Picture "Blanks out"
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I'm still experiencing problems from New York local feed - last night "My Name I Earl" blacked out 5 or 6 times, audio was fine. I contacted DirecTV, and was told they have no "wide spread" complaints on this problem, and have scheduled a repair technician to come and look on Sunday.
The only other thing they could tell me, is a new DVR is on the way for summer '06, that will accept MGEG4. I'm assuming with this DVR it's MPEG2?
Will the new DVR be an improvement - does anyone know? I'd really hate to sink more and more money into getting this set up to work as intended.
Today I was shopping at (I hate to say it) my local cable company, and looking at their DVR, and HD set up ...
If anyone knows about the difference between MPEG2 and MPEG4 - and if that will correct the video black out problem, I'd appreciate it!
If you are experiencing this problem, please be sure to call DirecTV and let them know about it! Talking with them - they sound as though "I'm the only one" with this going on. Remember: The squeaky wheel gets the oil ...
Thanks!
The only other thing they could tell me, is a new DVR is on the way for summer '06, that will accept MGEG4. I'm assuming with this DVR it's MPEG2?
Will the new DVR be an improvement - does anyone know? I'd really hate to sink more and more money into getting this set up to work as intended.
Today I was shopping at (I hate to say it) my local cable company, and looking at their DVR, and HD set up ...
If anyone knows about the difference between MPEG2 and MPEG4 - and if that will correct the video black out problem, I'd appreciate it!
If you are experiencing this problem, please be sure to call DirecTV and let them know about it! Talking with them - they sound as though "I'm the only one" with this going on. Remember: The squeaky wheel gets the oil ...
Thanks!
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me too.gquiring said:
i can't call directv, i wish i could though.
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I have called, the 'idiots' who answer the phones are useless. Same stupity when my hard drive failed in my HR10-250. I ended up replacing the drive myself because they kept insisting that I reboot the unit.joetoronto said:me too.
i can't call directv, i wish i could though.
D* is going down hill at good pace. My cable company is looking better and better every day. More HD channels like Starz, TMC and Cinemax. When the series 3 Tivo is available I will probably make the move.
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I'm in a northern NYC suburb, and I believe the problem lies with NBC, because I've seen blackouts at the same time on shows recorded on both 82 and 4.1 on different units. I also haven't seen CCs on many NBC or CBS HD shows I watch for at least a couple of months, maybe longer.
/steve
/steve
Steve,
Thanks for the input - you're using the same feed I'm using - I'm in Putnam County. I had DirecTV service at the house to check my equipment, but they found nothing wrong on my end. I knew this was the case, but had to keep taking steps in order to get some sort of answer from them.
What I was told was that it "was probably" the NBC feed itself, and had nothing to do with my equipment, or DirecTV - but with NBC. The technician was suprised this "black out" occurence bothered me at all. But - to use an analogy, if you paid $10.00 to go to the movies, and every 4 minutes, the picture went dark, would you want a refund? I'm the type of person that has no problem paying for quality - but, I do want what I paid for.
After the technician left, I called DirecTV, and was told it must be NBC, and there's little to nothing they could do about it. But, since I pay DirecTV for HD, I have to address the problem to them. Finally, after talking to a supervisor, they agreed to lower my bill for 3 months to "give NBC a chance to rectify the problem."
Well, of course the Super Bowl is on NBC this year, and I'm hoping those of us that are having this problem, and have it happen just as the pass is intercepted ... will call up and complain. According to DirecTV, I'm the one and only person with this problem on file.
Steve, since your in the same area as me - when the black out happens, could you let me know the time, and what show just to compare that it happed to two customers, at the same time?
Thanks!
Tim
Thanks for the input - you're using the same feed I'm using - I'm in Putnam County. I had DirecTV service at the house to check my equipment, but they found nothing wrong on my end. I knew this was the case, but had to keep taking steps in order to get some sort of answer from them.
What I was told was that it "was probably" the NBC feed itself, and had nothing to do with my equipment, or DirecTV - but with NBC. The technician was suprised this "black out" occurence bothered me at all. But - to use an analogy, if you paid $10.00 to go to the movies, and every 4 minutes, the picture went dark, would you want a refund? I'm the type of person that has no problem paying for quality - but, I do want what I paid for.
After the technician left, I called DirecTV, and was told it must be NBC, and there's little to nothing they could do about it. But, since I pay DirecTV for HD, I have to address the problem to them. Finally, after talking to a supervisor, they agreed to lower my bill for 3 months to "give NBC a chance to rectify the problem."
