LIVE TV Delayed

Cable TV providers act as a "middle-man" between the signal source and the viewer.  The cable provider receives the original signal, processes it, and then outputs the processed signal to the viewer.  The viewer experiences a delay corresponding to the amount of processing the cable provider is performing and the speed of the equipment involved.  The more processing the cable provider does, the more delay the viewer experiences; similarly, the slower the equipment used, the more delay the viewer experiences. Cox recently decided to increase the amount of processing by transcoding the MPEG-2 signal they receive to MPEG-4, as well as changing the resolution of 1080i content to 720p.  If Cox did not upgrade their equipment speed to offset the delay attributable to this additional processing, that could explain why the delay is so large now.

An additional explanation could be that the timing of the output signal is dependent on the time set on a particular clock which is running slightly behind real-time.  So if the clock says it is 8:00:00 p.m. when in reality it is 8:00:30, the signal will be delayed by 30 seconds.  I don't know why anyone would design a system in such a silly manner, but it is not beyond the realm of possibility.

So are we going to get any official word from Cox on this? I called customer service, and the guy was clueless. He suggested having someone come out and look at the equipment. I told him that I doubted it was a hardware thing. Seems like the Cox people have no idea how to respond to this issue.

A 45 second delay watching stuff on my TV is ludicrous for what I pay, and their explanation is totally stupid (nobody else except Cox is having these issues). Will need to cancel if there isn't resolution.

I am having same issue. Also it looks like everything clock etc is behind almost 1 minute. this affects all recordings etc. Have to add the extra 3 min on recordings. Sports are the worst! I can watch on ipad contour app and be ahead by 40 sec

Same thing happening here. Just want to add my voice as another upset customer. Going to look at other options. Paying way to much for cox as it is.

Another update: 

"After discussing this further with our video engineers, we believe the issue you're experiencing is due to the way live sporting events are broadcast and the encoding that occurs on the Cox side before the feed is transmitted to customers. Cox no longer broadcasts in the MPEG-2 format; MPEG-4 encoding is now used. Cox has been transitioning from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 in all Cox markets over the past year. MPEG-4 compresses the signal more than MPEG-2 while maintaining signal quality, thus freeing up bandwidth. This encoding change can cause a delay between the TV broadcast and online streaming feeds."

It looks like we have an answer. I think it was mentioned by another user in here as well.

If you spent several days researching a 30-40 second delay, it obviously matters to you.  But why?  Are you trying to sync with another feed?  Just curious.

After a few days of back and forth with support this the response I received:

"Thanks for bringing this to our attention. Our video team is aware of the delay & we do apologize that we are unable to resolve this for you currently. The delay is with the feed we are broadcasting the game on." 

and when I asked if we can be updated when the issue has been resolved this is the answer I received:

"Excellent question. At this time, we do not have a way to provide resolution updates for this type of issue. I am truly sorry for this inconvenience."

Hopefully that helps anyone else who might have this issue. Hopefully this is resolved soon.