Comcast and EAS messages

[Scutter01]

So, last night, as we were (trying) to monitor the news as they tracked the storms that rolled through, the broadcast was frequently interrupted by EAS messages with dumbed-down and irrelevant (to me) warnings. Now, generally speaking, I approve of the EAS system. It's the best way to alert people of emergency conditions. The problem I have, however, is that these EAS messages completely preempted my entire cable box and TV. Every channel. They came on frequently (about every ten minutes) and lasted for up to 7 minutes at a time as the message repeated. There was no way to turn them off or bypass them. So, right when I needed a detailed weather analysis the most, Comcast completely disabled my television and cut off my access to news completely. I ended up shutting off my TV and huddled over an iPhone trying to watch an out-of-date radar snapshot instead. Anyone else have this experience or know of a way to turn off the EAS messages?

 

[OneBadV8]

Rabbit ears?

 

[CombatVet]

We had that problem last night too. They would interrupt the news who was attempting to show right when it was hitting us, only for the EAS to interrupt the news with a basic tornado warning. I'd much rather be able to see the detailed analysis from the weather man. EAS still has some benefits as it alerts people who may be oblivious, but there should be a way to make it go away. Luckily, my phone was able to connect to my WiFi as Verizon was down for most people in this part of the state from the storms. So my kids and I were able to seek shelter and still see an out of date radar blib.

 

[clt46910]

Up here it is more one channel then comcast. I use these sites to monitor storms in my area from my laptop.

Paul Poteet Dot Com | Indiana Radar from The Online Home Of Indiana's Weatherman

NWS radar image loop of Base Reflectivity from Northern Indiana

The advance of the gov radar is that you can click on your area and it will expand so that you get a closer view to the weather around you.

You would also want to find the Indy radar instead of the one I use. Just use the arrows on the left side of the screen to move to different radar sites.

 

[japartridge]

So, last night, as we were (trying) to monitor the news as they tracked the storms that rolled through, the broadcast was frequently interrupted by EAS messages with dumbed-down and irrelevant (to me) warnings. Now, generally speaking, I approve of the EAS system. It's the best way to alert people of emergency conditions. The problem I have, however, is that these EAS messages completely preempted my entire cable box and TV. Every channel. They came on frequently (about every ten minutes) and lasted for up to 7 minutes at a time as the message repeated. There was no way to turn them off or bypass them. So, right when I needed a detailed weather analysis the most, Comcast completely disabled my television and cut off my access to news completely. I ended up shutting off my TV and huddled over an iPhone trying to watch an out-of-date radar snapshot instead. Anyone else have this experience or know of a way to turn off the EAS messages?

I run into the same issue down here in the PRoB. I've never been able to find anyway to disable the EAS. Bad thing in my home... my oldest daughter (7) freaks out when she hears the EAS tone... last night was not fun.

As for the rabbit ears suggestion... that won't even work now-a-days... no TV transmitted in Analog....

 

[! twitty]

Yeah and the worst part is that it even interrupts your DVR recorded shows. We got sick of watching it and decided to watch some of our shows. Sure enough, here it comes and when it ended it puts you back on regular television even.

 

[OneBadV8]

As for the rabbit ears suggestion... that won't even work now-a-days... no TV transmitted in Analog....

just need a digital tuner or convertor, rabbit ears still work though.

I would imagine the EAS would be broadcast over those stations too though

 

[japartridge]

just need a digital tuner or convertor, rabbit ears still work though.

I would imagine the EAS would be broadcast over those stations too though

forgot about the DAC's... but I think you are right... I'm betting the EAS is broadcast across all "wavelengths".

for reminding me that I'm an idiot!

