Hi all, after seeing signal breakup and pixelation on KATU Portland, OR a friend and I did an experiment. We recorded the ABC Evening News as sent from Dish and as transmitted over the air from KATU Channel 2.1 in Portland. After the recording we compared results. The over the air recording was perfect, no glitches, dropouts or anything odd. The recording from Dish had dropouts and breakups at the exact same time and manner and duration as observed by my friend and myself. Also we noticed the picture quality was better over the air than as provided by Dish but that's probably not a surprise. So the bottom line is: Does Dish or even KATU care about this? The implication is that thousands of Dish customers in the region are experiencing these signal issues. Can anything be done about it? Talk to DIRT Team? Thanks, Alan Rovner Vancouver, Wash.
Breakup and pixelation on KATU Portland, OR
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Hi Alan, I've been complaining about this for months. Was told there were no other reported incidents, but some nights it's been so bad programming is hard to watch. I'm in eastern Oregon & have no choice for OTA, so I'm just stuck.
Really? What can they do? Educate them on proper antenna selection, installation, and maintenance? I'm guessing (hoping) Dish already has knowledge in that.
It would be interesting to find out where Dish's pick up location is (especially compared to the OP), how high the antenna is, etc, etc. It is possible KATU is operating at reduced power for some reason and the signal isn't getting to Dish's receive point very well, but the OP is close enough to get a "good enough" signal.
They can demand that DISH provide a watchable service for their customers as specified in the contract between the two.
We had a similar problem with two of our locals (both owned by the same company) here on Hawaii last year. Similar to your issue (bear with me here), the station broadcast quality on DISH was SO BAD that the channels were unwatchable at times. This problem took close to 4 months to resolve.
In some instances, you would watch a program like a hockey game with fast moving action and the picture was so choppy that the action seemed to jump from frame to frame.
In other instances, the pixelation problems got to a point where the picture would freeze for up to 8-10 seconds in a pixelated state. When the picture returned, we would be thrust ahead into the program so that we would miss the chink of time for which the picture was frozen. This could occur every few minutes or several times a minute.
First - post your problems on the DirectTV forums. It turned out that a guy who had DirectTV was experiencing the very same problems that we had on DISH. This gave a more direct idea of where the problem could emanating. See if the other satellite service is having the same issue. Not everyone reads this website and not everyone speaks out when they have these issues.
Second - As already mentioned - call the engineering department at the local station and speak with the chief engineer. I spoke with the engineer and found that cable TV had a direct feed from the control room. I was told DISH and DirectTV signals were picked up on an OTA antenna and fed to an upload location in Colorado. As a result of this info, I passed it along to DIRT and the DirectTV guy passed it along to DirectTV support. We were able to show that both services were experiencing this problem.
Third - if you can capture some of the worst problems you are experiencing - post the video here. Be specific with how often you experience the problem. Be specific that you tried the SD feed and the HD feed and that the problem occurs on one or both feeds. Also mention to DIRT the experiences you and your friend have had and that they are the same (eliminate your equipment and installation). Also speak with DISH support and make sure they filed trouble tickets. Get the numbers of the trouble tickets and keep cross referencing every time you call or send email.
You already said you ran into the issue where when you call in, they say, "nobody else has complained" and they discount your credibility. This is a constant battle. Post often to this thread as well as what you do with DIRT and DISH support. As I said before, this took close to 4 months to fix for us in Hawaii.
The key is - be as specific as you can with all troubleshooting steps and observations. Experience showed that DISH is not going to do the footwork for you. It's a shame but keep at it.
Do a search for KGMB / KHNL problems in Hawaii on this website and follow the thread that we kept up to get our resolution.
Good luck - and you can always threaten to contact your Better Business Bureau and State Attorney General to complain about breach of contract. DISH had advertisements awhile back saying that DirectTV had lots of Better Business Bureau complaints and DISH did not.
In some instances, you would watch a program like a hockey game with fast moving action and the picture was so choppy that the action seemed to jump from frame to frame.
In other instances, the pixelation problems got to a point where the picture would freeze for up to 8-10 seconds in a pixelated state. When the picture returned, we would be thrust ahead into the program so that we would miss the chink of time for which the picture was frozen. This could occur every few minutes or several times a minute.
First - post your problems on the DirectTV forums. It turned out that a guy who had DirectTV was experiencing the very same problems that we had on DISH. This gave a more direct idea of where the problem could emanating. See if the other satellite service is having the same issue. Not everyone reads this website and not everyone speaks out when they have these issues.
Second - As already mentioned - call the engineering department at the local station and speak with the chief engineer. I spoke with the engineer and found that cable TV had a direct feed from the control room. I was told DISH and DirectTV signals were picked up on an OTA antenna and fed to an upload location in Colorado. As a result of this info, I passed it along to DIRT and the DirectTV guy passed it along to DirectTV support. We were able to show that both services were experiencing this problem.
Third - if you can capture some of the worst problems you are experiencing - post the video here. Be specific with how often you experience the problem. Be specific that you tried the SD feed and the HD feed and that the problem occurs on one or both feeds. Also mention to DIRT the experiences you and your friend have had and that they are the same (eliminate your equipment and installation). Also speak with DISH support and make sure they filed trouble tickets. Get the numbers of the trouble tickets and keep cross referencing every time you call or send email.
You already said you ran into the issue where when you call in, they say, "nobody else has complained" and they discount your credibility. This is a constant battle. Post often to this thread as well as what you do with DIRT and DISH support. As I said before, this took close to 4 months to fix for us in Hawaii.
The key is - be as specific as you can with all troubleshooting steps and observations. Experience showed that DISH is not going to do the footwork for you. It's a shame but keep at it.
Do a search for KGMB / KHNL problems in Hawaii on this website and follow the thread that we kept up to get our resolution.
Good luck - and you can always threaten to contact your Better Business Bureau and State Attorney General to complain about breach of contract. DISH had advertisements awhile back saying that DirectTV had lots of Better Business Bureau complaints and DISH did not.
Been reported to Dirt at least twice in past few months (maybe more), seems to be really noticeable during the 8-10 pm hours, don't see it during daytime.
Peggy why don't you send an email to engineering@katu.com and let them know what you're seeing. I just did that myself. At least they will know it's not just one person who is seeing this.
Thanks!
Thanks!
Engineering isn't going to have that kind of pull. The GM or whoever negotiated the retrans agreement might have better luck demanding anything. I'm not saying a call to the station isn't warranted. But I doubt they have any ability to HELP Dish fix the problem.
Will do Alan, but since it seems to be a Dish issue doubt if it will do any good. Think I reported it to both Zach & Ray, maybe MIke, can anyone from DIRT offer suggestions?
What channel number is that? Happen on both HD and SD? Live and recorded content?
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lucky, for me it's channel 2, & I never watch SD, only HD. It's always during PTAT, worse between 8-9:30pm, daytime seems OK.
I have no idea if it's related but I had a similar issue with the locals breaking up during PTAT hours with my original H2k and it continued on a replacement for it. Later, I upgraded to a HWS and it totally vanished. No other changes were made, only the HWS replacement for the original Hopper. I am no engineer but nonetheless, I suspect my issue was related to the lesser processing power of the original Hopper being a bit "pushed" while PTAT was active.
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I live in Portland and watch KATU all the time. I don't see any of these issues. Once in awhile maybe, but nothing sustained. Maybe its your own signal strength or wiring? My recordings are just fine.
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