# Olympics picture pixelation



## Hobbit (Sep 2, 2005)

I'm seeing significant picture pixelation, over saturation of bright colors (oranges, reds), sound drop outs, and video freezes when I'm watching the Olympics on NBC. I'm also seeing white outlining around the edges of objects, which looks very odd.

The problems are especially bad when they're showing snow events at night. I don't see the problems on any other programs I'm recording from other channels.

Is this a problem with NBC's signal, DirecTV's transmission, or my DTivo hard drive starting to go bad?

The drop outs and freezes point to the hard disk, but all the pixelation, color saturation, and outlining point to NBC or DirecTV signal problems.

Is anyone else seeing similar problems? Any guesses as to what's wrong?


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## Rax (Jun 11, 2002)

It was NBC last night. The OTA signal strength on the HD set was 95% and still chunked out. I blame the network.


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## EricG (Jan 31, 2002)

The SD feed is really chunky. The Half Pipe looked Horrible. I haven't checked the HD.


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## Hobbit (Sep 2, 2005)

Yea, the half pipe looks especially horrible. I agree.

I'm both happy and sad that others are seeing the same problems. Happy that it's not my DTivo failing; sad that NBC is screwing up so badly and making the Olympics so hard to watch for everyone.


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## DZB (Feb 13, 2006)

I am running 6.2. I am getting the slow-mo pixelating during local broadcast tv only. I am watching the Olympics, on my local NBC, the Luge and the half pipe almost un-watchable. Earlier today and Saturday on CNBC and USA networks the Olympic coverage all looked good no slo-mo. Same events same venues. I think what is going on is that Direct Tv has reduced bandwidth for local channels. That's it. Lets get rid of a few shopping and other unwanted channels and put the local bandwidth back to where it should be. We are paying to have the local channels and I want it fixed!!!!!


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## jaydro (Oct 19, 2003)

I've noticed more local channel problems the past couple of weeks--seems like a show doesn't go by that doesn't have a few pixelation bursts. No problems with non-locals.

But the Olympics--yeah, I agree, but then a friend e-mailed me to say he was having the same problems with it on Dish _and OTA_!


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## Hoosier_1701 (Apr 29, 2003)

I've also been seeing all the same problems you described. I wondered if my dish had gotten out of alignment, because I thought I'd seen some issues on other channels too, but now I'm not sure about that.

I checked my transponder signal strengths, and a few of them are low. I don't know which one my local channels are on though, so I have no idea if that is related. I haven't been watching much on USA or CNBC, so I haven't noticed any problems there.

I glad I'm not alone though.


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## murgatroyd (Jan 6, 2002)

Hobbit said:


> I'm seeing significant picture pixelation, over saturation of bright colors (oranges, reds), sound drop outs, and video freezes when I'm watching the Olympics on NBC.


No pixelation here, thank goodness, but the oversaturation of the ski jumpers' bright orange suits was pretty spectacular on my SA TiVo.  So the problems aren't confined to your DirecTiVos.

The other really annoying thing was a curious jumping of the picture in the studio segments when the people on-screen are in close-up. I would say it was the same as the jumps between HD and SD that everyone has described, but it can't be -- I'm watching it on an SD TV on analog cable. Very weird.

Jan


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## sg000 (Feb 6, 2006)

Just want to add that Albany NY locals are bad (all of them) with no known problems on the non-locals. Spoke with someone in Orlando, FL the other night and they are seeing pixillation, even complete drops OTA in HD. They don't have cable, so couldn't comment on that.

We finally turned off the TV last night it was so bad. At least I know the curling I record on CNBC tonight will be clean and crisp.

--SG


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## Indiana627 (Jan 24, 2003)

I've been noticing the same thing. The half pipe was horrible, thought the luge looked OK to me. I wonder if it has anything to do with NBC down-resing the HD signal to SD? Bob Costas' eyes look possessed during his nightly studio coverage.


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## jbuie (Jul 1, 2005)

I thought it was my DirecTivo until I switched to a basketball game at 8:00 and saw that it was fine.

NBC's (non-HD) signal last night was virtually unwatchable in Raleigh, freezes, skips, pixellation, bad color.


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## nesby (Feb 7, 2006)

Yup, same problem in Raleigh. I've been having the local channel slo-mo problem for a couple of months now. I'm inches away from heading back to cable.


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## tony17 (Jun 2, 2003)

Just to jump in because I have DirecTV, Comcast and OTA. I did not check the SD feeds, but can confirm the HD feed on all three (with OTA being slightly better) is absolutely horrible. I think it must be NBC if I am getting this with all of them and I agree it is sad they are ruining the olympics with the poor pic quality.  Oh well....


