# New NBC Shows Pixellating/Freezing



## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

This issue is very confusing. Several of the new shows on NBC, specifically Growing Up Fisher, Believe, and About A Boy, are having frequent but intermittent episodes of breakup and freezing. Sometimes it looks like the picture is "rubber banding" - moving forward, bouncing back with a pixellated picture and breakup of audio. 

I watch NBC in Baltimore, MD. on WBAL channel 11. I've contacted the station as well as submitted a report to Directv. As far as I can tell the issue is only happening on those specific shows on NBC. I'm not seeing this on any other network or on any other shows so I don't think this is specific to my equipment, an HR 34 with 0x7e5. I don't know if this an issue with the local station or with Directv. One week the episodes were broadcast without issue but every other week the issue has persisted. I generally watch these shows the next day by the recordings, so that's when I see the issue which occurs several times during the recording but does not prevent watching the episode, I just fast forward past that segment.

One week to check if this was occurring during the broadcasts as well as the recording I watched those shows live and checked the recordings. I did not see the issue on either that week. But it's persisted since. Again I'm only seeing it happen during those specific shows and only on NBC. Is anyone else seeing something similar?


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## dpeters11 (May 30, 2007)

I haven't had issues with these shows (though have one on my DVR) but oddly, this is almost exactly like issues I had on NBC with Olympics and the hockey game at Soldier Field. At first I thought with the Olympics it was just due to the feed, but it happened at times where that wouldn't be an issue.

I never had an issue with anything else on the same channel.


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

I don't remember now whether I saw anything similar during the Olympics. But I'm currently watching other shows that were recorded recently on NBC and there aren't any issues. It's only those 3 shows that I'm seeing this on that's why I think it's some network ( Directv, NBC or local ) problem. But unless I can get someone else to verify it, I'm kinda stuck. Next week I'm going to set those programs to also record on the SD channel as well and see if it happens there. I'm not usually up watching tv when they air, although the one night I did watch the problem didn't occur. I spoke to someone at Directv and ran through all the diagnostics and signal strength tests and nothing was amiss. If it were my equipment I would expect to see an issue with more than just those 3 shows.


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## thewolfman (Jul 11, 2008)

I've had the same issue on NBC. It seems to happen when there is a great deal of movement on the program, as if the DVR can't handle the amount of data, very weird. I have an HR34 as well, running the latest CE release on it.


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

I can't relate it to any motion. I follow and watch several NBC shows both in the am and pm, recorded and live, and it's only these 3 that this occurs on. I'm intrigued by it since these 3 are brand new series for this half of the season. None of their other series has this occur.


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

You'll find several threads here about this "pixelation" issue with some HR34's in a few NBC markets. So far, the only sure-fire cure, is replacing the HR34 with an HR44. But it's often not easy to convince DirecTV to do that.


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

I can't convince myself of that. Since it's only the same 3 shows on the same network it doesn't make sense to me that it's equipment related. The shows are watchable I just have to ff through the recordings. If it worsens to all NBC shows I'll try to escalate the issue with DTV. One of the shows has even changed time slots so it's not even time or day related, it's show related.

I'm no expert so maybe it is related to the equipment but since it only involves 3 of the hundreds of episodes we record and watch I doubt I could convince anyone of that.


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

dpeters11 said:


> I haven't had issues with these shows (though have one on my DVR) but oddly, this is almost exactly like issues I had on NBC with Olympics and the hockey game at Soldier Field. At first I thought with the Olympics it was just due to the feed, but it happened at times where that wouldn't be an issue.
> 
> I never had an issue with anything else on the same channel.


Now that I've been thinking about it, I believe we did have some issues with the Olympics coverage but nothing else at the time. That makes me even more inclined to believe it involves either DTV's or NBC's equipment.


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## litzdog911 (Jun 23, 2004)

Yeah, do a search here and you'll find the threads I'm talking about. Some NBC stations in a few cities seem to have an encoder/decoder issue with some HR34's. It's not a common problem, and it's been happening for a long time. The only known sure-fire cure is replacing the HR34 with an HR44.


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

I've set the 3 shows to also record on my other dvr, an HR 22. I'll be able to compare both next week and see if it's the 34 or not. 


