DBSTalk Forum banner

Brrrrriiiiip, what and where

35K views 252 replies 99 participants last post by  hasan 
#1 ·
This can be very annoying while you're trying to watch a program. They can vary from every once and awhile to being every few seconds during a show.

Thanks to BattleScott here is a sample: http://www.dbstalk.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=18074&d=1239640597

And to Ken S :

What is happening is the DirecTV MPEG-4 encoder is "dumping" and having to reset as it is transcoding the MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 at the uplink center.

This seems to happen to HD locals more than national channels.
If your locals are doing this, you can tune into the OTA feed and sometimes see it there too, but other times not see it. This doesn't mean the station isn't the cause/source. Their feed may have corrupted bits that don't affect the playback of the MPEG-2 stream, but these cause the MPEG-4 encoder to reset.
Sometimes it is the DirecTV encoder, which I've seen when several local stations are all doing this at the same time.

So this is the "what and where" but what can you do about it?

If it's with a local station, I found the best [quickest] thing to do is to call/email the station engineering about it. If they're responsive [some are and some haven't been], they will look into their end and work with the Network Broadcast Center at DirecTV.

If they're not responsive or this is with a national channel, then you will need to contact DirecTV, but you can't get directly to the broadcast center.
This means the CSR can "log a report" which will get the the center, but these don't seem to be acted on until there are many reports [which I really can't blame them with all the channels they're working with]. If they "can see it at the time" then they'll work on it, but since this problem comes and goes, they can monitor the feed and not see it [since it isn't happening at the time].

The next step I took was to email ellen.filipiak@directv.com and explain the problem I was having and the steps I'd done. I would recommend not emailing first, but calling and having it get logged a few times. Let their system try to resolve it, before escalating it to this level.

It took me a few email replies and phone calls, but I did have someone interested in resolving "my problem". One of the first steps was to have a service call to make sure there wasn't anything in my system that might be causing it. There wasn't and I knew it, but they needed to start somewhere and know it wasn't on my end. They asked me to have some recordings so I could show them exactly what it was when the came. They looked all over my system, watched the recordings and then called the broadcast center. The engineer had them hand the phone to me and explained what the problem was.

"The problem" wasn't fixed overnight, but my locals have been much improved and between a few emails to station and the broadcast center engineers, have seen the improvements from both the stations and at the DirecTV uplink.
 
See less See more
#128 ·
The Nashville FOX affiliate WZTV channel 17 is terrible with it tonight - multiple dropouts, skips and brrrriiips every minute, sometimes several within a single 5 - 10 second period. I tried to contact the station but their website doesn't list an address for station engineering. :nono:
 
#129 ·
LameLefty said:
The Nashville FOX affiliate WZTV channel 17 is terrible with it tonight - multiple dropouts, skips and brrrriiips every minute, sometimes several within a single 5 - 10 second period. I tried to contact the station but their website doesn't list an address for station engineering. :nono:
Your might try contacting the Sinclair Broadcast Group here: http://www.wztv.com/sections/station/contact.shtml
 
#130 ·
veryoldschool said:
Your might try contacting the Sinclair Broadcast Group here: http://www.wztv.com/sections/station/contact.shtml
That's what I did. Fat lot of good it did. It's worse tonight than it was last night. "Hell's Kitchen" is just miserable to try to watch - we can't hear half of what the chefs are saying. Jeez.
 
#131 ·
LameLefty said:
That's what I did. Fat lot of good it did. It's worse tonight than it was last night. "Hell's Kitchen" is just miserable to try to watch - we can't hear half of what the chefs are saying. Jeez.
Seems like you're only left with contacting DirecTV then.
I've sent email to stations here and got nothing before, so even when they have an engineering email, it doesn't always help.
 
#132 ·
LameLefty said:
The Nashville FOX affiliate WZTV channel 17 is terrible with it tonight - multiple dropouts, skips and brrrriiips every minute, sometimes several within a single 5 - 10 second period. I tried to contact the station but their website doesn't list an address for station engineering. :nono:
Wonder if its a Fox thing? Fox 8 was crap yesterday and most of today.

Sent them a tweet on twitter and "they will look into it" :rolleyes: Sure they are.
 
#134 ·
It's not a network thing in this market; I was getting the same horrible audio problems on local syndicated programming for a couple hours before the start of primetime and the national feed programs.

I haven't checked how things are going today (I've been watching other stuff on the DVR).
 
#135 ·
I recorded Phillies Dodgers game on TBS 247 and Yankees Angels game on Fox. The pregame on TBS was blank (light gray screen) all 30 minutes. I started watching game and it was blank until the 8th inning. From there to end of recording the picture constantly froze. I would hit play or fast forward and it would start and freeze. Second game on Fox had audio problems throughout. Anyone else have problems last night? I live in Columbus, Ohio market area. :mad:
 
#137 ·
Watching it in NYC on FOX 5 HD the only single brrrrip was during a transition to a SD commercial.

Game Fan said:
Yankees - Angels game, last night, on FOX WTVW 7 in Evansville was one of the most brrrriiiiip interrupted broadcasts to date. Thanksfully, it only affects the audio and Mr. Buck and Mr. McCarver were blanked out. I don't miss their inane comments.
 
#141 ·
Backstory: We've had DTV for about 1-1/2 years now (Dish until then, moved and the temp place we were in had a package deal with DTV), when we moved down here to Tennessee we brought everything with because we didn't want to use our one Movers use when we didn't have our house even built yet! I setup the dish so we could at least have one TV to watch in the evenings after we had finished working on the house, but we had no Locals, they were still showing Minnesota ones but got the "not in your network" error. Called DTV, they updated our address, but didn't get ANY locals except one PBS channel. Called again and they said it was because we had to upgrade our equipment, which would happen if we used our Movers service. We waited, since the shows we watched on broadcast were all on hiatus.

