# Bad pixelation on only the stations I watch?



## slyone (Jul 22, 2005)

just started wtf? Tried a restart, Haven't tried anything else.


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## Hotsauce1121 (Aug 15, 2019)

Me Too!


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## Talostown (Oct 29, 2020)

Very interesting. I have been fighting a tiling/pixelation issue all week that just started this week. A number of channels will have this issue but some are perfectly fine. I can watch golf channel or Discovery or TNT all day with no issues. I flip to Fox or CBS or ABC and one of the worst, METV, and it tiles and pixelates. I have remove the tuning adapter, connected the Tivo directly to the incoming cable line to rule out all wiring and splitters, I have connected it to a different TV, swapped out the cable card, added SNR to get it to what Tivo deems "acceptable", had Spectrum confirm the signal levels I am seeing in the Tivo diags and nothing fixes it. I spent an hour on phone with Tivo who ended up offering to send me a replacement Bolt for $150 which I prefer not to do. I have Spectrum coming out Saturday as a last resort but I don't think they will find anything. I have no issues on any of my other TV's that have Spectrum cable boxes plus all the steps I outlined to troubleshoot the issue. If others are experiencing this issue, that would start to make me think Tivo changed something on their end or with an update. I am just grasping at anything at this point.


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## EWiser (Oct 2, 2008)

Had this on one channel for a while then all of a sudden it happened to all the network channels. Call Spectrum they sent out a cable card tech. He fouls the issue to be outside at the splitter. He reworked the outside connections and the bad picture went away.


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## slyone (Jul 22, 2005)

I since checked further, only on Fox News, tcm(older movies) and nickelodeon Jr. Thats it! Signal is fine & other exact setup upstairs works fine...?


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## Ralph P. (Dec 17, 2004)

Greetings,

Add me to the list. Also a Spectrum customer and this just started within the last few days. My problem is with NBC, Fox News and Cozi TV. Seems like a coincidence that we all just started experiencing this. Hmmm...



Regards,


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## Talostown (Oct 29, 2020)

Had Spectrum out here for 1.5 hours. Tested everything including box for all the neighbors and found nothing. Said what I figured he would say, my signal is excellent. He was very thorough and helpful. I just don't get how it is not all channels if Tivo box is the issue. 

I guess I need to decide to swap the box which I won't pay $150 for another Bolt to Tivo when mine is only 2 years old, see if I can get them to send me an Edge instead, or just give up on Tivo. It's unfortunate as I really do like the concept of Tivo, I just think they have given up, at least on the cable side.


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## slyone (Jul 22, 2005)

I decided to switch boxes location (upstairs/downstairs) both worked great! ? Switched back & both worked great again! Holy moly wtf? I think by actually unplugging caused something to happen, maybe in memory?


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## Talostown (Oct 29, 2020)

I rebooted many times and connected it to different drops and TV's, no change. Glad a reboot worked out for you though.


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## jadziedzic (Apr 20, 2009)

Try leaving the box powered off over night, then power it up and see what happens. Ehen the tuner on my Bolt+ was on the way out it would cause pixelation after it heated up, and leaving it off for a while (temporarily) resolved the issue.


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## nmkonaboy (Mar 8, 2017)

Talostown said:


> ..... I have Spectrum coming out Saturday as a last resort but I don't think they will find anything. I have no issues on any of my other TV's that have Spectrum cable boxes plus all the steps I outlined to troubleshoot the issue. If others are experiencing this issue, that would start to make me think Tivo changed something on their end or with an update. I am just grasping at anything at this point.


@Talostown, I'm seeing pretty much the same thing here - Did you have any luck with Spectrum last weekend?

My scenario: I get the tiling/pixelation on Live TV, as well as recorded. I was about to post a new thread to request some troubleshooting help when I spotted this one. I'm assuming that since it happens on live TV that it isn't my HD. So I haven't swapped that out yet to test. Sometime between 10/22 and 10/27 this started happening to me. I went back and looked at recordings, anything prior to 10/22 didn't have tiling/pixelation, and anything after 10/27 does. (I already erased any recordings between those dates so not sure of exact date it started.

I've checked/changed coax cables. I went to Spectrum and picked up a DVR box, and hooking that up to the same coax, I don't have the problem. I also have a Bolt that I currently don't use and is not activated, so today switched the cable card from that one to this one, called in to spectrum cable card support, and they activated it. Still having the problem.

I have not yet called Tivo to reactivate my other Bolt (online I can only reactivate at the year price, and don't want to do that).... so at this point am not sure what is going on..... The Spectrum support rep said next thing to do from their end is to go through the diagnostics, checking SNR etc... but I've looked at that myself and that all looks good. I'll take that step perhaps...


