# Anyone experience frame stuttering/video dropouts during particular shows?



## Jack Mccarthy (Aug 24, 2012)

Ran two Roamios with a splitter which appears to work well for most shows on NBC, but in recording the "Blacklist" last week on Comcast, there appeared to be a constant frame drop causing a periodic freezing every few seconds all during the show...incredibly annoying. Most other shows on NBC were fine. Have the latest firmware revision on both and the line from the junction box to my apartment unit has been new for the last month. In the prior revision of firmware, I'd have the typical audio dropouts and minor video glitches, but this was really bad. Strange, it was only during one particular show. Waiting to see if it happens this week again.

Also, had my Premier on a separate feed recording the show OTA and it was perfectly fine.


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## mattack (Apr 9, 2001)

Seems like it _could_ be early signs of a hard drive starting to go bad -- i.e. hitting a bad spot with rereads.

But that's admittedly just a guess until it starts happening more often. If it does, then that's a more likely situation.


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## Jack Mccarthy (Aug 24, 2012)

mattack said:


> Seems like it _could_ be early signs of a hard drive starting to go bad -- i.e. hitting a bad spot with rereads.
> 
> But that's admittedly just a guess until it starts happening more often. If it does, then that's a more likely situation.


Well, it's happening to two separate Roamios connected with a 1:2 - 75 ohm splitter, so I don't think it's the hard drives especially when it's just one show that's really bad. Other shows on other channels have some similar issues OCCASIONALLY, but never as bad.

I assume I'm the only one experiencing this issue where the signal appears to work perfectly for a Comcast Xfinity DVR (something I tested with the new RG-6 coax line install), yet always has some minor issues on the TIVO box (or in my case boxes).


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## JandS (Oct 1, 2010)

We had something similar last week on Comcast (King/Snohomish County, WA). Only on the main NBC channel, only on the one local news program at 7pm, no other channels seemed to be affected. Erratic, every 45-60 seconds or so.

At first it seemed to be just audio dropouts but then we realized that the video was very slightly "jerky" during the dropouts.

We rebooted but it didn't fix the problem. It made the show unwatchable. Luckily it hasn't reoccurred.

Roamio Pro.


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## BadDuck (Aug 22, 2013)

Saw stuttering when camera changes were made on reruns of shark tank on cnbc and also on a couple of other channels a few weeks ago, it gave me a headache. I'm Comcast Portland, it was driving me nuts. Reboot didn't help, but it seems to have stopped as far as I can tell.


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## Jack Mccarthy (Aug 24, 2012)

This week, I noticed it on "Fear the Walking Dead". Appears to be perfectly fine during commercials and then it happened once again when it was rebroadcasted. The "Talking Dead" broadcasted perfectly.

Is it possible that the sensitivity of the QAM tuners aren't as good as the Comcast Xfinity DVRs and that's why it appears fine on their hardware?!? 

Makes me wonder if Comcast is purposely dropping the signal level to steer people to using their hardware?

It's very similar to the effects of multi-path distortion when I program the Roamio to watch OTA stations which can be fixed by redirecting my ClearStream 4V antenna.

Glad it only happens occasionally on some shows and not regularly.


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## thefisch (Jul 25, 2015)

Say this too on Fear this week but not last week. Also remember that the Walking Dead finale had this issue also. Haven't been able to figure it out since it doesn't happen often enough to notice.


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## SlappyMcgee (Aug 27, 2013)

Jack Mccarthy said:


> Ran two Roamios with a splitter which appears to work well for most shows on NBC, but in recording the "Blacklist" last week on Comcast, there appeared to be a constant frame drop causing a periodic freezing every few seconds all during the show...incredibly annoying. Most other shows on NBC were fine. Have the latest firmware revision on both and the line from the junction box to my apartment unit has been new for the last month. In the prior revision of firmware, I'd have the typical audio dropouts and minor video glitches, but this was really bad. Strange, it was only during one particular show. Waiting to see if it happens this week again.
> 
> Also, had my Premier on a separate feed recording the show OTA and it was perfectly fine.


Have you tried taking the splitter out of the equation?

It could be a signal issue. On my tivo Roamio, some channels have random audio drops that causes my AVR to suddenly lower the dynamic volume. The audio comes through ok its just a random drop in volume due to the dynamic volume being turned on. When I first started having the issue I though my receiver was going out but started taking notice of the channels that it occured on most and realized it was dependent of the channel i was watching / recording. CW does it sometimes but Fox will do it constantly and only more common during peak hours. Now that I have a 4K tv I do sometimes notice blocking in areas on the screen when the audio clips.

I had a tech out and he said that the numbers are within acceptable levels and suggested I run a new line since they had already replaced the splitters and connectors on my lines.

I know the issue I am explaining relates to Audio and you are having an issue with Video, but both are determined by the signal coming to your Tivo so it is just a suggestion


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## Jack Mccarthy (Aug 24, 2012)

SlappyMcgee said:


> Have you tried taking the splitter out of the equation?
> 
> It could be a signal issue. On my tivo Roamio, some channels have random audio drops that causes my AVR to suddenly lower the dynamic volume. The audio comes through ok its just a random drop in volume due to the dynamic volume being turned on. When I first started having the issue I though my receiver was going out but started taking notice of the channels that it occured on most and realized it was dependent of the channel i was watching / recording. CW does it sometimes but Fox will do it constantly and only more common during peak hours. Now that I have a 4K tv I do sometimes notice blocking in areas on the screen when the audio clips.
> 
> ...


Yeah, I've tried going directly into each Roamio and saw the same, each being padded by 20dB of attenuation bringing the levels down to 87% with 35dB SNR and zero RS corrected/uncorrected errors.

The only splitter left is the one in the wall going upstairs to my modem. I could bypass that next time I see it. No ingress seen on the line from Comcast at the time the show was being watched live. I even have a MOCA filter from TIVO to help.


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## Jack Mccarthy (Aug 24, 2012)

Some possible good news. Still need to wait until Blacklist and Grimm play later this week, but Fear the Walking Dead seems to be okay this evening. Turns out my Comcast on Demand was screwed up with both video distortion and audio dropouts. Netflix worked fine.

Had them perform a cable card reset which fixed the on-demand issue, but I'll have to wait and see if this impacts regular programming.


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## Jack Mccarthy (Aug 24, 2012)

Latest update. Problem still exists. Started last night during Blacklist and continued throughout the whole show watching live. Requested a re-initialization of the cable card twice and it didn't fix the issue. They did comment that the cable card was a status of "grey" before the 1st re-initialization, then was "green" during the 2nd one.

Looks like a problem that will never get solved. Most likely the fault of both the cable company and TIVO for a poor broadcast and the TIVO dropping frames every second and freezing the last good one during moderate movement scenes giving the appearance of a video "stutter".

My Premier never gives me this issue with the same program even when I swap cable cards between them.


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## sheshechic (Apr 14, 2012)

I have Charter and it's been happening for weeks on MSNBC, but not on every show, nor is it an all day thing either. It feels like watching satellite on an extremely snowy day.


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