infiniTV & macroblocking

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thorhtpc

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infiniTV & macroblocking

#1

Post by thorhtpc » Mon Aug 13, 2012 9:41 pm

[mod edit - split from http://thegreenbutton.tv/forums/viewtop ... 766#p15789 ]

I also have this problem now. I have had my setup running fine for over a year and rarely saw the macroblocking line. A week ago FIOS decided to enable the 'Copy Once' flag for HBO and Cinamax. Now I am seeing the line of corruption at least once a minute on these channels. I don't see how setting a flag in the stream can corrupt the video. The only thing I can think of is that when the flag is set, Ceton has to re-encrypt the video stream before it's save to disk and errors are being introduced. It must be an error on silicon and there is nothing they can do about it. A definite bummer. :(

Ltalianguy

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#2

Post by Ltalianguy » Thu Oct 04, 2012 5:29 am

Has there been any progress with this issue? I just finished setting up my htpc and I've noticed the macroblocking errors appear a few times.

Diverge

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#3

Post by Diverge » Thu Oct 04, 2012 12:25 pm

Open support tickets if you haven't. Not that they will resolve your issue any time soon, but the more tickets in for this problem, the more they know how widespread it is. They aren't going to say anything in the forums, or even in your ticket as to the reason - at least that is my guess.

JohnW248

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#4

Post by JohnW248 » Thu Oct 04, 2012 1:35 pm

IF this is related to a copy protection issue, it would be helpful to know if the user has a Moto or Cisco card (the copy protection encryption is different) Also the FW on the cableCARD. This is on the Diagnostic screen on the Cisco card and for example here it is: OS Ver: PKEY1.5.2_F.p.3101--someone with a Moto card will have to reveal the location of the FW on that device.

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btracy

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#5

Post by btracy » Fri Oct 05, 2012 2:04 am

My ticket from last year is still open with them and hasn't been updated. To my knowledge this hasn't been fixed yet.

justincase102

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#6

Post by justincase102 » Mon Oct 08, 2012 6:51 pm

I have the same issue with the Ceton Usb. The macroblocking issue is present regardless of the ceton firmware/hardware version. I'm running the latest beta 1.2.1.1/6409. You can find the Motorola Cablecard FW version by navigating to the http://cetonipaddress/get_cc_url?CableCARD///ps/ps

Mine is:
Manufacturer: Motorola
FW Version: 02.65, 02.01, 03.25
HW Version: 0469927002

richard1980

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#7

Post by richard1980 » Mon Oct 08, 2012 9:12 pm

JohnW248 wrote:IF this is related to a copy protection issue, it would be helpful to know if the user has a Moto or Cisco card (the copy protection encryption is different) Also the FW on the cableCARD. This is on the Diagnostic screen on the Cisco card and for example here it is: OS Ver: PKEY1.5.2_F.p.3101--someone with a Moto card will have to reveal the location of the FW on that device.
I don't think it is related to copy protection because I see the line of pixelation on my local ClearQAM channels (no copy protection). Here's a screenshot from a local news broadcast from KWTV:
Untitled.jpg

barnabas1969

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#8

Post by barnabas1969 » Tue Oct 09, 2012 5:19 pm

The picture that was posted by Richard is exactly what I see when watching some programs on the TV that is connected directly to the PC. However, when watching the exact same show on an extender, the problem is gone. This indicates that the problem is my video card. I've tried two different video cards (ATI and nVidia), and both had a similar problem. I even replaced my Ceton InfiniTV with a SiliconDust HD HomeRun Prime. It had the same problem... so my problem was not caused by the InfiniTV.

I liked the HDHRP for other reasons, and kept it. But before you blame Ceton for your problem, make sure to verify that the same problem happens on an extender. Record a show that has this problem, and watch it on both the PC and an extender. If the problem goes away on the extender, then the InfiniTV is not to blame.

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MeInDallas

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#9

Post by MeInDallas » Fri Oct 19, 2012 2:24 am

I hate to hear everyone is having this issue, but I was super happy to find this website, and find that I'm not the only person having this issue. I did do a support ticket thru Ceton and they answered right away, but it looks as though they just pasted some generic answer to me about my signal level etc etc in the response. Well hopefully there will be some firmware upgrade to fix this one day. It's not as bad on mine as some. I get the macroblocking maybe once every 30 minutes. I have however noticed that I get it more on a channel thats on SDV than one thats not. Either way I do love my new Ceton card, and cant wait for the 6 tuner one.

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#10

Post by jacobsjg » Thu Nov 15, 2012 12:22 pm

I just set up my htpc a few weeks ago, had Charter come out to get my signal looking stronger by the ceton, and see this issue on copy once channels. I'll open up a ceton ticket at some point when I have time to get all the info they need, but wanted to post here so I can atleast track anything relevant others see, as this seems to be the most recent post about this issue that is still somewhat active.

scyto

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#11

Post by scyto » Tue Nov 27, 2012 1:44 am

I agree, I think this is entirely video card related. Over the years I have owned ATI and NVIDIA cards and ATI and ceton tuners.
I had issues like this with sound drop out and when I changed my ATI video card to an NVIDIA one the issue changed to no sound drop out and a few graphical issues.
Now the sound dropouts are back (one channel only - NBC) I am convinced it was when I updated my drivers.

