[TimmyVan]

Steve,

I recorded "Medium" and here's what I have for problems ...

Digital Break up at:

10:10
10:14
10:19

Black out at:
10:11
10:12
10:21
10:22

At this point I stopped watching the show - it was annoying to keep seeing the problem appear.

Does this happen to you with DirecTV & over the air recordings? Would switching to Suscom Digital Cable be any better? (I'd have to pay a 230.00 "Early termination fee" to DirecTV - but, it may be worth it if the service is better)

Thanks,

Tim

 

[sluciani]

Tim,

I checked my OTA recording of Medium and saw the same digital breakups you did at 10:10, :14 and :19.

However, I didn't see any one-second blackouts in the first 25 minutes.

I did see some digital noise in the picture, however, around 10:12, :21 and :22. Just three brief flashes that lasted 1/4 second. They were randomly placed on the screen and would have been virtually unnoticeable, had I not been watching closely for blackouts.

Since we're on different coasts, I think we can deduce from this experiment that the east and west coast NBC feeds use the same "master" recording.

Since I didn't see any blackouts this time, but you did, in this case they could be emanating from the source of the D* west coast feed vs. the source of the D* east coast feed. Or it may have something to do with the fact that our recordings were made three hours apart.

/steve

 

[TimmyVan]

Steve,

Thanks for letting me know what's going on with your recordings. But, I think we got lost somewhere in the translation. I'm in Putnam County, New York and you're in Westchester County New York. At most, we have 50 miles between us, and we should both be using the New York (Channel 82) feed through DirecTV.

If you're seeing the same problem,and the same times as I am - on your OTA antenna - then it's NBC for sure.

From what I'm being told - this should not happen with digital cable, as it's cable fed to from NBC to Cablevision, and then dispersed via cable to it's subscribers. As far as my understanding goes, cable companies aren't using a satellite uplink that would cause the disruption.

If enough people complain to DirecTV - maybe they'll set a fire under NBC to fix the problem. Like I've said - I've complained numerous times, and did get a discount for the next 3 months to keep me "happy" while this is looked into.

In the mean time, I'm waiting until my commitment to DirecTV is fufilled - then if HD isn't what it should be, it's off to I/O Digital Cable.

Again - thanks for letting me know what you're seeing through your OTA ...

Tim

 

[Robbert]

Hi Everyone,

I'm a long-time lurker on this board. Got tons of good info from here, but I just felt like responding to this thread.
I have an HR10-250 as well, running fine for the most part (although slow as hell compared to the DirecTivo Series 2 that I have as well). Pretty much as long as I can remember, I've had the momentary picture blanking and hiccups in both video and sometimes audio as well.
It's just now getting to the point where it's becoming very annoying as either the frequency of the hiccups is increasing or I'm becoming more sensitive to them. In any case, it seems to be happening at random in pretty much any show we watch in HD. Our SD Tivo's do not have this problem, and rewinding and playing back the area around the hiccup repeats it as well, which would indicate it was a broadcasting issue.

Now, what I'm really curious about is if anyone that has HD cable has seen anything like this. I understand some of you have seen this happen with OTA signals as well. I can't really test this since I don't seem to be able to receive any of those reliably. And, does this only happen with the HR10-250 or is it something that happens with other DirecTV HD receivers as well? How about the people that are watching live TV using the new MPEG4 receivers? I'm just wondering if it's an incompatibility issue with the HR10-250 and the way it processes the MPEG2 signal...

Just in case you're wondering, I'm in southern NH and get all the national East Coast HD Feeds through DirecTV.

 

[khark]

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.

What is the good of having a HD recorder if it only gets SD?

 

[sluciani]

Thanks for letting me know what's going on with your recordings. But, I think we got lost somewhere in the translation. I'm in Putnam County, New York and you're in Westchester County New York. At most, we have 50 miles between us, and we should both be using the New York (Channel 82) feed through DirecTV.

In the immortal words of Homer Simpson, "Doh!". I got your location mixed-up in my mind with avdiscolo's, earlier in this thread.

Glad to help. Wish I had recorded it on 82 as well to compare to OTA. If you want to try again, let me know.

/steve

 

[pudge44]

I had several picture blackouts, at least three, while watching "Four Kings" on live tv, channel 82 tonight. If these are happening simultaneously in feeds from D* and OTA, it has to be a network problem, right?

