The macroblocking on last night's Canucks-Coyotes game was unbearable. But the Canucks were too, so I didn't suffer the full three hours.

Terrible macroblocking on WGN HD for the Lakers/Bulls game last night. Good game though - much better than the Canucks/Desert Dogs.

Terrible macroblocking on WGN HD for the Lakers/Bulls game last night. Good game though - much better than the Canucks/Desert Dogs.
I find WGN HD to be quite poor pretty much every time I watch it.

I have noticed a drop in service quality since the big Shaw internet boost.

I would guess the server software updates that they did for the MPEG2 streams had special new abilities...one can only speculate but I would think that they can now at will cut the rate and size of the streams they send out on a per band basis. This only makes sense if they are trying to make more bandwidth available for things other than TV.

That way they can sneak things down and hope that the subscribers will not notice. Me thinks that what is happening is that the weak points suffer the most as they hack at the streams and that is why there is more audio drop than ever.

For the first time I have started to notice audio drop on the SD channels.

Sure their internet is blazing fast and the telephone is consistent.... but guess what their TV signal sucks. :mad:

I can understand why they are in such a hurry to get new subscribers as the networks put pressure on the CRTC to get more of Shaw, Bell and Rogers revenue stream. But the price that the media monopolies in Canada are going to pay is consumer revolt if things do not change and soon!

Thanks. I had used Monster Screen Clean on my LCD and thought it had affected the screen.
The HD PQ over the last week or so has improved a lot!!
Looks great again.

I just coming over from Bell I can tell you shaw is better picture over all.Doing A-B comparing test both boxes on the same channel while still have service. The Bell in just over compessed digital atifacts soft pictures for now "720p".
I'm impressed with the picture on shaw HD "1080i" it can be prestine at times just minor short audio drop very seldom.
BTW my cable strengh is litteraly off the scale an cable trunk line amp just a few doors away feeding me.

I just coming over from Bell I can tell you shaw is better picture over all.Doing A-B comparing test both boxes on the same channel while still have service. The Bell in just over compessed digital atifacts soft pictures for now "720p".
I'm impressed with the picture on shaw HD "1080i" it can be prestine at times just minor short audio drop very seldom.
BTW my cable strengh is litteraly off the scale an cable trunk line amp just a few doors away feeding me.

My PQ was like that to ...at first. I got a free complete new rewired Shaw service w/HDPVR for a BEV satellite swap so I have no complaints about costs or initial service...BUTTT

Now the quality of the lower band SD channels is deplorable. Check6 (Victoria) and Globall8 out of Vancouver are almost ridiculous for local channels. I have never seen such crap being passed off as digital SD tv!

Funny thing is though that while watching the news if a commercial comes on all of a sudden the PQ goes right up to that of a SD DVD.... So no one is going to tell me that the service is not being fiddled with somewhere up the pipe. It is so bad that the news anchors look like her/his face is on fire and the 480 MPEG2 stream is just too truncated for the high end TV to make reasonable corrections.

Plugging the STB in to the TV with an SVIDEO instead helps things a bit as the TV does good analogue correction but passing the regular SD channels through HDMI is a hit and miss thing with Shaw here in Victoria. If the signal is crappy it really shows up, however if the 480 SD digital is good then it is as good as an SD DVD movie.

So what I am saying is someone is messing around with the MPEG2 stream to deliberately shrink the bandwidth for the non paying must carry local channels. Otherwise the commercials and all the channels would suck as bad as the regular mandated must broadcast stuff.

Since Shaw boosted the internet things have really gone to pot....the sound drops have increased to the point where they are starting to show up on the SD side....they have always been there on the HD side but now they are getting longer and much more frequent.

The impression that I am getting is that Shaw only cares about getting more telephone and internet subscribers right now and the TV quality part of their business is being ignored!

I don't know but I must be on a good cable node??? The main trunk line and ampifier feeds 8 houses terminates feeding me on the pole dosn't go any farther.The picture quality on my 3416 is better than my bell 9241 the SD channels are sharper and better contrast. The audio seems pretty stable drops are very infrequent and short.

Holy crap, last night was the worst PQ in weeks. The Canucks game on SNET was as bad as it's been since the early season. You know when there's an issue (signal or Shaw) when the spot that's lit a bit brighter just outside the hash marks doesn't just appear brighter....it looks like a giant burst of static noise on the screen. There may have been a signal issue coming out of the building as I generally find SNET to be one of the better channels, plus hi-lites of other games on Connected looked much better.

I recorded the 5pm Survivor (can't remember which channel) and it was foul. Massive macroblocking and even slight motion (people shifting their weight from one leg to another or something) made it look as if you were watching everything through a screen door.

