[gquiring]

Just curious, what is the HD satellite signal strength for those of you with this problem?

My sat strength on all three is a low of 91 and averages 93. I watched Lost and Invasion last night on ABC NY (86) and no black outs. I watched my recording of last nights Olympics with blackouts and stuttering every few minutes. I did get one very short stutter on UHD today but so far the bulk of my issues are NBC.

 

[ntakidoo]

After reading this and similar threads on other forums, I feel like it's pretty safe to conclude that the problem is the HR10-250 itself. Something is just plain sick in its innerds.

Why?

Happens with HDMI
Happens with component
Happens with S-Video
Happens with various TVs/monitors
Happens with various dishes
Happens with various multi-switches
Happens when watching live TV
Happens when watching recorded programs
Happens when not watching anything, just navigating Tivo menus

Doesn't seem to happen when:

People use a different HD receiver
People use an OTA and a different box

And since they've phased this box out, they don't care, they never have, and there won't be a fix. All we can do is hope the HR20 is better (at least in terms of dropouts - we know it won't be better in terms of DVR interface...no Tivo!).

For what it's worth, I hooked up my whole system to a UPS and the problem diminished significantly. For now....

My $0.02, y'all.

 

[Ragsy]

I really don't believe the solution is hooking the HR10-250 to a UPS, but I would be interested in a follow up in a few days as to whether hooking up to a UPS really has decreased the blackout or stuttering problem. It doesn't really make sense to me, but . . .

 

[gquiring]

I have had a UPS on my HR10-250 from day one.

I don't think it's the HR10-250 because when I first received it there were no black outs. Why the black outs appear more on NBC than any other channel has to be a clue. I don't think I have ever seen a black out on HBO (70), CBS (80) or FOX (88).

 

[Ragsy]

Here on the West Coast (Los Angeles) I see the most video problems (blackouts, pixellation, stuttering) on NBC, ABC and ESPN HD. On NBC and ABC the problem is on both Satellite and OTA. I agree that normally FOX, CBS and HBO are better, although last week CSI on CBS was very bad. Also, live sporting events have issues on Fox and CBS from time to time.

 

[Cudahy]

Glad to finally find a thread about this. I've had this problem with my second HDTivo for many months. I assumed it was my Hitachi HDtv since the blackouts were usually associated with a sudden bright light or flash(information overload); but after reading this thread I guess I'll call the TV repairman to not come tomorow. It's annoying enough that we'll probably just watch SD for now(never happens in 480).
In my case there doesn't seem to be any correlation with what channel we're watching, just whether its HD or not.

 

[Cudahy]

Just did a test. We watched 10 minutes of the Olympics on 1080 - 6 blackouts; rewound it, no blackouts in SD. Then the surprise; rewound it and watched it in 720 - no blackouts!
Maybe we'll be able to watch HD in 720 without blackouts!

 

[ntakidoo]

If only D* were trying as hard to determine the cause of our problems as we are...

 

[Ragsy]

Good luck on the 720, but I have the same problems regardless of whether the Tivo is set to 720 or 1080. No difference at all. Any update on the blackouts with the UPS hooked up??

 

[joetoronto]

Just did a test. We watched 10 minutes of the Olympics on 1080 - 6 blackouts; rewound it, no blackouts in SD. Then the surprise; rewound it and watched it in 720 - no blackouts!
Maybe we'll be able to watch HD in 720 without blackouts!

wtf

you rewound it, played it back in SD and there's no blackouts?

 

[Wirelezz]

Just did a test. We watched 10 minutes of the Olympics on 1080 - 6 blackouts; rewound it, no blackouts in SD. Then the surprise; rewound it and watched it in 720 - no blackouts!
Maybe we'll be able to watch HD in 720 without blackouts!

I find that hard to believe. I still have my HD recording of the opening ceremonies of the Olympics which has numerous blackouts. I played back several of those sections using 480i (on my Sony 32" SD CRT); 480p, 720p, & 1080i (on my Panny 42" HD Plasma). As one would expect, the blackouts were there no matter what output was selected. I mean come on, what's recorded on the hard drive "stays on the hard drive" - playing it back using different rez outputs isn't going to change anything.

Anyone else try this?

