# Re: my old question about my 942 picture breaking up



## SteveinDanville (Jun 26, 2002)

Since almost everything I watch is recorded and time-shifted, I finally watched a new segment of "Six Feet Under" last week live, and I had none of the black or white image noise/break up, or whatever you want to call it on the right hand side of my screen. It struck me that it's happening only on recordings...is this going to be a hard drive problem that will require a box switchout? Guess I'd better call the CSR's.... Anybody else having anything like this happen?


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## jsanders (Jan 21, 2004)

Why don't you try and watch it live while you record, and then watch the recording to see if there are any differences. Ideally, you want a 2nd 942 to watch live w/o recording, but this will at least provide a clue to whether there are any differences. The 942 is always recording (so the test should be reasonable), even if you are just watching live TV. How else would it allow you to skip back?


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## Mike Johnson (Jan 16, 2005)

SteveinDanville said:


> Anybody else having anything like this happen?


I also seem to be seeing the same thing, but I really haven't paid too much attention to it (been busy with work, and haven't spent much time here.). I often seen this breakup on SD channels along the right edge of the active picture area. And I see it on both live and recorded programs. It does seem to be worse on some channels for me. FX seems to be quite bad, while the History Channel seems to be fine. I was just blaming this on compression artifacts, but I guess I'll pay more attention to this. It showed up for me around the time 227 came down.


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## mgs24 (Dec 7, 2002)

I have the same thing on the right hand side of the picture also. I watch all of my SD programing in stretch mode and that is where I see the problem. I am not sure if I see it both on live and recorded, I will have to pay more attention. Its definitely there on recorded material.


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## SteveinDanville (Jun 26, 2002)

mgs24 said:


> I have the same thing on the right hand side of the picture also. I watch all of my SD programing in stretch mode and that is where I see the problem. I am not sure if I see it both on live and recorded, I will have to pay more attention. Its definitely there on recorded material.


I hope that it is only on recorded events, as that will lend credibility to my complaint when I get hold of Customer Service. Please check and see, and I will do more checking at my end. Thank you!


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## lakebum431 (Jun 30, 2005)

I see this on BOTH live and recorded programs that are in the SD format. It isn't enough to bug me that much, but it is there for sure.


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## SteveinDanville (Jun 26, 2002)

lakebum431 said:


> I see this on BOTH live and recorded programs that are in the SD format. It isn't enough to bug me that much, but it is there for sure.


What about in HD? I see a streaky black or white, depending upon the background color that happens on the right side when either a scene changes or a character moves quickly, creating a patch of broken-up picture. In SD the broken up blocks are as big as quarters (I have a 55" Fujitsu plasma), and again, it happens with changing scenes or quick activity.


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## mgs24 (Dec 7, 2002)

I will check into this more when I have a chance. I see this on my 50" Fujitsu Plasma.


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## SteveinDanville (Jun 26, 2002)

mgs24 said:


> I will check into this more when I have a chance. I see this on my 50" Fujitsu Plasma.


I talked to a manager at Magnolia AV, and he said that it is most definitely not the Fuji's fault, in case anybody starts doing the math on the fact that we both have Fujitsu plasmas. He says he's seen pixelating and macro-blocking occur when the connections aren't perfect, both at the dish and the switch, and also at the receiver. That would not explain a clear picture when live, and a messed-up picture when recorded.


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## lakebum431 (Jun 30, 2005)

I do not have this problem on HD programing, only on SD 4:3 programing


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## Jon Spackman (Feb 7, 2005)

Do either of you get "part of program lost due to signal loss" errors often on recorded shows?


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## SteveinDanville (Jun 26, 2002)

j5races said:


> Do either of you get "part of program lost due to signal loss" errors often on recorded shows?


No.

Last night I watched "Rescue Me" live on FX and their was no break-up, and then rewound and saw the typical break-up. I'm calling Dish today. Everything I record, regardless of HD or SD has some sort of break-up along the right edge, and it's so annoying that I find myself looking for it.


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## Mike Johnson (Jan 16, 2005)

Steve - Did you ever get resolution on this issue? I'm seeing this problem more frequently, both on recordings and "live" TV. I'd appreciate hearing any update.


