Video "problems" since 365

[Steve H]

Has anyone notice an increase in pixelation problems since 365 came out? We are getting a lot of pixelation when the screen changes a commerical to the broadcast show. Quite a bit of this is the "green screen" pixelation where a majority of the screen ( the bottom part mostly) turns green. I would not bet that this is rellated to 365 BUT it did start at about the same time that download came out.

[Mike D-CO5]

I have been getting this a lot on my Abc mpeg 4 hd station from Houston. I had 10 instances that lasted up to 15 seconds with green pixelation and macro blocking last night during Desperate Housewives. I sent an email to the dishquality folks to see if it helps.

dishquality@echostar.com

[Steve H]

I've sent emails and made phone calls to the "Executive Resolution Team"........

[whatchel1]

Thur night it destroyed my OTA 28-1 the whole night. Since then I have noticed all OTA channels are about 10 points lower. I have emailed dish about it and today they replied asking for a lot of Receiver, s/w & ID info. I have replied to the email w/ the info asked for to see what they can tell me.

[mchaney]

Yes. Since 363 I've noticed more audio problems and more video problems. On the video, I often get little green "maggots" crawling around areas of the picture that move fast. It doesn't disrupt the picture and usually lasts less than 3 seconds but I've seen it happen for as long as a minute! 365 has the same problem. Signal strength for me is excellent and this was not during any rain or storms and it happens on various channels although I can't remember whether they were OTA or satellite.

Mike

[skyviewmark1]

Not really sure yet. Jury is still out on what the problem is. But my CBS-OTA has become unwatchable since the updates. With a signal level of 98-100 it keeps pixelating and signal suddenly dropping out and returning. Wasn't having this before the updates.. Funny how it just seems to be the CBS-OTA. Could be a local problem so Not sure if software related or not..

[whatchel1]

Thur night it destroyed my OTA 28-1 the whole night. Since then I have noticed all OTA channels are about 10 points lower. I have emailed dish about it and today they replied asking for a lot of Receiver, s/w & ID info. I have replied to the email w/ the info asked for to see what they can tell me.

Here is the reply that E* sent me about the problems w/365.

Thank you for your e-mail. Our engineering department is aware of this issue; it has been determined the issue is software related and we are actively working to resolve it as soon as possible. It will be resolved with a software update in the near future. We apologize for the inconvenience.

We hope we have properly addressed your concerns. If you have further questions you can respond to this e-mail or access our online technical support at the following link: http://tech.dishnetwork.com/departmental_content/techportal/index.shtml.

Thanks,



Matt J.

Technical E-mail Support

Dish Network

[Grandude]

Since 365, I now get pixelation very, very often on many of the channels I watch.
It usually lasts four or five seconds and then clears up. Very annoying as this never happened before.

[Ron Barry]

Be sure when you are discussing picture break up issues that you mentione the duration you are seeing these, frequency and most important what channels they are on and if it is OTA/SAT. This way others can try it and we could possible determine if it is a source problem or a receiver issue.

[voripteth]

It seems that every episode of Desperate Housewives has some pretty severe pixelation and green screen. I've seen it long before 365 so it isn't something now, at least not for me. It IS something that I'd like to see fixed as soon as possible, though.

There are also times when I'm seeing audio dropouts. The picture is fine but the sound goes away for 5 seconds or so. When I rewind and replay the segment the sound is still missing so this is different from previous audio dropout problems I've seen. It's possible it was on the source since it doesn't happen that frequently.

[Slordak]

I too had some very severe problems watching Desperate Housewives on Sunday evening. I was watching it over the air (WLS, 007-01), and while the signal strength seemed to be quite good, I nonetheless had a few audio drop-outs and several instances where the screen turned green and the image was smeared until the next I-frame (which was a number of seconds later).

[rjenkins]

SteveH, I'm also in Utah and channel 002-00 (CBS) on 129 is pretty crappy since the last release. Anytime that channel goes to a black screen, it seems to go into green pixel hell for the next couple of seconds. What's interesting is that on the OTA channel 002-01, it seems to have just a little breakup when going to black. To me, it seems that the small break-up on the "real" channel causes encoding problems on Dishes end when they try to re-encode it, etc... It makes watching 002-00 pretty annoying, however. 005-00 (NBC) doesn't seem to have this problem, however. Nor does 013-00 (FOX). Of course, the number of shows I watch on NBC and FOX is rather small compared to CBS, so I might just be noticing it only on 002-00.

