Pixelation confusion...

[ahwman]

As an early adopter of the InfiniTV, I've been plagued by the pixelation issues as far back as I can remember. That said, I've been patiently waiting for a fix from Ceton as they have confirmed/reproduced this issue. Since this issue has been going on for so long, my hope has gradually faded... That said, I was watching a program locally on my HTPC and sure enough the pixelation shows up about every 1-2 minutes (jagged line stretching across the screen), however when I paused it at that point, then played it back on my Echo & Xbox 360 I couldn't detect the pixelation. This is not in every case, as I was able to find a few examples where the pixelation lined up on both the HTPC & Xbox 360/Echo, however in each case it was much less severe and also much less frequent when viewed on the Xbox 360/Echo. So now, I'm starting to wonder if there is more to this than just the InfiniTV? Do the extenders do a better job of dealing with pixelation than the video card on my HTPC (Nvidia Geforce GTX 550Ti - 2GB)?

I appreciate any ideas...

[IrishFBall32]

If you're getting the same pixelation I'm thinking of (known as macroblocking), that is usually a result of marginal cable signal... It could be that the improvement is in the "recording" process performing some kind of recovery that live TV can't do.

That said, I've also had issues with the TempRec files getting corrupted - Shutting down all your extenders/Media Center, stopping the Receiver service, deleting that directory and rebooting will regenerate them.

[ahwman]

If you're getting the same pixelation I'm thinking of (known as macroblocking), that is usually a result of marginal cable signal... It could be that the improvement is in the "recording" process performing some kind of recovery that live TV can't do.

That said, I've also had issues with the TempRec files getting corrupted - Shutting down all your extenders/Media Center, stopping the Receiver service, deleting that directory and rebooting will regenerate them.

I highly doubt it's my signal levels as I've had my cable company out on 3 different occasions to check them. The last time they replaced everything from the pole to my computer. Levels are around +2.9 with SNR of 37.6 and zero pixelation when going through a cable box. I thought Ceton had finally solved the pixelation issues, however it still appears to be rearing it's ugly head. After almost a year of chasing this issue, I've become worn out and am starting to look for other options...

[MeInDallas]

What firmware do you use? Are you using the general release or the beta? I had this same issue and it was driving me crazy. There was a new beta firmware update that came out last week, and the pixelation/macroblocking has completely disappeared for me. Hasnt returned since I updated.

[ahwman]

What firmware do you use? Are you using the general release or the beta? I had this same issue and it was driving me crazy. There was a new beta firmware update that came out last week, and the pixelation/macroblocking has completely disappeared for me. Hasnt returned since I updated.

I was using a beta firmware, (prior release to 1.2.2.6 - newest available). I just flashed the 1.2.2.6 today and am just now testing it both on my HTPC as well as through my extenders. Is this the same version that cleared it up for you?

[MeInDallas]

Yes thats the one. It was making me so crazy, but when I got the 1.2.2.6 it fixed everything. It helped several others also.

We were talking about it here: http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... =68&t=3060

[ahwman]

Yes thats the one. It was making me so crazy, but when I got the 1.2.2.6 it fixed everything. It helped several others also.

We were talking about it here: http://www.thegreenbutton.tv/forums/vie ... =68&t=3060

After updating to v1.2.2.6 and watching TV for the last hour or so, I have yet to see the pixelation issue. I'm holding back my excitement until I can confirm that it's truly gone across all channels. However, so far so good! I have an open ticket with Ceton about this issue and I'm going to inquire if the pixelation issue is specifically noted as fixed in the changelog for v1.2.2.6. I and many others would be so happy to see this issue solved once and for all! As a matter of fact, I was even considering dumping WMC and going the Tivo route because it just seemed like this would never get fixed...

[MeInDallas]

Well, I waited and waited myself looking for it to hit me, and I havent seen it yet. Knock on wood. It's been about a week now.

