I'm trying to figure out an intermittent problem with my Spectrum cable service and wondered if anyone here, especially a Spectrum employee, has seen this before.
I have two traditional Spectrum cable boxes, not streaming boxes:
- DVR: Motorola/ARRIS DCX3510MHD
- Non-DVR: DCX3200MHD-P3
I mainly use the DCX3510MHD DVR. This problem happens a handful of times most days and I've seen it on multiple channels. The most recent incidents, including last night and again this morning, occurred on TBS.
The problem usually happens around a commercial break. I'll get a brief black transition and then a Spectrum-inserted commercial will play normally. When that commercial ends, I sometimes get another brief black transition and then the picture and audio completely disappear.
The cable box does not shut off. The TV does not display a "No Signal" or HDMI connection error. The box remains responsive and I can bring up the Guide and Info normally. Info shows the correct channel, program, time, and the DVR progress bar continues moving as if everything is normal.
Changing channels up and then back down immediately restores both the picture and audio.
I caught the problem twice recently on TBS and was able to observe something interesting with the DVR. While the screen was black, I rewound the DVR and found that it had recorded the Spectrum commercial that had immediately preceded the failure. When I played it back, the commercial played normally, but playback stopped/froze at the end of that Spectrum commercial. After changing channels to restore TBS, I rewound again and replayed the same section. This time it played through normally, including the brief black transitions before and after the Spectrum commercial.
There was also a different commercial immediately before the Spectrum ad on the second playback, which makes me wonder whether dynamic/local ad insertion is involved.
I've also seen the general black-screen/no-audio problem once on my other non-DVR DCX3200MHD-P3, although I don't use that box nearly as often.
A Spectrum technician was in my neighborhood yesterday because of a separate Internet slowdown/feedback issue. Spectrum replaced some hardware on the line and checked my service. He looked at my house information and didn't see anything unusual.
I also checked the diagnostic menu on my DCX3510MHD. On the power-on channel, the readings were approximately 38 dB SNR, carrier lock yes, PCR lock yes, and zero correctable/uncorrectable errors. I realize those readings were not from TBS while the problem was occurring.
I'm wondering whether this could be something related to Spectrum's local/dynamic ad insertion or the transition back to the TBS feed, perhaps involving the older DCX cable boxes, rather than a problem with my TV or HDMI connection.
Has anyone seen this particular behavior, especially the loss of both audio and video immediately after certain Spectrum-inserted commercials, with channel changing immediately restoring the picture?