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## jbuie (Jul 1, 2005)

nesby said:


> I'm inches away from heading back to cable.


Now that's just crazy talk.


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## lalouque (Feb 11, 2002)

I feel much better knowing it's not just me. On both my DirecTiVo and SA, I was having horrendous problems with the half-pipe event. Yuck yuck yuck.


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## bamm1956 (Dec 31, 2004)

Like so many others, I'm glad to know that it's not just me. I had noticed pixelation, freezes, skips, etc. mostly on the local channels for a couple of weeks or more. Last night I checked the signal strengths of my two incoming lines and they were both 93% or greater. I called DT* and they said that NBC was having problems and DT* was working on correcting it. They didn't comment on my problems with other local channels. This will definitely make me rethink cable if this continues very much longer.


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## jasoncarr (May 3, 2002)

murgatroyd said:


> No pixelation here, thank goodness, but the oversaturation of the ski jumpers' bright orange suits was pretty spectacular on my SA TiVo.  So the problems aren't confined to your DirecTiVos.


Yes, the orange was eyepopping. I wondered if we were seeing some kind of new flourescent technology.

I am usually tolerant of mild pixelation, but we were projecting a 100" image and the pixelation was so bad it started making me nauseated. Weird. Swapped back to the 19" crt and it was ugly but bearable.

BTW, dTiVo+Olympics is a match made in heaven, at least as far as scheduling goes.


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## pauldtaz (Feb 7, 2006)

I've had pixelation problems on local channels for the last couple of weeks.
Thought it was my refurbished Hughs unit so I ordered one of the free "blow out" 35 hour units. I got a Phillips unit last week and it had the same problem.
American Idol graphic breaks almost always Pixelate and then freeze for a second.
Any spinning zooming graphic is a good candidate for this pixelization freeze problem too.
I have cable too and the problem isn't usually seen there.
I had problems with the SuperBowl too with the graphics and panning of the crowd. It looks like a compression decompress problem with the picture.


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## dysartd (Jun 22, 2004)

I'd have to agree with pauldtaz, thinking back the past few weeks have seen local channels get pretty bad. It came to a head when watching the halfpipe competition last night. The replays were horrible. I've seen spotty reports in the press of the HD signal going bad, but not much on the SD signal.

FWIW - I can only go on memory, but I know this goes back to at least the Super Bowl. Since I'm seeing this on more than just the local NBC affiliate.

Anyone know what the most "constructive" way to complain to D* is?


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## NCYANKEE (Sep 16, 2002)

I thought I was going crazy with the pixelization, but I see I'm not alone. Several others in Raleigh, along with all across the country. I hate to ask this, but are people on cable having the same issue. Have people seen this directly from D* if they are not using a TIVO with their broadcast? What about on---dare I say it---cable? Are they having the same issues?

The scenes with snow are really bad, particularly the halfpipe. You'd think they'd know ahead ot time that snow scenes would cause problems. It is the winter olympics after all!


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## mightyse (Nov 16, 2002)

I am not happy to see that others are seeing the pix problem but I am glad to see the numbers and areas. This problem was reported to Directv on January 13th. I have spoken with their tech support who stated they are having problem but at that time he stated it was only the Phoenix locals. Last night was the worst I have seen it and turned off the tv and I have both 50" and 27". The picture was totally unwatchable. I went to my neighbor who has cable with a clear picture. I have grown weary with Directv reponse to the problem. With the increase and the lousy pictures from directv, their inablilty to resolve the problem that has existed since Jan and is now effect more then just the local maybe it time to rethink my service with directv. I have been with directv since 1994 and have been quite happy without a thought of leaving. It was great while it lasted!


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## Lee L (Oct 1, 2003)

jbuie said:


> I thought it was my DirecTivo until I switched to a basketball game at 8:00 and saw that it was fine.
> 
> NBC's (non-HD) signal last night was virtually unwatchable in Raleigh, freezes, skips, pixellation, bad color.


Had the exact same problems. I don;t think it is NBC's fault though. DirecTv uses statistical multiplexing to be able to have more channels in the same amount of space. This assumes that when one channel needs more bandwidth, other channels on teh same transponder usually will not. When done right, this is a very effective way to conserve bandwidth.

However, the video from teh Half Pipe event has lots of detail and contrast as well as motion. This leads to it not being able to be compressed very well anyway and puts a real strain on the Stat-mux system as there are likely a few NBC channels on one transponder and they suck up the bandwidth.

As part of that, they may also have each local channel locked to a certain max bandwidth so situations like this will not kill other channels. OF course, capping it works fine with normal video, but not with the Half Pipe events so we get what we are seeing.


