Artifacts: Just On One Channel?

[PeteCress]

On local channel 10, I keep seeing stuff like this: http://tinyurl.com/posyse

My uneducated guess of weak signal seems to conflict with what I keep reading about digital TV being "all-or-nothing".

In addition, some shows on 10 play back as if they are being fast-forwarded - with the speech coming out super-fast.

Weak signal?

[tahoetim]

I'm seeing lots of strange issues this week on our cable feed. One local channel went black and white for an hour and another one had an audio synch issue. They went away on their own. Since our provider is switching to digital on June 12, I chalk it up to them and have refrained from tweaking anything until the 13th.

[redflight]

I had the same problem. I solved it by buying a better power supply for my HDHR tuners. Even the free replacement power adapter from Silicon Dust was not good enough.

Buy a power adapter that is capable of at least 2.5 A at 5 Volts. I bet it will solve your problem.

--Ken.

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by redflight

I had the same problem. ...better power supply for my HDHR tuners. Even the free replacement power adapter from Silicon Dust was not good enough.

Buy a power adapter that is capable of at least 2.5 A at 5 Volts. I bet it will solve your problem.

Did you ever see skip backward/forward getting goofy as part of the same root problem?

On last nite's Charlie Rose at 5:16, when I tell Sage to skip back one minute it jumps back to 4:21, then all the way back to zero, then ahead to 5:16 - all from a single click.

Same thing happens on the kitchen HD200 and on my workstation's PlaceShifter - so it seems tb something about the file.

In fact, when I browse Charlie-Rose-428603, I see four different files (...-0.mpg, -1.., -2...-3... and ...-4) instead of the usual single file. Also, the end of one file does not match up with the beginning of the next file - corresponding to another anomaly: breaks in the recording as it is viewed. Sure does sound like the signal is dropping out completely for one reason or another - although in the case of Charlie Rose it's total - as opposed to the artifacts on Jay Leno.... but Jay Leno is similarly divided into separate files - some as small as a half gig, and one over a gig.

Before your comment, I was thinking tahoetim's observation about impending changeover might be relevant to OTA also and maybe I should just hunker down until, say, early July...

I guess my first move now will be move the SiliconDust bricks from the "Surge" outlets of my UPS to the "Battery Backup" outlets and see what happens.

OOPS, that was last nite. Looked at Charlie Rose this morning and same-old-same-old.

Maybe time for a trip to Micro Center per your specs.

But one loose end is "Why now and not ever since I got the Silicon Dust devices?"

[redflight]

Hi Pete,

I can't say definitively that an improved power supply will solve ff/rew/skipping ahead issues. All I can say is that, for me, the pixelation artifacts during playback disappeared once I bought a stronger power supply for the HDHR.

I have at times seen some of the skipping problems you describe. I *think* those have gone away since I added the better power supply, but I'm not ready to declare a cause-effect relationship for that problem (yet).

good luck,
Ken.

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by redflight

..the pixelation artifacts... skipping problems...

For me, the immediate cause of skipping seems tb many instances of the program's .MPG file - indicative, IMHO, of the tuner card's losing, then re-acquiring the signal, whether bco it's power supply or some signal strength/quality issue.

I figure the pixelation artifacts were more of the same - just that whatever causing them wasn't severe enough to cause loss of the signal.

All supposition on my part - and I don't know beans....

I think I'll take this over to the Silicon Dust support pages and see what they say.

[PeteCress]

Originally Posted by PeteCress

I think I'll take this over to the Silicon Dust support pages and see what they say.

I'm 97% sure I have an answer: Proximity of a wireless router to the SiliconDust boxes (as in mere inches).

One Who Knows on the SD forum said 3 feet is enough tb 100% sure there's no interference.

I let the SD boxes dangle by the coax so they were just off the floor and a little over 3 feet from the router - and all the symptoms cleared up.

Then I resurrected an old wireless router, turned off the wireless, and used it to replace the offending router - which I turned into a WAP and plugged in somewhere outside of the computer closet.

It's been over a week now and not a single problem - hence the 97% figure.