denon AVR 3300, and Time Warner STB SA 8300HD Explorer.

The History: Recently purchased the Sharp, less then a month. TW hooked it up. They routed my Denon into the mix. By that I mean each time we turn the set on via the remote control the Denon, STB and Sharp come to life. STB to Sharp connection via HDMI. The Denon is about 10 yrs old, no HDMI. Life has been very good, blown away by the HD channels.

The Issue: Recently, the past couple of days, we have been experiencing these very brief, millisecond pixel scrambles and breaking of audio at the same time. The digital, pixel scramble deal happens at random on the screen, very isolated; it does not affect the whole screen, just a very small area. This

[Richard]

sounds like the typical cable problem... Your signal is not correct typically related to signal to noise ratio and it causes far more problems with HD content than SD and if your SD is analog cable it won't matter at all with them but they might be a bit snowy and noisy.

[Capefear]

Richard,

Thanks for the fast turn around. OK, a cable issue, that tracks, what can I do if the "signal is not correct"? Is it time to call TW..its fixable?

Capefear

[Tweaver]

I had this problem off and on for a few months, always suspected noise on Comcast cable signal. Accidently discovered what the actual cause was. When I unplugged the surge protector at the wall outlet, I found signs of arcing on the plug. There was a layer of black deposit on the plug and the outlet. Once I cleaned the connections the TV performed perfectly. Guess I'm lucky a fire didn't start back there.

[Richard]

Fascinating and hopefully very unlikely for others!

[eliwhitney]

Hi -

Only a .. "W.A.G." .. - but - since nearly all cable outfits do send "updates" during the off-hours
automatically into our HD Receivers, perhaps this has "happened" to yours?

Might explain how come "good" initially but now "bad" ?

If you contact them, they cab "reboot" that S.A. 8300HD - may or may Not help.

Another similar 'guess' - but - so simple that it's worth a 30 second check --- go out to your glass electric meter base & examine their "craftsmanship" with that copper grounding band upon the metal conduit.
Sometimes, in the hurry to get the day's "quota" accomplished, this is either done "poorly" --- without properly burnishing that galvanizing first - or the final securing of that strap is over-looked.
eli whitney

[regman]

I once had a plastic cased. UL listed, surge protector outlet strip catch fire and it could have burned the house down. Internal 15A CB never tripped. Literally burned a large gaping hole in the middle of the strip and fused most of the power cords to it (they had to be cut and replaced) I only use metal cased outlet strips now. FIled a complaint with UL - they could care less - never heard a thing - not even a form letter. Inexpensive plastic cased surge protector outlet strips are NOT a bargain. I also look for American made whenever possible.

All A/V systems need to have the same attention to detail paid to them, in regards to AC distribution, as all of the other wiring. When I wired my theater, I routed my high and low signal carrying cables separately (even to the point of having spearate conduits) to avoid any crosstalk. I also used shielded CAT5e cable for the 2 hard wired RJ45 receptacles to my LAN router. We don't have much of a problem with lightning here but I was told that static electricity builds up on the dish from high winds so my cables pass through grounding pass throughs with a 10g bare copper wire to a saddle clamp on a cold water pipe (I have all copper plumbing and the hot & cold pipes are grounded to a ground rod per NEC). I actually have 4 ground rods - 1 for the spa, 1 for main service and 1 for each of 2 outbuilding sub panels (one of which is my detached home theater) - All code.