I think the issue is due to how the video card decided how to handle errors / dropouts of signal - I have no idea how to fix it.

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MeInDallas

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#12

Post by MeInDallas » Thu Nov 29, 2012 10:19 am

It seems as though for me, that this issue has disappeared with the latest beta firmware update that was released 11/28/12. I updated mine early in the afternoon, and havent seen any macroblocking since. Anyone else having great luck with this? :thumbup:

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#13

Post by jacobsjg » Thu Nov 29, 2012 2:34 pm

I saw and applied the update last night, and in the 15 minutes or so if testing I did I didn't see any artifacts, however there have already been stretches where I don't see them for 15 minutes anyways. There is no real changelog I have been able to track down other than http://cetoncorp.com/infinitv_support/b ... er-update/ which may indicate it is just a release to get things working better under Windows 8 or something.

We can always hope that they finally found a fix for the artifact issue- as a relatively new owner of the ceton card, the artifacts have been bothering me more and more.

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MeInDallas

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#14

Post by MeInDallas » Thu Nov 29, 2012 8:29 pm

Yea I know what you mean, I'm new to the Ceton card as well. I've had great luck with it, just the macroblocking was getting to me. It's really noticeable on a 60 inch screen.

I watched several shows last night and some this morning and I've yet to see anymore going across. I was trying to find a release notes webpage, but no luck. Well, I'll keep watching tonight and hopefully this is the end of it.

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#15

Post by barnabas1969 » Fri Nov 30, 2012 10:19 pm

MeInDallas wrote:Yea I know what you mean, I'm new to the Ceton card as well. I've had great luck with it, just the macroblocking was getting to me. It's really noticeable on a 60 inch screen.

I watched several shows last night and some this morning and I've yet to see anymore going across. I was trying to find a release notes webpage, but no luck. Well, I'll keep watching tonight and hopefully this is the end of it.
I know what you mean about the 60" screen. Have you tried it with an extender?

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MeInDallas

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#16

Post by MeInDallas » Sat Dec 01, 2012 12:57 am

barnabas1969 wrote:
MeInDallas wrote:Yea I know what you mean, I'm new to the Ceton card as well. I've had great luck with it, just the macroblocking was getting to me. It's really noticeable on a 60 inch screen.

I watched several shows last night and some this morning and I've yet to see anymore going across. I was trying to find a release notes webpage, but no luck. Well, I'll keep watching tonight and hopefully this is the end of it.
I know what you mean about the 60" screen. Have you tried it with an extender?
I dont have one yet. I'm still making my move away from Tivo, so I have 2 left that are still on contract until February. I plan on getting a couple of the new Echo's soon though. Seems like all the macroblocking is gone now since the new beta firmware update. I havent seen it any at all, not even once since I updated, which makes me extremely happy :D

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#17

Post by scyto » Sat Dec 01, 2012 3:26 am

I had macro blocking issues on a channel, I have yet to see what signal strength is but on a whim I did playback on the ceton extender. Instead of getting a strange broken set of grey blocks and sound drops it did smooshing pixelation over an area and sound kept playing. I tried rolling back the PC video card drivers and it did change the macro blocking and had less sound drop (though some). This means the video card is definitely a factor in how the macro locking will manifest in terms of negative effects.

I just noticed I was way behind on firmware and hardware version. (1.0.9.5 and 4884 respectively) updating to latest stable failed with a verification error :-(. Guess I should try latest beta?

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MeInDallas

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#18

Post by MeInDallas » Sat Dec 01, 2012 5:04 am

Well, it looks like youre way behind, but I hate to tell you to update. I'm new to this whole Ceton thing. I had bought my first one a couple of months ago and got it installed, and my first try updating the firmware it kept failing, and Ceton sent me another one with the beta firmware installed already when I got it. I just seen the newest update and tried to install it and it worked perfectly. I do have to say I'm finally impressed with the Ceton card now. I'm so picky when it comes to the picture on my TV, and the macroblocking was really getting on my nerves. I havent seen it since updating to the latest beta firmware though. I was getting it every 15 to 20 minutes on a SDV channel, sometimes more depending on the channel. On my local channels I rarely ever saw it. Now its completely disappeared.

You might wanna try the beta and see what happens.

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#19

Post by jacobsjg » Sat Dec 01, 2012 11:12 am

Ditto on no macroblocking seen with new beta so far. Re the videocard being a factor, yes. The stream of data with the old drivers likely had some sort of error, and different video cards handle errors in different ways. Whether a line of macro blocking or a less obnoxious group of bad pixels around an area, a video card / driver update may make the problem less noticeable, but the stream of data was clearly broken in some way. The new beta seems to no longer break it.

I am hopeful that they may have handled this issue in the latest beta, but need much more viewing time to be 100% convinced, as I did have stretches where it seemed to be fine for an entire show / movie before. Those were quite rare though, and does look good now!

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#20

Post by scyto » Sat Dec 01, 2012 3:29 pm

My issue was / is almost 100% confined to CBS HD on Comcast (Seattle) and happened every 5 to 10 minutes.
I updated last night to the beta everything, so far I haven't seen any signal related issues, looks like the beta firmware and hardware update may be the trick, will keep testing.

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