Wow, that's pretty bad if it such inferior performance on Expressvu side is noted in the Toronto Star, thats pretty wide circulation.
I noticed that 3 games dropped the sim subb but I found it odd that the CBS feeds were still freezing for me. The only game I noticed that didn't freeze was Fox, if memory serves me.
Perhaps I should have reset after the sim subb dropped.

I've always found it ridiculous that the when a program you want to watch comes on that you have to flip thru all channels that carry it and see which comes in best in terms of audio and video quality.

I know this may be a no-no to put in here, but living 2 miles from the Michigan border I can't tell you how tempting it is to get a mailbox over there and purchase/set up an paid account with a US carrier. I don't get local channels and I could personally care less about Can-con from other parts of the country.
But once again that's all a big hassle and all I want to do is watch some TV, free of audio/video problems.

What is the availability of American HD channels in your area. Maybe a good antenna would resolve some of your viewing problems with Evu. If I lived close enought to major market American channels the old antenna would be going up.:cool:

Just want to balance out the tone on this thread a bit. I have a 6100 plugged into a FP with DVI and component. I use component for my DVDs and DVI through the 6100. I have had this setup for over 2 years now.

If you look at my past posts this year you will notice that I have been critical of BEV and the quality of the 6100 since about February last year. I think that is when Firmware 559 was download with Rev 2C5. That is when my problems with freezing started. It got progressively worse over the spring and summer and culminated in the fall with certain channels almost unwatchable.

Somehow in this time period I missed the download of firmware 560 and just over a month ago 562 Rev 2C7 was downloaded onto my machine. Almost immediately I noticed a difference in the amount of freezing. It has lessened by a considerable amount, even on simsub channels. It is now to the point that certain channels I do not even notice it. That is a big change. Yes, it does still happen on certain channels but even then the duration is very short, almost like a stutter. The audio is never affected. I also have not touched anything else, the multiswitch, LNBs and cabling.

At the same time of the latest firmware download, other owners with different versions of the 6100 - most newer than mine, have experienced WORSENING performance of their units.

To me this is an interesting difference that needs some kind of explanation. I believe that the older versions of the 6100 have older revisions of the basic decoder/scaler chipsets, the same chipsets, but just a little different. There are always running changes done when building these units and the lastet firmware changes do not seem to perform well with the newer decoder chipsets. Now I may be all wet on this but I'm willing to listen to other theories on this. In the mean time I'm a bit happier with my unit.

John

I think you are right j_m, this trouble did show up after the firmware update to 558. I wish there was a way to put it back to 557 and then all my troubles would be gone!

Maybe I will call Bell and ask them to change my version back.... what the heck I've got a few hours to waste... Since I'm not watching HD. ;)

WW

I agree, the first stretch of time I never had a problem, then it creeped in, then it got worse, I posted a couple weeks back that it seemed better, it was still there but better.
Then NFL wildcard weekend came along and everything fell apart.

When you actually miss plays because of freezing, that is unacceptable.

My freezing is completely unpredictable. Some nights it is fine. Other nights almost completely unwatchable. I had a completely freeze free simsub on CTV the other night. This was a first for me. Last night I counted at least 15 freezes in an hour on a Global simsub. Not one in a commercial of course. This means they took place in the roughly 48 minutes that the show is actually on. What a joke! And Bell doesn't think there is a problem with this unit? For my fellow football fans lets hope for a repeat of last week when the simsubs ended fairly quickly.The we can watch on the western channels. If not I guess it is SD for me.

I was noticing over the last few nights that any program material on CTV-HD was relatively freeze-free.

It appears also that the clarity improved gaving much better detail than what I've seen in the last few months. The 'judder' effect has been all but eliminated on the CTV-hd feed (at least at this point and in recent past). Last night Law & Order looked really good.(not NBC-original un-subbed-feed good, but it's getting there).

On the other hand, Thursday night's Global-HD showing of My Name Is Earl and The Office were very poor. Noting a loss again of picture detail compared to that I used to get prior to the simsub recently and the juddering effect was horrendous.

I guess as a positive, CTV's East HD feed (haven't watched the west feed for a while) is improving, so there's hope yet.

Last night I watched TSN HD with the Raptors playing in Boston. There was only one instance when the picture froze and it was a replay of Bosh's awesome dunk which he received a technical for absolutely no reason whatsoever. The rest of the game, not one instance of picture freeze or stutter and I was looking hard for it. The picture clarity was better as well. I also switched back and forth from TMN and even there not one instance. I was a happy viewer last night. Will it last? Dunno but whatever BEV has done it's working for me!

John

After watching a dvd tonight just before going to bed and flipping around CTV-HD W had ongoing freezes during A Friend Of The Family and the juddering effect was happening again.

The scenes had the all of the fluidity of movement of a South Park episode.

It was worse on my 6000, than on my 6100, but it was still there.

