Pixelation issues driving me insane... anyone else?

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J3ff

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Pixelation issues driving me insane... anyone else?

#1

Post by J3ff » Wed Apr 29, 2015 12:26 am

The driving me crazy part is that I can't nail down the cause..

Here's why:
(Cablevision in the North East US is the provider).

I've had my setup for 8 or so years.. it's an old Dell XPS, Ceton 4 tuner card (one of the first) and Windows 7 x64, it's been fine for 5+ years and only in the last year has been doing this.

Symptoms are:
On tuesday night at 823pm EST
- Want to watch channel 707 (abcHD) pixelated to CRAP, unwatchable. (I really want to watch Agents of Shield at 9pm in HD but never can because of this!
- Switch to Channel 7 (Non HD ABC) perfectly fine.
- Switch to Channel 705 (Fox HD) PERFECT HD quality.
- Switch to 704 (NBC HD) perfectly fine..
- Switch to 780 (SmithHD) and it's just a wall of green pixels... No sound, and now it's frozen saying "weak tv signal"
- Switch to 799 (Nat Geo Wild) and it's beautiful clear HD!!!
- 80% of the channels seem to be okay.
- However I seem to want to watch the 20% that aren't!


Now, the real crazy part is that I have recordings from both 707 and 780 that are perfectly clear, they are different times of day and different shows, but they come through with no errors!

Anyone have any clue what that might be??

J3ff

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#2

Post by J3ff » Wed Apr 29, 2015 3:22 am

And get this..

I switch back over to 780 (smithHD) at 11pm.. and it is PERFECTLY CLEAR? just 2.5 hours ago it was unwatchable.. I"m watching it live right now and NOT ONE TINY pixelation..

WTF !!!

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Crash2009

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#3

Post by Crash2009 » Wed Apr 29, 2015 3:59 am

Run some signal tests to see if your losing signal at those times. Do you have a copy of AllCetonSignals.zip?

Are you saying that the display is pixelated but the recording is fine? Its tough to word this right for some reason. When you see the pixilation hit the record button, Later play the recording. Does the recording play fine even though the display was pixelated during the recording?

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#4

Post by J3ff » Wed Apr 29, 2015 10:33 am

I do not have ceton signals.

Doesn't matter if it's a recording or not or if you press record.

I happened to be recording 780 at 823pm. If you try to watch it live, it's garbage... if you were to go to that recording right now it'd be unwatchable still.

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DavidinCT

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#5

Post by DavidinCT » Wed Apr 29, 2015 12:51 pm

I have one of the Ceton 4 tuner cards (yea, one of the first) I deal with this type of thing time to time, not all the time but, every once and a while. Sometimes a recording will be so blocky that it is unable to be watched (sometimes it will play and every few seconds, it will be perfect then turn to a mess, then finally go loss of signal). It's a strange random problem in my case, some days it will be perfect, others not, Sometimes just a recording will be a mess but, other times live TV only. It's not a per channel thing, It can happen on local channels or premium channels, with no rhyme or reason for it (some days 3 things recording in the background, and other days nothing else recording)

You might of had some cable changes in your area, that could of weakened the signal. The best thing to start with, if possible, run a strait cable from the cableline coming into the home DIRECTLY into the Ceton card when your having these issues. See if this resolves this. Also there was some beta firmwares for the card, try to apply some of those, it seemed to help me a little (much rarer now).

I know you cant always run direct from the line into the house (cable modem ?) but, this normally will show if there is interference in your home that could be causing an issue. It could be you had a splitter just go haywire, I have seen it before. It could be a $10 fix for a good quality splitter.

Was there any changes that you did before this started ? New video card, new hard drive, etc? Do you do all Windows Updates ?
-Dave
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Crash2009

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#6

Post by Crash2009 » Wed Apr 29, 2015 1:24 pm

J3ff wrote:I do not have ceton signals.

Doesn't matter if it's a recording or not or if you press record.

I happened to be recording 780 at 823pm. If you try to watch it live, it's garbage... if you were to go to that recording right now it'd be unwatchable still.
Can you play the unwatchable video on another computer?

Have you opened a Support Ticket with Ceton?

http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... 423#p73423

You got me convinced. The TV is screwed. The signal is the easiest to fix. eliminate that first.

It's been so long since you installed that. Have you forgotten about the Ceton Diagnostic. Lets have a screen capture All five pages. Somewhere in there, hit the Upload Diagnostic and send to Ceton
Attachments
Diagnostic.JPG
Last edited by Crash2009 on Wed Apr 29, 2015 1:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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#7

Post by IownFIVEechos » Wed Apr 29, 2015 1:34 pm

I would say it is either a full hard drive, or hard drive going bad. I just updated my machine. I had a similar situation. When all three tuners ran some channels would block more than others. I also updated the CPU so that may have helped too as well as video card. But I first looked at signals, removed splitters etc. etc. I had gotten premium channels added to my subscription when I first noticed this; but I think it is because I never used all three until I had a reason to record more. I would either change the location of the recordings to another drive on the system or plug in a USB drive, even if it is a key and test it. Good luck!

