Hi Melody

This is just a guess but it might be a cable bandwidth issue.

By that I mean that if lots of people who share your cable connection are watching the same shows on ABC and Syfy at the same time there might not be enough "room" for everybody to get a good connection.

One way of checking this is to watch your ABC and Syfy shows at some unsociable hour when nobody else who shares your cable will be on-line. If you get a good signal then that suggests a bandwidth issue, if not I am stumped.