Fox HD heavy drop out/pixalization?

rassilon5

SatelliteGuys Family
Original poster
Dec 23, 2007
46
0
Tacoma, WA
Has anyone else been having drop out or heavy "pixalization" problems with their local FOX HD station? Locally (Q13) or nationally?

I was thinking this could be a problem with my DVR however I believe it is only occurring on shows I record from FOX (Terminator, Dollhouse, Ramsey). The problem seems to have become worse lately and I wanted to check on here before I called Dish Network's "wonderful" customer service. ;) :)
 
Not me, but try this. Tune to fox, make sure the receiver locks, and hit Menu, System Setup 6, Installation 1, Point Dish 1. Tell us the spotbeam or transponder number, satellite, and the signal strength at the bottom of the screen.
 
Spotbeam 4
Satellite 110
as I check this, signal strength is currently between 66 and 67

(the screen said to enter zip code choose between 110 and 119, zip was not entered)

Thanks!
 
I'm in the Seattle area too. I've noticed the pixelation also, but on NBC. I'm watching my fav (Heroes). It's pretty irritating! Pixelation occurs when scenes changes (like from a dark scene to a light scene). Wondering what's going on?!?!?!
 
KCPQ has been awful lately. I have switched my recordings to the analog versions, actually.

Tonight I was able to watch OTA live, and it was fine. When I switched to the SAT HDversion, it was unwatchable. The SAT SD version is fine.

I have sent an email to the dish quality email address, but got nothing. KCPQ is seriously screwed up.
 
In Vancouver, BC, KCPQ 13 FOX HD on Cable is also having a lot of dropouts. No pixellation though. Some providers are switching to the Spokane feed because of this issue. They're also lucky, they have FOX Rochester, NY available as well, so you can just DVR the program 3 hours early.

Seems to be something wrong with KCPQ. Also only happens on the HD Feed up there as well. I've also seen the pixellation issue on NBC, but no sound dropouts just pixellates when the picture changes quickly.
 
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We had issue's with our recording of House tonight... seems as if it got worse the later it got... as 24 was starting it was really horrible. My wife had an interesting observation that it always seems to be bad/worse in the evening after 8pm... coincidence?
 
I have problem with my local Fox too, but it's not Dish. The OTA version is just as crappy.
 
I got this response from Dish, hopefully they will figure it out soon:

Dear Mr. Brown,

Thank you for expressing your concerns and interest in DISH Network. Customer input is an important tool in our efforts to continuously improve the quality of the DISH Network service.


We have placed KCPQ on our monitoring list. We are trying to duplicate the issue here so that we can break down where the problem may lie. We currently have a discrepancy ticket open on it. This means this service is checked up to 9 times a day until the problem is resolved. We also have this channel on our "Hit List"; this means we have a meeting with the engineers on a daily basis to get an update of the progress that has been made. As of now we have multiple departments trying to troubleshoot. Please be patient and I will get you answers as soon as possible. Unfortunately at this point I do not have an ETA. Can you please tell me what model receiver you have?


We appreciate the time DISH Network customers take to email their audio/video quality concerns. Thank you for your patience and for being a valued customer.

If you want to offer your own experience to Dish:

dishquality@echostar.com
 
This seems to be a hit and miss issue nationwide, from the multiple posts I have found since I noticed the problem back in Feb. Mine is not all the time but seems it is always on Sundays during broadcast of nascar racing and it continues throughout the day. Calling Dish and complaining in my case has gotten me nowhere.
 
good morning this is what I noticed last night recorded both Chuck and House. I have my dvr to record both show weekly. When I went to view later that night, I noticed that dvr had recorded around 20 minutes of both shows. I also noticed that all my local HD programs were having problems with pixalation and losing satellite feed earlier that night. When it did find feed, there was a message, no need to contact dishnetwork as they were aware of problem and working on it. This morning when turned on my tv I had a message that my software had been updated. Maybe this is the reason for troubles.
 
I've seen it on most Fox (KCPQ-13) recordings, most notably Dollhouse, Sarah Connor, and The Simpsons. This is not an issue for KCPQ OTA, just through Dish and has been that way for a few weeks. I watched the first 10-15 minutes of House from last night and it seemed OK, but per rasillon5's note above, I'm afraid I didn't get to the bad parts. Back to OTA recording for me.
 
I went ahead and sent Dish an e-mail, I received a similar response to pbrown's:

"Dear Mr. Nelsen,

Thank you for expressing your concerns and interest in DISH Network.
Customer input is an important tool in our efforts to continuously
improve the quality of the DISH Network service.

We have placed KCPQ on our monitoring list. We are trying to duplicate
the issue here so that we can break down where the problem may lie. We
currently have a discrepancy ticket open on it. This means this service
is checked up to 9 times a day until the problem is resolved. We also
have this channel on our "Hit List"; this means we have a meeting with
the engineers on a daily basis to get an update of the progress that has
been made. As of now we have multiple departments trying to
troubleshoot. Please be patient and I will get you answers as soon as
possible. Unfortunately at this point I do not have an ETA. Can you
please tell me what model receiver you have? an you see this channel
over the air? If so, is this happening there as well?

We appreciate the time DISH Network customers take to email their
audio/video quality concerns. Thank you for your patience and for being
a valued customer.

EchoStar Broadcasting Corporation
Quality Assurance Department

dishquality@echostar.com"

Anyone else having this problem, go ahead and e-mail them at:

dishquality@echostar.com

I would hope the more people complaining the more hot their response? :)

 
I was recording 24 from Q13 via OTA because it's the only local HD channel that comes in great reagardless of the weather. My recording of the 3/30/09 show via OTA was really bad so I changed my timers to record the Dish feed this past Monday. I was shocked to see it was even worse. Seems like most of the breakup was right after the commercials. Guess I'll try recording both feeds next week. I'm glad I found this thread as I thought my DVR was becoming toast. -Ken
 
Wow, I received the following e-mail this morning:

"Dear Mr. Nelsen,

First I want to apologize for the amount of time it is taking to get this problem fixed. I personally have been monitoring this channel for a week and a half. I watch the Local News on that station every morning. (Lovely storm you had last week). Anyway, I am not seeing any of the issues that are going on. I have had quite a few complaints so I know there is something wrong. We have been told that this happens every night around 8:00 PM. We did monitor "American Idol" last night and did not see any issues. If there is any information that you can think of that might help, please let us know. This has been escalated to our Spokane Uplink as well as our Locals Engineering Department. Please be patient and know that we are working towards resolution.

EchoStar Broadcasting Corporation
Quality Assurance Department
dishquality@echostar.com"

Not a good sign if they can't replicate the problem...

 
Update:

"Dear Mr. Nelsen,

I wanted to let you know we are making some head way. As of yesterday we found the cause and are currently working with the provider to get this resolved as soon as possible. I do apologize for the amount of time this has taken so far.

EchoStar Broadcasting Corporation
Quality Assurance Department
dishquality@echostar.com"





 
Watched my recordings of Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles and Dollhouse tonight... no artifacts, no drops... smooth sailing... hope they permanently fixed the problem <crossing fingers>!

On a side note, quite disappointed that Terminator: TSCC will most likely not get a third season... quite a plot twist and cliff hanger for a season/series finale. *sigh*
 

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