Sent from my iPad using DBSTalk mobile app


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## bpratt (Nov 24, 2005)

pappasbike said:


> I've set the 3 shows to also record on my other dvr, an HR 22. I'll be able to compare both next week and see if it's the 34 or not.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using DBSTalk mobile app


When I first got my HR44 I kept my two HR21s for backup. A few months ago the HR44s were also having this problem but the shows on the HR21s were OK. My HR44 is now on version 0x0808 and I never see any pixilation or freezing problems any more so I think it must just be the HR34s.

I hope I didn't just jinx myself!!!


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

That's also one reason I'm waiting to see how this works out. I haven't had an HR that hasn't had a lot of issues, the 21s were the worst of the bunch. I don't think the 44s are really any better than the 34s, different problems maybe but still a lot of issues. What you said about software also makes me think that if the problem is on my end it also maybe software, since these 3 shows all premiered about the time of this last software release in February. Maybe coincidence maybe not. Regardless we're only talking about 3 shows on one network out of dozens ( hundreds? ) that we watch. I wouldn't go through the pain of replacing a receiver and setting up everything again just for that.

Anyway I'll know next week if the 22 exhibits the same issue. If it does then it's NBC and DTV's problem. If not, it's tolerable. 


Sent from my iPad using DBSTalk mobile app


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

litzdog911 said:


> Yeah, do a search here and you'll find the threads I'm talking about. Some NBC stations in a few cities seem to have an encoder/decoder issue with some HR34's. It's not a common problem, and it's been happening for a long time. The only known sure-fire cure is replacing the HR34 with an HR44.


I'm updating this issue. As I suspected I believe this was software related. Since my 34 received the 808 software the problem NBC shows are recording and playing back without issue. No 44 needed. So for me 808 solved this or DTV finally got their act together.


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## zinger1457 (Sep 25, 2006)

I've continued to have problems, even with the 808 update. Seems like I have to restart my received almost everyday, often times it shows disk errors when doing the receiver self check during startup. Yesterday I lost about 1/3 of my recorded programs after I did the red button restart.


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

That sounds like a bad drive. You should call in and get them started on checking it. Might need to be replaced. 


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## peds48 (Jan 11, 2008)

zinger1457 said:


> I've continued to have problems, even with the 808 update. Seems like I have to restart my received almost everyday, often times it shows disk errors when doing the receiver self check during startup. Yesterday I lost about 1/3 of my recorded programs after I did the red button restart.





pappasbike said:


> That sounds like a bad drive. You should call in and get them started on checking it. Might need to be replaced.
> 
> Sent from my iPad using DBSTalk mobile app


Yep, I second this, any hard drive errors is not a good sign. Best to replace right away


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## tutman (Apr 2, 2014)

I have been having this same problem for some time on my HR34. Only has happened on local channels (but we don't record much else). I have the protection plan, and was just now due for free upgrade on equipment. I figured I would be able to upgrade to an HR44. NOT! DirecTV didn't mention until I tried to upgrade, that I wasn't eligible to get the upgrade to an HR44, since the HR34 is also a current model. WTF??? So they transferred me (again) to technical support.

They had me run the normal tests...no problems found.

Then after the support person "talked with a supervisor", they came back and had me turn OFF 1080p. They think that the programs having issues might be broadcast in 1080p. By telling my DVR that my TV doesn't support 1080p, they think it will record it in 1080i. At least that is their theory. They want to "see" if this resolves the issue. We have noticed the issue on CBS Survivor, NBC Saturday Night Live, and NBC Late Night. Yes, it only happens when there is a lot of movement. Rebooting the DVR prior to the recording seems to solve the issue too.

I assume that the HR44 is faster than the HR34. The support person told me that HR44 and HR34 run the exact same software. (Really???) If this is in fact related to 1080p, then I assume different encoder/decoders and faster processors would solve the issue. So maybe there is some truth that HR44 resolves the issue. But why does restarting the receiver prior to the recording fix it? Does this just eliminate memory fragmentation?

According to the support person, there is no way to determine if a recording is made in 1080p, 1080i, or any other resolution. I would like to help determine if 1080p is the cause. The support person said that different stations, and even different programs from the same station are broadcast in different resolutions.


