Wednesday, July 05, 2006
Hammer. Apply Directly To My Forehead
When I got home from work today, I turned on CNN. During a commercial break, the strangest thing happened. The audio on the commercial got stuck in a loop. It was really really irritating. I've had digital cable TV for about five years now, and I know that digital freeze-ups are fairly common, but I've never known the audio to get stuck in a loop before. I was worried that it might have something to do with my adding Comcast's digital phone service to my cable plan. The digital phone service won't be activated for another two days, but I still felt that it may be causing the audio problem. I decided to call Comcast and report the problem.
After waiting on hold for about ten minutes, I got through to a Comcast customer service representative. She said her name was Kim, and she asked me how he could help me.
I said, "I'm having a strange problem with my digital TV. I was watching CNN, and the audio got stuck in a loop."
"That is strange," said Kim. "Is the audio still stuck in a loop?"
"No," I answered, "but I've never seen this happen before, and I recently signed up for digital phone, and I was concerned that the new service might be causing the audio loop. If it keeps on happening, it's going to drive me crazy."
Kim said, "Your digital cable TV shouldn't be affected by your digital phone service."
"Really?" I asked, suspecting that she was trying to give me the ole brush off.
"Really," said Kim. "If you like, I can run a trace on your cable line just to make sure that there are no problems."
"That would be great," I said. "If I have to hear, 'Head on. Apply directly to the forehead' one more time, I think I'm going to lose it.
"Oh!" exclaimed Kim, "I've seen that commercial! It's annoying, isn't it?"
"Yeah," I said, "especially when it repeats itself like that."
"But sir," said Kim, "that's not an audio loop. That's how they made the commercial. I guess they figured that they'd get your attention if they made the commercial as annoying as possible."
Boy, did I feel dumb. "Oh, so it's not a problem with the cable?"
"No, sir," said Kim, "It's just bad advertising."
I apologized for wasting her time, and got off the phone. Then I searched the Internet to see if somebody had posted a video of the commercial. I found it on YouTube. I want you to see this so you can see just how irritating it is. Check it out.
¶ 5:54 PM
When I got home from work today, I turned on CNN. During a commercial break, the strangest thing happened. The audio on the commercial got stuck in a loop. It was really really irritating. I've had digital cable TV for about five years now, and I know that digital freeze-ups are fairly common, but I've never known the audio to get stuck in a loop before. I was worried that it might have something to do with my adding Comcast's digital phone service to my cable plan. The digital phone service won't be activated for another two days, but I still felt that it may be causing the audio problem. I decided to call Comcast and report the problem.After waiting on hold for about ten minutes, I got through to a Comcast customer service representative. She said her name was Kim, and she asked me how he could help me.
I said, "I'm having a strange problem with my digital TV. I was watching CNN, and the audio got stuck in a loop."
"That is strange," said Kim. "Is the audio still stuck in a loop?"
"No," I answered, "but I've never seen this happen before, and I recently signed up for digital phone, and I was concerned that the new service might be causing the audio loop. If it keeps on happening, it's going to drive me crazy."
Kim said, "Your digital cable TV shouldn't be affected by your digital phone service."
"Really?" I asked, suspecting that she was trying to give me the ole brush off.
"Really," said Kim. "If you like, I can run a trace on your cable line just to make sure that there are no problems."
"That would be great," I said. "If I have to hear, 'Head on. Apply directly to the forehead' one more time, I think I'm going to lose it.
"Oh!" exclaimed Kim, "I've seen that commercial! It's annoying, isn't it?"
"Yeah," I said, "especially when it repeats itself like that."
"But sir," said Kim, "that's not an audio loop. That's how they made the commercial. I guess they figured that they'd get your attention if they made the commercial as annoying as possible."
Boy, did I feel dumb. "Oh, so it's not a problem with the cable?"
"No, sir," said Kim, "It's just bad advertising."
I apologized for wasting her time, and got off the phone. Then I searched the Internet to see if somebody had posted a video of the commercial. I found it on YouTube. I want you to see this so you can see just how irritating it is. Check it out.
¶ 5:54 PM