Watched both NFL football games with very little freezing even though the dreaded Global simsub was there for both games. Not perfect but quite liveable. Happened to catch the start of Saturday Night Live, again with a Global simsub. 3 freezes in first 5 minutes and I shut it off. This would seem to fall in line with a previous poster who commented on the difference between a live simsub and recorded one. To be honest I wonder whether any changes have been made recently by ExpressVu or are we now just dealing with a lottery as to whether the freezing will be there or not. My best channels are TSN-HD, CBC-HD and any US station without a simsub. Both CTV and Global freeze more often than they don't and even Discovery freezes fairly regularly now although it didn't use to.

I'm having the freezing problem with my 6100 receiver as well. 1 second video freezes about every minute on prime time HD shows, not on live sports feeds. After reading all these posts I decided to call Bell today just to get an update on the situation. This was actually the third time I called them regarding the freezing problem. The first 2 times they told me that they were not aware of any problems, but we went through the regular motions of checking signal strength, rescanning, resetting, etc......... Still have the problem. I even talked to a senior technician. It was decided that their must be a problem with my receiver. I agreed. Since I purchased it more then a year ago they could not give me a refund.

When I called them today, however, at first the CSR again didn't seem to know anything about the problem. Then I mentioned this forum and that their seems to be a lot of people with this problem. Then she put me on hold to talk to a senior technician. She came back after about 1/2 hour. She told me that they have been aware of the problem for about 3 months and are working on a software fix.

She gave me a $25 credit on my account for my troubles.

This tells me that Bell is admitting that it is their problem and should not be selling any more HD receivers or charge people for HD programming.

I'm going to my local BestBuy and Futureshop stores to get their take on all this.

I was also one of the lucky ones that bought a Toshiba DLP with a faulty lamp that went after 3 months. The issue was resolved fairly quickly. I got a new bulb at no charge and it's been working fine.

I think Bell needs to feel more pressure, as I'm sure Toshiba did.
Also $25/person could add up quickly for them.

Has anyone contacted the media about this?

I am in the media and plan to do a story on it, hopefully it can go national, but first I need a comment from a company exec.. Maybe CTV should do a story on it too seeing as how they are part of the same organization...but wait.....maybe that will show their company in a bad light.;)

This weekend was the worst, it went from freezing to outright video locking, I had to flip the channels to get it unlocked.
PATHETIC!

I think a media story about it is a great idea, I'd be more than happy to provide my personal info and go on record.
I doubt the big media players (CTV, GLobal, etc) would touch it......CBC might. But what about some popular audio/video magazines or web sites?

I doubt it would be that hard to get a service rep to go on record, all they'll provide is some nonsense statement anyways.

Whether it's a lawyer or journalist, good opportunity here to fight the big guy and potentially make a name for one's self.

Just checked and the date of the first post on this freezing issue is Sept 23 2005. Well over 1 year and still not fixed. Why would any of us believe ExpressVu is either doing anything or capable of correcting this problem? Friday night mine froze so often I switched to SD channel. This is getting to be a regular occurence. Yesterday watching the Pats and Colts on another wonderful Global simsub I had at least 25 freezes in the second half. Again I switched to SD. Can anyone explain how a company is allowed to market a product with such a known flaw. The auto manufacturers are forced to recall their product, and fix it, when a flaw surfaces. What makes this so different? I wonder if the sales people at ExpressVu realise that it is highly unlikely, once we 6100 users get so fed up we leave, that they would ever have a chance at getting us back as customers. For any Bell product. My guess is they don't even know its a problem. Unless of course they have one. My other guess is they don't really care. Just like their response to this issue.

Well, unlike you folks, i had NO freezing at all last night!!!
I was amazed. My 6100 is only about a month old and it has the most up to date software. I noticed freezing earlyer in the week, especialy wednesday night but last nights football games on CBS and FOX ( simsub from global) worked Without a single freeze. When global's simsub kicked in i noticed picture quality drop very noticably, but none the less it looked good.:eek:

Maybe those 2 beavers can work that into the next series of commercials:

"ExpressVu 6100, last night it didn't freeze and the picture quality dropped noticeabley.....but it looked good none the less!!" :rolleyes:

Yea right..
More like..

Gordon: "ExpressVu 6100, last night it didn't freeze and the picture quality dropped noticeabley when the simsub kicked in.....but it looked better then my digital cable ever did!"

This is how they are trying to fix the problem. Reduce the resolution. Wow, ingenious. It looks like they are testing to see how low they can go to stop the freezing. I was watching CSI Miami tonight on CTV HD and you could see a significant lower resolution from the last time I watched it. There were still about 5 freezes (significantly reduced). Maybe they will end up at SD resolution being the only way to avoid freezing. That will make our decisions to stop paying for HD a lot easier.

What blows me away is that BEV is still selling this junk, and they KNOW that there is a software issue with the 6100!!!

Car manufacturer's have recalls, so should BEV. I know it's not a safety issue, but come on. What business can get away with selling stuff that they know has a problem. Consumer Reports should do a article!!