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## tutman (Apr 2, 2014)

pappasbike said:


> I'm updating this issue. As I suspected I believe this was software related. Since my 34 received the 808 software the problem NBC shows are recording and playing back without issue. No 44 needed. So for me 808 solved this or DTV finally got their act together.


I have the 808 software as well. Hopefully it fixes the issue. Because you think that 808 solves it, I have enabled 1080p again and am setting my DVR to record one local program at a time for prime-time through late night. I'll just go back and review these programs quickly to see if any pixelation problems exist. Until you hear from me again, I have not had any more issues since 808. If I do have issues, I'll disable 1080p and test again.


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

Getting a 44 wouldn't resolve the issue, as some others have posted that they've seen the same or similar issues on their 44s. One has posted that the 808 software seemed to resolve it on his 44. 808 resolved it on my 34 for the shows I had been complaining about on NBC. However I'm watching another NBC show that I never had an issue with and there is some intermittent breakup. Not too bad though. This does seem to be related to DTV's software which is the same for both genie models. Very few network shows ( if any ) are broadcast in 1080p so disabling that wouldn't really do anything. I think DTV is still trying to figure this out. The software prior to 808 was installed on my box in the middle of February then 808 comes out a month later. That's a pretty damn fast release. I didn't have a problem till the February release and most of that has been fixed by 808 but obviously there are still issues. Swapping boxes because of this is like using the shotgun to kill a fly, a big pain in the ass and you're still left with problems.

Of course you could just watch/record the shows in SD instead of HD, that seems to be the only surefire cure. But otherwise just keep reporting what you're seeing and hopefully they'll fix their equipment or software eventually. I don't know how bad the problem is for you but as I said 808 fixed 90% of it for me.


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## ToBeFrank (May 15, 2009)

We've had this problem on our HR34 for the last couple of months. It only occurs on NBC, and we don't watch any of the shows the OP mentioned so it's on different shows. I can't recall if I've seen it lately though. It looks like I got 808 on 3/12. Personally, I think it's a software problem. Our HR34 worked flawlessly until a few months ago. Since then it's dog slow, and we've had this pixelation problem. I feel like I'm back to the HR20 I had before this.


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## tutman (Apr 2, 2014)

Turning off 1080p did not do the trick. Still got a small section of pixelation in the tonight show I recorded last night. I was told to call support back if it happened again. So I called them back this afternoon. This time the only suggestion was to unplug the satellite cable from the dvr and plug it back in. She said that she couldn't do anything since it wasn't happening while I was on the phone.

It seems to get worse the longer it goes after a reset of the dvr.


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## mmmason23 (Apr 27, 2010)

I've had very similar issues except mine all happen on cbs. Specifically person of interest(almost every episode) and a couple times in ncis and intelligence. But mine render the recordings unwatchable. There is so much jumping and pixelating and freezing I can't follow what's going on. Also if I go from live tv to one of these bad recordings, sometimes whatever I was watching gets frozen on the screen and the audio of the recording is still playing


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

If this continues we should continue to call in and maybe reference this thread as well as the others. I have seen my issue recur occasionally although less often than before the current software. 

It's not worth my pushing for a replacement box for the few shows this occurs on but I think we should be getting some billing credits. For others, demanding a replacement may be worth it but I'm still skeptical that it would be the solution. 


Sent from my iPhone using DBSTalk


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## tutman (Apr 2, 2014)

Survivor on CBS last night was almost completely unwatchable. Of course, everything is fine if you watch it live.

After spending yet another hour on the line with a supervisor, he said that they have no reports from anyone else with this issue. They are sending a service tech out tomorrow to watch the program.

On another note, very fed up with DirecTV about their protection plan. After 2 years, I was eligible for "A free upgrade to the latest equipment." That is what is promised. Everyone, including the retention department, says that a Genie is a Genie, regardless of whether it is a HR34 or a HR44. They also cannot order me an HR44, since I already have a Genie. I wanted a wireless genie client, and hoped that a new HR44 would solve this issue. They said in order for me to get wireless, I'd be charged an additional $99, and they would send a wireless connection kit for the HR34 instead of a new HR44. I cancelled the protection plan, and nobody would give me a credit for that money that I threw away. I've been with direcTV since 2001, but I'm looking around.


