Odd, mine worked tonight when I tried it. Strange, very very strange.

Cablecom customer service problems keep following me.

on the lighter side...
here is a tribute to the cablecom customer service.
http://www.allourlinesarebusy.com

So, does anyone know how to actually get a technician come round?
We're on our third new box in 3 weeks, and keep having to explain from scratch.... that's if we can get through to a human being in the first place. Aaaargghh !

Need to arrange an appointment via the phone... if you call them now it shouldnt be too busy during the day. Its evenings thats the nightmare.

We've been trying all morning. Yesterday, they said to call again today, because on their list, they said that some work is being done in our area, which may be the root of our problem.
Trouble is: our "problem" started weeks ago, long before any "work in our area" had even been anticipated. They are not listening!

/rant over - may come back again later, though.

Perhaps if you describe the problem here someone may be able to help you ...

As much detail as possible, there's a lot of technical wizards on this forum.

A very kind suggestion - thanks!

Basically, the first box turned itself off by itself, while watching. The second box: or the picture freezes and the sound keeps going. Sort of like a power cut? Hard to say, I'm not the technical type. This is info from Mr C. Mr C thinks it may have something to do with electricity supply - the TV screen itself has vertical strips - pixel mistakes? - which have been continually growing vertically and wider - rather like ladders in tights (in US english = runs in nylons). The TV is a JVC InteriArt LCD flatscreen, bought in 2006.

Can anyone make anything out of that?

Pixellisation / picture freezes / sound dropouts can be cause by low signal level or poor signal quality (bit errors).

It's highly likely you have insufficient signal strength at the settop box.

This can be caused by
a) insufficient signal arriving at the house
b) poor / old coax cable from house connection to your apartment
c) bad connections in the wall sockets
d) poor quality antenna cable from settop box to wall socket

A technician would be able to measure the signal quality quickly and easily.

I suggest that you report your signal level and quality - it's in one of the setup menus - and post it here. I'll post my signal level and quality for comparision purposes when I get home.

Armed with this fresh information, you can then ring up and request a technician visit your house, as it is highly likely you have a problem in the house somewhere 8especially after trying 3 x settop boxes and it's still showing the same symptoms).

The screen looks like this:

I have:
Tuner 1: level 40dB, quality 100%
Tuner 2: level 39dB, quality 100%

My level graphs are about the same as yours.

So yours should be fine.
But check the next time you have any picture blocking or sound drop outs - go straight to the menu and check the strength / quality.

Also: a tip: make sure the box has sufficient ventilation and doesn't overheat.

PS: why don't you switch the language on the settop box to English??

OK - that's what we've been telling the Cablecom guys too, but they still want to keep sending new boxes. Will try again on Monday.

Ventilation is OK as it's free-standing next to the telly. But small sparks appear when the cable is plugged in. Definitely an electrical problem with the antenna cable, we suspect.

As to language: German's not a problem. In fact, if I switched it to English Mr C may well be screwed

Some times it can also be down to the cable you use to connect to the wall. Are you using the white (digital) cable or the old (black) analog cable.
During a area repair our signal was weaker and the digital cable produced pixels, whereas the analog didn't

Also, maybe a stupid question, but which of three holes in the wall plug do you use?

We're using the white cable and have tried all three holes, no difference.

Sparks are just a sign of earth leakage somewhere and is not to uncommon in Europe where many double/insulated non/earthed appliances exist

That is why all the manuals say plug everything together first, then switch on. No sparks, everything OK.

I wasn't sure where to put it and share...

I hardly ever use cabelcom internet account and I even forgot my username. I decided to keep good track of my bills online and use internet service offered by them. I used the online contact form without giving my customer number just contact details. I thought that it might be waste of time and the response would arrive after few days but let me try, at least I tried.

I was surprised that few hours later I received nice email:


Dear Mr. x,
Thank you very much for your e-mail.
Your registered E-Mail adress is: xyz
You'll receive the new Password for your E-Mail adress within the next couple days via Post.
Thank you very much for your understanding.
Yours sincerely,

Customer Service

Quickly got sorted out. Another point for cabelcom I send email to express my appreciation.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!

Is anyone else having problems with FIVE?

I'm getting a signal but the picture is flickering and jumping. It's even recording in the same manner.

I've done the usual, un-plug, re-plug etc etc, and now I have the dreaded E20 error message. Si, un-plug, re-plugged and now back to the way it was before. Checked all cables, all other channels are fine...

CableComs answer: un-plug, re-plug, reset factory settings etc, but problem still there.

Why is this always happening on FIVE????????

Help...