[SteveinDanville]

Did anybody out there last night while watching "The Wire" have the constant pixelization and freeze-ups that I experienced on HBO East? I'm in the SF Bay Area, and for the third week in a row the picture is almost unwatchable. Audio doesn't miss a beat during the frozen screen, but the video is driving me crazy. I have a 4900 using a Dish 500, software update 175. What the heck is going on?

 

[gcutler]

Not having that bad of a problem, but noticed that there is much more Pixelation and Freezes than before. Using a 4900 & TiVo and Two seperate Dish 300s into SW64 to get Dish500 service.

Addendum: I was watching "Broken Arrow" on HBO-E last night. Signal Strength was 120-121. Yet every 5 minutes there was a pic freeze or pixelation. Probably worst I have seen it yet.

 

[Guest]

Who knows whats up. I thought I might have had a storm going by but I looked out the window and it was clear.

Glad to hear it is not just me.

 

[snagel]

SteveinDanville,
I have had the same problem on one of my 4900 upgraded versions for about 3 weeks now. The only channel it does this on is HBOE ch. 300.
DISH wanted to RA the unit. I don't think that it is the receiver, I think it is DISH's problem.
It even confirms that more to me that it is DISH when I read others here and others in DBS Forums are having the same exact problem on the same exact channel.

I have watched this receiver real close now for 3 weeks and it does not have any problems anywhere else at all. Only channel 300 HBOE.

 

[gcutler]

When people are watching The Sopranos again, then the volume of calls will escalate.

 

[wdr2297]

Hey SteveinDanville, I'm William in San Ramon!

I get compression artifacts on HBO-E; I also notice some (apparently) dropped frames causing little sub-second freezes in the picture. I'm watching on a brand-new 301, and signal strength from 119 xpdr 2 is 90.

I'm a new E* subscriber, and I waited twelve weeks to get my dish (E* required an approval letter from the HOA before they would install the dish on my condo balcony). To me, PQ is excellent on some channels, passable on most, and unbearable on a few (particularly sport channels; fortunately I don't watch much sport). God speed E*8! That being said, I watched a videotape recorded off my friend's AT&T digital cable the other night -- terrible! Every few seconds it seemed to lose the bitstream and green and white blocks obliterated part of the image.

I'll be interested to see what the PQ is like on locals from the 148 satellites when my second dish is installed on Friday.

 

[SteveinDanville]

wdr2297,
I got my 2nd dish a week ago and the picture quality, although a little soft, is better than the pictures I get from AT&T cable, so now it's adios to the cable, and save $16.50/month for basic cable. That won't make my wife happy, because we get our FM signal from the cable, so I guess I'll have to try and hook up some FM antenna's for the 3 receivers in the house. By the way, did you know that AT&T is quietly eliminating FM reception as part of it's cable service? That was told to me by two different CS reps, and a field rep who I'd called out for lousy picture quality 6 months ago. It's just going to go away, but the bill keeps going up. And they think DBS is the bad guy? These cable guys ought to be shot...

 

[Guest]

I also have the same problems with my 4900, I called E* today and they told me to either buy a 501 or send in my 4900 to be repaired. I declined on both.

 

[SteveinDanville]

monkeycrap, the answer that you are supposed to get is "we'll send you a new 4900, and you can send the bad one back with the return label that we will enclose. Just drop it off at any UPS pickup location".

 

[Lyle_JP]

Steve,

I live in Danville and have a yagi-style roof antenna strapped to my chimney for FM radio. It works great! I also used to use it for KCRA 3 back when Dish didn't have NBC in our area.

-Lyle J.P.

 

[Cyclone]

I am seeing the same thing on HBO-E. Model 4900. Occasional Screen lockups.

 

[Guest]

I am still having problems with ch 300. It seems to happen when I am watching HBO on Sun nights when the only thing good is on.

 

[Russell R]

Ditto on HBOE!
I first noticed the problem last Sunday night. I ,too, was using a 4900 receiver. I have several other receiver models but, I didn't relate this to a particular model so I didn't check out the others.

Does anyone know if this is really unique to the 4900?

 

[Guest]

I also have the 4900 w/the same problems. I'm tired of the "We’ll give you 30 days of a premium package to appease you" deals (then you have to pay $5 to eliminate them after 30 days).

What I want is Dish to fix the damn problem already.

 

[SteveinDanville]

I sent an email to Dish technical concerning this problem on Wed. Sept. 18. I provided a link to this thread to show the veracity of the problem. We are from all around the country, you guys! Anyway, I have heard nothing in two days, not even a "we'll get back to you".

 

[chris365]

Interesting.....When I called Dish CSR, I got the impression it was my system. Good to know I am not the only person with the same problem with HBO-E.