It's funny you say Tivo, I'm going the opposite way, leaving Tivo to go to Ceton. I've got 2 left on contract until March 2013 and after that I'm done with them. I had 4 different XL4's and talk about a complete nightmare. 2012 was a horrible year for me and Tivo. I'll use the cable DVR's before I go back to them. I'm really happy with Ceton now though

[ahwman]

Well, I waited and waited myself looking for it to hit me, and I havent seen it yet. Knock on wood. It's been about a week now.

It's funny you say Tivo, I'm going the opposite way, leaving Tivo to go to Ceton. I've got 2 left on contract until March 2013 and after that I'm done with them. I had 4 different XL4's and talk about a complete nightmare. 2012 was a horrible year for me and Tivo. I'll use the cable DVR's before I go back to them. I'm really happy with Ceton now though

That's great news! BTW, what was it specifically about Tivo you didn't like, or had issues with compared to WMC?

[MeInDallas]

I knew you were going to ask that! I've been with Tivo since 2000, started with the first Series 1 model, moved up to the Series 2, then the Series 3 which was the perfect Tivo. Well the Premiere Series 4 model came out and has been plagued with problems. The big one for me is there is some sort of conflict in the Tivo software that does not play well with cable cards and tuning adapters. Tivo users call it the "lost channel syndrome" where you will be watching live TV and all of a sudden you get an error message that says "channel not found" and all the channels cannot be tuned. The only way to get them back is to reboot the machine. Now you can be recording 4 programs, or just watching live TV and this happens, and it happens maybe every 12 hours or every 10 minutes. Of course they blame the cable company, and the cable company blames Tivo. Well after going thru this since January 2012, FINALLY Tivo admits there is an issue but there is no fix for it, yet. Tivo only releases updates to their software in spring and fall mostly, unless they find something and can put a fix out for it right away. That doesnt happen very often, maybe twice a year if youre lucky. In the meantime youre paying a subscription while your Tivo is giving you fits. Also once they put out a new series, the old one is left for dead, no more updates. I had 2 Series 3 models with Lifetime subs on them that they no longer updated. They worked great but only 2 tuners and then once the cable company starts using MPEG4 they will be useless. Only the new models will get the updates. Theres just so many things to list. One huge thing too is that WMC is free, Tivo is not. You either buy a monthly subscription or lifetime, or the box doesnt record. What was the deal breaker for me? With Tivo I would come home and all the shows I wanted to record were either partial recordings, or didnt record because the lost channel syndrome happened when I was gone, and no one home to reboot the machine. With WMC I come home and everything has been recorded like clockwork. Had I known about the Ceton cards I wouldve switched over a long long time ago. I had never heard of Ceton until a few months ago, and had no clue what WMC was for on Win7. Needless to say I did a lot of reading on the internet, and I love to build computers, so I thought wow this is for me!

If you think the issues people have here are bad, go to the Tivo community forums and read there for awhile, you will be glad to come back here

[barnabas1969]

I was all upset about the macroblocking thing for a long time too. I went as far as to buy a Silicondust HD HomeRun Prime to replace my Ceton InfiniTV. Both had exactly the same problem when I watched the shows on the TV that is connected to the PC.

I found that it didn't look nearly as bad on an extender too. I even tried two different video cards in the PC. Each video card exhibited a line of bad pixels across the screen, but they looked different. When playing the same recording on the extenders, it was difficult to see the bad spot in the video, but it was in the same area of the screen.

I think the video card drivers just don't know how to correct for errors in the video stream... and extenders are designed to handle them.

So, I just learned to live with it.

But... recently, I had my cable company come out for some problems I was having with my cable modem. The tech found that I had some signal ingress (signals in the air that are being picked up by the coax wiring in my house). He corrected the problem, and he did a bunch of other work to get my signals as clean as possible.

That was several weeks ago... and the line of bad pixels is gone. The worst offender was Comedy Central. I would see it every few minutes when watching the Jon Stewart show. But now, it's gone. I'm in HDTV heaven.

[richard1980]

I read a post here not long ago that said the latest beta firmware fixed the single line pixelation problem. I'm currently running that firmware, and the little testing I've done seems to confirm this statement. However, I haven't done enough testing to say the problem is actually solved.