 

[IndySSD]

So, last night, as we were (trying) to monitor the news as they tracked the storms that rolled through, the broadcast was frequently interrupted by EAS messages with dumbed-down and irrelevant (to me) warnings. Now, generally speaking, I approve of the EAS system. It's the best way to alert people of emergency conditions. The problem I have, however, is that these EAS messages completely preempted my entire cable box and TV. Every channel. They came on frequently (about every ten minutes) and lasted for up to 7 minutes at a time as the message repeated. There was no way to turn them off or bypass them. So, right when I needed a detailed weather analysis the most, [STRIKE]Comcast[/STRIKE] The FCC tcompletely disabled my television and cut off my access to news completely. I ended up shutting off my TV and huddled over an iPhone trying to watch an out-of-date radar snapshot instead. Anyone else have this experience or know of a way to turn off the EAS messages?

Fixed that for you,

Just so you know, EAS controls are not mandated by the cable companies, they are mandated by the FCC. Cable companies are required to follow those guidelines and can be fined heavily if found to be outside of compliance.

 

[IndySSD]

forgot about the DAC's... but I think you are right... I'm betting the EAS is broadcast across all "wavelengths".

for reminding me that I'm an idiot!

Actually you're wrong again, its not broadcast across all frequencies, all devices are forced to tune to the EAS broadcast frequency as required by the FCC.

I can see how you got where you were headed though.

 

[USMC_0311]

It would be nice if they could make the EAS broadcast only to the areas effected . I had to watch 6 mini recordings of American Idol. Small price to pay for safety, if I was in the effected areas I would have cared less about the interuptions.

 

[Scutter01]

The EAS messages they kept interrupting the weather broadcast for were all for the south side of Indy, 200 miles away from me. Important for them, sure, but worse than useless for me.

 

[IndySSD]

It would be nice if they could make the EAS broadcast only to the areas effected . I had to watch 6 mini recordings of American Idol. Small price to pay for safety, if I was in the effected areas I would have cared less about the interuptions.

They are heavily generalized unfortunately, especially with MSO's as large as Comcast and Brighthouse. And when you couple that with the fact that we basically had a line of storms from South Bend to Columbus, pretty much the entire state was affected at one time or another.


TBH I think you should be able to "opt out" of EAS messages after 30 seconds or so and let nature take it's course. Unfortunately, the FCC doesn't like the negative publicity that lamestream media would push on them if they "failed in their service to the American people" of warning them about bad weather.....

 

[mrjarrell]

We didn't have any issues. When we wanted to look at the weather we just tuned to one of the locals. The premium channels played with no interruptions or anything. No EAS at all. Then again, I have satellite, not cable, so it wasn't a problem. Storms didn't even knock out my Dish, at all.

 

[Suprtek]

It did get somewhat annoying last night. Even though many of the alerts applied to me, it was still aggravating because I was watching one of the local news/weather channels to begin with. It seemed right when they about to give some details I wanted to hear, they would be cut off by Steven Hawking. It would seem that they could at the very least allow the live news and weather broadcasters the knowledge of when they were being cut off so they could structure their broadcast around it. It was obvious they had no clue they were getting cut off because they just continued as if nothing happened.

 

[bwframe]

just need a digital tuner or convertor, rabbit ears still work though.

I would imagine the EAS would be broadcast over those stations too though

Nope. I get my TV via antenna. I watched WTHR all evening without interruption.

 

[printcraft]

Yes, annoying to say the least.

I was watching the radar image on TWC to see which way they were moving and
just as they are getting ready to go to my area the EAS would come up....

Went and found some radar images on weather.com and the like and just
watched those instead.

 

[LockStocksAndBarrel]

Intellicast.com has good radar but it is delayed. For real time, use NWS radar. It has your local stuff. For the I Phone, I use an app called "My Radar". It's either cheap or free and it has current radar info. Comes in handy when fishing. It tells me if I need to run or not.

 

[Scutter01]

This is also very cool. You can get live cameras from storm chasers. The site is resource-intensive, though, so it doesn't play nice on an iPhone.

http://www.tornadovideos.net/full-screen-chaser-video.php

 

[japartridge]

Actually you're wrong again, its not broadcast across all frequencies, all devices are forced to tune to the EAS broadcast frequency as required by the FCC.

I can see how you got where you were headed though.

OK, I give... *shuffles off to the corner...*