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

Keep any recordings that have this issue and have the tech watch them when he arrives. Push for a replacement if no relevant problems are found. Odds are it will be a 44 that is on the truck. I'm not certain that will sove the problem but at least it will be something to make up for all this. Keep pointing them to this thread as well as the others. I believe this probably affects all their genies but at different times. For me it's only been the NBC shows, I've seen others mention CBS, and others Fox but it's always one of the genies. If it's not resolved to your satisfaction, cancellation may be the best recourse. I've been with them as long as you as well and their HD dvrs have just had too many problems.


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## tutman (Apr 2, 2014)

Thanks. The tech just left...said all cabling, network, and signal strength was perfect. I got an awesome tech that did some checking before showing up. He brought a new HR44 with him because he felt that would be the best chance of fixing the issue. Man, this thing is fast compared to the HR34! I cannot imagine it having the same issue. I'd be surprised. I'll report back in a week or so how it is going.


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

I wanted to further update this thread since I originally started it. Even after version 808 I saw the breakup and pixellation once or twice on the series that I mentioned. However for the last several weeks there have been none. So whether NBC or DTV got their act together or the software finally resolved the issue I've not had any problems with any shows or networks on my 34. I see there is new software out now, not sure whether that's a good thing or something to be afraid of :grin:


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## gvc (Sep 13, 2012)

I've been having this problem on various recorded shows on just about every "local" station except ABC. very rarely happens on any other satellite channel. sometimes its so bad the show cannot be watched but others its just a few parts here and there.


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

I think it varies for everyone. I haven't seen the problem with the NBC shows for several weeks but this morning I saw the breakup on ABC's Marvels Agents of Shield that was recorded last night. I think that's the first time I've had an issue with an ABC show. I agree with you, I haven't seen anything similar with non local networks, HBO, TNT, AMC etc. That's why I think we're all chasing our tails here, just seems like a software issue with the genies and local broadcasts.


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## tutman (Apr 2, 2014)

After the tech replaced my HR34 with a new HR44, I have had zero issues. I don't know what fixed it, but no more problems for me. Could possibly??? be the hard drive going bad, fragmented, etc.


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## pappasbike (Sep 19, 2006)

tutman said:


> After the tech replaced my HR34 with a new HR44, I have had zero issues. I don't know what fixed it, but no more problems for me. Could possibly??? be the hard drive going bad, fragmented, etc.


That's actually good news. Keep us updated if anything arises. I plan to place a call to make sure the complaints are registered, I've already called once. If my situation should worsen I'll make my third call and push for a tech and replacement. There is a new software version going out, the third since the first of the year which says something I think. Let us know what your experience is with that.


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## Shaneandheather2010 (Oct 10, 2016)

For us, it happens every time we watch Sunday Night Football in our bedroom. I guess we need to see about getting a new Genie?


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## camo (Apr 15, 2010)

Lots of pixelation from the Rapid City NBC especially rapid movement, Olympics was so bad I skipped them this year.
ABC& FOX 720p don't pixelate but look like SD TV watching football. Even Dish HD lite TV looks much better than the Directv spot beam feeds out of Rapid City. My signal strengths are high to mid 90's on spot beam using HR24's so doubt its the receivers.


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## texasbrit (Aug 9, 2006)

You'll probably find the pixelation is only on network stuff, and local programming like the news is OK. That's a clear indication that the problem is in the equipment at your NBC affiliate, something is wrong with the equipment that inserts network programming into the stations transmissions.
ABC and FOX are almost certainly station issues also. Both channels are owned by the same company, and are broadcast from the same transmitting facility.


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## camo (Apr 15, 2010)

Texasbrit thanks makes more sense now but still bad either way. Most likely using old or cheap equipment in all cases. Disappointing after changing locals to regional feed from national. Ready to make the move back even if the time zone is 2 hours off. BTW CBS looks good but its out of Sioux Falls.


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## larryk (Aug 17, 2006)

Old thread, but valid...
I also have a problem on our local Las Vegas NBC station. There is noticeable distortion in scenes that have "faster movement" in them, it is almost like a mini freeze and a fast catch up. I can always tell from across the room if I'm watching an NBC recording.


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## texasbrit (Aug 9, 2006)

Your NBC station has two subchannels stealing bandwidth, that can't help


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