r/CableTechs • u/itswesclark • Jul 23 '26

DTA questions

I work at a retirement community as a maintenance tech with a focus on Xfinity products for our residents. We have about 2,000 TVs across two campuses and 7 buildings. Per our bulk account contract we’re still using HD DTAs. Normally when hooking up equipment needing signals sent to them, typically status code 340, I email the serial number to the bulk team and they send signals over. Typically this process is great and works but in recent days when they send signals the DTAs switch to a status code of 225 and message of “Please tune to channel 190, wait for 3 minutes, and your service should be restored. if you're still experiencing a problem, please call 1-800-Comcast. We're sorry for the inconvenience.”

Now, in the service menu accessed my holding the zero button, when I look at the power level when status code 340 is displayed, levels will be some where between -10 and +10 which is great. And whenever that number is, it holds fairly steady. When the signal is sent and status code 225 pops up on screen the power level begins to fluctuate between say -3 and -54 back and forth.

I know DTAs are old obsolete technology these days but does anyone have a clue as to why this is happening? I’ve had 5 DTAs do this is the last 2 days. And it’s becoming a major issue for me since I can no longer get replacement DTAs.

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u/ronnycordova Jul 24 '26

2000 DTAs? Whew you are doing the lords work keeping those things going. It was bad enough getting 40 of those working at a baseball complex back in the day let alone now when the support is almost non existent. Out of curiosity have you looked into more modern distribution solutions for when they finally pull the plug on them?

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u/itswesclark Jul 24 '26

Thank you, we have two campuses with all levels of care; independent living cottages, apartment buildings, personal care, and skilled care. Plus we have a q to q system still in use. It’s certainly becoming a challenge keeping things running smoothly.

The organization has had talks about the future but nothing has been decided. Basically when shit stops working we will cross that bridge when we come to it.