Closed Captions freezing and then disappearing

[SomeJoe7777 ACE - Geek]

Beat you by 6 seconds.

[texasguy37 ACE - Champion]

LOL. You are a faster typer!

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

I realize that, and just thought it was interesting that you can have both brands under one roof now.  But you still cannot mix Moto and Cisco unless you're talking about Wireless.

Local store has always had Cisco on display (not Wireless), but I've never heard of them in our area.

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SomeJoe7777 wrote:
Motorola does not make a wireless STB model. All wireless STBs are Cisco, even in Motorola markets.

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[Uniblurb3 ACE - Guru]

Gee, with as many upgrades as U-verse has come out with in the past 6 months you would think they could come up with one for fixing the closed caption problems this threads about. And that includes the older equipment, with the slower processors, which they state they aren't going to fix until next year.

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

I think we all know, ATT does not consider this a priority, or it would have been fixed LONG ago. 

[PHOnos]

Received from David yesterday, re: pending equipment replacement with work-around installed --

"Good deal.... yea known issues are a bit harder to fix and the work arounds tend to break more than they help."

[PHOnos]

Due to an unexpected family decision (my grandson wants to have his 8th "family birthday party" on June 11), install changed to June 14. Stay tuned a little longer.

[Uniblurb3 ACE - Guru]

No problem, family comes 1st, and any kid's birthday, especially a grandson, is a worthy cause.

BTW, I'll be interested to see what the equipment work-around is. It may just be one of the newer models already out there we've discussed.

[PHOnos]

The following has been resolved (I think), but thought I would be remiss in not posting it --

From: Paul [mailto:Redacted]
Sent: Tuesday, June 12, 2012 11:07 AM
To: (Redacted)

Cc:  (Redacted)

Subject: Re: Closed Captioning Problems

I am becoming totally frustrated with ATT U-Verse TV --

I had to change the June 11 appointment that (Redacted) set up (below). 

I did so on June 10 on-line using your chat application and assumed everything was fine with the appointment scheduled for June 14.  the confirmation No. is G (Redacted).

The morning of June 11 I received an e-mail that the appointment was on time for June 11.  I checked the Appointment Status page and it agreed.

I again contacted Customer Service using the chat application.  They said they would change the appointment to the June 14 date.  I said it should already be in the system.  After about 15 minutes the representative contacted a supervisor who determined that the appointment had been changed on June 10 and was now set for June 14.

This morning, June 12 I received an e-mail of apology for all my trouble that stated the appointment was now scheduled for June 18!  I have set aside the 4-hour block on June 14, not June 18.

If the June 14 appointment is not met by the local Technician to deliver and install the equipment and he arrives on June 18, he should be prepared to remove all U-Verse receivers and cancel the U-Verse TV service.

If all the time that all the people copied on all these e-mails spent reading them, the time spent on the chats by Customer Service Reps, the $55 dollars I was charged to install a CAT-5 run that I was assured would fix my closed captioning problem, but did not, and the previous unsuccessful 3 or 4 service calls made by your technicians was converted to dollars, it could have been contributed to the extra cost ATT refuses to pay to Fox Sports West to cover the additional 25 Angel baseball games.

Paul

[edited for privacy – removed full name]

[PHOnos]

Well, the folks in Texas were able to change the service appointment to June 14 as I requested.  The service tech (David, but not "the David" [whom this David was aware of being very helpful] was the most knowledgeable of those we have dealt with yet.  In fact, the ATT folks in Texas had contacted him directly, he said.  According to my wife, his supervisor called shortly before David's arrival and wanted to know what he was going to do.  Huh?  I returned his call (using my new captioning phone" and went through the whole story.  He comment was, "Yea, Ok".