[whatchel1]

SteveH, I'm also in Utah and channel 002-00 (CBS) on 129 is pretty crappy since the last release. Anytime that channel goes to a black screen, it seems to go into green pixel hell for the next couple of seconds. What's interesting is that on the OTA channel 002-01, it seems to have just a little breakup when going to black. To me, it seems that the small break-up on the "real" channel causes encoding problems on Dishes end when they try to re-encode it, etc... It makes watching 002-00 pretty annoying, however. 005-00 (NBC) doesn't seem to have this problem, however. Nor does 013-00 (FOX). Of course, the number of shows I watch on NBC and FOX is rather small compared to CBS, so I might just be noticing it only on 002-00.

All of the channels that end in -0 are the same as your SD LIL they just have this number to allow them to be next to your OTA channels. All Numbers that end in a sub-channels -1 or above are OTA digital of course 3 & 4 digit numbers are the sat channels we all know.

[Ron Barry]

Expect when you have OTA connected and have your mapping set for HD Priority. In this case your HD Dish locals will be in the -00 slot rather than you SD Locals.

[Mike D-CO5]

So several people see the same problem during Desperate Housewives. CAn this be a network feed problem? Some see it on the Dish hd locals like I did and some see it over the air. I see the common problem as the network if this is the case.

[dbconsultant]

So several people see the same problem during Desperate Housewives. CAn this be a network feed problem? Some see it on the Dish hd locals like I did and some see it over the air. I see the common problem as the network if this is the case.

Have also seen it on L&O on NBC and Cold Case on CBS (both dish locals out of Los Angeles not ota). Hard to believe the networks are the source of the problem when it is happening across ABC, CBS and NBC. Never saw this before Friday's dvr recordings which is why I'm wondering if 365 caused it. Didn't happen on football dvr'd on NBC.

[mchaney]

I've seen this but I honestly can't remember which channels. The worst time was when watching an HD satellite channel (I believe it was SHOH or HBOH). I watched it in disbelief for at least 2 full minutes. Every area on screen that had the most motion would have little green worm trails. For example, when a person was walking across the screen, the arms swinging back/forth would produce the fastest motion and the cuffs of the shirt near the hands would pixelate and trail like mouse cursor trails. I watched this for a couple of minutes and it never let up, always pixelating on the areas with the most motion. I switched to several other HD channels at the time and none of the other channels were doing this, so I thought it might just be a problem with the feed on the channel I was watching. When I switched back to the problem channel, it was still doing that, so I chalked it up to a bad feed, but then again I never saw this pre 363/365. Sorry I can't remember which show/time/channel but I have seen this since, only it has been momentary (short lived) in the other occurrences.

Mike

[Mike D-CO5]

Well I see it on my Abc station and my Nbc station in Houston over the dish hd locals. I don't see it on the national hd channels or sd channels at all. So I have to conclude that it is either a local network problem or a 622 software problem. I first saw this green pixelation on Abc when it first came on Dish in May and I emailed the dishquality folks and they fixed it for a while and sent me an email to confirm what I was seeing after they tweaked it. So I guess this is a Dish problem at the local uplink or a 622 software problem.

[Ron Barry]

after having watched my Dish HD locals and my OTA for a while, I gut feeling is a lot of the break up is feed related at not in the 622. Yes I do see pixel break up on other channels, but the majority I see if with my Dish Locals. That is at least the conclusion I have come to. Some days its better than others and it has improved alot over six month, but for me I still think there is work to do.

<<< Opinion based on Dish HD LA locals >>>

[voripteth]

For me, Desperate Housewives is the the show that most frequently has this problem. It easily happens EVERY week. I've heard from other people in the Chicago area that see it as well so it may be some sort of network problem at WLS. This is on the HD version of the channel. It doesn't happen on SD.

I've heard that Dish is "working" on the problem for quite a few months now.

[rjenkins]

All of the channels that end in -0 are the same as your SD LIL they just have this number to allow them to be next to your OTA channels. All Numbers that end in a sub-channels -1 or above are OTA digital of course 3 & 4 digit numbers are the sat channels we all know.
Like Ron Barry pointed out, you can specify for HD locals to go to -0 instead of the SD locals. Which is what I do, since I prefer it that way. :) So 002-00 is my HD CBS from 129. 002-01 is my HD CBS from OTA, etc... 004-00 is SD since Salt Lake doesn't have ABC in HD via Satellite yet.

[debpasc]

I've had the Desperate Housewives pixellation issues, too, but no accompanying audio disturbance. It's brief and is more of a frozen jerky picture breaking up into green squares. I also get the same thing two or three times during each episode of Boston Legal. Both are during DVR playback recorded from Dish HD locals. Doesn't make the programs unwatchable, just annoying and creates the worry each time it happens that it's going to freeze and not come back.

