Bug Report: L180 Severe pixelization during FF/RW

[Cheezmo]

While watching my recording of Alias (OTA 8-1) tonight, I noticed that during FF/RW there is really strange pixelization. It starts at a certain point, about 25 minutes into the recording and continues to the end. Normal playback is just fine during the entire recording, it is only when fast forwarding or rewinding that it is all broken up.

The "pixels" are actually pretty large, about the width of one of the ' marks in the " (pause) indicator. They occur in patterns that break the picture up into 9ths (large chunks 3 across and 3 down).

[Mark Lamutt]

I haven't noticed that, but I also haven't had a successful recording of Alias in several weeks either with my 921. I wonder if it has something to do with the 720p signal, rather than a 1080i signal.

[Cheezmo]

My local affiliate upconverts ABC to 1080i. But, I have successfully recorded 24 on a station that broadcasts 720p OTA.

[bobl]

I've noticed the severe pixelization during FF/RW for OTA recordings before and I believe it's due to a weak OTA signal. The signal is just strong enough to record the program (although mine exhibited a few dropouts while watching it) but it exhibits this strange behavior duirng FF/RW modes. My ABC affiliate generally records properly, however, when I experienced the problem I had reoriented my antenna in order to be able to record ABC OTA and be able to watch FOX WS OTA. This positioning reduced the ABC signal and this is when I got the pixelization.

Bob

[TV Director]

I also noticed this pixelization the other night for the first time. I think it was while I was watching the OTA (3.1) broadcast of ER. Everytime I FF or RW, heavy pixelization occured. I also thought this was because of a weak OTA signal (barely enough to lock up and record). So when I was finished watching ER I went back to my program list and tried to FF & RW on other previously recorded programs, and did not see any pixels. Never saw this before last week, though.

[Schaefling]

I have had this problem almost since I first got my 921. For me it seems to happen when my hard drive space is almost used up. Right now I have about an hour of HD time left on my 921 and I am seeing much more frequent occassions where pixelization occurs as i try desperately to watch taped shows and keep a couple of free hours of HD tape time on my 921.

Have any of the rest of you noticed if you pixelization problem is occurring when you little time left on your 921 hard drive? I ask because I wonder if there could be a correlation.

I want to add that while low signal strength sounds like a definite possibility for this pixelization problem I live in Sacramento and I have had almost perfect weather for several weeks now and consequently strong satellite and local reception and yet I still get this pixelization problem.

[TV Director]

I'm using up very little space on the disc. I've pretty much been deleting everything as soon as I'm finished watching it, so it couldn't be a factor in my case.