View Full Version : 1 second picture skips in Seattle....
Hey folks, are any of you experiencing weird 1 second skips and the occasional pixelization? It's only been happening in the last few days, but my DVR recordings and general watching LIVE tv has this happening repeatedly -- I'd say it happens at least once every 5-10 minutes. Any ideas on any current issues at Dish, or it is on my end? Suggestions? Ideas?
eckertman
10-07-05, 08:30 AM
Sun outages are causing this to happen at this time. If it happens closer to the end of the month give your csr a call.
I have noticed it also, over here in Central Washington.
Big Bob
10-07-05, 12:49 PM
Yeah, things have been a bit strange.
Sun outages are causing this to happen at this time.
Do sun outages happen only in daytime, or can they still affect the satellites after sunset?
langlin
10-07-05, 02:15 PM
They only effect in daytime when the sun, the satellite and your position on earth line up exaxtly. can't happen at night.
I came here looking to see if any other Seattlites were experiencing any problems with Seattle Locals, and it appears that they are. KOMO (ABC) 4 was almost unbearable tonight watching LIL. Is Dish over compressing our transponders right now for some reason? I'm going to call Dish on Monday, but I think we will all need to call to get some action.
navy8ball
10-10-05, 04:19 AM
i have noticed this to on shows that are on after the sun goes down it started with the 303 download.
TechnoCat
10-10-05, 09:23 AM
I too have noticed this, just recently. I'm in the foothills.
Big Bob
10-10-05, 09:58 AM
I noticed it again last night.
Some things that this is not.
It is not specific to a particular receiver model.
It is not specific to a particular channel.
It is not related to the sun.
For me at least, it does not affect the audio.
kevision
10-10-05, 10:00 AM
Noticed the same thing here (Portland) on ABC (KATU). I only notice it after sunset.
I have noticed it as well here on the western side of Puget Sound just this morning at around 7am local time. Sound drop out and pixelization. So far I've only seen it on the satellite broadcast of locals. Is this a "spot beam" problem?
It was REALLY bad last night during Law & Order. At one point, the screen froze with over 75% (pink) pixelization. I had to switch channels and then go back to get rid of it.
Yes, for about the past 10 days. Video and audio dropouts and/or pixelization - last night I had one channel freeze up completely. It's random and unpredictable and occurs on various channels. However, it does seem to happen more often on the locals. I live in the midwest and haven't updated to 3.03 yet.
I've been a Dish subscriber for several years, and this has never happened before. It's very aggravating.
blkhouse
10-10-05, 11:43 AM
I am on the west side of Puget Sound and I don't have the general problem, but only a specific problem with the National Geographic Channel of 1 second jumping. I have a single 811 and a Dish 500. I have had sunspot problems in the past, so I know how that appears.
I didn't have the dish on a 7am this morning so I might have had the problem.
JM Anthony
10-10-05, 01:21 PM
I came here looking to see if any other Seattlites were experiencing any problems with Seattle Locals, and it appears that they are. KOMO (ABC) 4 was almost unbearable tonight watching LIL. Is Dish over compressing our transponders right now for some reason? I'm going to call Dish on Monday, but I think we will all need to call to get some action.
I think the problem with KOMO may be local. Check out the Seattle OTA thread on AVS Forum and there are a number of posts from one of their engineers on current issues, this being one of them.
John
I noticed this a lot last night on the Denver ABC feed as well. I wonder if it was an ABC western feed problem where they sent the feed to the stations during the sun outage period and we all saw the dropouts that existed on the stations' archive copy.
Everybody seems to ben mentioning ABC on this.
SBacklin
10-10-05, 05:06 PM
I came here looking to see if any other Seattlites were experiencing any problems with Seattle Locals, and it appears that they are. KOMO (ABC) 4 was almost unbearable tonight watching LIL. Is Dish over compressing our transponders right now for some reason? I'm going to call Dish on Monday, but I think we will all need to call to get some action.
I been noticing the very annoying pixelation, audio issues on my channels. A lot on my locals but I have seen it on the higher channels as well. I am with D*. This happens during the day and night. A tech is coming out tomorrow to hopefully fix the problem and to fix one of my DVRs that seemed to have died.
...actually couldn't this still happen at night? just because we are in the "nighttime" isn't it possible that the satellite itself can still be in sunlight? Especially well after we are in the dark? Just curious.
kevision
10-10-05, 11:20 PM
No, the relevant satellites are out of the sun too at night. jayn_j offers an interesting idea, though. maybe it is a "taped" sun outage.
I think the problem with KOMO may be local. Check out the Seattle OTA thread on AVS Forum and there are a number of posts from one of their engineers on current issues, this being one of them.
John
John-
I'm quite aware of the problems with KOMO and the thread over on AVS, but this was LIL over dish, not OTA. I have noticed glitches with the transmissions on all of the locals for about the last week, KING, KOMO, KIRO, and KCPQ (watching over satellite, not OTA). I have had zero problems with standard dish programming, only local channels, which to me, indicates a transponder problem, or a compression problem. I still haven't had a chance to talk to Dish yet, but it is clear others are seeing this. I don' t think this is sunspot activity, which I've seen before. I would be amazed if the issue was transmission TO the stations, because the Comcast cable board would light up with complaints. I also subscribe to basic Comcast on some of my TV's and have seen no problems on them. Again, I think Dish has turned up the compression too high.