Well, of course the Super Bowl is on NBC this year, and I'm hoping those of us that are having this problem, and have it happen just as the pass is intercepted ... will call up and complain. According to DirecTV, I'm the one and only person with this problem on file.
Steve, since your in the same area as me - when the black out happens, could you let me know the time, and what show just to compare that it happed to two customers, at the same time?
Thanks!
Tim
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Tim,TimmyVan said:
Rest assured it's not D*. I just re-compared the dropout on two different HD Tivo's, one tuned to 82, and the other to 4.1 and saw the same dropout at the same time. Since one was via an outside antenna, D* couldn't have had anything to do with this particular 'blip'.
If it's not a repeat, I plan on recording "Medium" tonite at 10PM on 82. If you see a dropout, let me know what the timecode for it is and I'll check.
/steve
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Never happened for the first year and a half I've used the HD Tivo's either.avdiscolo said:
I'm pretty sure it's a network transmission problem, not a D* or h/w problem, at least in the NYC metro area. Since you're experiencing it too in WA, it's apparently a west coast feed problem as well, and not limited to the NY feed (which I believe is also the east coast feed.)
/steve
the same thing has been happing to me. I called dtv and the sent a tech out. he couldn't find anything wrong so the agreed to send me a new one. I have yet to chage over because I didn't want to loose my recorded shows. I am going to do that after the superbowl.
It has happend mainly on abc, espn, hbo and nbc. all hd channels.
I am also getting messages on the bottom of my screen saying that I the programing is not avialble in my area. I just change the channel and it usually fixs that problem.
it is very annonying to pay for a service and not get what is expected. I signed a 2 year contract to get my hd tivo from dircetv. if they can not give me good service I will be canceling soon, regardless of any contract!
P.S. the superbowl is on ABC
thanks
It has happend mainly on abc, espn, hbo and nbc. all hd channels.
I am also getting messages on the bottom of my screen saying that I the programing is not avialble in my area. I just change the channel and it usually fixs that problem.
it is very annonying to pay for a service and not get what is expected. I signed a 2 year contract to get my hd tivo from dircetv. if they can not give me good service I will be canceling soon, regardless of any contract!
P.S. the superbowl is on ABC
thanks
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We may be talking about apples and oranges here.
I'm talking about occasional 1-second "blackouts", not service interruptions that cause messages on the screen. What you're experiencing may be an indication of poor dish alignment, trees blocking the satellite signal, multiswitch or transponder problems. I'd be surprised if swapping your HD Tivo will cure this.
I mainly see the "blackouts" on ABC, CBS and NBC programming.
/steve
I'm talking about occasional 1-second "blackouts", not service interruptions that cause messages on the screen. What you're experiencing may be an indication of poor dish alignment, trees blocking the satellite signal, multiswitch or transponder problems. I'd be surprised if swapping your HD Tivo will cure this.
I mainly see the "blackouts" on ABC, CBS and NBC programming.
/steve
I have the video stuttering and/or momentary blackouts mostly on ABC, NBC, and especially ESPN HD. All on the high def channels, both satellite and OTA. CBS and FOX high def seem much better, at least on my system. I'm in the Los Angeles area. Sporting events seem to have more issues than prerecorded shows. ESPN HD is the worst.
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I've only had the HR10 up and running for about 5 days, and haven't seen too many of these issues ... until tonight. I was flipping channels among the national HD feeds of ABC, NBC and CBS during the State of the Union and saw numerous picture dropouts, audio dropouts, audio stutters and even one instance of green pixelation. Right at the start on CBS, the audio was a disaster, all echo-y and out of synch.
Anyone else experience this? I wonder if the networks actually shoot their own feeds at the SotU or if their is a single pool HD feed provided for all of them to share.
Anyone else experience this? I wonder if the networks actually shoot their own feeds at the SotU or if their is a single pool HD feed provided for all of them to share.
Right after installing a new Directv HD DVR with Tivo, I experienced intermittent episodes of the picture going blank for a few seconds and with lines at the top of the screen, particularly during commercials. I also experienced recordings where the sound would intermittently go off. I called out a regular TV repairman, who was unable to tell exactly what was going on. After he left, I changed my connection from component to SVideo cable with two audio cables. Since I made that change, I have not had any problem with the picture going blank or with the lines at the top of the screen. It is too early to tell whether the recording problems are still there or not, but I have not yet heard a recording since the change that lost sound. Although this change eliminates all but the lowest resolution, that is all my old RCA MM5200 could do anyway. I hope this will help others with a similar problem.
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