Method and system of diagnosing a video condition experienced at a customer premises

1. A method comprising:

sending, by a system including a processor, a first query to first equipment at a first customer premises;

receiving, by the system, first responses to the first query from the first equipment at the first customer premises;

sending, by the system, a second query to second equipment at a second customer premises;

receiving, by the system, second responses to the second query from the second equipment at the second customer premises; and

isolating a cause of a video condition at the first customer premises in response to receiving the second responses.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first query comprises requesting information to enable identification of channels at the first customer premises that are not displaying video signals.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first query comprises requesting information to enable identification of channels at the first customer premises that are displaying distorted video signals.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first query is associated with a channel not displaying video content.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

receiving, by the system, a notification associated with the video condition at the first customer premises; and

identifying, by the system, the video condition based on the notification.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising correlating channels with problems to a database having customer information, wherein the video condition is associated with video content transmitted over a network.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first query comprises requesting information to detect channels at the first customer premises that are experiencing the video condition.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first equipment is located within a building at the first customer premises.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the video condition is related to a packetized video broadcast stream.

10. A computer-readable storage device comprising computer instructions, which responsive to being executed by a processor at a first customer premises, cause the processor to perform operations comprising:

receiving a first query associated with a video condition experienced at the first customer premises; and

providing first responses to the first query to a server thereby enabling the server to obtain second responses to a second query provided to second equipment at a second customer premises,

wherein a cause of the video condition is isolated to a portion of a network based on the second responses.

11. The computer-readable storage device of claim 10 , wherein the operations further comprise:

when channels affected are national broadcast channels, the portion of the network is identified as transmission equipment used to transmit the national broadcast channels to the first customer premises;

when the channels affected are local broadcast channels, the portion of the network is identified as transmission equipment used to transmit the national broadcast channels to the customer premises; and

when the local broadcast channels and the national broadcast channels are not affected, the portion of the network is identified as a video-on-demand system.

12. The computer-readable storage device of claim 10 , wherein the operations further comprise providing a notification of the video condition to the server.

13. The computer-readable storage device of claim 12 , wherein the providing of the notification to the server causes the server to provide the first query to the processor.

14. The computer-readable storage device of claim 10 , wherein the first query comprises requesting information to enable detecting channels experiencing the video condition.

15. The computer-readable storage device of claim 10 , wherein the first query comprises requesting information to enable identification of channels that are not displaying video signals.

16. The computer-readable storage device of claim 10 , wherein the first query comprises requesting information to enable identification of channels that are displaying distorted video signals.

17. A system comprising:

a port coupled with first and second customer premises over a network;

a memory to store computer instructions; and

a controller which executes the computer instructions to perform operations comprising:

obtaining a notification associated with a video condition at the first customer premises;

sending a first query to first equipment at the first customer premises;

receiving first responses to the first query from the first equipment;

sending a second query to second equipment at a second customer premises;

receiving second responses to the second query from the second equipment; and

isolating a cause of a video condition at the first customer premises in response to receiving the second responses.

18. The system of claim 17 , wherein the isolating of the cause of the video condition comprises isolating a portion of the network and further comprising:

when channels affected are national broadcast channels, the portion of the network is identified as transmission equipment used to transmit the national broadcast channels to the first customer premises;

when the channels affected are local broadcast channels, the portion of the network is identified as transmission equipment used to transmit the national broadcast channels to the customer premises; and

when the local broadcast channels and the national broadcast channels are not affected, the portion of the network is identified as a video-on-demand system.

19. The system of claim 17 , wherein the first equipment is not located within a building at the first customer premises.

20. The system of claim 17 , wherein the first query comprises identifying channels at the first customer premises that are not displaying video signals.