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## jaydro (Oct 19, 2003)

Yo, yo, yo--though D* is having its own problems with pixelation on locals lately, this infamous half-pipe incident and the Olympics on NBC in general I do not think are D*'s fault at all. After all, the first other person I heard from was complaining about it on Dish and OTA analog. He called WNCN 17 here Monday morning and they are aware of the problem and are working on it (I didn't watch any Olympics Monday night so I don't know if it looked better).


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## Jerry_K (Feb 7, 2002)

I think the scaling of the supposed HD chain is the culprit. 

I find it hard to believe that they are actually shooting the Olympics with HD equipment.


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## Lee L (Oct 1, 2003)

Hmm, that is interesting. I know if the signal is bad to begin with, it is definitely going to be made way worse when the satellite co compresses it more so if they had issues with teh analog feed, that would definitely explain it.


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## MJedi (Jun 17, 2002)

I have a non-HD DirecTivo. On my end, the outdoor events look so heavily compressed and there are white lines on the edges of everything, as if sharpness was bumped up. Decreasing the sharpness on the TV did not help. It almost made me want to get a HDTivo right there! The indoor events look great though.

The weird thing is that when NBC does their highlights of the previous day at the beginning of each broadcast (with the Olympic music playing in the background and Bob Costas doing the voiceover), the outdoor events are fine. It's as if the feed from the outdoor that is being taped live is messed up somewhere.


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## tvl76 (Oct 5, 2005)

You'll notice that the half pipe problems were consistent with the "mobile" cameras along the course. The shots of the riders at the start gate were fine, as well as the finish line. Those shots are from the scafold mounted cameras.
Maybe the mobile cameras or the link up are the problem. And that's what I think


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## Indiana627 (Jan 24, 2003)

I noticed the downhill on Sunday looked great, just the half pipe was bad to my eyes. Since the downhill was shot in the same conditions, maybe the mobile cameras used at the half pipe were the problem.


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## jaydro (Oct 19, 2003)

Hmmm, I thought the downhill Sunday looked awful. I'm beginning to think there are three problems: DirecTV's increased compression/worsening pixelation on locals lately, some problem at NBC with the half-pipe footage, and some problem at WNCN-17 in Raleigh/Durham, NC.


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## El Gabito (Mar 11, 2004)

jaydro said:


> I've noticed more local channel problems the past couple of weeks--seems like a show doesn't go by that doesn't have a few pixelation bursts. No problems with non-locals.
> 
> But the Olympics--yeah, I agree, but then a friend e-mailed me to say he was having the same problems with it on Dish _and OTA_!


We've been having the same problems, seemingly only on locals. It has been about the past two weeks as well.


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## DZB (Feb 13, 2006)

It's not the mobile cameras. It's the transition from white snow to blue sky and the screen filled with movement. Not enough bandwidth. Wait till later this week during the Snowboard Cross. I did notice pixels during 24 last night. I spoke to Direct Tv, they said they are aware of the problem, and should have it fixed lastnight.


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## scrappytivo (Apr 20, 2005)

I'm in MN and I noticed the same problems on the half pipe but also when Costas was just sitting there behind the desk. His hair looked like it had shooting white lines through it, like some weird hair gel that kind of strobed when he moved his head. His eyes looked possessed too. I noticed the same problem on some other broadcasters white and black pinstriped suit whenever they moved a little. What I'm seeing is different than pixellation, it's some kind contrast problem. I've seen the same type of thing when looking at black and white test patterns on Monster Cable demos at the electronics store showing that the effect isn't there with component cables but is there in SVideo and composite cable. Don't know if this is a similar thing or not since I can't try component cables with the DTivo, maybe someone could try component cables with a regular DTV receiver and post their results.


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## Jerry_K (Feb 7, 2002)

Did you see the white edges on the Flying Tomato's teeth. The commentators too. I am sure glad I don't have HD. Scads of nasty pixels interlaced Gee Wow.


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## jaydro (Oct 19, 2003)

I thought the downhill portion of the men's combined ski event (haven't seen the slalom yet) looked *much* better than the downhill did Sunday. The only glitches were the occasional pixel bursting that seems a little too common on locals the past couple of weeks.

Oh, and Bob Costas did still look a little odd, like there was some kind of double image of his face, but it wasn't ghosting from OTA reception by D*--the graphics weren't similarly affected.


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## Lee L (Oct 1, 2003)

We watched the Monday airing of the Bachelor last night and I noticed a fair amount of pixelization, something I have never seen before. Looks like the transponder for the Raliegh locals was definitely overwhelmed.