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## SteveinDanville (Jun 26, 2002)

mike_johnson said:


> Steve - Did you ever get resolution on this issue? I'm seeing this problem more frequently, both on recordings and "live" TV. I'd appreciate hearing any update.


You know, I'm embarassed to say that I intend to phone Dish every night when I get home, and I get caught up in watching recordings off the PVR and sometimes it's really bad, and other times it's not bad at all. Watched "Rome" part II last night in HD and there was no break-up at all. Watched "Entourage" and no break-up. Watched local news live and all kinds of macro-blocking on the right hand edge. I have 80 hours of recordings, and I'm trying to make a dent in all the shows that I "Must See" before returning the 942. I know it won't happen tonight or tomorrow night; maybe Thursday night I'll finally call Dish. Shame on me.

Just as annoying is how lousy the SD picture quality is by using the HDMI or component outs to the plasma.......


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## Mike Johnson (Jan 16, 2005)

Here's another interesting observation on this issue. I was catching up on some recorded programs last night and came across an episode of "The 4400" that had extremely bad breakup on the right edge of the picture. I saved the episode and was going to take some screen shots of the problem today to post here. Much to my suprise, the episode plays back perfectly today. I can't seem to make it do it again. This is going to hard to track down.

Mark, any thoughts or suggestions on what to do? Thanks.


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## SteveinDanville (Jun 26, 2002)

mike_johnson said:


> Here's another interesting observation on this issue. I was catching up on some recorded programs last night and came across an episode of "The 4400" that had extremely bad breakup on the right edge of the picture. I saved the episode and was going to take some screen shots of the problem today to post here. Much to my suprise, the episode plays back perfectly today. I can't seem to make it do it again. This is going to hard to track down.
> 
> Mark, any thoughts or suggestions on what to do? Thanks.


I see the same thing, so what could this mean? I'll see a bad break-up, and hit the 10 second rewind and it either won't be there or will be a completely different break-up in a different place. I agree with you, Mike...how the heck are we supposed to explain this to somebody at Dish and get them to take it serisously?


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

The breakups are a driver issue, and Dish is aware of the problem. I don't know when we'll see a fix, though.


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## Mike Johnson (Jan 16, 2005)

Thanks, Mark. Glad to know they are working on it.


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## SteveinDanville (Jun 26, 2002)

Mark Lamutt said:


> The breakups are a driver issue, and Dish is aware of the problem. I don't know when we'll see a fix, though.


Just like Dish, I can't hit my driver predictably either (LOL)! Maybe Charlie could just use a 3-wood on this particular issue.....

Not a bash. I'm just tired of the break-ups on this great piece of equipment.


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## Mark Lamutt (Mar 24, 2002)

I know what you mean, Steve.


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## LtMunst (Aug 24, 2005)

I have had my 942 for about 3 weeks and last night was the first time I started seeing this problem on my recordings, both SD and HD. I wonder if the amount of space used on the hard drive has anything to do with this?


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## SteveinDanville (Jun 26, 2002)

LtMunst said:


> I have had my 942 for about 3 weeks and last night was the first time I started seeing this problem on my recordings, both SD and HD. I wonder if the amount of space used on the hard drive has anything to do with this?


I surely hope not; my 942 says it has over 14 hours of HD left, or over 100 hours of SD left.


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## LtMunst (Aug 24, 2005)

SteveinDanville said:


> I surely hope not; my 942 says it has over 14 hours of HD left, or over 100 hours of SD left.


I hope not too. I just got to wondering since the issue just started with me and the only thing different on my machine is that the harddrive is starting to fill up (9 hours HD remain). Perhaps the 942 does not do an adequate job of defraging the disk. PC's often suffer performance problems when the drive is more than half full if the defrags are not kept up with. Just a thought.


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## Rob Glasser (Feb 22, 2005)

You can add me to the list of people that has this issue as well, SD or HD it does not matter. Mainly happens on scenes where the upper right hand of the screen is white. At least that is when I noticed it the most. Very annoying. I assumed it was a software issue since it didn't start happening until one of the last couple of software releases.

It would be really really nice if Dish could get this problem and the audio sync issues fixed in the next week or 2 before the new fall season really kicks into gear, but I'm not holding my breath.


