# "Oh, We Take The Guts Apart"



## Brian Rector (Mar 25, 2002)

I went to my cable company for the last time to take back the three Digital Cable receivers. I saw the teller take the remote controls and throw them in the trash. She told me that the receivers are all gonna get torn apart and parts added. (Yes, the quote mentioned as the subject is the exact wording of the teller).

Now....for the good news. It was a busy time in the office when I brought back the receivers. Seems that I wasnt the only one who was bringing in boxes. Two other people were bringing back boxes and both are now subscribers to Dish Network.


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## Mike Richardson (Jun 12, 2003)

Throwing away the remotes is stupid. I understand that the plastic and the rubber would probably be worn and cruddy looking but they could take out the guts and use it with a new case.

I wonder what parts would be added to the receivers though.


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## Brian Rector (Mar 25, 2002)

This all proves my point all along with the quality of the cable boxes. I always thought that they were cheaply made. Insight has been using the same receivers back 5-6 years ago. They are trying to get everyone to get DVR, but with a charge of $12.95 per month....it makes Dish DVR and TIVO much more attractive. Geez.....and I was spending 114/month with cable without Insight DVR.

Along with the cost of the Insight subscription, a major flaw in Digital Cable is the remotes. Imagine how you would feel if someone in your family switches the channel you are watching from another room? You could take any of the remotes from any of the rooms and control any of the receivers. It was very frustrating. I also thought this was a security flaw too, but thats my paranoia showing there.


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

Remotes live a HARD life and arent worth the effort of re use.

So they take back and pay a tech to install new batteries, clean it up or install a new outside case.

Then its given to a new cable sub and has a hidden defect. It causes a hassle and a serciceman is sent out.

Now you have a unhappy new sub who likely had to stay home to meet the cable tech, a quarter hour of cablew tech time servicing the old original remote, and worse yet a entire service call to replace a buggy remote...

They likely cost less than 10 bucks new, not worth the hassle..........


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## Bogy (Mar 23, 2002)

As far as the boxes, when I was switched from Primestar to DirecTV I got refurb boxes. So what's the difference?


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## jpurkey (May 15, 2003)

Bob Haller said:


> Remotes live a HARD life and arent worth the effort of re use.


We had one of our DirecTV receivers replaced recently. They said to send the old receiver back without the remote. Since I still have another receiver the remote works with that is what I did. I can't tell if the replacement receiver they sent is new or refurbished, but the remote is new. I wouldn't want to get a remote with someone elses gunk on it and I don't imagine other people would either.


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## Mike500 (May 10, 2002)

Bob Haller said:


> Remotes live a HARD life and arent worth the effort of re use.
> 
> They likely cost less than 10 bucks new, not worth the hassle..........


More like $2-3 each in large quantity.

So, who cares!


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## Mike Richardson (Jun 12, 2003)

When we had Digital Cable in 1998 and again in 2002 both boxes had the exact same interface, except the 2002 box had TV Guide/yellow and the older one had Prevue/blue. They even had the same odd wiring strategy on the back with this weird short coax that looped from one RF to another RF on the back. And they both had Dolby Digital logos on the front yet they had no Dolby Digital plug on the back.


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## CrankyYankee (Feb 19, 2003)

When I worked for a (major) cable company, the remotes that came back that were in not too bad of shape got cleaned(really cleaned!) and got new batteries only when it was going out again. Many remote were tossed just because they were not worth the effort to fix 'em. Some shells and guts were saved for parts use. The thing that wore out the most on many of them was the little door that held the batteries in. 

Methinks cable companies are trying to standardize what they have in the field for boxes.

At the time I worked for (oops, almost said who it was...), we had four different boxes in use. Not a lot of fun!

Mind you, the boxes themselves needed a good cleaning when they came back in.
Our warehouse guy used some really evil-smelling cleaning gunks to chisel off the sometimes years of stuff spilled on the boxes, layers of cigarette smoke wafting thru the box and on occasion, little crawly things that came out when the box warmed up after sitting in somebodys garage for months.


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## Mike Richardson (Jun 12, 2003)

Why can't you say who you worked for? Just don't want to?


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## CrankyYankee (Feb 19, 2003)

There's no real reason not to say who I worked for.
Why, it was even a "while ago", I guess.
Chances are, you've figured it out by reading this far!


