Quote:
Originally Posted by YamahaFreak
This is an annoying problem our household has been dealing with for years, with no solution in sight. I figured maybe some of you folks may have some insight. None of the TVs connected to our Spectrum cable boxes have stereo audio. I have checked and re-checked every setting in the TVs and boxes, to no avail. Tried composite, component, and HDMI out...nothing. Totally mono sound across the board. The one TV with a Digital Adapter (tiny square box) has stereo, just none of the actual cable boxes. They are Technicolor (Cisco) model 4742HDC units. I am beginning to wonder if this is a wiring problem in our house (damaged cable, bad splitter, etc.) Spectrum themselves are of no help.
Nothing is quite as annoying as trying to watch a blockbuster action movie, or listening to a music channel, with essentially one speaker!
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I would contact Spectrum, as the problem is almost certainly with their equipment, wiring, etc. (it seems to me as if there may be a problem with old, worn-out cables or splitters).
I cannot believe Spectrum's technicians cannot help with this. There must be something wrong somewhere if you only get stereo sound on one of your televisions. The problem could well be somewhere in the wiring in the walls, defective cable boxes, or someplace else between your house and the head end; this is Spectrum's responsibility to repair, not yours. You are paying for fully operational cable service, including stereo sound, so you should insist the problem be repaired to your satisfaction. If, for any reason, Spectrum cannot or will not correct this, or gives you a runaround, I personally would drop the cable service altogether and go back to using a TV antenna. You always have that option.
I don't know if you remember the days before cable, when everyone used an antenna to get local TV reception, but if worse comes to worst this may be your best solution to the problem. I live in an area, 40+ miles from the Cleveland TV stations, which gets very good TV reception on all but one channel (the CBS affiliate in Cleveland, since that station went from channel 8 to channel 19, some years ago); this is why, and in fact the only reason, I have cable service at all from Spectrum (I have the company's "streaming" service, which works with a Roku device; I have used such a device for some time). If not for that, I would have cancelled my cable long ago and gone back to using an antenna if I did not have the problem with no reception of the CBS affiliate in Cleveland, as my reception of every other local TV station is excellent with an antenna, even rabbit ears (I use a cheap pair of amplified Zenith all-channel rabbit ears to use in case the cable goes out for any reason; the antenna receives every local channel except the one I mentioned).
Good luck. As I said, the problem with your TV's stereo sound is Spectrum's responsibility to repair, not yours. It seems to me almost incredible that they cannot correct the problem; after all, they should know their own equipment well enough to correct just about any problem which may occur. As I mentioned, you are paying for flawless cable service; if you do not get it, you have the right to cancel your service and go back to an antenna. I personally would insist the cable company correct any such problem because, as I said, you are paying for and therefore deserve to have full stereo sound on every TV connected to the cable. In the case of stereo sound it doesn't matter that much to me, the reason being I am practically deaf in one ear due to a brain injury at birth, but my point is since I am paying for flawless cable service, including full stereo audio, I would insist on having such whether or not I can hear it in stereo.