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## Talostown (Oct 29, 2020)

nmkonaboy said:


> @Talostown, I'm seeing pretty much the same thing here - Did you have any luck with Spectrum last weekend?
> 
> My scenario: I get the tiling/pixelation on Live TV, as well as recorded. I was about to post a new thread to request some troubleshooting help when I spotted this one. I'm assuming that since it happens on live TV that it isn't my HD. So I haven't swapped that out yet to test. Sometime between 10/22 and 10/27 this started happening to me. I went back and looked at recordings, anything prior to 10/22 didn't have tiling/pixelation, and anything after 10/27 does. (I already erased any recordings between those dates so not sure of exact date it started.
> 
> ...


I have the same exact issue nmkinaboy. It all started for me around the same time as well. Outlined above the results of my Spectrum visit, they tested everything including box at the end of the street for all the neighbors and found nothing. He spent 1.5 hours at my house. Said what I figured he would say, my signal is excellent. He was very thorough and helpful.

Just so I understand, are you saying you had the issue with 2 different Tivo units?


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## nmkonaboy (Mar 8, 2017)

Talostown said:


> I have the same exact issue nmkinaboy. It all started for me around the same time as well. Outlined above the results of my Spectrum visit, they tested everything including box at the end of the street for all the neighbors and found nothing. He spent 1.5 hours at my house. Said what I figured he would say, my signal is excellent. He was very thorough and helpful.
> 
> Just so I understand, are you saying you had the issue with 2 different Tivo units?


Sorry, what I meant was: I have two Tivo units, both Bolt's.... One of them I have Lifetime All In (Unit A), the other is not Activated at this time (Unit B). So I can't test on Unit B without reactivating it. I haven't done that yet. What I did do, was to swap the cable card from B into A, just in case it was A's cable card that was the problem.

I can reactivate B online, but only by choosing the 1 Year activation at $150. I don't want to do that, and haven't yet called in to see if they will activate me for a monthly bill.... I've postponed that, since I don't know what I'd do if B does work good. ie: I don't want to pay $550 for All In on B.


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## Talostown (Oct 29, 2020)

nmkonaboy said:


> Sorry, what I meant was: I have two Tivo units, both Bolt's.... One of them I have Lifetime All In (Unit A), the other is not Activated at this time (Unit B). So I can't test on Unit B without reactivating it. I haven't done that yet. What I did do, was to swap the cable card from B into A, just in case it was A's cable card that was the problem.
> 
> I can reactivate B online, but only by choosing the 1 Year activation at $150. I don't want to do that, and haven't yet called in to see if they will activate me for a monthly bill.... I've postponed that, since I don't know what I'd do if B does work good. ie: I don't want to pay $550 for All In on B.


Ahh ok. Got it. Yeah I swapped cable card in mine as well with no difference. Do you have the issue on all channels or just certain ones? Not all for me but many which is also the odd thing with this.


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## Talostown (Oct 29, 2020)

jadziedzic said:


> Try leaving the box powered off over night, then power it up and see what happens. Ehen the tuner on my Bolt+ was on the way out it would cause pixelation after it heated up, and leaving it off for a while (temporarily) resolved the issue.


Thanks for the suggestion. I did this when I first started having the issue as well as put a fan on it. No change unfortunately.


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## nmkonaboy (Mar 8, 2017)

Talostown said:


> Ahh ok. Got it. Yeah I swapped cable card in mine as well with no difference. Do you have the issue on all channels or just certain ones? Not all for me but many which is also the odd thing with this.


I tried a bunch, and it looks like I have the problem on all.... But I didn't go through everything. I definitely have the problem on the network channels, and HGTV - those are the ones I use the most. I checked out MeTV as in your first append above, and I do have it on there - not sure if it is worse or not but definately just as bad. Tried Discovery and did have it on that a little.

What I've noticed in the diagnostics, is that my Signal Strength on tuners 1 and 3 is consistently 5 db lower than that on tuners 0 and 2. e.g 1 and 3 run at 97. 0 and 2 run at 92. The SNR is respectively 37 (on 1,3) and 33 (on 0,2) they all fluctuate by about 1 number up/down.

I set up recording on all 4 tuners to see if the channels on 1 and 3 didn't tile, but - no luck. It does seem strange that they aren't all the same though.

And one last item: The level of pixelation I get is usually a line across the bottom of the screen (usually an inch or 3 above the bottom, across the screen), all the way up to portions of the entire screen jumping with pixelation. And then good for usually a few minutes. Most of the time it looks OK, it's just enough that it's really aggrevating.


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## slyone (Jul 22, 2005)

Well I must concede, I still receive some pixelation still ?


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## Ralph P. (Dec 17, 2004)

Greetings,

Well, just as suddenly as this appeared, it stopped. Three days ago it was present in the morning but, by the evening NBC, CBS, and Fox News were fine. Every now and then it pops up in Cozi TV but, even that is 90 percent better. Oh well, I won't complain.

Regards,


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