# Tearing / Pixelization Issues



## sNEIRBO (Jul 23, 2006)

My ViP622 has recently developed a really annoying tearing / pixelization issue when it records HD programming. Is anyone else having this problem? Is it time to call DISH and ask for a replacement unit??

This unit has run flawlessly since I got it back in June. During the Christmas break I got a message saying "Contents on this hard drive have been corrupted and the hard drive needs to be erased." I did a power button reset on the unit and didn't lose anything, but now I'm getting really horrible HD recordings. Any ideas / suggestions?


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## AVITWeb (Jan 3, 2007)

sNEIRBO said:


> My ViP622 has recently developed a really annoying tearing / pixelization issue when it records HD programming. Is anyone else having this problem? Is it time to call DISH and ask for a replacement unit??
> 
> This unit has run flawlessly since I got it back in June. During the Christmas break I got a message saying "Contents on this hard drive have been corrupted and the hard drive needs to be erased." I did a power button reset on the unit and didn't lose anything, but now I'm getting really horrible HD recordings. Any ideas / suggestions?


Have you tried a hard reset?


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## sNEIRBO (Jul 23, 2006)

Holding the power button in until it resets?


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## AVITWeb (Jan 3, 2007)

sNEIRBO said:


> Holding the power button in until it resets?


No, removing power for a few and restarting it.

I was just asking...if anyone knows of a resaon not to, please let us know.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

No... soft and hard reset is always a good first move.. THough since you have been seeing it for a while it most likely has done a number of soft reboots. I think we need more on the pixelization issue to localize it.

Some typical questions to try and rule out possible external change that could show up as pixelization/tearing

What channels? 
Is it OTA or SAT or both? 
Is it on Live or Recorded? 
Frequency?
Specific channel or all channels?
Specific Time of day or all days?
If it is OTA, what are your signal strengths?
If only Sat, Check your transponders for any channels you are seeing it on and see if they are low. Low would be around 60. 

Trying a hard reboot, pulling the cord, wont hurt. 

As to getting a replacement. Well that is always painful so I suggest ruling out external variables first. Try to see if you can narrow down when it happens and what is the use case you are seeing if there is a particular one or ones..


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## sNEIRBO (Jul 23, 2006)

Ron -

I'll try to go through your list in order -

Channels vary - I've had problems with Discovery HD, and locals mostly (Detroit HD locals off of 118.7).

OTA seems to be fine. I get very clean looking video from OTA. The problem seems to be with the Sat channels. The worst I've seen was on the Sat HD Locals was the NBC Thursday night line up last week, 24 last night, ROME last night and EXTRAs last night. SD programming off of the Sat looks fine.

Happens off of recorded and live - it was dropping out, tearing, pixelating like an SOB during the Bears game yesterday afternoon.

Frequency - since late December I would say about 75% of the HD content I've recorded has been like this. There were long sections of 24 last night that looked great, then I'll get big chunks that are torn and pixelated.

Channels - recordings from Discover HD Theatre, HBO-HD, all the HD-locals

Time/Days - I record a LOT. It seems to happen all the time, any day right now.

NOT OTA.

Checked the Transponders -
110 - 75
118 - 59
119 - 60
129 - 75

Looks like the Dish needs to be re-aimed. Would numbers like that be causing the issues I'm seeing??

When I upgraded to the HD Locals, DISH put the monster sized 1000+ Dish up as well. They did a pole mount, even though I begged them not to. We've been having a TON of rain, and the ground is REALLY soft around here right now. The pole probably settled or shifted. I'm going to call DISH and tell them they need to get back out here to correct the mount.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Well they look a bit low to me and could be the cause but all depends what transponder these numbers relate to. Since you are seeing these on you locals a lot that would be a good one to check your transponder strength. You can find the transponder for your specific channel using the EKB link on the top of the page. See what numbers you are getting for those. 

Does look like more signal should help for sure.


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## sNEIRBO (Jul 23, 2006)

Transponder 4 & 5 on 118.75 for Detroit - both pulled low 60s on signal strength.

