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.
Sorry about the confusion....I botched up one thing I meant digital to analogue or (D-A) conversion.

This conversion takes place on an audio chipset either within the STB or on the device receiving the digital output from the cable (STB) box. Because you are sending through an optical cable to your amplifier the signal is being sent out in digital format not in an analogue audio line level.

On most STBs there is a setting to let the digital signal pass through directly with the HDMI connector. In my case this is what I use.

If I do not let the digital signal pass directly to the television and thus let the TV do the D-A (digital to analogue) conversion then I experience more frequent audio drops. This tells me that there is inconsistant timing of the digital stream and is most likely being caused by a bad sync between the TV's audio chipset and the STB.

This is a common problem with computer sound cards when you link them together. The crystal frequency generating timers can drift or (dither) which can cause audio trouble. There needs to be a way to sync the two devices and only use one of chipset's crystals to set timing for converting the digital signal. By passing through the digital signal directly this is what you are doing.

I get sound drop outs when hooked up component/optical or hdmi doesn't matter.


People are experiencing problems on all the different versions and manufacturers of the boxes, the problem isn't in the STB it's upstream.

I get sound drop outs when hooked up component/optical or hdmi doesn't matter.


People are experiencing problems on all the different versions and manufacturers of the boxes, the problem isn't in the STB it's upstream.
I agree that the majority of audio trouble is provider caused.....however in my case some of the problem is device caused.

In Victoria the problem seems to be less severe lately. Two weeks ago there were frequent audio drops and picture degradation even on the SD channels. There are some pops and clicks especially at night on channels like Space, but currently there is reasonable service.

If I change my settings back to the HDMI audio factory defaults on the STB then the infrequent audio drops on HD channels returns. :confused:

Now that my wife and I have a HDTV setup, I had a close look at my in-laws' setup this weekend. They have a Zenith (a.k.a. LG) 47" 1080p with a Shaw HD STB (Motorola 6200) connected by both component and DVI=> HDMI.

HD channels on Shaw in Kelowna definitely have a coarser HD picture (micropixellation) in addition to macropixellation problems, compared to Telus TV in Vancouver (where we run a 46" Toshiba 1080 connected to a SA STB by HDMI). I'd say compared to a very strong HD OTA signal, TTV HD is 80-90% (suffers mainly lack of smoothness in colour gradient) while Shaw HD is 60-70%. Shaw SD is slightly worse than Telus SD. This is with the new all-digital service being used in Kelowna.

The last few days or so I have noticed that the HD Picture quality has improved substanially. On pretty much all of the channels the picture is phenomenal. Even CBC HD hockey games are the same quality as TSN (both have improved) now and before it was crappy HD. Anyone else notice the superior quality improvement? By the way I live in Nanaimo BC. I asked a friend if his was like this and he said it was. What an awesome picture now.

Here in Edmonton area, I have found the HD quality has dropped over the past few months ... right around the time the channel numbers for HD channels got rearranged. I will say that SNET WEST HD has held up reasonably well, but TSN (in particular) and CBC HD have dropped.

I haven't noticed any quality.

In fact when I was watching the red wings game on the weekend and tsn was airing a feed from the Fox Sports Columbus channel, that the PQ was a fair bit poorer then when you watch the games on centre ice (PQ is always awesome on centre ice.. I think they only use 2 channels per QAM for it, the pq seems really good).

Hard to judge CBC. Everytime I flick to it their airing a game in SD. Sharks/Ducks etc..

I have 42" rear projection Samsung HDTV ready television, and many times I can't see any better quality in HD from SD, and at best just incremental increase in quality.

The last few days or so I have noticed that the HD Picture quality has improved substanially. On pretty much all of the channels the picture is phenomenal. Even CBC HD hockey games are the same quality as TSN (both have improved) now and before it was crappy HD. Anyone else notice the superior quality improvement? By the way I live in Nanaimo BC. I asked a friend if his was like this and he said it was. What an awesome picture now.
Quite the opposite for me in Vancouver. The last week has been horrendous. The TSN Hawks-Flames game last night was a total mess. When Nystrom scored and skated to the bench it looked like one of those old pictures that you had to stare at for a minute to see what's really there.
SD has been disgusting. Channel 38 and Spike last ngiht too looked like there was a snowstorm occuring. Grainy as hell.

