For the past week or so, I have noticed that some of my HD channels are virtually unwatchable due to constant video and audio break ups. I wonder if it has anything to do with the SDV switchover.
I recorded True Blood on Sunday on HBOHD and the breakups were throughout the recording (I recorded it from TMNHD at 12 and it was fine). I recorded House last night at 8 on east FOXHD (simsubbed by Global) and the same breakups were occuring. Fringe at 9 on the same channel were fine?!?!
My signal is otherwise very good.
Anyone else noticing this?
Thanks,
Kibosh
Edit by 57: Many issues with SDV can be traced to devices upstream of the STB which prevent the STB signal from getting to the node. If you're having SDV issues, temporarily remove any such devices - splitters, power bars, amps, etc. and place the STB as close as possible to the demarcation point in the home with little/nothing upstream, besides a good cable. Sometimes the issue is with the main line to you and your neighbours.
IF you want to discuss SDV, what it does, when it's coming, etc, see the following links
I watched House last night and it was fine here in Toronto. Last week I was watching a show, can't remember which one, and experienced the same breakups. Rogers caught the problem and switched back to the US network until the Canadian network was fixed, which was a minute or so later.
SDV is not active in my area yet and I have noticed various glitches in HD on different stations and shows since I got my 4250HD a few months back.
As mentioned, House (airing last night) had break-ups, and the Global feed was eventually tossed in favour of the Fox feed. (They tried to change back to Global once or twice before giving up and going with Fox for the remainder of the show.)
Tonight Bones was exhibiting the same problems with the Global feed. Half way through the show, they finally switched to Fox, but the audio was missing!
Exact same thing for me here in North York... both last nights House and Fringe recorded from Fox Buffalo HD, but simsubbed with Global, were screwed up and unwatchable. I didn't know until tonight, so its too late to record the west coast shows.
Tonight Bones was screwed up too, also on Fox Buffalo HD, simsubbed by Global. I'm now recording the west coast feed.
Whew . . . I was beginning to think it was just me! For the past 2 weeks I have recorded Knight Rider (I know, it's crap) on the NBCHD East feed and I get the same breakups. It seems to be affecting several channels. I have noticed:
NBC-HD East
FOX-HD East (Sim-subbed by Global)
HBO-HD
At first I was thinking, uh-oh more Buffalo issues, but it definitely occurs on HBO as well . . . then I noticed that it started happening around the time they started messing around with SDV.
I just upgraded to an SA8300 HD PVR a week ago, and that is when I started noticing this issue and was about to take the box back to get exchanged.
The issue I see is very brief (fraction of a second) image freeze/partial pixellation, with audio stutter/dropout. Maybe a couple of times in a 1 hour show.
Does that symptom match what is being discussed here? I'm not convinced I don't have a problem with the box as well, since I seem to see this across channels/HD programs.
I should have posted my post about my STB acting up here
Same thing last night when I was watching "Life" (NBC no simsub) the sound and picture was breaking up at the beginning of the show after 15min. everything was fine.
Tonight I was flipping channels when I noticed that 545 CNNHD said "Tuning SDV" but the channel never came up and after a few seconds it said "channel unavailable". Other SDV channels such as SpeedHD, HDNet, Superchannel(s) HD were the same.
I thought that perhaps my box was in "broadcast" mode but this did not appear to be the case as VOD worked fine. And the result was exactly the same on three HD boxes, all different models - SA3250HD, SA4250HD and SA8300HD.
And I didn't even know that they were using SDV in Scarborough yet!
Tonight I was flipping channels when I noticed that 545 CNNHD said "Tuning SDV" but the channel never came up and after a few seconds it said "channel unavailable". Other SDV channels such as SpeedHD, HDNet, Superchannel(s) HD were the same.
I thought that perhaps my box was in "broadcast" mode but this did not appear to be the case as VOD worked fine. And the result was exactly the same on three HD boxes, all different models - SA3250HD, SA4250HD and SA8300HD.
And I didn't even know that they were using SDV in Scarborough yet!
I had the same SDV (non-)tuning problem, but a hard reboot solved it. By hard reboot, I mean physically unplugging the machine, waiting a few seconds, and then plugging it back in.
(At least it solved it with one box. I'll try the others tonite.)
I had the same SDV (non-)tuning problem, but a hard reboot solved it. By hard reboot, I mean physically unplugging the machine, waiting a few seconds, and then plugging it back in.
(At least it solved it with one box. I'll try the others tonite.)
But that is a last resort option. I will be totally PO'ed at Rogers if I have to do this on a regular basis as you are not able to watch TV for about 5 minutes.
Can you guys post what areas SDV is working in? I dont have it in Markham yet, but I suspect it wont be long, hopefully before the end of the year. Anyone know if its on in Toronto?
They were using, or attempting to use it, in Scarborough last night. I live by Markham and Kingston and several channels tried to tune in on SDV but failed - see my post above.
I am in the Brantford area and my tech mentioned that they were having some problems with it in this area. Are there some threads that discuss what this technology is all about?
Update on Scarboro SDV - From bad to worse (at least for me)
I called Rogers today to put in a ticket on my SDV channels - I cannot tune in any SDV channels on any of my five HD boxes, even after a reboot (I have tried a power cycle reboot on two of the boxes).
To make matters worse Rogers has added more channels to SD - in my area we now have at least 10 HD channels on SDV - 504,508,509,514,521,525,532,533,541,545 - note that this now includes PBS HD and SRC HD along with several specialty networks. There are also two Superchannel HD channels but I am not including them as I don't pay for Superchannel.
Yes, when I called Rogers, the CSR had absolutely no idea what SDV was... but that's par for the course. I have to say, Rogers really needs to clean up their act. I feel sorry for the CSRs... Their system is sufficiently complicated that they can't know everything, but it would seem obvious that their system needs to be fixed.
Anyways, since I rebooted my boxes several days ago, the previously problematic channels have continued to tune properly on all the boxes. I confirmed this again yesterday - I watch two of the HD boxes fairly regularly, and I also made a point of testing it on the 3rd HD box as well. All are fine (and yes I'm in Scarberia too).
The channels I specifically tried were the OMNI HD channels (508, 509), and PBS HD (which is 525 IIRC).
So I am wondering why reboot are not clearing my problems - I bet Rogers response will be that signal levels are too low. But everying else works on my boxes including VOD which is usually the first thing to go.
Last night I tried rebooting the third box and this is still not working.
I wonder how they have decided what channels to put on SDV? Would it be based on Rogers' own data on viewership - the least viewed channels on SDV? Because some of the specialty channels are not SDV - TLC HD (which is new), Discovery HD, Nat Geo HD. I have to think that TLC would have less viewership than PBS, would it not?
I wonder if it's a regional thing within Scarberia as well. If so, that might explain why you're having problems and I'm not (anymore).
As for which channels they choose: My guess is that channels with comparatively lower viewership are going on SDV. Thus, channels such as OMNI, PBS, and CNN make sense for this.
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