I called DISH tonight already - they're sending someone out on Wednesday. I asked to get the dish off of the pole mount and on to something more solid. DISH CS said it shouldn't be an issue, we'll see what the Tech says on Wednesday.


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## INHUMANITY (Aug 8, 2005)

AVITWeb said:


> Have you tried a hard reset?


Just curious: Does a hard reset put the 622 back to factory settings including the removal of the timers we have set?


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

report back sNeirbo if and improved signal fixes the issue.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

INHUMANITY said:


> Just curious: Does a hard reset put the 622 back to factory settings including the removal of the timers we have set?


Nope.... there is a function in that does but a hard reboot will not remove any timers or any of your settings.


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## sNEIRBO (Jul 23, 2006)

I did a hard reset yesterday afternoon - 24 had a lot of tearing/pixelization in it last night again. I'm hoping a realignment / more stable mount will solve the problems.


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## sNEIRBO (Jul 23, 2006)

The DISH Monkeys came out yesterday to re-align my dish. Still won't mount the dish on the roof - cited wind issues again. They locked the signal in to what they termed "near perfect", (110 - 95, 118 - 85, 119 - 95, 129 - 95) then told me that the tearing / pixelization issues will NOT go away on the Detroit HD Locals even though they re-aligned. Apparently it's a problem with the 118.7 Sat feeding the spotbeams to Metro Detroit. They told me that DISH Network's Techs know about the issue and are working on it. I find it funny that everything was fine until about late December, but now they're claiming there's issues with the bird.

Does anyone know anything about issues with 118.7 that sprang up recently??

Is anyone in St Louis (the only other city receiving their HD Locals off of 118.7) having the same types of issues?


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

sNeirbo,

Those are better numbers for sure. As for the issues. I think they are still tweaking locals in LA and those were the first to be added so I would be not be suprised if this is true but I don't know personally. Hopefully this improves things in general.


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## ryan8886 (Sep 19, 2006)

sNEIRBO said:


> The DISH Monkeys came out yesterday to re-align my dish. Still won't mount the dish on the roof - cited wind issues again. They locked the signal in to what they termed "near perfect", (110 - 95, 118 - 85, 119 - 95, 129 - 95) then told me that the tearing / pixelization issues will NOT go away on the Detroit HD Locals even though they re-aligned. Apparently it's a problem with the 118.7 Sat feeding the spotbeams to Metro Detroit. They told me that DISH Network's Techs know about the issue and are working on it. I find it funny that everything was fine until about late December, but now they're claiming there's issues with the bird.
> 
> Does anyone know anything about issues with 118.7 that sprang up recently??
> 
> Is anyone in St Louis (the only other city receiving their HD Locals off of 118.7) having the same types of issues?


Hey sNEIRBO! Been a while! 
I got the same error message around that time. Although most of my problems center around audio and are limited to the local HD's off 118.7. Those are some great numbers they got you up there. Can't remember what mine were when I first got hooked up, but I'm running mid-70's on 118 and 129 and between 100 and 105 on 119 and 110. 
I do get the pixleation issues you mentioned, but they come and go pretty quick. It's the audio that's driving me up a wall!  At least 10-15 times an episode (I only watch at night...can't speak for daytime) I get audio stutter on the HD locals. Other times, a whole show will be out of audio sync. ABC appears to be the worst for me, but NBC is not far behind. REALLY wish they'd get this fixed! 
As far as getting that dish up on your roof, if you're interested, I'll try to send you a PM with the name of the contractor that did mine.....yeah, you'll have to pay...but might be happier. Let me know.


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## sNEIRBO (Jul 23, 2006)

Ryan - 

I haven't had any audio issues lately. There were the problems with the audio being off by 10 - 15 secs when the HD Locals for Detroit first started on DISH, but nothing since.

I was out of town on Business for the past few days - I just watched "Knights of Prosperity" from Wednesday night - there was still some pixelization and tearing. There must be a problem in transmission somewhere. I'm now noticing that when I record via the OTA - I don't get the issues, only off of the HD Locals from the Sat. I'm going to go through my timers to see if I can get all the network stuff I record done off of the OTA. I know I can't do that with 24 on FOX since I can't get a clear signal from FOX on my OTA. The disappointing thing is that is the main reason I wanted the HD Locals was to get a clean feed on FOX for 24 - now it's not happening.


