Would love some expert advice. This one has stumped me.
Been with FiOS for over a year now and have been quite happy with the service (just re-upped for another year). My home had a small office attached to the garage (that had coax) and we just expanded that office to become a small home theater. I had the Home Media DVR in the family room hooked up to a Pioneer Plasma and added a second HD DVR when the theater was finished. Both are model 6416.
As I was watching Lost (local ABC HD affiliate) each week in the new room (using a Panasonic PT-AE4000u projector), I began to notice that the picture would skip every few minutes...like it lost a few frames. Strange thing is that it happened every week but on other channels (e.g. Fox and NBC) I was seeing no such problem. Over the next few weeks I tried the following trouble-shooting:
- Switched the DVR to connect via component instead of HDMI...skips in the exact same parts (rules out HDMI issues)
- Recorded the same show on the DVR in the family room and brought it into the projector...skips in the exact same parts (rules out the wiring to the new room since the family room box is recording the same way)
- When viewing the same show on the Plasma, the issue is not as noticiable...presumably because I believe the Pionner Plasma handles signal interferrence much better than the projector (plus, there is a difference watching it on a 43 inch screen vs a 100 inch screen)
I started flipping around channels and definitely saw the same problem on a few other channels as well (but not all). Seems to be a bit random which channels have it and which don't. The other issue I saw (clearly on both the projector and plasma) was the bottom crawler on ESPNews. The letters switch between totally clear and a bit scrambled and jumpy.
I finally called FiOS out on Friday and they confirmed my worst nightmare...everything looked fine. They could see the problems on my DVR recordings but the signal strength was fantastic and they could perceive no issues. Before they left they swapped out all my splitters and reset my exterior box. They gave me their card and indicated the next step would be to swap out the boxes. Sure enough, recorded a show on ABC last night...still skipped. Crawler on ESPNews still getting a bit scrambled.
So, I'm probably going to call them back today to swap out the boxes (from the 6-series to the 7-series) but I'm not convinced it's going to work. Here are my thoughts:
- Because the problem is so much more noticible on the projector than the plasma, I start to think the problem is with the projector...BUT...
- It wouldn't seem to be the projector since it is the same problem on Component and HDMI plus why would the projector only skip on certain channels (at the exact same points on both boxes), plus the ESPNews crawler problem is obviously there on both.
- Swapping out the boxes seems like a long shot. What are the chances going from 6-series to 7-series would magically solve my problems.
- After considering all that, it feels like there must be an upstream problem...but I seemingly have no way to prove that!
Sorry for the length...ideas?
if it is consistently the same channels, expect it to get progressively worse until those channels no longer respond at all, they will start coming up with quick code and the support number. I had this problem last year and the reslution then was to clean the fiber connections outside the house.
I am experiencing the problem again and thus far have not been able to get the tech to clean the fiber again. I'm going on 6 weeks with the same channels missing.
Start a new topic or ask questions in the open forum.