[kyleki]

I had issues with the season premier of Lost this week. I recorded it from the HD
local satellite feed and was watching from the recorded event. There were at least
two points within the show where the picture turned into a bunch of green blocks
while the audio continued as normal. Nothing in the video feed was discernable and
unfortunately it got in the way of some "critical" information. This isn't anything new
for me, however, since this happened last season as well. I'm wondering if it's just
an ABC feed issue.

Although, selfishly, I hope there's something Dish can do about it since I have more
faith in the attention they'd give to an issue like this than ABC. :D

BTW, my 622 is connected via component video; not HDMI.

[Mike D-CO5]

I received an email from a friend in the engineering department at Dish. He is works mostly with the locals both sd and hd. Here is an excerpt from his email.


"As you know I am working really hard on developing this new technology and it has not all been for the best. For what it is worth , I am working on it on a daily basis and we are in much better shape than we were a few months ago. Believe me , we are not resting yet , and things will continue to improve. I can not share everything I am up to, as it is a very competitive leading edge situation, but feel assured that the best folks in the industry are working on it. "

This means to me that we all need to be patient with this new technology. He encouraged me to continue to send any emails about the picture/audio problems to the dishquality folks. I will continue to do so and I encourage all of you to do the same.

dishquality@echostar.com

[lujan]

Yes, I saw the same thing on "Lost" season premiere but I thought it was due to a low signal on 129.

[debpasc]

I described my DVR playback ABC HD (Dish not OTA) picture break up in the "bug reports since 365" thread. I have component not HDMI and this is new in the last week or 10 days. I did drop the requisite e-mail to the address mentioned above.

[AtlantaDish]

Dish Team,



I purchased my Dish service and ViP622 two months ago. I’ve had several issues with my receiver including a switch problem and reception problems. My most recent and most frustrating problem is frequent distortion of recorded content. I experience audio the video distortion through the entire broadcast of NCIS that I taped tonight (Oct 10, 2006). The distortion includes a lot of green blocks and lines. This made the show unviewable. I spoke to Dish Advanced support, and they instructed me to contact my installer because this was caused by a grounding problem. I am skeptical that improper grounding is causing this problem based on the following posts. I am attaching a video capture of the problem.



As a former DirecTV TIVO customer, I am very unhappy the quality of your product and service. What can I do to get this corrected?

[Ron Barry]

Dish Team,



I purchased my Dish service and ViP622 two months ago. I’ve had several issues with my receiver including a switch problem and reception problems. My most recent and most frustrating problem is frequent distortion of recorded content. I experience audio the video distortion through the entire broadcast of NCIS that I taped tonight (Oct 10, 2006). The distortion includes a lot of green blocks and lines. This made the show unviewable. I spoke to Dish Advanced support, and they instructed me to contact my installer because this was caused by a grounding problem. I am skeptical that improper grounding is causing this problem based on the following posts. I am attaching a video capture of the problem.



As a former DirecTV TIVO customer, I am very unhappy the quality of your product and service. What can I do to get this corrected?

I would suggest using the EKB dish chart and checking the strength for you given transponder. If you saw this throughout the whole show my guess is you might have a borderline signal for that channel.

I had some audio loss the other night for about 15 minutes on Amazing Race on my Dish locals HD. I definitely have most of my issues with my Dish HD locals.

and :welcome_s

[Mark Lamutt]

AtlantaDish - send your message in an email to DishQuality@echostar.com

[AtlantaDish]

AtlantaDish - send your message in an email to DishQuality@echostar.com


The letter was sent to dish. I haven't heard back yet.

[scaesare]

The letter was sent to dish. I haven't heard back yet.


Well. I just started using my 622 in earnest. So far last nite the Washington DC ABC sat HD feed of Lost and The Nine was really bad. Lots of green pixelization, and bad audio suttering.

I've also noticed audio "clicks" in several programs. It was bad on the Redskins game last Sunday.

To be clear, this is all via the sat transponders... I do not yet have OTA hooked to my 622.

My 942 receiving OTA local affiliate HD feeds does not exhibit these problems...

[dbconsultant]

Well. I just started using my 622 in earnest. So far last nite the Washington DC ABC sat HD feed of Lost and The Nine was really bad. Lots of green pixelization, and bad audio suttering.

I've also noticed audio "clicks" in several programs. It was bad on the Redskins game last Sunday.

To be clear, this is all via the sat transponders... I do not yet have OTA hooked to my 622.