The last few days or so I have noticed that the HD Picture quality has improved substanially. On pretty much all of the channels the picture is phenomenal. Even CBC HD hockey games are the same quality as TSN (both have improved) now and before it was crappy HD. Anyone else notice the superior quality improvement? By the way I live in Nanaimo BC. I asked a friend if his was like this and he said it was. What an awesome picture now.

Somewhat improved on CBC HD Hockey broadcasts. PQ seems sharper with better color saturation.

Canucks looked good, even the Habs game looked good although they stunk.

The Flames game on TSN (212) was just gross...when iginla scored and skated by the bench I almost had a seizure...all the red really seemed to mess the PQ up. The FS Detroit feed of the last Jackets/Wings game also looked bad...no color saturation at all. I find even when most games are nice and sharp they still lack color saturation, alot of which has to do with lighting in the arena. Games in Toronto always seem to look better than anywhere else to me.

https://secure.shaw.ca/need_help/Request_Help_Form.asp

We need to let them know directly about issues, not just complain here about them.

I just wanted to say that someone from Shaw tech talked to me and said that there is a problem with TSN HD and a couple others and that they are moving them to "hard lines" rather than from satellite. SO I assume TSN HD will be fibered to Shaw rather than off satellite. He said this will improve TSN HD and a few others PQ.

I just purchased a 50" plasma TV so now need HDTV. I'm in Thunder Bay so the options are Shaw or Bell.

I'll start by saying that I've been with Bell before and don't like their service. I'm currently a subscriber to multiple Shaw services and have been happy with them.

Having said that and after doing lots of reading, I can't find a compelling reason to go with Shaw HD. Their PVR is a whopping $650 where with Bell I can get their basic HD receiver for $99 (after rebate) and for $100 more buy an external hard drive and convert it to a PVR (Shaw's basic HD receiver at $350 does not support this).

Also, with Bell I can subscriber to HD Basic for $33 a month and then add the 4 HD Theme packs for $10 plus a $3 a month digital access fee, for a total of $46 a month. This will give me 29 HD channels (versus Shaw's 28). I won't have as many regular TV channels but I don't really need all of them anyway - I just want the HD channels.

The drawbacks are the inconvenience of a dish on my roof (which I have already anyway but would need a new one), signing a minimum 1 year contract and having to deal with Bell support in the event of problems.

So in a nutshell, I'm basically decided on Bell at this point but thought I'd post here in the hopes of someone being able to give me a good reason to change my mind.

Thoughts?

Go with Bell. I've had their service and I now have Shaw, and short of the free PVR I got out of the deal, the HD quality isn't anywhere close to what Bell offers.

Shaw HD macroblocks like crazy, and the sound drops out 3-10 times an hour. You lose entire lines of dialogue every HD show you watch.

:confused:
I don't know what to think anymore. Been w/ Bell for 10+ years & HD for approx. 2 years. Out of the box I had crystal clear HD picture on a plasma and over the past months it seems to have gotten worse. Was at my parents over Easter and they have Shaw HD on a plasma, we watched a hockey game and I could not understand why their picture quality was so much better than mine. At this point if I could I would switch to Shaw but I can't (no Shaw - small town).

It's hit and miss. I think most Bell people would agree that Shaw's picture is clearer/sharper but macroblocks more (from reading the Bell forum).

That's pretty much my opinion from comparisons too.
Guess it depends on what you can put up with.

TSNHD, CBCHD, SNHD and ABCHD all look very sharp on Bell (and Shaw). Most other HD channels (that I watch) on Bell look soft. Bell HD has less macroblocking and Shaw has more macroblocking. Hopefully Bell will get sharper on all HD channels when they finally migrate to MPEG4 (I'm not holding my breath for 8PSK to do much). You just can't find a decent HD provider in Canada--yet. Time to move to the US to get better HD!:rolleyes:

TSNHD, CBCHD, SNHD and ABCHD all look very sharp on Bell (and Shaw). Most other HD channels (that I watch) on Bell look soft. Bell HD has less macroblocking and Shaw has more macroblocking. Hopefully Bell will get sharper on all HD channels when they finally migrate to MPEG4 (I'm not holding my breath for 8PSK to do much). You just can't find a decent HD provider in Canada--yet. Time to move to the US to get better HD!:rolleyes:

US providers also compress as well. Dish is using MPEG4 and they're squeezing all they can get out of it. Granted it doesn't macroblock as much ask Shaw but you can still see the compression. MPEG4 is great, but most providers would probably reduce bandwith to increase the capacity instead of leaving the bandwidth rate the same (and increasing quality).

The only provider for good HD quality is basically Verizon FiOS.