Enough with the early warning messages already! Monthly test, weekly test, EVERYTIME it rains.

[Archimedes_1]

I can't take it anymore with these warning tests that keep popping up.  There's a monthly test, there's a weekly test and every time it rains hard it goes off too.  The warning pops up out of nowhere and it's LOUD, if you're watching a movie it makes you jump out of your seat!  You press exit and it keeps beeping.  Every time you turn on an STB in the house somewhere you hear it AGAIN.  If you turn off the STB and turn it back on you get it AGAIN.  Then it keeps showing up for an hour afterwards (without the noise) but it keeps popping up, if anyone is reading this from the company IT'S EXTREMELY IRRITATING!  If this is mandatory then fine but find a way to make it less abrasive and please gives us more user control options to control the volume and amount of these alerts.

[ddrumer]

I've complained about this many times to no avail!

[FGRANSEE]

Here in Kansas City we have no such 'service' ... for us the picture freezes on a regular basis or the sound is out of sync with the picture.

[hpmsrm]

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FGRANSEE wrote:

Here in Kansas City we have no such 'service' ... for us the picture freezes on a regular basis or the sound is out of sync with the picture.

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That is quite a generalization.  We live in one of the suburbs just east of Kansas City.  We DO get those same warning test messages.....and yes, the loud abrasive sound is annoying.  I'm also of the opinion that we're seeing (and hearing) those tests more often than is required by the federal government regs.

We don't have any picture freezing problems here.  None at all.  But, beginning this past Saturday, we did experience audio/video sync. problems on just one channel......channel 1041....the local NBC outlet.  No other channels were having the problem......including the SD channel 41.  Sunday I dropped an e-mail to the engineering dept. of local channel 41 and within 15 minutes our audio/video sync. problem disappeared.  Been good ever since.

[Escapee]

It is not just the TV the radio station  I listen too has them going off all the time. When they finally have a real one no one will pay attention. The sad part is the Gov agency that is setting up the test don't have their act together. They end up with dead air for a long time and then the announcement sounds like a bad walkie talkie connection or a bad computer voice. It is also odd they never happen during the commercials. 

[btomlin75]

Our government is going to protect us, even if it drives us crazy.  If they would cease and desist we would be able to relax until the tv station decided to warn us that there was a thunder storm within a 100 mile radius.  Remeber this is to protect you while you sit at home watching tv. 

[Archimedes_1]

With the storm we just had here in the North East the **bleep** warning has been going off like it's the end of the world the past few days.  Storm warnings, flood warnings, the stupid weekly or monthly went off in the middle of all that too.  I wish there were a way to adjust it, mute it when it comes on (if it were just the visually warning it wouldn't be nearly as aggravating).  Please make it stop!

[Archimedes_1]

We had about 5 flood warnings on U-verse the past couple of days.  Luckily my house is still here.  Whew!  That was a close one.

[Archimedes_1]

Again with the flood warnings this morning.  I woke up and turned on the box only to hear that **bleep** buzzer going off at volume 100.  I pressed "exit" but I still need to listen to it going off anyway.  Then about 1 minute later it went off again, I pressed exit but the buzzer still had to do it's thing anyway.  I shut the TV off, and turned it back on and sure enough the buzzer went off again, I pressed exit and 1 minute later it went off again.  Then I shut the TV, went downstairs and turned that TV on and it was the same thing the buzzer went off 4 times within the space of 1 minute.  So I had listen to this stupid buzzer go off 12 times this morning and because why?  Oh yeah it's raining.  I don't live in an area that gets floods.  I'm so sick of that **bleep** buzzer. 

[Gunnyman]

I was getting Tornado warnings for  a county about 100 miles away At 5 minute intervals. Annoying. This should be an opt-in service. 

[Archimedes_1]

Between the flood warnings, weekly tests and the monthly test, I've had to deal with this nuisance at least 5 days out of the past 3 weeks.  It's so annoying, I never had this problem with Charter.  Don't get me wrong, I don't want to switch back to Charter because I'm getting so many more channels now and they were more expensive but this early warning thing is obtrusive enough that it's making me consider those offers Charter has been sending in the mail.

[dhascall ACE - Professor]

My first Midland NOAA Weather Alert radio would blow its siren at every watch, warning or test, even if it was 75 miles away.  That was like 1980!  This is now 2010!  30 years later....  I can profgram my new one (buck and half at Goodwill ) to only alert me to my close in geographic area (like an 11 square mile area, IIRC).  Hasn't U-Verse figured out a way to use the SAME codes not to alert you for a storm not in your area?

[callmeox ACE - Wizard]

SAME alerts are still county based, so the effectiveness of that system is still dependent on the size of your county. If your SAME code places you in a county where an alert has been issued, your device will alert you.

I would hope that ATT has plans to refine their alerting to use the SAME codes, but what they are doing is no different than television stations interrupting programming for all when storms hit the broadcast area. ATT would have to solicit you for your SAME code in order to place you in a specific area in order to make this accurate.

The NWS is also working on integrating their new polygon warnings with the same system to create even more granularity when issuing warnings.

[Archimedes_1]

The **bleep** thing was buzzing like crazy yesterday because of flood warnings and I wasn't going to post about it again but this morning it's sunny and I figured at least I won't have to listen to that stupid buzzer every time I turn on an STB but I spoke too soon because after I was watching TV for a half-hour or so I got hit with the weekly test warning! Unbelievable.  Out of the past 3 weeks or so I've had at least 7 days which that **bleep** buzzer was going off (and it goes off again if you shut the box and turn it back on and this applies to each box in the house).  This means I've literally had to deal with it every other day.  It's normally not this bad but what a coincidence that ever since I started this thread it's been going off like crazy.  Every time I see it's going to rain, all I think about is that **bleep** alarm going off.  Why is it so loud?  It better not ruin the speakers on my TV. 

[Bluebird_1]

I gotta say it would be a lot better if when you pressed exit it killed the claxon noise at the same time.

[LazarusLong]

I have had Uverse for 45 days now in a suburb of San Francisco.  I must say I have never heard/seen these tones/warnings.  Are they location specific?