I'm a long time Comcast broadband user (Blast 100 package) who wound up moving to a "double play" TV + Internet package when my promotion pricing on just the broadband expired. I'm supposed to have a bundle with a 40 channel digital cable TV package plus HBO on it. Until yesterday, I didn't even bother to hook up a TV set because I was finishing the last few months of an existing 2 year contract with Dish Network. When I went to install the cable box I was given, I realized it was such a basic box, it didn't even have HDMI or component outputs on it -- so wouldn't do me much good. I exchanged it at the local service center for a Motorola RNG-150N box (only alternative they had for me without paying $10/month rental on a newer box).
I went home and called in to activate it by phone. The box reset like it was being activated, but I was never able to see any video on it. The guide displayed fine and I could even hear the audio for the stations I changed the channel to, but just a black screen (even in the "picture in picture" part of the full-screen guide). I tried unplugging it and powering it back on a few times, as well as another activation process via the web. No change in behavior (other than each reset making me wait while the guide data downloaded again). I had in connected via component cables, so shouldn't be an HDMI compatibility issue.
So this morning, I exchanged the box for another one, thinking it was just defective. Exact same problem today! So I called in and a Comcast tech tried sending the box some kind of reset command she said was "for situations where there was no video". After that? The box won't display a thing for me ... no guide data.... nothing. I still hear the audio from the stations and it changes as I press channel up/down on the remote, but no other sign it's doing anything. When I log in to the xfinity web site now and do "troubleshooting", I notice it displays my box as simply "TV 1" instead of any descriptive name. It wasn't like that yesterday. Did they screw things up? I've let the box sit, turned on, for a couple hours now and it hasn't changed.
↧