If it keeps up, I will be calling D* to complain. I've only had HD for a week, and my wife is already making faces at me every time it happens.

 

[sda3]

Im going to argue and say that it is the HR10-250. I have the same problem occasionally, but if I back up in the recording many times I can see what I missed. It seems to be a problem with the HR10 at least on my end. Im chalking it up to HDMI problems with the unit. Which in my case would explain why the audio continues to my reciever.

 

[sluciani]

Im going to argue and say that it is the HR10-250. I have the same problem occasionally, but if I back up in the recording many times I can see what I missed.

I believe these are different problems.

The problem Sda3 was able to resolve by backing-up is what I believe we on this forum call "stutter", which I experience two variations of sometimes. In one case, the picture hiccups but sound remains continuous. In the other case, the picture remains OK, but the sound drops out for a second.

The problem pudge44 experienced with 4 Kings sounds like the 1-second "blackouts", which do emanate from NBC, not D*.

/steve

 

[markrw58]

I was going to post about a problem I am having with my local NBC affiliate here in Sacramento (KCRA) maybe this is all related. I have the HD 250 also and in the last 24 hours I have stopped receiving any picture on for my OTA NBC HD channel. Checked the meter strength and it stays between 88 and 90 more than enough for a picture but the message I receive on screen is antenna/signal strength problem.

What do you think same issue?

Mark

 

[Ragsy]

I doubt whether Mark's problem of total blackout is the same issue. Sounds like something else going on there. With regard to the stutters and blackouts, I get both. I suspect that some of it is related to the broadcast itself and some of it may be related to something inherent in the HR10-250 boxes. There definitely seems to be something wrong with the HR10-250 in general since so many people have stuttering or blackout issues with this box. The mystery, to me, is why some people with the HR10-250 have these issues while others don't. If someone can solve that mystery you may be able to get to the root of the problem. There are many, many times that the stutter or blackout occurs on both OTA and Satellite at the same time when the same broadcast is on both. That would indicate a possible broadcast problem, but then why doesn't everyone experience this problem at the same moment???

 

[pudge44]

Saw many frequent drop outs on NBCE channel 82 last night. I may place a complaint call to D* today just to get this on record. Once in a while I can live with. 5-6 times during a half-hour show is not what I paid for.

 

[avdiscolo]

I just noticed something today. I get the "blank outs" even when fast forwarding through a recorded show. If the "blank out" was only in the recorded show, I would expect the progress indicator to still be visible, but it wasn't. The entire picture went blank. This almost sounds like a video output problem to me now.

Do other people see entire picture "blank outs" when fast forwarding through a recorded show?

Anthony

 

[joetoronto]

I just noticed something today. I get the "blank outs" even when fast forwarding through a recorded show. If the "blank out" was only in the recorded show, I would expect the progress indicator to still be visible, but it wasn't. The entire picture went blank. This almost sounds like a video output problem to me now.

Do other people see entire picture "blank outs" when fast forwarding through a recorded show?

Anthony

i haven't noticed any while fast forwarding but i have during playback at normal speed.

 

[good.deals]

I have some new info from the Directivo forum... I have the same problem and another guy thinks its the HDMI port.

He has a panasonic tv and they told him it might be the hr10-250 hdmi port. However, I also have a panasonic. We both have the same problem

It's either the HDMI port on the hr10 or the port on the panasonic.

Let me know what kind of TV's you have and if you have your connection through your hdmi port.

-Nathan

 

[good.deals]

Everyone using HDMI? If so, what kind of TV do you have?

 

[joetoronto]

Everyone using HDMI? If so, what kind of TV do you have?

not everyone. i'm too scared to try it, i just don't feel it's worth the risk.

 

[pudge44]

I have the same problem using HDMI and a Samsung DLP.

 

[clueless2]

I have the "one second" video blackouts and I use component. It happens most frequently on NBC (D* NY feed) although I have seen it occasionally on CBS. (D* NY feed) I still think it is either the network or D*.

I can't get OTA so I can't compare the two.

 

[stivovance]

I have seen this on all the major networks through Directv HD New York Locals. I just can't see this being all the networks are having problems at the same time. I still think directv is the cause of the problem(s). I've watched Chicago OTA for our WB and UPN and haven't seen a problem yet, but for the major networks, don't get a great signal yet for OTA so I can't compare.