 

[Ragsy]

Agreed. Once the blackout is there, it doesn't make any difference what resolution you play it back at. By the way, I get these problems on HD reception regardless of what the resolution is set to during the recording. Even if it is set to 480, rather than 720 0r 1080, I get blackouts and stuttering on HD programming.

 

[Cudahy]

We watched 2 hours of the Olympics last night on 720 without any blackouts. Judging from the very different responses on this thread the combination of the box, the TV , and the connections create different situations.
In my case I'm assuming that our TV has problems with the HDtivo's 1080 feed but is able to handle the 720. It's clear that the "blackouts" are not in the received signal but in the transference to a television. With the current HD250 there is an occasional information overload in 1080.
With some of you it may something very different; the received signal, the interaction with a different TV set, etc.
For me it looks like I can avoid the blackouts by leaving it at 720. When I first got HD I thought you had to watch 1080 channels in 1080. Now the only difference between 720 and 1080 that we can see is the blackouts.

 

[ntakidoo]

Okay, I know that it hasn't helped everyone, but for what it's worth, our dropouts diminished dramatically (although they did not disappear altogether) once we hooked everything up to the UPS.

Just thought I'd throw that out there.


As for the rest of the issue...

Am I the only one who has seen the video dropout happen when NOT watching a live or recorded feed, but while navigating within the Tivo menu system?? Haven't heard anyone else mention this, but it has happened to me (pre-UPS).

Very curious to hear if anyone else has experienced this.

 

[gquiring]

Okay, I know that it hasn't helped everyone, but for what it's worth, our dropouts diminished dramatically (although they did not disappear altogether) once we hooked everything up to the UPS

I have had a UPS on my HR10-250 from day one. The dropouts and black screens for me are almost entirely on NBC HD NY (82). I rarely get any issues on any other channel. I also see the issues watching SD broadcasts on channel 82. I watched the US hockey today on 82 and I don't think I saw a single issue, go figure.

 

[swannie]

I have the same flickering with playback on my H10-250.....it happens both on the OTA and triple lnb dish. Signal strength is over 85 on both. I may try the UPS but I have to plead dumb here as I do not know what that is. I do not get black outs as much as I get picture/audio flickering. Thanks for your help!

 

[Wirelezz]

I have the same flickering with playback on my H10-250.....it happens both on the OTA and triple lnb dish. Signal strength is over 85 on both. I may try the UPS but I have to plead dumb here as I do not know what that is. I do not get black outs as much as I get picture/audio flickering. Thanks for your help!

swannie,

UPS stands for "Uninterrupted Power Supply." It is a battery powered device which continues to supply power to your Tivo, or entire entertainment system in the event of an intermittent or total power failure. A good UPS will also "condition" and maintain proper voltage (120V) and pure sine wave when there are power surges or voltage variations or "brownouts."

I use an APC1400 UPS which will keep my entire entertainment system running for over an hour in the event of a total power outage. APC (American Power Conversion) is one of the best manufacturers of UPS's.

Large capacity UPS's are not cheap, but bargains are to be had on eBay everyday.

In regards to this "blackout" problem, the addition of a UPS (while desirable) IMHO will not make a bit of difference. I've always used a UPS with my system and I still get the "blackouts." As far as I'm concerned this problem is an interruption of the HD video/audio stream from the satellite and is either originating from D*'s NOC or the Networks themselves. I've seen a noticeable improvement over the last few days however, especially in regards to the Olympics.

 

[gquiring]

As far as I'm concerned this problem is an interruption of the HD video/audio stream from the satellite and is either originating from D*'s NOC or the Networks themselves. I've seen a noticeable improvement over the last few days however, especially in regards to the Olympics.

100% agree with you. The last two days the Olympics on 82 has been almost flawless. UPS makes no difference except that is a huge help when you have a blip on your power, waiting for the Tivo to boot and download is about a 5 minute issue, I can't imagine watching 24 and having to wait that long!!

 

[swannie]

Thank you very much for you help! It now makes sense!

 

[khark]

The problem has been much less for the last couple of days on the Olympics until last night toward the end if the broadcast. The blanks started with alarming frequency when the ski jump coverage stared making the broadcast unwatchable. It cleared up after 10 or 15 minutes.