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## mit (Jan 31, 2007)

sNEIRBO said:


> The DISH Monkeys came out yesterday to re-align my dish. Still won't mount the dish on the roof - cited wind issues again. They locked the signal in to what they termed "near perfect", (110 - 95, 118 - 85, 119 - 95, 129 - 95) then told me that the tearing / pixelization issues will NOT go away on the Detroit HD Locals even though they re-aligned. Apparently it's a problem with the 118.7 Sat feeding the spotbeams to Metro Detroit. They told me that DISH Network's Techs know about the issue and are working on it. I find it funny that everything was fine until about late December, but now they're claiming there's issues with the bird.
> 
> Does anyone know anything about issues with 118.7 that sprang up recently??
> 
> Is anyone in St Louis (the only other city receiving their HD Locals off of 118.7) having the same types of issues?


Yes. Same issue. Pixelization on the HD locals.


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## Gkman1 (Feb 2, 2007)

I live in near Pittsburgh Pennsylvania and am also having the tearing.smearing problems.....Dish was here on Saturday and replaced my VIP622.....it still did not fix the problem......The Dish guy said they are still working the bugs out on the local channels...it only happens on my HD channels especially the locals.....

Mike


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## sNEIRBO (Jul 23, 2006)

Things have improved a lot here in Detroit over the past couple of weeks. 24 had a few instances in it last week. I record Grey's Anatomy for the GF on Thursday - and there was nothing there this week - first time in about a month that happened. I'm recording the Super Bowl off of the HD Sat Locals now and haven't seen one instance of it tonight. My fingers are crossed that DISH has improved something in the transmission.


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## TulsaOK (Feb 24, 2004)

sNEIRBO said:


> Things have improved a lot here in Detroit over the past couple of weeks. 24 had a few instances in it last week. I record Grey's Anatomy for the GF on Thursday - and there was nothing there this week - first time in about a month that happened. I'm recording the Super Bowl off of the HD Sat Locals now and haven't seen one instance of it tonight. My fingers are crossed that DISH has improved something in the transmission.


I hope your reception was better than WGCL in Atlanta. It was virtually unwatchable on the local channel satellite feed. I had to switch to my OTA antenna to watch it.


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## sNEIRBO (Jul 23, 2006)

TulsaOK said:


> I hope your reception was better than WGCL in Atlanta. It was virtually unwatchable on the local channel satellite feed. I had to switch to my OTA antenna to watch it.


I was having the exact opposite problem last night. For some reason the local CBS Affiliate was having problems with the HD-OTA last night. They've been rock solid since the day I put up my antenna - last night they flaked out. It was cutting out all over the place via OTA last night. The Sat HD was perfect - not one blemish last night - except for the outcome of the game! BOOOOO Colts!!!


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## rice0209 (Oct 11, 2005)

If I am understanding what you mean by tearing and smearing, i think i have been having the same problem. I live in Kansas City and have really only noticed the problem on one of my locals, NBC-41. I really don't watch any other channels though so its hard to know if it affects more than those. 

With NBC, at least once or twice an episode, i will get extreme pixelation, to the point where the pixelation freezes. Sometimes the pixelation has a lot of green in it but does not freeze and you can barely make out the moving image on the screen. I generally do not have audio problems during the pixelation. Does this sound similiar to your problem?

I called Dish about a month ago and reported the problem with my OTA-HD local. He said he was sending it to another department that has been working hard on local reception issues. That was at least a month ago and I still cannot enjoy a half or full hour show without losing part of the program to pixelation. I hav enever noticed this problem on any of the standard or high def dish channels. Only the local HD channels.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Rice,

What is your signal strength indicator showing? Is it in the mid to low 60's? If so you might have a borderline signal and that might explain the occasional pixelization issues. If you are in the 70's to upper 80s then it might be a stream issue, topology issue, or could be in the 622 itself. Hard to tell, but always easy to start with signal strength and work from there. 

