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45Doll

Fox News Signal Drop Question for Fox Viewers

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Here's a snip of an email I just sent to Fox News. I'd like to know if any of you that watch Fox regularly have experienced this problem. Especially if your carrier is other than Optimum or DISH.

"I am an Optimum customer in NJ and your signal repeatedly drops out. The symptoms are always the same. First the audio cuts for 3-5 seconds, then the video goes black for another 3-5 seconds, then the full signal returns. This can happen several times in the space of a minute. It started up about six months ago and has been happening intermittently since then. It's subject to happen at any time. For example it happened several times on Gutfeld! both Wednesday and Thursday nights.

It's not our cable connection. This only happens on the Fox News channel.
It's not our home equipment. We have both TiVo and ARRIS DVRs and the drops are identical on both.
And now we know it's not Optimum. I just finished experiments with a friend in PA who's on DISH and they are experiencing the same drops as we are, even down to the show and timing.

I don't know how your feed is distributed to the carriers so that's as far as I can go. But it's really annoying and we'd like it fixed."

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The anticipated reply from Fox News:

"Dear Mr. 45Doll,

We sincerely apologize for your reception problem.

If we sent one of our buxom blonde newsreaders to your house to nuzzle up to you and speak softly directly into your ear, would that alleviate the problem?

Thank you for your viewership.

The Management of Fox News Channel."

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4 minutes ago, njJoniGuy said:

If we sent one of our buxom blonde newsreaders to your house to nuzzle up to you and speak softly directly into your ear, would that alleviate the problem?

It might alleviate the reception problem for me, but create another more serious one!

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Mrs. 45Doll just quietly started cleaning her Glock 21.

OK, seriously, if anyone has seen this issue as well I'd like to know. Fox did respond to my message with an auto update and a ticket number attached.

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With all due respect why won’t it be Optimum? We had the old CableVision service prior to Cablevison becoming an ISP and they were horrible then and no better the last time we tried OOL in 2018. We had nothing but TV pixelation and internet packet loss so we went back to Fios as cord cutters. I called OOL Tech support and of course they said everything looked good on their end.

If you’re in an area where Optimum is upgrading to Fiber you may want to inquire about that, fiber service beats coax service all day long so that may be another option to look into it. Just a heads up watch any service changes on cable Wan, they are reducing internet upload speeds on change orders as if the uploads aren’t slow enough.

I don’t watch Fox programing on a regular basis but it does works perfectly over Sling TV with Fios. I DVR Tucker and Gutfeld and the pic & sound quality is excellent. You could also post here to see what the regulars forum members have to say. Some of the members are pretty good https://www.dslreports.com/forum/ool you could post as Anon or join, your call. hope you get it resolved, good luck!

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2 hours ago, FXDX said:

With all due respect why won’t it be Optimum?

Because my Optimum cable headend is in Sparta NJ, and I'm quite sure they don't share any facilities with DISH satellite. For the problem to appear across multiple states and multiple carriers the issue must be further upstream. My Optimum cable and 30 meg internet service is fine in all other respects, and I have none of the other issues you mentioned. It's just a simple brief signal drop exclusively on one channel.

Funny you mentioned Cablevision problems. I had them back in the 80's in another town, and their aerial wiring was terrible. After many complaint calls they sent a tech out, probably to bullshit me and shut me up. When the tech walked in and I presented him with a hp 8558B spectrum analyzer display showing their signal significantly below minimums he just called his supervisor. Subsequently I got about eight months of free cable service until they straightened their aerial problems out.

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Understood that you have the issues we experienced. For us I didn’t need a spectrum analyzer, all I had to do was look at the modem stats and my router’s log files to confirm the problems but the OOL techs said we were in spec. That combined with the ongoing TV issues made it time to say bye. The service was so bad last year Hamilton Twp. and Robbinsville NJ filed complaints so that kind of says it all.

https://www.communitynews.org/towns/hamilton-post/hamilton-robbinsville-request-investigation-into-optimum-altice/article_ac71ab15-e2cc-5cae-9a4d-1c90a0bce28d.html

Looking back you mentioned your friend with DishNet network also has issues. We have SlingTV which is a subsidiary of DishNet and no problem here.  Good luck!

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I only watch Fox every now and then and its via Hulu.  I have not seen anything like that. Maybe Optimum gets their Fox feed via Satellite and they have an issue with that feed?

Tough issue to trouble shoot.  A lot of points at which something could interrupt the stream.

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11 hours ago, 1LtCAP said:

i've got comcast....and never have an issue with fox news channel.

I've got another friend on NJ Comcast, and I think she watches FNC all the time. I'll check with her. Should have done that already.

10 hours ago, Kevin125 said:

Tough issue to trouble shoot.  A lot of points at which something could interrupt the stream.

Without knowing what the outbound feed topology of FNC looks like I have no chance at all. That's why I tried to get at least two points of reference for someone who does. FNC did respond to my inquiry and said they forwarded my complaint to the broadcast department. I'm not holding my breath. But I'll report if I ever get an answer.

In the meantime, if any one else has seen this issue let me know. I know it's not that big an issue even for me, but my curiosity as an ex-broadcast guy is going to keep me after it. And when it happens it's annoying.

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15 hours ago, 45Doll said:

I've got another friend on NJ Comcast, and I think she watches FNC all the time. I'll check with her. Should have done that already.

Without knowing what the outbound feed topology of FNC looks like I have no chance at all. That's why I tried to get at least two points of reference for someone who does. FNC did respond to my inquiry and said they forwarded my complaint to the broadcast department. I'm not holding my breath. But I'll report if I ever get an answer.

In the meantime, if any one else has seen this issue let me know. I know it's not that big an issue even for me, but my curiosity as an ex-broadcast guy is going to keep me after it. And when it happens it's annoying.

Drop the TV portion of cable and all of the set top boxes.  Add Hulu Live for $55/ month.

But if you still want a phone line, their lowest priced triple play may be the cheapest option. Maybe as low os $65 but for high bw internet, cld be $100+.

we went from $265/month for cable with a bunch of stuff we didn’t need to 75 for cable without the premium crap and 55 for Hulu.

Hulu isn’t the only choice.  There are also a couple of free options though I am not familiar with those services.

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