WOW DTA (Digital Terminal Adapter) Poltergeists

This is a report, the third, on our experiences with the WOW (Wide Open West) digital transition (the dropping of analog signals for all except local broadcast channels). The previous entries are here (to start) and here. This entry is prompted by recent odd behavior by our DTAs (devices that convert the digital signal to analog for our analog TVs and VCRs).

 

Spontaneous Deregistration

One day last week we turned on the TV in our bedroom to discover the WOW digital terminal adapter (DTA) insisting that it must be registered before it could be used. This was odd, because it had been registered in March and worked fine ever since. Fortunately using the WOW web page for DTA registration satisfied the device, and all was well. The other three adapters had continued operating normally and were not disturbed by the re-registration.

I left a comment on the WOW Buzz blog (now defunct), in the technology section.

Today one of our DTAs stopped working — blinking power light, and the message on the TV that the device has to be registered to function. Odd, since it had been working for several months!

Re-registering it over the Internet worked fine.

I was wondering if WOW de-registers DTA equipment that has had no activity for some period of time? (30 days? 45 days?) This DTA was the least-used of our four, although it was always left powered on, and we were recently away for three weeks.

The author responded with clarity, consideration, and lots of information.

Ben:
Great question. I posed this to Gary Nilsen, our VP of Engineering (aka: “king video guru”), and he indicated that the DTA devices are strictly “one-way”, so the head end systems would not have any idea how long one had been on line (or off line). He suspects that your experience may have been a fluke associated with multiple power-down/brownout experiences associated with the storm activity we’ve had in the midwest this year. Certainly a power outage that might have occurred during video maintenance could also have caused this situation. Odd, though that the other DTA in the house were unaffected. Bottom line, if it becomes troublesome, he suggested swapping out the DTA for a new piece of equipment, and we’ll be happy to do that for you.
Steve

We certainly live in a part of town that has more than its share of power glitches, especially of the one-to-three second variety. But this is not the end of the story ...
 

The Big Freeze

Poltergeists must be inhabiting our house. Joan had scheduled some movie taping on our analog VCR, and Saturday (July 23) she went to inspect the results. They were not what she expected. There were six hours of one video frame, an “Executive Producer” credit, on the tape. The credit was still showing up on the TV, and the DTA would not respond to the remote – it would not change channels, it would not turn off. Oddly, the power light was off although the DTA was clearly sending a signal to the TV. Unplugging and replugging it cleared the problem.

We inspected our other three DTAs, and two were fine and one was frozen at the exact same channel and credit frame. What makes an explanation difficult is that two were on battery backup (each on a separate UPS) and two were just plugged into the wall, and of the ones on battery backup, one was frozen and one was not. Of the ones plugged into the wall, one was frozen and one was not. The only commonality between the frozen DTAs was that they were tuned to the same channel (AMC) and showing the same frame. The DTAs that did not freeze were not tuned to AMC.

The frozen DTAs were not the deregistered DTA. This means that we've had “events” on three of the four DTAs in the past 10 days or so.

Go figure.

Again, I left a message on the WOW Buzz blog, and another quick response came back:

Go figure indeed. Odd, though that two different DTA’s would freeze on the same channel in the same place. Almost seems like something coming from AMC froze the equipment, but there would be no technical explanation for that that I can think of. May run this past our video guru to see if he has any ideas, but in the meantime, the poltergeist explanation is as good as any!
Steve

There have been no further glitches (it's been one week). My advice to DTA users is, if you have set up unattended recording, to check the state of the DTA as close to the time of the recording as you can. The more complex your video arrangements are, the more points of failure there are.

Addendum 02/12/2012

The DTAs continue to be susceptible to spontaneous de-registration, but with no observable connection to events such as weather or electrical glitches. Last night we missed taping a movie because just one of the DTAs spontaneously deregistered.

Addendum 05/04/2015

The DTAs are susceptible to glitches after they've been powered up for a long time. We had one that refused to change the channel until we removed the power (unplugged the power adapter), waited a couple of seconds, and then turned it back on. Another lost all sound -- the video was fine -- again until it was turned off and back on. So if you're using one of these things, and experiencing odd difficulties with your setup, one of your first steps should be the power off/on drill.

Addendum 09/15/2015

I called WOW today to return one of my DTAs (no longer needed). In the past they've sent me a mailing label; I would box stuff up and send it back. Now they want $50 to that. I'm supposed to drive to the closest WOW office instead, for which there is "no charge." Just time and gas ... but because I'm paying $2.00/month for the gadget I have no choice.

Addendum 10/28/2015
Our final DTA stopped working last week -- it insisted that it needed to be activated, but activation, both by me and by customer support, didn't work. Swapped it for a new one which works perfectly so far -- it didn't even need activation once I plugged it in!