Philadelphia, PA - Verizon - Page 72

As previously mentioned, Fox Soccer HD went live today on 584.

IMG 1.9 rollout should begin later this week. 1st on tap "should" be the Harrisburg, PA and Buffalo/Syracuse VHO's.

Starting slow...but a great sign nonetheless.

Matt... care to venture a guesstimate on when VHO8 will get updated?

Steve-
Not sure of IMG rollout - not even I've been told that yet - but from what I hear we'll be "in the middle"...

I'm still experiencing pixelation and audio dropouts on several channels. Is there any news about the "research" they were doing for this problem?

Did this actually happen? Anyone on here actually have 1.9?

I'm in Chester county PA anxiously awaiting the update...

Matt (jeepmatt) was running with this. I have been continually posting about this problem on DSL Reports.

The problem is not fixed and seems to be going back to a worse level, than before.

Last night was just horrible.

Just shot another email over -

Issues with 512 and 517 late last week were provider related (Not VZ's fault).

The previous issue was fixed - however, as I also stated on DSL Reports - examples of channel #'s and times help the most.

631, HD Theater, has been terrible, but I've also experienced the problem with an On Demand movie that I purchased. The pixelation shows as a streaking line across the image that varies in height and in placement on the screen.

Jim,

I have had the pixelation problem with 2 VOD movies that we rented. It's pretty terrible, at least the last one.

Matt says that when this happens to him, he stops the VOD, reboots the STB and restarts the movie. That fixes the problem.

I think that is an agreeable workaround, however, they really need to solve the underlying problem. It's totally not acceptable for this to happen - ever!

I'm very frustrated with the quality of my service lately and I just opened a ticket to request a tech to come out and fix the damn problem!!!!!!!!!!!

We'll see what happens.

Keep us informed, because I'm also frustrated by this, but not to the extent that I no longer think that FiOS is the best of the cable providers. With you getting the same problem, it rules out the local distribution boxes for the various neighborhoods. The workaround that you mentioned seems to be a drastic disruption to the movie, but if it works, sure beats the constant interruptions to the audio and video.

I'm less pissed off about the VOD (probably because I don't watch that much VOD) than I am about the annoying blips that seem to happen all evening long on the channels. Now, I find myself looking for them, which really distracts me from enjoying the content.

If it was happening since day-1, I'd be sensitized to it. But, I could probably count on one hand, the number of pixelations, drops, burps, etc. that happened over the last 2 years. Over the last few weeks, however, I'd need a calculator to add them all up.

I don't think it's unreasonable to expect that we should return to the days of an artifact free picture

Mine are mainly audio dropouts on the majority of channels, with the HD Theater being the exception and very distracting. Agreed, if the service wasn't always so pristine over the last few years, we'd think this was just like Comcast!!!

Jim - that's a problem here, too.

If you look really close, when you get an audio burp, you'll see that some pixelation is often times accompanying it. It ranges from very minor (small area) to major (entire image). Usually, it is very minor or less. But, it is almost always there.

See what I mean about not enjoying the content and looking for stuff?

Also check out the input indicators on your Denon. You'll see them blink, too.

I just logged an escalation ticket with VZ. I requested that they send a tech to troubleshoot locally at my house and at the local feeds to both our neighborhoods.

HD Theater, 631, was unwatchable early in the afternoon, with loads of pixelation and audio noise. They must have been working on it, because late afternoon, all the problems were gone. Clear and crisp now.

Thanks for that ticket Steve!

LOL - I'd be amazed if they actually fixed the problem that fast. I haven't had the opportunity to watch any programming tonight, but I will be able to watch some later. If things are as they have been for the last few weeks, the 11PM news on 503 will have drops & pixelation.

I did get an email from them, acknowledging the escalation ticket and that they will be working to isolate the problem. The Direct Forum over at DSL Reports is a great thing. Kim responded right away and get me logged into the system.

Fingers crossed they *finally* and *completely* solve the problem(s)!!!!

Didn't notice any problems last night using the OnDemand feature to view the King's Speech. Prior to this, OD had similar problems. This weekend will give the opportunity to run through more channels, so we'll see if their work is done for now!

Quick unrelated question... I think I noticed somewhere that on demand HD movies are limited to 480p... Is that true? That will really fire me up if so

Mike

No, On Demand HD is 1080i.

Update: Actually On Demand can be either 720p or 1080i, depending on where the source of the content originated from.

Interesting. My anthem D2v pre amp is reporting incoming as 480p. I have some investigating to do

Are you sure that you selected the HD flavor of the content?

Definitely. I'll mess with it when I return home next week

So, I get a call from tech support earlier this afternoon. They told me that they have been "monitoring the line" and everything looks fine. I asked them "how long have you been monitoring the 'line'?" They said for a couple days.

LOL - I told them that it's still happening and others are reporting it, too.

Long story - short.... tomorrow afternoon they are sending a tech to the house to start here and work their way back to the CO.

Any guesses? Sigh. It feels like Comcrap all over again

[from my posting over at DSL Reports Forum]

The tech arrived at 12:30 and was not aware that I had had several discussions with both the Direct Forum folks and the phone support folks. He was given a ticket to look for a problem at my house. Obviously, there is no hand-off between any of the support groups. Lovely!

So, we checked every outlet, every box and the connection at/from the ONT. Surprise - everything is well within spec. He offered to replace the ONT, since I had an older flavor. I accepted and he did that and we rechecked everything again... still perfect!

I brought him up to speed about other people in my neighborhood and VHO reporting similar problems. I gave him the link to this thread and the name of the Direct Forum rep who was helping me there.

He said that he would go back and start checking things, from my house back to the VHO.

Nice guy. Very willing to help solve the problem. However, I am realistically expecting to see the problem again & again.

So at this point the problem is non-existant, or just less often??? Over the weekend, I had some flashes of a black screen during the Flyers telecast, but I always assume those are transmission problems from the source rather than cable provider glitches.

You tell me. I didn't watch any TV this weekend. I will tonight, though I hope that they are gone, but I got a bad feeling.

Those blackouts are transmission glitches at the source or upload/download to the satellite.

Steve, what was the resolution of your problem? Did they get rid of the drop-outs and pixelation? I'm not getting any of these lately.

Your guess is as good as mine, Jim

The tech came out, replaced the ONT (it was a down-rev unit, so he gave me the latest & greatest) and switched out a splitter. The new ONT appears physically identical to the old one and the old splitter was the correct rated & type. So... who knows?

I still saw some problems afterwards and for a couple days following that. Then, we were watching one evening and noticed that there were no problems... It has been virtually pristine, on all channels, since then - about 5 days in a row.

Fingers crossed that is that!

That's good news! I get some black screen drop-outs during some broadcasts, like during the Phils game last night, but I assume these are source related and not attributable to FiOS.

If they are not HDMI handshakes, then yup - prolly source related. More likely with live broadcasts than with regular programming. If you're seeing them during normal TV shows, that could be a handshake.