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

oh the memories, the only thing more fun than returning the box was years later. A severe storm brought down power and lines all over. Cable had a crew putting everyone back up. My unused line hadnt come down. So I told them to cut it down. 

We cant do that, were not allowed and besides you will want it in the future.

NOT! Thats ok I am getting my ladder to cut your line off my house, makes people think I have cable

They removed my drop


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## CrankyYankee (Feb 19, 2003)

Just to play "devil's advocate" for a moment...

I had a dish where I used to live and cable too, as locals were not available at the time.

I thought I was going to stay at that house for a long, long time, but life came along and we needed to move.

The folks that bought our house made it a condition that we remove the dish
before we left.

The cable was all set for them when they moved in.

I'd suggest if the drop is already installed, just leave it there. You don't have to use it if you don't want to. But hey, it's your house, you are free to do what you want or don't want! 

(Stepping down from soapbox now...)


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## Bob Haller (Mar 24, 2002)

I have lived here since 1972 and had the cable installed initially. 

I had E for a few years when the storm occured and had the drop removed. that 4 or 5 years ago now, time sure passes fast.

so my decision to cut it down was in retrospect the right one for me.

besides even if the cable were still up after all these years it would of likely needed replaced.


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

Bob Haller said:


> oh the memories, the only thing more fun than returning the box was years later. A severe storm brought down power and lines all over. Cable had a crew putting everyone back up. My unused line hadnt come down. So I told them to cut it down.
> 
> We cant do that, were not allowed and besides you will want it in the future.
> 
> ...


When I bought my home in '96 the previous owners had cable. I never activated cable, but did reuse the interior wiring to feed my 4000's RF feed to a 2nd TV in the family room.

Some time later, the cable guy was rewiring my neighbor's home. We live "downwind" from the Cleveland antenna farm and WKYC ch 3 just upgraded their transmitter (analog - before DTV began). The ingress from WKYC wacked my neighbor's cable to the point where COX had to rewire his home.

Anyway, I struck up a conversation with the cable guy and he agreed to disconnect my house from the pole. Now I have this long hunk of RG6 with a strand of guy wire alongside (for wind resistance?) attached to my house. I ran that cable up to my OTA antenna, split off the wire and used the guy wire to ground my SW-42 (now SW-64). So the "cable feed" is now my locals feed. I recycled 100% of the cable feed (right up to the pole) in my house :icon_cool


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## Michael P (Oct 27, 2004)

> ...little crawly things that came out when the box warmed up after sitting in somebodys garage for months.


 Back in the 80's I used to do audio occasionally for cable-access programs. (back when "cable was cool"  ) Anyway the techs who serviced cable boxes would tell me stories about the "crawley things". Since cable boxes were plugged-in 24/7 the warmth of the power supply made these STB's an inviting "roach motel". The boxes were not sitting in someone's garage to get the crawley things - they got the insects from sitting in the house plugged in.


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## MrAkai (Aug 10, 2002)

I was over at my Dad's place and he recently disco'd dish and went back to cable (he called dish when he bought an HD set and they told him it'd be $800 to upgrade and he told them to go to hell, instead of figuring out they were full of it and trying to sell him an 811+set combo) and while some of the Comcast goodies are nice (OnDemand is fairly sweet) I still can't stand the UI on the cable boxes (Motorola?). Only the current time slot is listed in the guide, navigation is dog slow, and there's freakin' banner ads all over the screen.

As far as the "critter" factor, when I was in Jr High school, somebody donated an Apple 2e computer to the computer lab. We opened it up and found that, suprisingly advanced for it's day, it included a mouse.

At least it had been a mouse......


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## Pepper (Mar 9, 2004)

The satellite boxes get the crawley things too, I found some of these when I bought a used receiver once on ebay (I hope I did not import any dangerous pests to my area). It's a good idea to open the case outside and make sure it is "bug free" before bringing it inside the house.


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## Mike Richardson (Jun 12, 2003)

When we had analog cable in 1999 from Time Warner (they were slow and didn't roll out digital like TCI did back in 1998 when we could get it) we had one of the old fashioned descramblers, and I noticed it had absolutely no ventilation ports. I guess they were tired of critters getting in.


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