stutter problem...

GeneWildershair

SatelliteGuys Pro
Original poster
Feb 28, 2004
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Bay Area
I keep seeing this "stutter problem" coming up in several threads, and am wondering exactly what it is, as I don't see anything stuttering on my screen, while watching any VOOM channel? Can someone clarify? Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough?
 
I had that problem with a second TV that I'm feeding through a splitter. Motion scenes would stutter on that TV, but the main TV was fine. Sean Mota suggested unplugging and re-plugging in the cord to the STB, and that stopped all stuttering.
 
GeneWildershair said:
I keep seeing this "stutter problem" coming up in several threads, and am wondering exactly what it is, as I don't see anything stuttering on my screen, while watching any VOOM channel? Can someone clarify? Maybe I'm just not looking hard enough?
I find it easy to see during soccer games on Worldsport. When the camera is making a smooth pan, it will look like a small skip in the picture. To me it looks like there is a frame or two dropped. Another analogy would be a movie where one or two of the frames are removed from the film spool making the picture skip ahead a little. It happens anywhere between 30 seconds and a couple of minutes. I also see this on most of the other channels. If the camera is not panning and the picture is mostly static, I do not notice it.
 
Gr8Reb8 said:
I find it easy to see during soccer games on Worldsport. When the camera is making a smooth pan, it will look like a small skip in the picture. To me it looks like there is a frame or two dropped. Another analogy would be a movie where one or two of the frames are removed from the film spool making the picture skip ahead a little. It happens anywhere between 30 seconds and a couple of minutes. I also see this on most of the other channels. If the camera is not panning and the picture is mostly static, I do not notice it.

Uh-oh. I haven't signed up yet with VOOM, but this sounds like the problem that made me leave SureWest Digital cable a few months back. Have you noticed it also on filmed shows or is it just on videotaped shows?
 
The SureWest problem is with one of their encoders (Harmonic MV50) that drops a frame or two about every 20 seconds. After much complaining, and finally getting a headend tech who could actually see the problem (and thought the problem was that it was tripping up with something not working right with error correction on the HITS feed) they leased a different encoder for a few months, which fixed it (it was only a problem with the streams hooked to that particular encoder, so all channels weren't bad), but then later hooked up the original encoder back up since it wasn't worth it to them to fix it since most people (including the people at SureWest) didn't see the frame drops. So when they told us they were not going to fix it we cancelled. I hope this is a temporary thing with VOOM, 'cause once you notice it, you always do and it can drive you batty. It was most noticable with filmed shows (that's why I asked if it was just video or both).
 
Gr8Reb8 said:
I find it easy to see during soccer games on Worldsport. When the camera is making a smooth pan, it will look like a small skip in the picture. To me it looks like there is a frame or two dropped. Another analogy would be a movie where one or two of the frames are removed from the film spool making the picture skip ahead a little. It happens anywhere between 30 seconds and a couple of minutes. I also see this on most of the other channels. If the camera is not panning and the picture is mostly static, I do not notice it.
I'm hoping the upcoming update solves this issue- I see it on almost all channels, including the OTA channels.
 
I have not checked the OTA channels for the stutter, however, I did check Discovery HD, and alas, it also has the stutter issue. Look for slow steady pans of the camera. If it occurs during that pan, you can't miss it.
 
If it's on the OTA channels also, then it's probably _not_ like the headend hardware problem SureWest has (which in a way makes me feel better), so I hope it's something a software update can fix.
 
I've seen the exact same thing on two different Dish Network 811 receivers, through HD, SD, and OTA signals. It drives me nuts. Any idea what causes it. I know it is not the t.v. because I've witnessed it on two different t.v.s. Any ideas would be great.
 
I'm checking out DHD myself. I don't see anything in the pans other than the inherent dithering that dlp projectors tend to have. Definitely no stuttering.
Either that or it's hidden by the dithering. :)

Bill
 
:shocked Ok finally noticed it! Saw it first on Worldsport soccer, now I can't stop seeing it on every channel!!! !sadroll It is very annoying once you notice it! I even noticed it on some OTA channels! What the hell is this crap??? I checked my Directv, and cable to see if I was just seeing things, but nope...it's not there, it's only on Voom! I really hope this gets fixed ASAP, as now I can't help but notice it, and it is bugging me!
 
GeneWildershair said:
:shocked Ok finally noticed it! Saw it first on Worldsport soccer, now I can't stop seeing it on every channel!!! !sadroll It is very annoying once you notice it! I even noticed it on some OTA channels! What the hell is this crap??? I checked my Directv, and cable to see if I was just seeing things, but nope...it's not there, it's only on Voom! I really hope this gets fixed ASAP, as now I can't help but notice it, and it is bugging me!
I spent months fine tuning my skills at converting all my home videos to MPEG2 and then authoring and burning them to DVD. In that process, I became familiar with interlacing, motion artifacts and the challenges when working with video. I noticed the stuttering almost right away when I got Voom. At first I assumed it was a the receiver, or the original film or simply a fluke. Later I noticed it on all the channels HD and SD. It is very annoying when it is obvious. On many movies, I do not notice it much and the movie is viewable. I looked at CNN this morning and noticed it when looking at the scrolling ticker at the bottom of the screen. I do not have a stopwatch so I do not know if the interval between the stutter is constant, but my guess is 20-40 seconds.
An analogy to this is: Many DVDs have a motion video as part of the menu. These menus typically last 30 seconds to a minute. At the end of the motion video, it will go back to the beginning and start over. I have seen where the DVD maker will attempt to make that transition as short and seamless as possible. There will be a slight pause between the end and beginning. The pause/stutter on Voom is similar, but much shorter, only a frame or two.
 
Stutter Problem

The other thing I've noticed on my SD TV is that the problem is cumulative-I've had Voom for 9 days now and have rebooted my receiver 3 times. The video stutter starts to "build up", eventually occurring every 3-5 seconds on the SD side, where my HDTV is not affected.
 
Channel 311 -- Want to see all problems together?

Want to see all problems together in one channel, turn to channel 311 and tell me if you don't see.

Pixelation
White Strips
Motion Artifacts
Picture Softnes
Picture breakup
Stuttering problem more pronounce and it cannot be missed.

All of these in HD, playing right now on the demo voom channel.
 
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