Video pixelation and breakups on ANALOG channels??

[Adam1115]

Anyone else having this happen on Analog channels? Since it's analog, I assume this HAS to be a bug?

[DeathRider]

Do you have cable cards?

If so, the analog channels might actually be remapped digital mirror channels

[Adam1115]

Do you have cable cards?

If so, the analog channels might actually be remapped digital mirror channels

No. No Cablecards. By analog, I really mean analog.

[Shawn95GT]

In that case it REALLY smells like bad hard drive :(.

Pixelation on an analog source is happening because of the Tivo. Analog doesn't pixelate ;). The digital recording of it does.

[Adam1115]

In that case it REALLY smells like bad hard drive :(.

Pixelation on an analog source is happening because of the Tivo. Analog doesn't pixelate ;). The digital recording of it does.

Really? It has always done this occasionally. I thought it might be a bug. I haven't had any other issues, such as lockups or reboots associated with the hard drive..

[Dennis Wilkinson]

What we see in our homes as analog can indeed pixelate -- just because it comes down as analog to your home doesn't mean that it's been analog for the entire distribution chain. I used to see Food Network pixelate occasionally watching on a television, no TiVo involved.

If you have the time and the ability to pull the drive and run the drive manufacturer's diagnostics, it's still be worth checking, but this isn't automatically an issue with your setup.

[Shawn95GT]

Not trying to split hairs, but analog doesn't pixelate. If the head end is getting it from a digital source and it's breaking up before the conversion to analog - then yes you'll see it - but it isn't the analog doing it.

But I see your point. He could be watching an analog channel and seeing pixelation that's happening from the distribution end.

I miss 'nice' analog signal from my big dish. Heck the 1st generation digtal looked dang near HD compared to what I get via cable now. Most channels are going to digital distribution which lends me to beleive that the problem could be at his cable head end.

I'll change my opinion to 'might' be a hard drive. If it is you'll likely hear it clacking away though.

If it's an anolog signal problem the picture will be snowy or have 'sparklies'. Macroblocking etc is either happening on the cableco head end or on the S3 itself.

[Adam1115]

Shawn, for the purpose of our descussion, I'm trying to determine if:

A) An analog cable channel can pixelate, obviously I meant analog coming in my home and haven't personally verified what the headend is doing or what conversions have taken place. And you are splitting hairs, AFAIK EVERY analog cable channel is derived from a digital source. I can't imagine TBS broadcasts their signal in both analog and digital just so Cable can maintain an analog source the entire time.

B) Is there any known issues with the S3 causing pixelation on an analog channel. There HAVE been bugs related to analog channels, one of them being complete drop-outs that was supposedly fixed with 8.0.1c. It has crossed my mind that whatever they did to prevent complete drop outs causes this. Are you positive there are no issues with the S3 and analog channels?

I'm reluctant to believe you that the hard drive is bad. It is only a couple months old, and the S3 works flawlessly other than this occasional issue.

[Shawn95GT]

Well.. I think you'd know if it was the drive - mosly because of the noise but the problem would be consistant no matter what you are viewing and liekly especially bad on HD stuff.

I had picture problems with the analog stuff on the last S3 I sent back. It wasn't pixelating but I was getting white lines in the picture as well as bands of color across the screen. It was just wierd. This would escalate to the tuner just saying 'no signal' for analog or digital and re-booting the Tivo cured it. While troubleshooting with Tivo we even managed to get both tuners stuck tuned to an analog channel. The banners would show the channel change, but each tuner picked a channel and stayed on it. It did this while I had Tivo on the phone and that was good enough fo rthem to want to swap out the box.

Your problem is a lot milder than what I was seeing.

It would be worth waiting to see if 8.1 solves the problem you're seeing. Have you talked to Tivo about it?

Shawn

[Heinrich]

I'm having this problem and it's become an issue for me because I'm a Veronica Mars fan and the CW station here is 13 - in the analog band. It looks just AWFUL.