Well, it happened again last night. Starting at a little after 8:00 pm. It was fine up until that time. It wasn't as bad as the night before but the signal still had problems. I was again watching NBC (KING).
My problem started with P303. It happens if I record either in the day or night. It happens on three different DVR's - all 508's. I have even taken one DVR to another home and set it up to verify that it is not my location. Since most everything I record is off the locals, I'm seeing it on the spotbeam. Btw - I'm a long way from California - Alabama to be exact. I usually get about 3 - 5 skips per hour show. It only happens on those shows recorded after P303 was loaded. There are no skips on those shows recorded while on P302.
How do I (we) report this problem to Dish. It has got to be buggy software.
THANX - Larry
...actually couldn't this still happen at night? just because we are in the "nighttime" isn't it possible that the satellite itself can still be in sunlight? Especially well after we are in the dark? Just curious.
I think several people have a fundamental misunderstanding about what solar conjunction means. At 2 times of the year the orbit of the satellite crosses the orbit of the earth around the sun. During this time the earth will rotate so that the sun is precisely behind the satellite at your location. When this happens, the electrical noise generated by the solar activity will overwhelm the weak signal transmitted by the satellite and the signal will be lost. This will only last a few minutes because the earth rotation will change the sun's relative position to the satellite, and the dish has a fairly tight focus. Also, the time will be different for each satellite.
As for the rest, everybody should look at the thread on P3.03 over in the dvr forum. A lot of people are reporting this problem on multiple channels. It looks like dish may have caused this problem, along with others in their latest firmware release.
As for the rest, everybody should look at the thread on P3.03 over in the dvr forum. A lot of people are reporting this problem on multiple channels. It looks like dish may have caused this problem, along with others in their latest firmware release.
How would this effect my 921? Especially when it's only on local channels?
Michael P
10-11-05, 04:02 PM
Sounds like the connection between the Seattle POP and E* has a problem.
For those who don;t know a "POP" is the Point of Presence. It's a place located somewhere within the Seattle area that picks up the local stations and places the programming on fiber optic lines that run all the way to E*. If many local stations are having problems perhaps the fiber or some other realated hardware is damaged somewhere along the line between Seattle and the E* uplink center that handles the Seattle LIL's.
Big Bob
10-11-05, 07:42 PM
Sounds like the connection between the Seattle POP and E* has a problem.
For those who don;t know a "POP" is the Point of Presence. It's a place located somewhere within the Seattle area that picks up the local stations and places the programming on fiber optic lines that run all the way to E*. If many local stations are having problems perhaps the fiber or some other realated hardware is damaged somewhere along the line between Seattle and the E* uplink center that handles the Seattle LIL's.
That is my guess as well. I hope that it is not the northwest spotbeam. That would be a major problem.
It looks like dish may have caused this problem, along with others in their latest firmware release.
I'm convinced that Dish caused this problem, but I'm not so sure it's due to the latest firmware release. For one thing, I haven't yet allowed the 3.03 update to my 510. And the problem is also occurring on my 4922. I first noticed it happening 12 days ago, and it seemed to be only on the local channels. Now it's happening on various channels, but it's still worse on the locals. Also, I live in Missouri not the Northwest.
I hesitate to call Dish, because the first thing they'll want to do is send out a technician - at my expense. And frankly I don't think it's my equipment - but I could be wrong. Besides the last time I was subjected to a service call by a local tech, I wasted an entire day from work and the whole thing was a huge pain.
If this is a sun outage issue, wouldn't it happen around the same time every year? I've never had problems before.
Computer_Guru
10-12-05, 01:51 PM
I live in Oklahoma, and it's happening here too. Also, same time frame... about 2 weeks it's been happening now. Day, evening, 3 AM in the morning... it happens around the clock, so it's not solar activity.
And I don't have a DVR, just 3 old satellite receivers (2 2700s and 1 2800), and it is happening on all 3 of the receivers.
Checked signal strength... over 100 on all but one transponder (and we don't watch any of the channels on that one). I've checked everything on my end and cannot find anything that could be the root cause.
When I called Dish Network, they had me completely reset all 3 receivers. They swore up and down that would fix the problem, and told me it was caused by STATIC ELECTRICITY affecting the receivers. Well needless to say, the problem is still there, and seems to be getting worse by the day.
I think the problem is something to do with their signal. Maybe they're overcompressing the signal so they can add more channels and support more HDTV.
I just find it unusual that the equipment I've been using for 5 years with no problem suddenly quits working. And all 3 receivers at once. There hasn't been any software upgrades in my receivers since July, so that isn' t it either.
Which leads me to believe it's something on Dish network's end or in the signal. And so far, I get nothing from them but "reset your receivers".
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