Z-Car

The other day I was watching Fuse HD, I know, but I like to watch the music videos in the background while working.  Suddenly the screen went black and I got a searching for channel message.  I thought that was odd, and figured Verizon was having a glitch.  After a couple days, I noticed that it never came back.  I contacted Verizon Tech Support, but as usual they were not very helpful.

I should add that I have a Tivo with a cable card, although it has worked flawless since originally installed.  I tried rebooting the Tivo, but no luck.  I did a quick Google search to see if Verizon perhaps dropped Fuse, but Verizon claimed that they did not, and I should be receiving it with my subscription.

Once again I did some searching, and found some posts that seemed to indicate that this was a somewhat common problem with FIOS.  Others were reporting missing channels, the most common were E HD (696), IFC HD (734), Hallmark HD, MLB Network, YES, SNY, Fuse HD, and Fox SoccerHD.  So, I did not have a solution, but felt somewhat better knowing that this seemed to be a common problem and I was not alone.

Finally, I stumbled on the solution.  It appears that Fuse HD and Fox Soccer HD are both on 69Mhz, which I have been told is one of the lower frequencies, and one that is commonly affected by noise on the cable line.  The suggestion was to look for leakages between the ONT (Optical Network Terminal), splitters, jacks, and receiver.  I had recently moved one of the splitters, so that was the first place I checked.  Sure enough, the incoming cable was loose, and as I was tightening it, the picture came right in!  Apparently, others have found that some of the older ONT units (MOT 611 IIR) have a known problem with passing the lower frequencies, so if a simple jack tightening does not solve your problem, you may want to also look into this.