Crappy picture quality - Rogers says "it's not us"

[projektor]

Hey everyone,

I'm hoping someone can shed some light on this. For a long time now I have been (silently) complaining about poor picture quality of some of the so called "all digital" channels provided by Rogers. I have a 46" TV and some of the SD channels are unwatchable - the quality is comparable to that of a 320x240 pixel divx movie.

A few days ago I subscribed to TV Polonia (ch 631) - $25 per month. The picture quality is utter crap for the lack of a better word. Rogers tech support people claim it's the source even though I keep telling them I that my friend is receiving this channel from a different (satellite) source the quality is fine.

They claim they do not compress the video feed and simply send it straight form the source. I find it hard to believe since a lot of "less popular" channels exhibit the same problem - it almost seems like more compression is applied to such channels to save on bandwidth. What are your thoughts?

Thanks and happy holidays.

[57]

You're absolutely correct. They do compress some channels more than others. See the Digital Home FAQ (under help) "Why does my HDTV have poor SD PQ". A proper setup of the TV and the STB may help, if you haven't done so already.

[AdamL2388]

the reason the quality of the picture might be bad might be your coaxial cable. I suggest using "Monster Coax. Cable". I noticed a huge difference when i bought it. The only negative part about it, that it is expensive but well worth it for picture and quality.

Also may I ask, Do you have a splitter? If you do that may be affecting the quality of the picture, and why its not turning out the way you would like to be.

[nathan]

Ahem.

Rules of the forum Section 2b paragraph 12r clearly states that 'Monster' brand products are supposed to be spelled with a dollar sign in place of the 's'. ie: Mon$ter.
Section 4r paragraph 3.14q states that no member should recommend any mon$ter product to another member.

[westmanguy]

Do we have a handbook of rules now!?

[nathan]

You didn't get the memo? You're a regular poster! I assumed you were involved in the creation of said rules.

[57]

Just in case post 3 was serious and not tongue in cheek, please read:

http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?t=30452

[projektor]

Haha, thanks to all who have replied. I think I will most likely send an email to Rogers tech support and outline the problems I'm experiencing - not that this will resolve the issue, but hey, what the hell.

I feel sorry for those poor Rogers cable tech support people:

THEM: "Sir, we are only relying the source and it is the source that is of bad quality. Our signal is 100% digital."

ME: "OK. But I do not understand why my friend who is receiving the same channel from a satellite provider has no compression artifacts - the picture is perfect. This only suggests that the problem could potentially be on your side?"

THEM: "Sir, we are only relying the source and it is the source that is of bad quality. Our signal is 100% digital."

ME: "OK, thank you for your help."

THEM: "Have I resolved your problem today?"

ME: "No, but thank you."

THEM: "OK sir, thanks for calling Rogers, have a good evening."

I need a drink....

[badass11]

Maybe then they might try to do something in their best interest to keep you as a sub??

Who knows??

Cheers!!!

[Paolo]

are you getting good signal strength on your digital Set Top Box?

[que3jxp]

One thing that I had happen to me was actually caused by one inocuous and unnoticed bad f-connector crimp.

I would suggest that if Rogers is unwilling to come, that you either yourself or through a cabling service company, have all of your cable ends cheched and possibly all replaced with compression fittings.

An alternate option would be to (If possible) take a small TV and a STB all the way to where the cable comes into the residence and connect on there. That way you are ruling out all of the cabling in the residence.

After I changed the one bad crimp in my house, my signal strength jumped from 30 or less to 37 to 38 and a "Please wait" message that I got on some of my channels has never come back.

The interesting thing is that there are still a number of non-compression fittings in my house. I wonder if there would be any benefit to changing them?

[andrew.r]

Projektor your post sounds exactly like the last conversation I have had with Rogers ... but they went further by insulting me that noooboooody has complained about the picture quality of TV POLONIA before. At $24.95 monthly this might be the most expensive ethnic channel out of the entire line up. I have been trying to address the quality issue and the incorrect and meaningless IPG for two years now ... I believe my only success is that you wil notice that the additional information for "WIADOMOSCI" (which means news in Polish) is the additional info wording "International and local news from Poland". It would be great to know whether the programming happens to be a movie or whatever and be correct. The IPG content on the TV POLONIA website is correct and meaningful then why TV GUIDE cannot provide same to Rogers ... some of the broadcast content is so bad that I have seen better DIVX recordings and it looks as if it is reflected off water ... Sir it is not our fault it is TV POLONIA and/or TV GUIDE.

[projektor]

Haha, I absolutely agree, Andrew - I don't even dare to touch the IPG issue as I know there is no way in hell I would ever win with Rogers on that one.

Staying on the topic of incorrect IPG information, I also noticed that Rogers mislabeled the two Polish radio channels (632 and 633). PL Radio Program 3 (ch 632) is actually receiving the feed from Program 1, and channel 633 - labeled as Program 1 - is in fact broadcasting Program 3.

I have reported this to Rogers on 3 separate occasions now ... it will most likely be blamed on the source once again .... yah, those Polaks always screw everything up, sigh.