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J E F F4
Whatta Ya Think About Dat?
Premium Member
join:2004-04-01
Kitchener, ON

J E F F4 to mozerd

Premium Member

to mozerd

Re: [TV] What can be causing pixelation on *some* channels.

Well...still get some minor pixelating....so the DECT 6.0 is a culprit, but not the only one. Plugged it in when a channel was acting up, got way worse....unsure why it only affects some channels.

Pauly
join:2004-05-29
canada

Pauly

Member

check the signal strength on the STB diags menu. if its too low, or even too hi it can cause pixelation. also check for sh!tty spliters and see if u replace them if it helps, also check for loose connections and nicks in the cable tv wire

leadFoot
@rogers.com

leadFoot to J E F F4

Anon

to J E F F4
I had a similar issue a couple of years ago. In my case it was a new Panasonic Dect 6 phone clobbering a small frequency range. I think it was 711 Mhz. The only channel at that frequency I watched was CNN. I still have the same problem, but since Rogers added CNN HD, it doesn’t affect me. I demoed the issue to a senior tech and he was surprised when I showed him that as I moved the phone base closer to the PVR that the unrecoverable error rate increased and when I entered the room with it the channel would unlock.

nitzguy
Premium Member
join:2002-07-11
Sudbury, ON

nitzguy to J E F F4

Premium Member

to J E F F4
said by J E F F4:

Well...still get some minor pixelating....so the DECT 6.0 is a culprit, but not the only one. Plugged it in when a channel was acting up, got way worse....unsure why it only affects some channels.

What you're seeing is what is called "ingress"...in the analogue days you would have said "Channel X/Y/Z are snowy and fuzzy but all the other channels are the same".

Cable is a closed system so in reality no "outside signals" that use the same frequencies are supposed to bleed into the cable system as they use the same frequencies...not as horrible as "egress" from a cableco standpoint as Industry Canada gets cranky when that happens as it can cause interference with Airplane navigation stuff.

Sounds right if you unplug the phones and it goes away...for the most part...

This "free drop" you have that's not connected to anything, for fun, unplug it from the splitter...see if it goes away or not...I'm wondering if its not picking things up since its not properly terminated...

Its worth a shot, hey it can't get any worse right? If that's the case it could be the splitter that's the cause, and if Rogers installed it, they should take care of it...or remove the faulty wiring or replace it...but that's the culprit...

Stewy6
Premium Member
join:2007-12-12
Kitchener, ON

Stewy6 to J E F F4

Premium Member

to J E F F4
said by J E F F4:

Well...still get some minor pixelating....so the DECT 6.0 is a culprit, but not the only one. Plugged it in when a channel was acting up, got way worse....unsure why it only affects some channels.

It also depends if you have close neighbors for example if you're surrounded by townhomes where it can literally be 3 feet away.

J E F F4
Whatta Ya Think About Dat?
Premium Member
join:2004-04-01
Kitchener, ON

J E F F4

Premium Member

said by Stewy6:

said by J E F F4:

Well...still get some minor pixelating....so the DECT 6.0 is a culprit, but not the only one. Plugged it in when a channel was acting up, got way worse....unsure why it only affects some channels.

It also depends if you have close neighbors for example if you're surrounded by townhomes where it can literally be 3 feet away.

Houses in this area, and across the street from a forest greenbelt. Not to say a neighbour nearby wouldn't be the issue. Feed is coming in from a pole in the backyard.

tech5978
@bell.ca

tech5978

Anon

Pixelization can be from any number of reasons.

Here's a bit of a rundown...

There isn't really a way for you to check your connectors as they're relatively locked up in the CSE and PED. Sometimes water can get into the connectors and as a result, corrosion occurs which leads to pixelization/missing channels/etc. Some techs don't install connectors properly and if they're not on properly, this again can cause pixelization.

Non-Rogers splitters, amplifiers and even cable (white store-bought RG6, Futureshop cable, etc.) tend to cause issues as well. Replacing any customer purchased drop amp is nearly a must in pixelization issues. Ensure everything is Rogers equipment and hardware or else it could be the issue.

Poor signal...try to pull up your STB diag. If it's a Scientific Atlanta box, hold the middle select button on the actually STB. When you see a little envelope on the screen, press the "Info" button on the STB. Now use page up/down on the remote for diagnostics. General rule of thumb is anything orange or red is bad. You want +10 to -10 for your FDC/RDC, but generally real issues don't occur until about -14 or so. A tell-tale sign of pixelization is on the 4th or 5th page at the QAM info. You will see QAM Uncorrected Blocks and QAM Corr Bytes. This number SHOULD be 0. Anything higher indicates an issue.

The issue is often a riser (line) too. Some customers accidentally staple through their riser, kink it a bit too much, or have furniture resting on it. This causes issues.

Lastly, it may be an area issue. People are surprisingly tolerant of pixelization. I can't count the amount of times I've been at a call where a customer said, "yeah it's been like this for like 2 months". We techs have a program on our laptops which allows us to scan the entire neighbourhood or region's digital boxes health. Every single time I have a trouble call which says, "cx reports pixelization" in the comments, the very first thing I do is run that test. Quite often it is simply a "maintenance issue" where a maintenance tech is required to resolve the issue at the SHUB.

Your best bet is to simply call Rogers...if you get a good tech the issue will be resolved fairly simply.