adiabatic... Its Fox Seattle too, again tonight,, but this was in the east CBS feed, WWJTV and the wholy screen just starting pixelating,, like what the hell? I decided to call shaw but after 15min on hold, the issue was solved so i hung up. So frustrating!

I had my service call...the guy said he'd personally look into it, but he was baffled as to what's causing my atrocious picture (which has gotten noticably worse since Sunday)

I basically went through all the trouble shooting I'd done; splitter, HDMI cables, TV itself...

He checked the signal strength and said it was very good.

He was still at a loss, he said he's never seen a picture as bad as mine and that it's clearly a source thing (ya think?) He did say they've been experienceing problems with certain QAMS. I asked if they were plannign on improving the infastructure/going to mpeg4 anytime soon. He said there were talks, which in Shaw land means don't hold your breath as they're notoriously slow on these things to keep the share price as high as possible.

Anyway, here's some new pictures...I'm now basically watching a bad Windows media stream.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v405/jfplay/MoreWaylon024.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v405/jfplay/MoreWaylon022.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v405/jfplay/MoreWaylon015.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v405/jfplay/MoreWaylon003.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v405/jfplay/MoreWaylon025.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v405/jfplay/MoreWaylon012.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v405/jfplay/MoreWaylon019.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v405/jfplay/MoreWaylon007.jpg

As you can see I'm getting macroblocking/pxellization even on stable images now.

Long shot it would make a difference, but did the tech try a different PVR? (i.e. maybe, just maybe, there's a problem with the PVR itself)

Might be it's the proof of new introduced HD channels (eg. Speed HD starting this week? + other hidden new HD channels in testing phase?) start eating more & more QAM bandwidth in various regions.

Yah, I asked him that...he didn't think so. I also mentioned the lack of errors in the diagnostic screens.

He told me to call in a little over a week after he does some looking into things.

I'm pretty much prepared to cancel eveything but basic cable with Shaw at this point. It'll suck having a good TV an no HD, but why bother.

I also get macroblocking on the SD TV in my bedroom. I neglected to mention this though, I wonder if that factors into anything?

Might be it's the proof of new introduced HD channels (eg. Speed HD starting this week? + other hidden new HD channels in testing phase?) start eating more & more QAM bandwidth in various regions.

Only way additional HD channels affect existing ones is if Shaw added the new one at the same frequency.

Each 6Mhz band with QAM256 yields about 39Mbps bandwidth. Essentially enough room for two full bandwidth HD channels. Shaw carries 3 per QAM though, so the number drops to about 13Mbps. Additional channels aren't put into existing frequencies that are already at 3 per QAM, as that would push HD into 4 per QAM. Completely unwatchable (see the "Enough Compression Already" thread in the BEV forum, where several channels are down to 8Mbps).

As it happens, SpeedHD was slotted into the same frequency as HDNet and A&E (at least in Edmonton). SpeedHD's impact would be limited to those two channels. Outside Vancouver we're now at 21 HD channels. Any additional "hidden" HD channels Shaw could be testing would have to be in at different frequencies than existing channels since all slots are filled in the 3 per QAM map. A new 6 Mhz range would be used instead. Existing channels wouldn't be affected.

Oilblue, outside of Vancouver we are at 25 HD Channels (200-209, 211-222, 297-299). Plus whatever bandwidth they have alloted for HD VOD.

That sure beats the 4 HD omnibus we had a few years ago.

Oops. Can't count. :)

Wasn't that long ago Shaw was only at single digits for HD. Easier to count back then. ;)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v405/jfplay/MoreWaylon025.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v405/jfplay/MoreWaylon012.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v405/jfplay/MoreWaylon019.jpg

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v405/jfplay/MoreWaylon007.jpg

As you can see I'm getting macroblocking/pxellization even on stable images now.
Looks identical to what I get, and I cant get any help out of shaw to fix this. I may as well live with it then to revolve my life sitting and waiting at home for the shaw guy to come, scratch his head, not knowing what to do and leave. I highly doubt its a PVR issue as oilblue mentions it. I've been through 5, its always been the same problem. And are we sure 6Mhz still equals 39Mbps?? Thought Shaw moved to 8PSK?

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z118/merve04/CIMG05001024x768.jpg

http://i192.photobucket.com/albums/z118/merve04/CIMG05011024x768.jpg

When you have the speed graphic coming into play, as in the above two photos, a lot of the screen is changing. What does it look like during the interview just before the graphic?

merve04, I notice that your status bar that is generated from within the box is showing macroblocking as well. I didn't think that I had ever seen that when I have noticed macroblocking. So I just checked on the same channel you are showing in your screencaps, Speed HD. I found a part where there was a montage with flashbulbs going off and paused it where there was definite macroblocking like you might expect on such a shot. My status bar didn't change at all - continued to be crisp and clear even thought the underlying video was macroblocked. I know you have replaced your box (at least I think so) but might this point to a problem in the box rather than coming in pre-macroblocked?

I don't see any macroblocking in his status bar. I see some moire pattern noise, probably just a result of the photo process / resizing. But the moving image has genuine macroblocking.

The status bar in his pictures is showing "macroblocking" from the JPEG artifacts. I'm guessing it was crisp on his TV. Now, his picture quality is horrible, which is representative of the quality on Shaw these days.

I watched about 5 minutes on the new Speed HD channel, and it is worse than before. Even during interviews there are picture quality issues.

Looks like crap on my TV too.

I was going to post some pics from the Leafs-Habs game last night. Yikes (though it was better than the Flames game on 298...the one Shaw didn't have listed in their Centre Ice guide)

Any semi-fast pans from the hard camera result in doubling on the players...like I see two shoulders on a guy like the ghost of Obi Wan Kenobi at the end of Jedi. The corner cams look like crap of course, and when they show closeups of guys skating to the bench after a goal it's like I'm the mayor of Legoland.

Its just the app i used to shrink down my pics to 1024x768.. the menus are very crisp, whatching Divx files dont have macroblocking like shaw HD. I will admit that the macroblocking is usally only visable when the seens are moving quickly. But my divx movies have fast moving scenes and I dont get this problem. SD channels dont have this problem. When the HD channels are relatively still its good, but other then that.. its questionable.

I wonder what would happen if we attached some of these images to emails to Shaw? Or perhaps, our local media?

I wonder what would happen if we attached some of these images to emails to Shaw? Or perhaps, our local media?
Maybe we should send this to toubleshooters on globaltv haha

I was thinking Chris Olsen but there's a slight conflict of interest there :)