Glitchy video just started on stable system. Thoughts?

[qodfathr]

My Win7 WMC has been super fine and dandy for a long time. Just this week, TV playback has become glitchy -- it gets blocky for a second every now and then. Often, the audio gets out of sync with the video for a period of time before it glitches. Noteably, the glitches are even in recorded tv. It's as if I'm getting dropouts from the InfiniTV 4.

I also have a cable box (my backup in case WMC blows up or needs extended maintenance). It's picture is rock-solid, so I don't think it's a signal issue coming into the house.

The InfiniTV 4 is shared out of a server to the WMC PC. There have been no changes to our networking.

I see the issue both in native WMC and via Extenders. (98% of our viewing is via Echos.)

Thoughts on how best to troubleshoot? Does this sound like a software issue (we patch regularly), or has anyone seen this as a precursor to a failing InfiniTV or CableCard?

Many thanks!

[Crash2009]

Don't even bother trying to figure it out. Just use System Restore.

[Crash2009]

On second thought, maybe check for overheating first. Dust bunnies on the heatsinks, slow/stopped fan. The tools are in the link below.

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 180#p20180

[qodfathr]

Thanks -- I will checking for overheating. Unfortunately, my oldest restore point is two days ago, and the problem started like 5 days ago.

I also just remembered that I also have an OTA USB turner hooked up -- only used in the rare case when FiOS goes out. I just watched some TV via that tuner and it seemed very stable. This does seem to suggest an InfiniTV or CableCard issue.

[Crash2009]

click on Show More Restore Points

[qodfathr]

I did.

[Crash2009]

Well maybe you should turn on system restore and create an image NOW. Before we go any further. Also backup your router cfg.

[cwinfield]

Your recording hard drive could be going bad. I had 2 different drives start doing this a couple of weeks before failure.

[qodfathr]

RESOLVED. I was able to correlate the video glitches with drops in network transmissions between the server (where the InfiniTV is) and the WMC7. Since there were no driver updates, my suspicion turned to my network infrastructure. I have some pretty beefy, managed switches. They literally run for years without requiring any intervention. But, rather than doing a lot of investigation, which I could have done given all of the data they expose, I simply rebooted them.

Problem solved.

The root cause could have been almost anything (memory, firmware bug, other equipment bugging them out, etc.) If/when this happens again in-or-around 2017, I'll know what to do.

Thanks for all of the suggestions!