Anyone that live in Edmonton have any issues? Besides audio dropouts I find my PQ to be satisfactory, maybe even better than when I had StarChoice HD. Maybe 1 of 20 programs I record have lots of sound drops and video hiccups every few mins so I just delete those and move on...

St. ALbert - SOund dropouts daily. PQ seemed to have dropped some on TSN HD and CBC HD.

Yeah, I've really noticed a deterioration of TSNHD in the last couple of months. TSN2 usually looks a lot better.

Haven't seen any dropouts on those three channels at all. Fox 203 Seattle and CBS 206 Detroit seem to have the odd drop though.

No audio drop outs so far on HNIC CBCHD 209.
Some pixelation on the RH starting at around 5:30 PST. This is the time when most pixelation usually begins....Primetime.

I tried searching for this but to no avail.
We were hooked up to Shaw HD last Thursday with a Pace HDPVR. Already we are compiling a list of sound drop outs at the request of Shaw in preparation for their planned service call this coming Thursday. In the meantime however, I have noticed that the sound I am getting out of my sound system is NOT Dolby 5.1. Sure it says on some of the channels on the TV screen that the sound being transmitted is supposed to be 5.1, but the display on my receiver is saying that it is just a Digital stereo signal.
The PVR was just set up with just the HDMI to the TV and I have an optical cable from the TV to the Receiver. It should be working as up to a few months ago, before we had signed up or received the HDPVR from Shaw, I could perform a channel 'auto-tune' on just the TV itself and pick up several digital and the occasional HD Pay per View. Many of these would be in the Dolby Digital, you could hear it, and the display on the receiver would indicate as such.
Now those same indicator lights are depressingly dark, even after several hours of fiddling with all the different settings.( BTW what does the setting 'Matrix' mean on the PVR sound menu).
Is there an easy fix for this, or is this another Shaw problem? Thank you and excuse me if I am in the wrong place!

brentwood,

Welcome to DHC. Try connecting your audio receiver directly to the PVR. Most TVs won't 'pass' Dolby through them. The difference when you are using the tuner in the tv is that it is then the 'source' and is actually 'supplying' the signal to the receiver.

I did see that in the instructions that came with the box, it did indicate that the box should be connected directly to the TV. I did ask the installer if this should be done, but there could have been a communication problem.
So now I have connected it where you said , and right away all the correct lights came on! But the picture was frozen on all channels! Tried switching off & on, no luck, DVD was fine so it wasn't the TV. Another call to Shaw, 10min wait not bad! and a complete power down and all OK. I did ask him why it happened, the technical term was 'one of those things'!
Thanks so much for your help Jet.

Ever since I hooked up the optical cable from the box direct to the receiver, I haven't had one sound drop out, not even on Fox!

Ever since I hooked up the optical cable from the box direct to the receiver, I haven't had one sound drop out, not even on Fox!
Interesting though others have had the opposite effect. Which stb are you using? I have the 6412 Motorola.. I get sound drops through HDMI but seem to have less if using SVideo and the sound chip on the STB to do the D-A conversion.

Seems like some of the issues might be related to the HDMI audio signal recoding and sending on the STB. I have found that by passing the sound through the HDMI without letting the STB do any recoding (the audio pass through option) can reduce sound drops by letting only the receiving device do the D-A.

The other way is to just output RGB and two channel line level and not use the audio options through HDMI at all. That way the STB does simple stereo D-A and does not need to talk to the receiving device to send time code bits. Funny but some of the sound drop issues could be ascribed to two crystal timers trying to sync the audio time code bits.
If the time code bits get dropped for some reason (clock dither is one) then what happens is the audio will either go out of sync or the MPEG2 signal will drop the sound until the time code gets back into sync. The MPEG2 codec is such that if the time code does not match the video then the first thing to get dropped is the sound!

What you are experiencing with optical could confirm that the sync through HDMI is part of this annoying audio drop problem with Motorola/Pace STBs. If your audio is staying put through optical and not through HDMI then this would confirm this issue.

Of course if the audio side of the signal from Shaw or the network is pooched in the first place then there is nothing anybody can do except the provider(s).

I didn't get most of what you said Eric but my 'Box' is a Pace. I had a service call booked for tomorrow, but as I don't have anything to show the tech, I cancelled it. I was getting sound drops on multiple channels aside from Fox.Before I made the call to cancell, I suffered through 20 mins of some soap (why do all the actresses on these things all have big bloated 'fish lips'? ) and Oprah Winfrey just to verify that there were no more soundrops. Before, these two would cut out every few minutes. The only problem today is that when we went to KCPQ HD for the 10PM news, the video was frozen, channel 15 was OK.