# PBS HD Channel Streaming Issues



## kgvickers (Mar 18, 2015)

I only recently became a TiVo owner. Got a Roamio OTA in the den, a mini in the master BR, and as of a few days ago, a Stream.

I can stream everything in home or out-of-home, even cellular, on my iPhone EXCEPT the local PBS HD channel, KERA 13.1 in Dallas, TX. I usually can get the PBS audio and a new video frame about every 10 seconds but that's best case. Often I'll get a window with some problem message. This issue applies to live and recorded TV. Note that the PBS SD channels work fine.

I've seen this mentioned in a few other threads. I'm wondering if this is a problem for other PBS HD channels around the country.

Other threads: http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=521646

http://tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?t=522717&highlight=pbs


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

I can stream from the PBS channels in New Jersey and Philadelphia without issue. It must be something that your local channel is doing.


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## kgvickers (Mar 18, 2015)

Thanks for the info.

I may have found the answer myself. I'm no expert in this stuff, but apparently PBS stations are going to MPEG4 which is not yet supported by Stream.

http://www.tvtechnology.com/deploym...ns-contract-to-transition-pbs-to-mpeg-/213024

So perhaps your station has not yet made the transition.


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## Arcady (Oct 14, 2004)

Yeah, but they can't broadcast in MPEG-4. ATSC OTA broadcasts are strictly MPEG-2. There must be something going wrong when they take the MPEG-4 source material and re-encode for MPEG-2 at broadcast.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

Arcady said:


> Yeah, but they can't broadcast in MPEG-4. ATSC OTA broadcasts are strictly MPEG-2.


They _can_ do it, as long as they provide at least one subchannel in MPEG-2. But I'd be surprised if this was actually happening already.

kgvickers, you can check if this is really the issue: Tune to the channel in question, and then go to Settings & Messages > Account & System Info > DVR Diagnostics. Check that your target is listed as "Channel:" (if not, page down until you see it), then page down until you see "Video PID:". There will be a hex number, followed by the encoding in parentheses -- either "MPEG2" or "H.264". Please let us know what you find!


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## kgvickers (Mar 18, 2015)

Mpeg 2


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## PCurry57 (Feb 27, 2012)

kgvickers said:


> I only recently became a TiVo owner. Got a Roamio OTA in the den, a mini in the master BR, and as of a few days ago, a Stream.
> 
> I can stream everything in home or out-of-home, even cellular, on my iPhone EXCEPT the local PBS HD channel, KERA 13.1 in Dallas, TX. I usually can get the PBS audio and a new video frame about every 10 seconds but that's best case. Often I'll get a window with some problem message. This issue applies to live and recorded TV. Note that the PBS SD channels work fine.
> 
> ...


I've had this same issue with KERA. It had to do with the encoding they broadcast in not being supported by Stream. Unfortunate and distressing, eventually the Stream should be updated.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

PCurry57 said:


> I've had this same issue with KERA. It had to do with the encoding they broadcast in not being supported by Stream.


That doesn't appear to be the reason (see above).


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## das335 (Feb 8, 2006)

I worked with TiVo on this issue with my local PBS station (WEDU) in Tampa, Florida. I recently got the following answer from TiVO

*Thank you for contacting TiVo Customer Support. This is a response to your current issue as noted on reference number 141109-004397. Thanks to the information provided and research done, we have discovered an issue on the Broadcast signal for the channel "WEDU". This issue essentially identifies an invalid Mpeg2 encoding that our TiVo Stream is unable to process. Since it is unable to process the stream it drops it instead. Unfortunately due to the nature of the issue, the only possible fix would need to be implemented by the Broadcaster "WEDU". We have attempted to reach out to them using a few different methods but have not had a response back. If we can communicate this error in their broadcast it may be possible for the Stream to function on this channel, however ultimately the fix must be implemented by them. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused, if you have any questions or are able to provide more information that may assist in the timely resolution of this issue please feel free to contact us.

Customer Support Line at 877-367-8486

Thank you for your patience while we attempt to resolve this issue. If you choose to respond via our Customer Support Line please give the representative the reference number 141109-004397. Following these case numbers should expedite the troubleshooting process, and thank you for being a TiVo Customer.

Jacob
TiVo Advanced Escalations Specialist*

I still do not understand why my TiVo Roamio and TiVo Premiere units can record and playback the shows correctly but the TiVo Stream fails.


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## moyekj (Jan 24, 2006)

das335 said:


> I still do not understand why my TiVo Roamio and TiVo Premiere units can record and playback the shows correctly but the TiVo Stream fails.


 The TiVo stream has its own mpeg2 decoder that has to work for it to be able to transcode to H.264. It appears like from the response above that the Stream mpeg2 decoder is not able to decode this particular mpeg2 encoding for this channel for some reason.

This is similar to problem that currently exists with H.264 recordings on the TiVo. The Stream decoder with current software is not able to decode H.264 so doesn't support streaming of H.264 recordings currently.


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## kgvickers (Mar 18, 2015)

das335 said:


> I worked with TiVo on this issue with my local PBS station (WEDU) in Tampa, Florida. I recently got the following answer from TiVO
> 
> *Thank you for contacting TiVo Customer Support. This is a response to your current issue as noted on reference number 141109-004397. Thanks to the information provided and research done, we have discovered an issue on the Broadcast signal for the channel "WEDU". This issue essentially identifies an invalid Mpeg2 encoding that our TiVo Stream is unable to process. Since it is unable to process the stream it drops it instead. Unfortunately due to the nature of the issue, the only possible fix would need to be implemented by the Broadcaster "WEDU". We have attempted to reach out to them using a few different methods but have not had a response back. If we can communicate this error in their broadcast it may be possible for the Stream to function on this channel, however ultimately the fix must be implemented by them. We apologize for any inconvenience this has caused, if you have any questions or are able to provide more information that may assist in the timely resolution of this issue please feel free to contact us.
> 
> ...


At least you got a reasonable response. All I've gotten so far is " . . . your signal strength is not good, low bandwidth, bla, bla, bla . . . "

I seriously doubt we'll be able to get PBS to spend any of their limited resources on fixing this. If their encoding violates some FCC rule then there would be legal grounds to force a fix, but I doubt they will care much for the few folks trying to stream with TiVo products.


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## JWhites (May 15, 2013)

Even if the PBS channel switches to broadcasting MPEG4, the service provider would still be transcoding it back to MPEG2. OTA is a whole different thing.


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## das335 (Feb 8, 2006)

I happen to have a TiVo Premiere with OTA and TiVo Roamio using Verizon FIOS. I spent a lot of time testing on both units and provided info to TiVo on several occasions. I verified early on that I was receiving an MPEG2 signal from both sources. 

In my initial description of the problem to TiVo, I mentioned that I suspected it was a problem with the signal sent from WEDU (PBS in Tampa). TiVo had me disconnect any ethernet switches (no change). I actually moved one of my TiVo units to a different room so it would connect directly to my Verizon supplied router (no change).

I started working with TiVo in Dec of 2014 and they just recently (3/13/2015) closed the issue stating it was a WEDU signal problem.

I will try and contact WEDU again myself but they never responded to my initial attempt via Email.


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## JWhites (May 15, 2013)

Might have to physically go down to the station and get them to fix it, threaten them with an FCC complaint if need be.


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