Would really be nice to determine if it is single channel based. If so then that does narrow down the variables a lot. 

have you checked avsforums for your area to see if others are seeing this with NBC's OTA channel?


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## rice0209 (Oct 11, 2005)

I don't remember my signal numbers exactly because it has been many months since i checked it, but if I recall correctly, it was over 90 and even one satellite was slightly over 100 in strength.

I am almost positive it is only a problem with NBC-41. I have watched CBS during NFL games and occasionally college basketball and never have the same problems as NBC.

I may just need to follow up with Dish and see if they have come up with anything yet.


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## Ron Barry (Dec 10, 2002)

Well if it is in the 90s then that rules out borderline signal strength unless at times the signal strengths drops lows. Next time it happens do an info and see what your signal strength is indicating. 

The wrinkle with OTA is that it can be either a source issue or a receiver issue. In most of the cases where it is channel specific I have seen, the root of the issue usually comes from the stream source.


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## rice0209 (Oct 11, 2005)

Dangit, let me backup. I USED to have OTA HD a year ago. I don't know why i said OTA. My HD locals are the dish HD locals, not OTA. My signal strength is still great on average. Again, I don't remember as i stopped checking them a long time ago.

I am pretty sure it is an NBC problem as this problem does not take place on my other local hd channels.

Sorry about the confusion, i just noticed me previous mistake.


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## Wake Jitsu (Jan 18, 2007)

Any Detroiters have problems with OTA Ch 20 dropping out consistently? My signal strength on it is usually right around 89, which means it shouldn't be dropping right?


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## boatdrink (Aug 20, 2004)

I've had the same problem with Charlotte locals. I sent a email to Dish and they said that they did some maintenance the other night to fix it. It looks like the video has improved but the audio issues remain


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## debpasc (Oct 20, 2005)

The same story here in central New Mexico -- freezing green screen for almost a minute several times per program (audo runs o.k.) on NBC and ABC sat HD and terrible audio synch issues on FOX sat HD. I haven't checked my signals for a long time either but last time I did, they were in the 75 -- 100 range depending on transponder. I'd be surprised if signal strength was the problem. Some months ago, I had e-mail correspondence going with an advanced Dish Tech guy on another issue and he said they were aware of and working on the ABC HD and FOX HD issues in my area.


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## stevekaden (Dec 24, 2004)

I have two 622's, one was replaced so I've experienced this with 3. It mostly happens when playing back Local HD recordings - not OTA sourced. And, it is worse in one location vs. the other (bedroom system vs. living room).

The good news is virtually always - I can pause, or jump back and replay and everything is fine. That this happens says to me it has nothing to do with signal, and everything to do with playback from the HD. It almost seems like a memory leak in a software process that gets reset when play stops.


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## lujan (Feb 10, 2004)

debpasc said:


> The same story here in central New Mexico -- freezing green screen for almost a minute several times per program (audo runs o.k.) on NBC and ABC sat HD and terrible audio synch issues on FOX sat HD. I haven't checked my signals for a long time either but last time I did, they were in the 75 -- 100 range depending on transponder. I'd be surprised if signal strength was the problem. Some months ago, I had e-mail correspondence going with an advanced Dish Tech guy on another issue and he said they were aware of and working on the ABC HD and FOX HD issues in my area.


I'm also from the same area as debpasc but it seems they have been working on this for close to a year and we're still seeing the same issues. I don't consider that there has been much progress despite all the time that has gone by. Sounds a lot like the lack of progress with the 622 updates.


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## Wake Jitsu (Jan 18, 2007)

Thank you for your e-mail. Because this signal is received over the air and not from DISH Network, we cannot advise you on a cause for this issue. You may wish to contact the manufacturer of your off-air antenna for further assistance.

We hope we have properly addressed your concerns. If you have further questions you can respond to this e-mail or access our online technical support at the following link: http://tech.dishnetwork.com/departmental_content/techportal/index.shtml.

Thanks,

Mark B.

Technical E-mail Support

Dish Network

....maybe I didn't phrase my question correctly.


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