I finally got someone from the cable company to come round to my house today to look at my ongoing cable box issues. For the last few days, my TV signal has been noticeably bad. Not bad enough to stop me from watching TV, but bad enough for the picture quality to affect my viewing experience. The "technician" was here about 5 minutes, and all he did was swap out my cable box. I've now got a wireless one. But has it fixed my issues? I'm not sure it has. As far as I can tell, the only difference is that instead of my picture breaking up, now the screen goes black briefly whenever the signal drops. So I think there is still a fundamental issue with the signal strength coming into my home - which I don't think the "technician" who came here even checked. And if it persists, I'm going to have to see if I can get someone else out here. Hopefully someone who actually knows what they're doing. And if there is still a problem after that, then I am officially cutting the cord. Something I should probably do regardless.