Anyway, the Motorola VIP 1225 DVR was replaced with a VIP 2250 and, glory be, it seems to have fixed the captioning freezing and dropout problem.  Here is what I noticed -- when a crawl is running at the bottom of the picture there is a slight, almost imperceptible, jirk [sic] in the scroll intermittently.  This is the same thing I have noticed in the Cisco 7500 which also works good (as far as captioning).  It is not bothersome (you really have to look closely to even see it) and I suspect this is the "work around" solution.  I suspect it is some sort of monitoring or software bullet that resets or clears the captioning buffer as needed.

Here are the system parameters for the 2250 --

TV2 Client -- 2.1.2344.20

Platform OS -- WINCE/5.0.1400

Bootstrap ROM -- 2.7537

STB/CPU -- VIP2250

Net Info -- BPS: 3145728

The tech checked the "coax quality" (or something like that) input to the 2250 and said it look perfect.  He downloaded the info to his I-Phone.  His final words were, "Keep your fingers crossed."

[Uniblurb3 ACE - Guru]

Good deal PHOnos and glad you have the CC's working correctly. You also have a lot more hard drive space with the 2250 and I'd be interested to know how the closed captions work on the recordings?

Good luck and keep us posted.

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

That's great news! 

Did they ask you to test for a certain length of time? 

If one is not hearing-impared, but uses CC all the time, wonder what the chances are that they'll upgrade us?

[PHOnos]

Will update as soon as we start recording. Of course we lost everything recorded with the change out (but knew that). No testing required, as the folks in AT&T Labs had a work-around that they knew would fix the problem. Maybe you are hearing impared. or,maybe they will push the work-around if you ask "the" David nicely.

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

How's it going?

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PHOnos wrote:
Will update as soon as we start recording. Of course we lost everything recorded with the change out (but knew that). No testing required, as the folks in AT&T Labs had a work-around that they knew would fix the problem. Maybe you are hearing impared. or,maybe they will push the work-around if you ask "the" David nicely.

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[PHOnos]

Well, it appears the "work around" works.  Do not lose captioning on "live" nor on recorded programming.  If you have problems, contact "the" David and he may be able to put you in contact with the right folks at ATT Executive Support in Texas who can schedule replacement of STB's without the "work around" with equipment that has it.

As far as I am concerned the problem is solved !!!!!!!!

[Uniblurb3 ACE - Guru]

Good for you PHOnos and glad you have the CC's working.

Maybe you could offer some clarification on what solved your problems? Did the Motorola VIP 2250 DVR, with the existing software, which replaced your older Moto 1225 DVR solve the problem with the CC's cutting out? Or maybe you're saying the "work around" in the 2250 DVR software was removed? I know you said before you weren't seeing these CC problems with your newer Cisco 7500 STB which has the newer software.

It would be nice to know if the stock 2250 DVR alone solved the problems so we can let others know w/o going through AT&T Executive Support. Thanks!

[PHOnos]

The 2250 DVR that was installed by David (not "the David") fixed the problem. 

But, I have no idea where it came from exactly; he didn't want to talk too much about it.. 

As the service installation call was arranged in Texas and his local supervisor called us asking what he was doing exactly, it could have been a unit reprogramed in the ATT Labs. 

 I say this because even ATT Engineering didn't know there was a "work around" for a known problem that was scheduled to be fixed in "first quarter of next year".

[Uniblurb3 ACE - Guru]

Thanks for the information, appreciate it!

Guess we'll just have to wait to see how things pan out. Typical for them to wait until next year to fix this CC problem for all users.

[PHOnos · Accepted solution]

Well, it is almost Halloween and closed captioning is still working on "live" and recorded programming on both STBs. 

About a quarter-mile from us somebody ran into one of the large  ATT installations where the conversion from optical to copper takes place and took out the whole thing.  There is a second installation about a block south of that one that must feed us as we never lost service but had a lot more resets on the Cisco that is no longer wireless but  Cat-5 cabled to the modem.  The enclosure that was taken out was finally replaced with a much larger enclosure and a second new one one was added about 5 feet from this new one.  Everything is working a whole lot better now, including the internet.

Guess this CC problem is solved, at least for me.

(Edited for speling).