But my experience unfortunately is different.

The freezes I've been experiencing are fewer and further between recently than there have been over the course of the previous several months, but they're still there.

Out of curiousity, once it gets warmer, I should try unhooking one box , re-hook my sw 21, bypass the sw44 and see if that also resolves the problem.... if I haven't ditched by then.

Well, My 6100 has experienced minimal freezing since i got it 2 months ago, but for about a week now, i get major freezing, and black screens on MHD-840
I try'd reboots and all but i still get it. Im going to give it a day or 2 more.. then im calling up bev and im Complaing to every CSR until i get some Credits on my account!

Boavista, I recently had those black screen dropouts on TMNHD during an episode of Rome -- most annoying! I haven't seen these in a long time. I'm on a 9200 BTW.

I notice that last night my receiver was downloading some new firmware....ater it was done I checked and now its at E563. Maybe this is sent to help the freezing. I watched a show last night with no freezing....time will tell of course.

I think the new firmware is supposed to have something to do with the change of the date the DST starts.

More info in this thread: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=44637&page=2

Thought I would revive this thread with an update.

Still freezing, mostly on CTV HD.

Come on Bell get your act together!

WW:mad:

Mine is freezing more as well. Not as bad as before but worse than about a month ago. The last year has been a problem for Bell to provide a clean HD signal. Not holding my breath for any improvement since MPEG4 is on the horizon.

John

Pardon the lack of depth of my knowledge, but will MPEG4 really make any difference to the HD feeds ?

From what little I have been able to find, it allows for more SD channels to be fed from a transponder with less noticeable compression, but offers little on the HD front.

Please feel free to fill in the blanks or point out the error of my info.

thx

AF, MPEG4 is a compression technology that will allow more channels per transponder than is available currently (likely 4-6 compared with the two they get now). Although MPEG4 could be used for SD, it likely won't since replacing a few million SD receivers is not viable. I imagine MPEG4 will be used just for HD in the short term.

Thanks for the verification, scrooloose.

It's as I had thought.

Is there anything inherent in this upgrade that would eliminate these 'freezes' or are they thought not to specifically be a bandwidth issue ?

My freezing issue, that seemed to have been almost totally gone for month of February, is starting to creep back in. As White Water mentioned CTV is the worse one. Jepardy freezes every night at least 3 times in the half hour. Nip Tuck froze once in first 20 minutes last night before we turned it off. In flipping around yesterday afternoon CBS-E froze on a basketball game. Interestingly I never saw one freeze in 2 hours of golf on NBC. Just as I was starting to think maybe things were sorted out it feels like we are starting to slide back to the old ways. I am sure glad I only rent this equipment. I can chuck the whole mess in October if need be. audiofool,let us know how the switch to Rogers goes. The reason I went to Bell was an inability for Rogers to correct signal problems into my house. However my next door neighbour has Rogers HD and says it works fine. When he asked how mine was I told him about freezing issue. He says he has never seen it on Rogers. I too would like to know whether this switch to MPEG4 will solve this problem. How will further compression influence the picture quality? Sometimes picture is fantastic and other times not a great deal better than a good SD signal gives.

slightly o/t but since you mentioned it..

I've been watching the golf on NBC-E HD over the last couple of weeks and I've noticed that it's only partially in HD. There are some camera shots that are quite fuzzy and the more vibrant colours ( eg the reds in some shirts) have a 'ring' to them or almost 'ghost' around the players. But when it cuts to another camera for a close up, the res is much better. I wonder if this is similar to what we experienced during the last Olympics where we were mostly getting a cropped SD-ish signal to make it look like 16:9.

On the other golf tourneys on ABC-E HD (I think) there was none of this switching back and forth, the images were all consistently in HD.

And yes, I'll make a brief posting here on my post-ditching experiences after I've made the switch. I'm paid up on EVU until Mar 29th, so watch for something in early April.

The reason I mentioned MPEG4 is on the horizon, this will slow down or stop any further firmware development on the existing HD receivers. If the switch is as soon as it's being speculated then a receiver switch will be in the works. Hopefully the MPEG4 data stream will eliminate this freezing issue.

JMHO, John

My freezing has gotten better over the last month or so, I have noticed that lately it is creeping back in primarily on CTV and Discovery.

I had made a complaint to the BBB, and BEV never replied to the BBB after several requests!!

I am still being told by BEV that the freezing is a "software issue and it can be fixed".

My point is, it's been over 6 months, and it is still not fixed. It does not make me feel very optimistic.

BEV is still not interested in replacing 6100s with an HD receiver that works!

As a previous poster wrote if new receivers are coming we can forget any updates to 6100 if the intent is to replace them all. Last night I got 6 freezes in about 15 minutes, on CTV, and then nothing the rest of the night. I don't believe Bell knows how to fix things. We can only hope a new receiver cures the problem but I wouldn't bet on it. If the new one has the same problem my only option then is to leave. I don't have any confidence in Bell's ability to fix the problem. Nor do I see a desire on their part to try and make things up to their customers for a defective product. Looks to me like audiofool has the right idea.

I'm suffering with this stupid issue also. It happens regularly on Discovery for me.

Not that I'm saying there will be a receiver swap, but since Bell knows the 6100 is clearly defective and continues to sell it I have to wonder what their logic is.

Clearly it can be established that Bell knows the 6100 has freezing issues, thus is a defective receiver, I believe that this problem exists in new receivers being sold or cleared out ahead of their new receiver.

I don't understand how Bell would advocate selling a defective product with a known history that has hard evidence that could be shown. So, it seems they are assuming some big liability by selling this product, I have to believe that if this ever did go class action into the courts that Bell is screwed on the evidence. I can't believe that any company would knowingly accept this level of liability.

So, perhaps it gives merit to the notion of a receiver swap. Clear out HD receivers in a customer funded buy-back, get all defective products off the market, switch to mpeg-4 all while the HD customer base is relatively small.

Personally, my opinion is that 6100 owners shouldn't dump their receiver quite yet. This new receiver theory should materialize in a month or 2 if it's actually happening, new HD content will likely slow down in the summer (plus it's summer so most people likely watch less TV). I'd hate to see people dump the 6100 now only to miss out on a new receiver, if it's a true swap I'd rather wait to see if the new one is acceptable and if not look at dumping Bell in the fall, right when new content is coming out.

My sentiments exactly cm_soo. I will hang in there until the fall and see what happens. Either the 6100 is fixed or a new receiver corrects the problem. If not when my 1 year HD contract is up at Thanksgiving and 2 year SD contract is up in November its goodbye for me. If this was to happen you have to wonder about Bell's commitment to their customers. Here I am an 18 year Rogers subscriber that makes the choice to switch and their product functions so poorly that in 18 months I am seriously thinking of switching back.

Looks to me like audiofool has the right idea

Thanks for the support Bman72s.

I think I'll just bask in the moment on this one, as I can't hear this often enough.... or even just often.

Heck, I may even have Mrs Aud read your post if I need to sell her on anything else ;)