HD in da' hizzie!
Well, I have to say that even I, The Great Lex, was amazed at how easy this worked out. The tech showed up, called in to the level 2 support to have them unpair and pair the CableCards with the system and BAM! (a little Emeril sound effect for ya there...) I was thrown into the world of hi-def.
As soon as it happened, the tech, who was sitting on my couch, jumped up and yelled, "Yes! Score!", and threw both hands in the air as if he'd just nailed the winning touchdown. He was obviously amazed at the quickness at which this issue had been fixed. He said, "Man, just wait 'til I tell my buddies how quickly this got resolved. They'll never believe I had a 15 minute CableCard call!"
Ok, I'm not sure what this says about the state of technology...well, yes, I do....it's still too damn complicated for the average users. But, hey, it's working, so I guess I can't complain.
The happy technician left the building. So, of course, I started flipping channels to get into full-on HD adoration. That's when I noticed that none of the premium channels were working. Crap.
So, I called Cox tech support. I understand why they have automated attendant systems that try to talk to you as if they are human, but for the love of god, "just let me talk to a real person!" So, eventually, I got to James or Steve or who was a.) Really bored with his job and didn't want to be there, b.) should have called in sick -- although I really think he was just hating his life and his job at the moment, or c.) was fixin' to go postal on someone's ass and this was the calm before the storm. If it was option C, I'm just really glad I wasn't anywhere in the vicinity.
Anyway, I coaxed him into checking on my situation and he managed to conjure up the strength to tap a few buttons and make it go. Suddenly King Kong was battling against the evil raptors in HD on my TV. Way to go bored kid with the bad attitude!
And, well, that was that.
Of course, there are still issues. For one, the Tivo in the living room has spontaneously rebooted itself twice over the past few days. I'm thinking it's a heat issue, though the old one never had a problem. However, anyone who knows anything about equipment like this and computers in general (which, is essentially what a Tivo is -- a Linux-based computer) knows that heat can wreak havoc on machines. So, I'm drilling some air holes in the cabinet so it can breathe. That won't happen until the weekend. Might have to put a fan in there, as well.
The other issue, and this is a bit more frustrating, is that the AV receiver's protective circuitry shuts down the unit at high volumes. When it comes back on, a CH. SP. WIRES message appears on the display. Not cool. After researching it, it can be caused by several things. The easiest is that the speaker wires might be shorting out against the unit itself. Less easy issues could make it a power supply issue or a short in one of the speaker wires in the wall leading to the speakers. So, I'm going to try and solve that one with some banana plugs (straight bare wires are being used right now.)
Anyway, stay tuned for more AV hijinx at Casa de Armenia. And, other stuff of course.
-la
As soon as it happened, the tech, who was sitting on my couch, jumped up and yelled, "Yes! Score!", and threw both hands in the air as if he'd just nailed the winning touchdown. He was obviously amazed at the quickness at which this issue had been fixed. He said, "Man, just wait 'til I tell my buddies how quickly this got resolved. They'll never believe I had a 15 minute CableCard call!"
Ok, I'm not sure what this says about the state of technology...well, yes, I do....it's still too damn complicated for the average users. But, hey, it's working, so I guess I can't complain.
The happy technician left the building. So, of course, I started flipping channels to get into full-on HD adoration. That's when I noticed that none of the premium channels were working. Crap.
So, I called Cox tech support. I understand why they have automated attendant systems that try to talk to you as if they are human, but for the love of god, "just let me talk to a real person!" So, eventually, I got to James or Steve or
Anyway, I coaxed him into checking on my situation and he managed to conjure up the strength to tap a few buttons and make it go. Suddenly King Kong was battling against the evil raptors in HD on my TV. Way to go bored kid with the bad attitude!
And, well, that was that.
Of course, there are still issues. For one, the Tivo in the living room has spontaneously rebooted itself twice over the past few days. I'm thinking it's a heat issue, though the old one never had a problem. However, anyone who knows anything about equipment like this and computers in general (which, is essentially what a Tivo is -- a Linux-based computer) knows that heat can wreak havoc on machines. So, I'm drilling some air holes in the cabinet so it can breathe. That won't happen until the weekend. Might have to put a fan in there, as well.
The other issue, and this is a bit more frustrating, is that the AV receiver's protective circuitry shuts down the unit at high volumes. When it comes back on, a CH. SP. WIRES message appears on the display. Not cool. After researching it, it can be caused by several things. The easiest is that the speaker wires might be shorting out against the unit itself. Less easy issues could make it a power supply issue or a short in one of the speaker wires in the wall leading to the speakers. So, I'm going to try and solve that one with some banana plugs (straight bare wires are being used right now.)
Anyway, stay tuned for more AV hijinx at Casa de Armenia. And, other stuff of course.
-la
posted by Lex Armenia at 10:10 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home