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OnDemand issue: Wavy lines / frozen screen

Hello! Everytime we watch something OnDemand (whether paid or not), we are getting super annoying lines / frozen screens (see attached pic).

I've reset everything at least 5 times this week. The TV is also new and this never happens when watching normal TV- only OnDemand.

Any thoughts? Thank you!

Wavy line/previous frozen screen in the middle

Comments

CRobGauth

Does it happen on more than 1 TV (if you have more than one)?

What model STB do you have?

SueSage

I am having the same difficulty. Was able to watch 2 Game of Thrones ON DEMAND but then when I went to watch the third one it was all pixelated and couldn't watch it. VERY annoying. I pay a fortune for services and now I can't view the show!!!

JLEinVA

We have also had recurring viewing problems with on-demand video play, usually late at night. Ours are lines across the whole screen like shredded paper along with distorted sound.

PaulKolodner

I'm posting the reply below wherever I see this problem because I think I have solved it.

I’m a physicist with long experience in electronics and optics, and I have solved this problem on two set-top boxes in my house. I removed the coax cable between the wall jack and the set-top box and replaced it with one that was 3” shorter. End of problem. What?? Why should something so silly actually do anything? Well, here’s what I think is going on: The RF radiation that enters that cable can be weakly reflected from its ends. If the wavelength of the particular channel has the correct relationship to the cable length, a resonance can be set up, just like blowing into a flute creates distinct tones. This resonance can cause problems. Changing the length of the cable by a quarter of a wavelength shifts it out of resonance. The channels I had problems with use frequencies 727 MHz and 636 MHz. (You can find this using Menu/Settings/System Information/Info in FiOS). The formula for the wavelength in this kind of coax cable is: wavelength in inches = 7793 / frequency in MHz. This gave 7793/727 = 10.7 inches and 7793/636 =12.3 inches. A quarter of those lengths is 3 to 4 inches. I had a cable lying around that was about the right length – being off by an inch or two wouldn’t matter. I got lucky the first time. If this had not worked, I would have tried some other lengths within a wavelength of the original cable length.

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