Bottom line is hardware fixed my pixilation issues, something I would have said you are crazy; it has to be a signal issue.

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#8

Post by J3ff » Wed May 06, 2015 1:13 am

Thank you all for the advice.

Here's the frustrating part.

I am watching Agents of sheild right now. Same time, same place, same channel as 1 week ago, which prompted this post. Right now, after not changing ONE THING AT ALL (sorry busy week) it's perfectly fine, super clear HD and perfect sound.

How can this be my WMC and computer if right now I'm watching the same show in crystal clear HD that was unwatchable (unless I switched to SD) last week at the same time??

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#9

Post by DavidinCT » Wed May 06, 2015 2:17 am

J3ff wrote:Thank you all for the advice.

Here's the frustrating part.

I am watching Agents of sheild right now. Same time, same place, same channel as 1 week ago, which prompted this post. Right now, after not changing ONE THING AT ALL (sorry busy week) it's perfectly fine, super clear HD and perfect sound.

How can this be my WMC and computer if right now I'm watching the same show in crystal clear HD that was unwatchable (unless I switched to SD) last week at the same time??
Agreed, no rhyme or reason for it, same problem here, Maybe it's first gen CETON cards, it seems to be common on them (not the first time I have seen this issue)

It happens to me, and it's really annoying making some channels not viewable.
-Dave
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#10

Post by Crash2009 » Wed May 06, 2015 2:22 am

Obviously the "Time" has nothing to do with it. It's some other influence. Could be a bad coax outside (got wet, squirrel damage, etc.) or maybe something inside (check your Windows Event Viewer for clues)

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#11

Post by J3ff » Wed May 06, 2015 2:24 am

just noticed another program recorded on 780 tonight, same time as last week.. (air crash)

Guess what, totally clear! Not one single box of pixelation.

The only change in outside - the temp was up at 80 ish today vs 60ish last week.

I have had cablevision out here MULTIPLE times and they say the signal is within acceptable ranges each time. I gave up on it being their fault a few months ago, but I just don't get it.

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#12

Post by Crash2009 » Wed May 06, 2015 2:38 am


J3ff

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#13

Post by J3ff » Thu May 14, 2015 10:46 pm

havent changed anything, have not called the cable company, for the last two weeks I've had 0 problems.

color me confused.

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#14

Post by Crash2009 » Fri May 15, 2015 3:58 am

Might be a good idea to run the signal tests in the link I gave ya. That way you have something to compare to when it mysteriously screws up again. Also there is no pressure right now to find a fix. Try and make the time, we have all been through it. It's your turn.

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#15

Post by J3ff » Tue May 19, 2015 2:08 am

And now. Tonight. I have 0 channels. Not 1. Great. Off to Amazon FireTV I go.

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#16

Post by Crash2009 » Tue May 19, 2015 11:19 am

I guess you better leave the signal the way it is. If you fix it, you will have nothing to gripe about.

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#17

Post by koberhol » Tue May 19, 2015 3:06 pm

<< Deer in Headlights Look! :shock: I never expected this would wind up with a plug for Amazon Fire TV!

Actually, sorry to hear your frustration. I can't speak for all but IMO some tuners by design seem to be more affected by non-perfect signal. I base this opinion on the fact that every time I see pixelation or any other oddity I check the one tv that is connected to my cable providers Digital Adapter! Cheap looking tiny box device but somehow is NEVER affected by these things! Explain that! Some Day.. Some Where.. In a galaxy not so far away... A Commercial/High Grade HTPC Tuner will be found! Probably 3 Days before guide data is cancelled. :mrgreen:

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#18

Post by Phoenix » Sun Jul 28, 2019 1:34 am

I searched for this because I realized the same thing. It was only agents of shield that was pixelated.. all other recordings are Crystal clear. After reading these posts it's definitely something from the actual production. Maybe for some reason their final cut delivered onto the cable provider didn't convert correctly as a recording?? It's definitely the show not the service provider

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#19

Post by RedWMC » Sat Aug 03, 2019 12:00 am

Phoenix wrote: Sun Jul 28, 2019 1:34 am I searched for this because I realized the same thing. It was only agents of shield that was pixelated.. all other recordings are Crystal clear. After reading these posts it's definitely something from the actual production. Maybe for some reason their final cut delivered onto the cable provider didn't convert correctly as a recording?? It's definitely the show not the service provider
Phoenix - I started to have issues a few years ago like this and found that it was a specific tuner on my ceton. What I did to find out was I setup 3 recordings at the same time and then located what tuner recorded what and what had the issue. I just disabled that specific tuner. Then a few months later the remaining tuners had issues and I decided to throw out my ceton and move to HDHomeRun.

However ya you may have just had issues with the cable providers feed of that show. I ran into them injecting commercials into TWD this last week. So it cut about a minute total during the show with 15 second commercial spots at various times after the show started.

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