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## Mike D-CO5 (Mar 12, 2003)

I don't have break ups on my picture but I do notice something strange and wonder if it is on everyone else's 942 as well. While watching shows like say "Murphy Brown" over the hd dvi cables I see the picture pan and then speed up a little bit. Kind of reminds me of watching old 20th century silent films. It is almost like it misses a frame when they show them walking. I also noticed it on "Bewitched "as well. I don't notice it over the sd outputs on my sd tv. I wonder if it is because I have the 942 set to 720p instead of 1080i? I have it set to 720p because it looks better on my locals than in 1080i. Maybe it is because Nick at Nite is time compressing the shows to fit in smaller amount of time to show more commercials? Anyone with any thoughts on the subject?


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## LtMunst (Aug 24, 2005)

robglasser said:


> You can add me to the list of people that has this issue as well, SD or HD it does not matter. Mainly happens on scenes where the upper right hand of the screen is white. At least that is when I noticed it the most. Very annoying. I assumed it was a software issue since it didn't start happening until one of the last couple of software releases.
> 
> It would be really really nice if Dish could get this problem and the audio sync issues fixed in the next week or 2 before the new fall season really kicks into gear, but I'm not holding my breath.


As a temporary fix, switching to Component seems to work. Last night I again started seeing the right side blocking so I tried switching from HDMI to Component. I did not see any blocking on the Component. Seems the driver issue may have something to do with the HDMI encoding.


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## SteveinDanville (Jun 26, 2002)

LtMunst said:


> As a temporary fix, switching to Component seems to work. Last night I again started seeing the right side blocking so I tried switching from HDMI to Component. I did not see any blocking on the Component. Seems the driver issue may have something to do with the HDMI encoding.


Several weeks ago I had hoped that this might be the answer, so I bought Monster THX quality component cables. Didn't change a thing. I can switch immediately on my Fujitsu plasma from HDMI input to component input, and other than more highly saturated colors from the component cables, the break-ups are still there.


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## Paradox-sj (Dec 15, 2004)

LtMunst said:


> As a temporary fix, switching to Component seems to work. Last night I again started seeing the right side blocking so I tried switching from HDMI to Component. I did not see any blocking on the Component. Seems the driver issue may have something to do with the HDMI encoding.


It has nothing to do with your connection. HDMI/DVI/Componet whatever...its the software...


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## LtMunst (Aug 24, 2005)

Paradox-sj said:


> It has nothing to do with your connection. HDMI/DVI/Componet whatever...its the software...


Just saying what worked for me. As soon as I switched to Component the problem was gone. I know it's the software, regardless. The processors have to read the MPEG2 file from the hardrive and then convert for the various outputs. It is not unreasonable to assume the software problem may be more pronounced on one output vs another. Now that it seems some people see this problem on Component also, I'll be paranoically watching that right side of the screen again. :nono2:


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## bjb236 (May 8, 2005)

Add another one to the list with this macro-blocking problem. I just noticed it about a week and a half ago and it seems to be getting worse everyday. Either that or I'm just starting to look for it more. It used to just appear in the upper right part of the screen, but now it is spreading. Very disturbing.


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## SteveinDanville (Jun 26, 2002)

I just got off the phone with a Dish Advanced Tech and she said that they aren't familiar with this problem. She took down all my rants and said she'd give them to the Engineering team, and that they indeed may know about the problem and are working on it. In any event, I gave her this URL and the name of the thread, and told her to not only read all the entries, but forward THIS to the Engineering team also. We'll see.....


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## LtMunst (Aug 24, 2005)

LtMunst said:


> Just saying what worked for me. As soon as I switched to Component the problem was gone. I know it's the software, regardless. The processors have to read the MPEG2 file from the hardrive and then convert for the various outputs. It is not unreasonable to assume the software problem may be more pronounced on one output vs another. Now that it seems some people see this problem on Component also, I'll be paranoically watching that right side of the screen again. :nono2:


Ok, now I have this problem on Component also.  It seems that if I change my output to 480P the blocking dissapears. It is very apparent at 1080i and 720P. Also, I never get any blocking on the RF output to TV2. I guess whenever the blocking gets bad I'll have to bite the bullet and watch in lower res until they get this fixed. Watching SD in 480P is no problem but the loss of picture quality for HD channels is noticeable.


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## SteveinDanville (Jun 26, 2002)

LtMunst said:


> Ok, now I have this problem on Component also.


Sorry, but it's as I thought.


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