Is this normal?

[fredramsey]

I have noticed something very strange on Voom. Often, when I am watching something, every once in a while the picture will "jump" forward a few frames, as though it is catching up. Does that make any sense? Has anyone else seen this?

Also, last night I saw a strange phenomenon on one of the premium channels. It's hard to describe, but was like a narrow verticle bar that was offset vertically from the rest of the screen. In other words, a vertical stripe of the image was shifted down slightly.

I hope someone can make sense of these abnormalities and advise.

Thanks.

 

[The Stone Man]

Welcome to the forum Fred. Your installation was recent, I see. The intermittent 'picture jump' that you see sounds like you have witnessed the infamous microstutter problem. Ilya and DarrellP have posted numerous times about that problem, and Voom is aware of it, and supposedly working on a solution.

The verticle stripe issue is something that I am not familiar with, but I saw a recent thread where somebody described it as being very similar to what you describe here. In both cases that you describe--the problems are not normal. If you search through the forum usinng the keywords 'vertical stripe', and 'microstutter', you might be able to find appropriate information. Good luck and again--welcome to the forum.

 

[fredramsey]

Thanks for the reply! At least I am not the only one to notice these things.

Welcome to the forum Fred. Your installation was recent, I see. The intermittent 'picture jump' that you see sounds like you have witnessed the infamous microstutter problem. Ilya and DarrellP have posted numerous times about that problem, and Voom is aware of it, and supposedly working on a solution.

The verticle stripe issue is something that I am not familiar with, but I saw a recent thread where somebody described it as being very similar to what you describe here. In both cases that you describe--the problems are not normal. If you search through the forum usinng the keywords 'vertical stripe', and 'microstutter', you might be able to find appropriate information. Good luck and again--welcome to the forum.

 

[The Stone Man]

As soon as some of the 'heavyweights' get out of bed, you'll get some better assistance. They are pretty helpful. If I was in your situation, I would do a hard reboot by turning off the STB, then unplug it from the wall. Plug it back in and then turn it on. This will cause the program guide to have to download again, so leave everythng alone for about 15 minutes after you fire it back up.

 

[riffjim4069]

It sounds like you may be running an old firmware verision on your VOOM receiver since you were recently installed.

 

[Sean Mota]

What version of software are you using? Microstutters are a thing of the past.

 

[fredramsey]

What version of software are you using? Microstutters are a thing of the past.

I'm not at home right now, can't tell you, sorry.

 

[Sean Mota]

Let us know when you have a chance.

 

[Ilya]

The micro-stutter problem has been fixed starting with Nep.600.
However, yesterday I noticed occasional MACRO-stutter problem on one or two channels: the movie would freeze for a fraction of a second and then it would jump ahead. Not sure if this is the same problem as mentioned above, but this one only occurred on one or two channels. I suspect this was a transmission problem. I didn't see anything like this last week.

 

[fredramsey]

Close, but in my case it does not freeze; it's like it realizes it has fallen behind and jumps forward a few frames. You have to almost be looking for it, but it happens fairly regularly on most channels. Strange.

The micro-stutter problem has been fixed starting with Nep.600.
However, yesterday I noticed occasional MACRO-stutter problem on one or two channels: the movie would freeze for a fraction of a second and then it would jump ahead. Not sure if this is the same problem as mentioned above, but this one only occurred on one or two channels. I suspect this was a transmission problem. I didn't see anything like this last week.

 

[riffjim4069]

It sounds like you may be running vers 5.68. If so, you will want to leave your STB in stand-by in order to receive the upgrade. Of course, after the problems VOOM experienced with 7.0b, I'm not sure if they are pushing software updates these days.

Check your firmware version at your earliest opportunity:

VOOM-->GREEN-->System Settings-->System Status
or
HELP-->INFO

 

[Ilya]

Does it happen on all channels, or just select ones? All the time, or on certain programs only? How frequently?

What you are describing sounds like the micro-stutter problem that was present in Nep.568 and earlier versions (press HELP and the INFO to see which Nep. version you have). The micro-stutter was present on all channels and was especially noticeable on news tickers, e.g. on CNN: occurred every 33 seconds or so. Once your software is updated to a newer version, it should stop happening.

 

[vurbano]

I watched the gangs of new york this weekend and there were a series of veritcal bars spaced throughout the picture. the picture was OAR and you could see indentations into the top and bottom black bars, and when an actor moved on the screen into one of them there was slight distortion. First time Ive seen this.