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## TonyD79 (Jan 4, 2002)

Anyone can talk all they want about the DTV compression but from the Opening Ceremonies on, I have seen the same crappy picture on my DTV WBAL (Baltimore) feed that I see on the cable analog signal for Baltimore AND Washington. My friend who has no cable was complaining about OTA on the Opening Ceremonies that night. NBC is the culprit. Not DTV. Not local compression. NBC.

Interestingly enough, it is clear on the other NBC networks. You know the ones that are not in HD. I think NBC is making a mess of down-resing the HD signal for SD feed. (It has improved some since Friday night but still iffy.)


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## Jerry_K (Feb 7, 2002)

What Tony said.


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## Indiana627 (Jan 24, 2003)

I noticed Bob Costas did not look possessed last night. His eyes actually looked normal.


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## putrfixr (Mar 3, 2005)

DirecTV is aware of the problem and say they're working on it. In addition, it's not just a Raleigh problem, people through-out the US are experiencing the problem - with TIVO, w/o TIVO, all types of receivers etc...

While speaking to the retention department about it - they gave me a $5 credit for the next 6 months... Nothing large - but something to atleast say they appreciated my patience.

Rick


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## SteelersTiVo (Aug 18, 2005)

Here in Rochester, NY I can receive all OTA HD channels except NBC, I am even using (2) indoor antennas and cannot lock-in the channel while all other HD channels come in fine  

So, I am stuck watching the Olympics thru my D*TiVo which is good for skipping commercials but no so good in SD...


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## rizz2142 (Feb 18, 2006)

If this is a problem you are having with several of the local channels and not just for the olympics, I may have a solution. My local nbc broadcast on channel 3, and that was my input channel. I was told that I was catching 'off-air' interferance. It seems that since I switched my input channel to 4, I haven't had any problems with my locals. My problems were mostly with poor quality randomly on locals only.
Hope this helps somebody!

A side note here is something i just found for the olympics. Tune to the sports mix channel(104) and then while you are there, you have olympic specific choices, including medla count (green button), team usa highlight (yellow button) and olympic tv schedule (blue button). I thought this was a cool feature for quick highlights of the olympics! hope others will like it too!


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## kpfeif (Sep 26, 2004)

I'm in Milwaukee, and I've been experiencing the same problems with local channels - the Olympics looks especially bad. I called DTV the other night and they kept saying it's probably on my end...even though three other people I know in the MKE are seeing the same problem no matter what DTV receiver they have. Oh yeah - and then they wanted to open a service ticket up for $70 or so bucks. Right.

Perhaps it's time I called the good old retention department.


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## Jumi (Sep 27, 2003)

More NBC pixelation: Not only the Olympics but episodes during the Daytona 500 pre-show even including a Pizza Hut commercial. What's happening?


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## nesby (Feb 7, 2006)

Same problems here in North Raleigh. I wonder if it's a Raleigh thing?


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## jimmymiko (Mar 29, 2003)

Same problem in Rochester NY. I have only seen it on NBC. Right now it is bad like slow motion.


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## Indiana627 (Jan 24, 2003)

The 500 looked great on the Buffalo NBC channel - except for the heavy fog.


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## Jumi (Sep 27, 2003)

Cleveland locals here.


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## T-Halen (May 21, 2002)

kpfeif said:


> I'm in Milwaukee, and I've been experiencing the same problems with local channels - the Olympics looks especially bad.


Same here.

I sent in a picture quality complaint via the form on directv's web site and they cancelled my service!

No call, just a simple E-Mail saying that my service had been cancelled and thanking me for my past business. I thought that was pretty rude! Gheesh, all I wanted was a better picture on the locals (Olympics especially)....


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## jeffro1 (Jul 26, 2005)

NBC Channel 10 out of Norfolk, VA really bad sometimes...thought it was my system at first...gets to be like if I was watching online - the pictures gets real blocky or turns black, freezes up, and drops the audio. This happens all different times of day, regular programming and commercials but only on NBC. If this is a NBC issue and D* doesn't do anything about, would the local station help or does it then go to NBC HQ for resolution?

Jeff


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## tbeckner (Oct 26, 2001)

T-Halen said:


> Same here.
> 
> I sent in a picture quality complaint via the form on directv's web site and they cancelled my service!
> 
> No call, just a simple E-Mail saying that my service had been cancelled and thanking me for my past business. I thought that was pretty rude! Gheesh, all I wanted was a better picture on the locals (Olympics especially)....


DirecTV Customer Service Representative, "I've got someone complaining about the picture on his locals.".

DirecTV Customer Service Manager, "You know what to do, just cancel his account and he won't compain again.".

Laugher in the background!


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