Comcast: In Case Of Emergency, Remain Calm, Watch QVC
When Comcast activates the emergency alert system, Jim's cable box snaps into action and tunes itself to QVC. The locked cable box refuses to tune to any other channel, so Jim is left wondering what emergency information he's missing while staring at the latest deals on cubic zirconia bracelets.
Jim writes:
On Sunday we had severe thunderstorms here in Philly. During that time Comcast switched and locked their boxes to their EAS system. But instead of important messages, here in Philly we were forced to watch QVC. Guess we should be buying things in an emergency.
The box isn't tuning itself to QVC so much as it's tuning itself to channel 3, which happens to broadcast QVC. Somewhere down the pipe someone is supposed to switch to the programming to emergency notifications, and that isn't happening. Asking Comcast to fix the problem will be as useful as shopping through QVC. Go straight over their head and instead file a complaint directly with the FCC.
FCC Consumer Complaints [FCC]
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Comments:
Thank you for a good laugh from someone stuck in the rain in NorthWest Connecticut.
sorry for the OT but is it me or is Consumerist taking a long time to load today?
the weather channel would be better to tune to but this may have something to do with the upcoming analog cable trun off.
Similar situation, here in NJ, I have a Tivo HD with Comcast cable cards. Anytime there's an emergency, it switches to the TV Guide channel and siezes my Tivo. The TV Guide channel shows no emergency information, only TV listings or bad programming.
So, in case of emergency, watch different shows?
I live in LA with Time Warner. Not too long ago we had an Amber Alert, my box went to EAS mode, and turned to the On Demand channel without ever showing the details of the alert. I've also had it lock into QVC before strangely enough (channel 6).
I'm on Time Warner and have TiVO as well. EAS causes mine to jump to whatever channel the live tv on the tivo is set to, usually the channel i last recorded and displays a banner with the emergency notice in it. Better than the old Tivos that would just record the warning and I wouldn't see it at all until I watched the show a week or month later.
I don't have the TW DVR box so I don't know how it reacts.
This happened to me too (Philly suburb) a few days ago. Except here, QVC is on channel FIVE so that doesn't explain the "channel 3" thing.
1. Yes, I too noticed a slow-loading consumerist this evening.
2. What about us folks with Directv? With thunderstorms and lightening, we get snow, no tv at all. ;-)
Mine does the same thing, annoyingly, even my TiVos do this (and interrupt any playing-back recording!)
The cable system we used to have, before Comcast bought out the company and replaced the entire system, had the ability to put emergency programming on every channel, literally. I was tuning with an analog TV when they ran a test, and every channel had the same test message on it. The channels with various minor reception issues (like fuzzy picture on one, slightly snowy on another, bad sound on yet another, all had the same effect on the emergency test broadcast). They must have hooked something into all the modulators.
@Kevinv: TWC DVR puts a banner on top of whatever you're watching, up at the top of the screen... even if you're watching something on the DVR.
Excuse me...why is Comcast allowed to hijack your cable box in the first place?
I have Comcast also. Mine locks to CNN (I'm in Atlanta if it helps lol). However, it locks to CNN, then about 10 seconds later, the screen goes black and the alert is played... After the alert, it returns to CNN and then about 10-15 seconds after it goes back to CNN, it returns to the channel I was watching. (And no, CNN isn't channel 3)
@scootinger: I'm guessing the FCC mandates that all broadcasting systems and providers, whether it be radio or television, tune all customers to the emergency broadcast system when needed.
@nybiker: Yeah but at least DirecTV doesn't hijack our TVs like this.
Comcast in my area has a history of playing local insert advertising on top of channels, in the middle of programs, in the middle of other ads, whatever. And they don't care if it fires constantly for hours at a time.
I truly enjoyed the day a truck ripped down my cable line and "forced" me to jump to satellite. To hell with meddling cable companies.
@LastError:
that comcast for you back when gsn playmania just it it'd own in house adds for gsn shows comcast was added there own adds and cutting off part of the show.
and was is the point of killing the sound on local channels as well cutting off the weather. Yes one day the fox32 on line feed they where talking about people not being able to hear as this cut them off on cable.
Now days there are ota WEATHER channels why not flip over to that?
HSN is paying Comcast $$$$ to force their programming down your throat. :)
I have found that every EAS activation I have seen has been basically useless. Hell they didn't do it for 9-11, but they do it for stupid weather things. Glad I don't have cable.
I'm Comcast in the philly area, and have a DVR (Non TiVO) with CableCards.... No Reaction at all. Was watching CNN during the entire storm. Also the Cable Box didn't react either. The Box you have in your picture is the brand new style Comcast Cable Box though... maybe this is a new "Feature"?
What a complete waste. Even NYC never activated their emergency system during 9/11. Guess there is no emergency big enough to warrent it.
@JennQPublic: Yep, even on Fiber it was awful slow. Didn't get my gawkery fill until a couple hours ago.
@mbz32190:
Same thing in Sacramento. Comcast forces me over to QVC for all of their EAS stuff. Channel 3 at least would be potentially useful as it's an NBC affiliate.
Haha, I'll get the channel lock onto QVC sometimes as well. Most of the time, the EAS functions as properly as it should though. Which is to say it informs me that there is a tornado warning, yet it takes at least 45 seconds to inform me what county/counties is/are under the warning.
I rather dislike it. It always kicks in when I'm trying to watch the Weather Channel anyways. I'm like "Hello, I know the sky is about to fall! No need to interrupt my weather program. :( "
Yeah, the Comcast system here took over the boxes too. Even if you were playing back a recorded program from their "My DVR" feature, you were pawnd. At least Comcast in this case ad a real issue to alert about. The stupid river suddenly raised 20 feet over crest and flooded out most of town. I knew about the flooding - we had some prior warning. And I moved off the flood plane a couple years before too.
Thats another reason why I threw my comcast digital cable box back at the installer and now just have super basic cable with an HD antenna. During the storm in NJ yesterday I was watching local news instead of QVC. Good ole communist cast.
Our TV did this the other day... first time I've ever had it happen. In fact, my kids nearly started a riot thinking the other had changed the channel. I never figured out the emergency but we did hear that lovely screeching.
My laptop must have it's own EAS...everytime I try to post a response on Consumerist, it throws me back to the front page.
I hate the EAS system, especially when I'm forced to watch tests of the EAS. What's more annoying is my TiVo is forced to record the EAS alerts as well so I get to watch old Amber alerts or "flood warnings" (despite being in a non-flood area) from days or weeks ago.
Unless there is some kind of imminent major threat such as World War 3, asteroid impact or alien invasion, the EAS system shouldn't be activated.
Some things that the EAS system is activated for, but shouldn't be:
1. Weekly tests
2. Amber Alerts - I'm not going to find missing children in my living room.
3. Weather alerts not applicable to where I live.
3 easy payments of $29.99? This IS an emergency!