Present: In September we finally had the house done enough to move in and so we used the Movers service and got all the new equipment, one HR23-700 and three H23-600s, SWMline 3 dish, but we didn't upgrade to the HD package.

Now the ONLY channel I've noticed it on is FOX, which never occurred on the old equipment in Minnesota on any channel. I don't watch locals very often, and we watch Fox the most, so I can't say for certain it is on any other locals. Also, I'm unsure if it happens on any of the R23s either since I watch the HR23. I just don't seem to remember to test it on the others :\

One thing to note is the TVs used S-Video before we got the HD equipment, now the TV I've noticed it on most, uses HDMI. If that could be the reason, changing to digital, I'm not sure. Could be the new equipment, could be the fact an SWM is now used, could be we receive the locals in "HD" (480p since we don't have the HD package, even though we get the OSD Tip to change to 720p/1080i).

I have mentioned it to DTV when I talked to them before, but since I haven't had a chance to test the H23s, it was kinda brushed off at that time.

Fringe seem to be the worst offender. House, Bones and Lie To Me has it happen, but not as much.

So thar ya'ar!
 
#142 ·
Formula-350 said:
Present: In September we finally had the house done enough to move in and so we used the Movers service and got all the new equipment, one HR23-700 and three R23-600s, SWMline 3 dish, but we didn't upgrade to the HD package.

Now the ONLY channel I've noticed it on is FOX, which never occurred on the old equipment in Minnesota on any channel. I don't watch locals very often, and we watch Fox the most, so I can't say for certain it is on any other locals. Also, I'm unsure if it happens on any of the R23s either since I watch the HR23. I just don't seem to remember to test it on the others :\

One thing to note is the TVs used S-Video before we got the HD equipment, now the TV I've noticed it on most, uses HDMI. If that could be the reason, changing to digital, I'm not sure. Could be the new equipment, could be the fact an SWM is now used, could be we receive the locals in "HD" (480p since we don't have the HD package, even though we get the OSD Tip to change to 720p/1080i).

I have mentioned it to DTV when I talked to them before, but since I haven't had a chance to test the R23s, it was kinda brushed off at that time.

Fringe seem to be the worst offender. House, Bones and Lie To Me has it happen, but not as much.

So thar ya'ar!
If you read the first post, you'll see that this is due mostly to the change in locals and not anything that has changed with your new equipment. You new locals come off 99/103 SATs and are MPEG-4 feeds [why you needed new hardware].
It could be from Fox, or it could be in the conversion from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 at the DirecTV uplink. Post #1 lists the steps you can take to try to get this resolved.
 
#143 ·
veryoldschool said:
If you read the first post, you'll see that this is due mostly to the change in locals and not anything that has changed with your new equipment. You new locals come off 99/103 SATs and are MPEG-4 feeds [why you needed new hardware].
It could be from Fox, or it could be in the conversion from MPEG-2 to MPEG-4 at the DirecTV uplink. Post #1 lists the steps you can take to try to get this resolved.
I did read the first post :) Just thought I would add in my experience as well. My apologies if I shouldn't have. PLEAS DON'T HIT ME!!! :p
 
#145 ·
After what 2 plus years this is still a problem? You would think dtv would be concered about this. Talked to a friend watching yanks game last night on timewarner cable zero problems and he has never seen a problem. Does dishnetwork have this problem?

Maybe time for cable companies and fios to start using this against dtv in the their ads.

Thanks
Rick
 
#146 ·
mgmrick said:
After what 2 plus years this is still a problem? You would think dtv would be concered about this. Talked to a friend watching yanks game last night on timewarner cable zero problems and he has never seen a problem. Does dishnetwork have this problem?

Maybe time for cable companies and fios to start using this against dtv in the their ads.

Thanks
Rick
It happens on cable, too, it just depends where you are. It can also happen differently...I've seen it while watching side-by-side with Directv & TWC. Cable blanked out & Directv's "bripped" at the same video spot.
 
#147 ·
Game Fan said:
Yankees - Angels game, last night, on FOX WTVW 7 in Evansville was one of the most brrrriiiiip interrupted broadcasts to date. Thanksfully, it only affects the audio and Mr. Buck and Mr. McCarver were blanked out. I don't miss their inane comments.
I had posted I had never heard this noise before and I hadn't until the Yankees-Angels game last night. And WOW now I finally understand why posters have written so much about this! It is awful :eek2: But I must admit I do agree with the above quoted poster about the commentators :D I normally like Joe Buck, but I don't think he and McCarver are a good match up at all :nono:
 
#150 ·
I had many Brrrrriiiiiips watching NFL on Sunday. I was watching recording of the games on CBS FOX and NBC and got multiple brripps followed by an extended black screen (5-10 seconds).

I had this problem a lot about 6 months ago then it appeared they fixed it. Then about a week ago it started up again and has been worse than it ever has.
 
#151 ·
I almost hate for the WS to start now because I'm afraid it will be a mess also. The Yankees-Angels series was awful with that terrible sound :raspberry I can't understand why it took me so long to have the problem and why it started up when it did? I think I remember someone saying something about getting the locals and somehow that must have something to do with the problem because we haven't had our locals that long. I must admit I don't know what one thing has to do with the other :confused:
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top