My 942 receiving OTA local affiliate HD feeds does not exhibit these problems...

I've noticed the clicks also on a couple of programs, both on sat locals. And the pixelization is a lot worse than I had on update 3.60. I'm noticing it especially on ABC and now on SD channels as well. Had very rarely seen any pixelization with 3.60 and never on SD.

[Steve H]

Well. I just started using my 622 in earnest. So far last nite the Washington DC ABC sat HD feed of Lost and The Nine was really bad. Lots of green pixelization, and bad audio suttering.

I've also noticed audio "clicks" in several programs. It was bad on the Redskins game last Sunday.

To be clear, this is all via the sat transponders... I do not yet have OTA hooked to my 622.

My 942 receiving OTA local affiliate HD feeds does not exhibit these problems...

After my 622 was installed I was having a LOT of green pixelization.........the installer used the old coax and connectors from my 501 systems.......those are not good enough for a HD signal. Get a good Dish guy out there hand have him check what coax, connectors and spliters you have.

[debpasc]

As reported elsewhere here and to Dish Quality e-mail address, I started having the exact same problems with ABC sat HD after the last software update. I've had my 622 and the same connections since April and this just started happening since the update. I have it on almost every ABC HD program. Sometimes it's pretty minor and sometimes it goes on for a minute or so.

[Steve H]

After my 622 was installed I was having a LOT of green pixelization.........the installer used the old coax and connectors from my 501 systems.......those are not good enough for a HD signal. Get a good Dish guy out there hand have him check what coax, connectors and spliters you have.


Well after what I said above I'm rethinking part of it.................last night, while signal strength was juke the "greenies" came back..................

[Mike D-CO5]

What do you mean the signal strength was JUKE?

[Steve H]

What do you mean the signal strength was JUKE?


Sorry........I meant JUNK...........signal was around the low 50's

[Mike D-CO5]

So when you get the green screens you get low signal strengths at that very time? I am having the same problems and I want to see if there is a common denominater. Mostly it is happening during ABC programming during primetime hd shows on my mpeg 4 locals from Houston. Even the dishquality folks have asked me if signal strength is a problem as well .

[Ron Barry]

IN the past the screens with breakup and partiel green pieces (Best way I can describe it) can occur when you start hitting that threashold where it is just good enough to not declare the signal bad and bad enough to be loosing bits. If you are getting the green big squares and lot of pixel breakup and your signal for that channel is aroudn the low 50s.. You need to see if you can get that singal up. Low 50s I think is too low to have anything but issues from my experiences.

[Mike D-CO5]

I had one green screen last night during Desperate Housewives and I checked my spotbeam strength on the signal and it was at 91 instead of 94 during the green screen. I noticed this on both of my 622s at the same time as far as the green screen pixelation. So this is happening either at the station or at Dish's end. I am going to email the A/v guys at Dish to inform them of my findings since they asked me to update them on this issue each week.

dishquality@echostar.com

[Steve H]

I had one green screen last night during Desperate Housewives and I checked my spotbeam strength on the signal and it was at 91 instead of 94 during the green screen. I noticed this on both of my 622s at the same time as far as the green screen pixelation. So this is happening either at the station or at Dish's end. I am going to email the A/v guys at Dish to inform them of my findings since they asked me to update them on this issue each week.

dishquality@echostar.com


A signal strength of 91 is GREAT. I would think that proves the problem to be elsewhere.

[Ron Barry]

Not in my eyes Steve. For Mike's particular case and particular situation i would say it would indicate a problem outside of signal strength quality. However, I for sure would not relate this information to your particular experiences or mine.

[debpasc]

I am also providing Dish Quality Control with info. Since I watch all programming via DVR not live, I have no way of knowing signal strength at the time of the disruption on the ABC HD via sat. However, at any given time when I do check signal strength, about half of the transponders on 128 are at 55 and the other half range from 70 to 85. The other sats across all transponders range from 60 to 115. I did not have this disruption prior to L365 and I have had a loss of signal or weather interference maybe twice since I got the 622 in April. So either this level of signal strength has not been an issue before or something has happened that reduced signal strength recently.

[Mike D-CO5]

I only get the green screen pixelations on my Dish sat mpeg 4 /hd Abc station from Houston. I don't see this much if any on my other networks in mpeg 4 Cbs or Nbc or Fox stations. I have to deduce that it is a problem with the station or the mpeg 4 compression scheme is not quite right. It isn't a signal strength problem or a receiver problem since both receivers see the same green screen at the same time on the same channel . I believe it is the mpeg 4 compression that needs to be tweaked for the Abc station in 720p.