FOX unwatchable on DTV [Archive] - HD Columbus Forum

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jcw1138

10-18-2009, 02:50 AM

Anyone else on DTV or other having trouble with FOX 28? I am having serious problems with stuttering and audio dropouts (my receiver is likely protecting itself from the strange problems coming from fox. It happens during national broadcasts, commercials and even the news. It's literally unwatchable. Words skip in a garbled way, then it stutters, sometimes it continues, sometimes it completely drops out, I've never experienced this before and it happens on no other channels.

-John

jpdublin

10-18-2009, 10:04 AM

Yes, I was attempting to watch the end of the baseball game last night and it was horrible. Interesting enough that in SD it was fine, so the HD signal was messed up.

snodgrass23

10-18-2009, 12:08 PM

I don't notice it all the time, but the last 2 weeks' Family Guy episodes were both messed up for me.

Scott

10-18-2009, 01:05 PM

Yep. Fringe has been messed up for me.

Rumble

10-18-2009, 02:23 PM

Yes i am having issues also with fox lots of popping and like studdering on the station. its horrible, Fringe at times is unwatchable and today the Giants and Saints game is horrible audio wise.

AvedisWolf

10-19-2009, 09:29 PM

I stumbled on this site looking for info on the stuttering on Fox.
Glad to know it's not just me. It drives me up the wall.

My signal strength is always 99 or 100.

Rumble

10-19-2009, 10:59 PM

anyone else having major issues tonight? I cant even watch House the stuttering and audio sync is very very horrible.

AvedisWolf

10-19-2009, 11:28 PM

House was pretty annoying, I recorded it off my OTA tuner on my dish network 722. Lots of audio stuttering, and video as well.

AvedisWolf

10-19-2009, 11:30 PM

did a google search for "fox28 stuttering"
appears some folks at Direct TV forums, and dbsforums are noticing the same issue.

jpdublin

10-20-2009, 12:00 AM

Fox is a mess right now, it is difficult to watch anything at this point.

MontanaXVI

10-20-2009, 12:30 AM

I'll chime in here with what I have been through so far.

About 2-3 weeks ago I come home on Friday morning to watch my recorded Fringe and Bones, HORRIBLE audio I deleted both of them without even watching. I turned it on live to FOX to see what it looked like and their AM news program and Jerry Springer were TERRIBLE, worse than the shows from Thursday night.

I called WTTE right away and was told by the engineer I spoke to that they know it happens and that it is a D* issue. He told me that D* uses the OTA signal that WTTE puts out via a local receiver here in Columbus somewhere, they in turn beam this signal around to us. That local receiver is what has the problem, he told me that D* uses a software monitoring program to keep an eye so to speak, on the local feeds and as long as there is SOME audio and video without a total loss they don't know how good or bad it may be. This is all coming from the engineer I spoke with at WTTE, he told me that I need to call in to D* and get someone in their engineering dept. "to remote into the local pop and reboot the receiver" his exact words.

I call D* up and get a rep on the phone who makes me go through all the troubleshooting such as red button reset, unplug my TV turn everything back on, check the audio and then she wanted to call me a liar by making me turn up my TV loud enough for her to hear that the audio was in fact bad. I was very hesitant to go through the troubleshooting steps because I was feeding her the information I had hoping she would just escalate the issue and get it taken care of, so she thought I wasn't troubleshooting or what but it made me pretty mad, she then told me she was sending out a new HD-DVR to remedy the issue to which I politely declined, again, telling her what the problem was. She asked me if I was declining a new HD-DVR and I told her yes with the reasoning why, she then said there was nothing she could do for me and that I was on my own pretty much, I asked for a supervisor and she hung up on me.

I called right back and got a new CSR who seemed very interested in what I was telling her, and agreed that they could in fact remote into, and reboot this local receiver, but she had to fill out a help ticket and escalate the issue to the NET team at D*, I believe that it stands for Network Something Team, not sure what the E means. She assured me that I had correct information and that the NET team would handle it, but the NET team doesn't contact you or call to see if the problem is resolved, you have to call back into a CSR and have them check any notes from the NET team on what problems if any they found and fixed.

I noticed the problem was better a couple of hours later and assumed it had been taken care of......until that Sunday, we get the 49ers and Falcons game on FOX, and me being a 49ers fan am THRILLED to see my favorite team on a local broadcast for once. The audio is HORRIBLE, popping cracking and out of sync with the video so I call back in to D* CSR and get a gentleman who also understands what I am telling him as truth and fills out another escalation report for the NET team to fix the problem.

House was Ok that Monday and Bones and Fringe had some issues but nothing horrible but come Sunday again I am trying to watch the ALCS and the audio is terrible once again, so yet again, another call into D* CSR and again, I get someone who understands what I am saying and fills out another escalation report for the NET team and even includes all my information for them to get back with me, but nothing ever comes of it.

Tonight I have a softball game at Berliner and my wife calls me to tell me that FOX is miserable once again and that the shows are unwatchable, so as soon as I am done typing this up I will be making another call to D* CS and then a call to WTTE in the morning, this is just ridiculous at this point.

Rumble

10-20-2009, 12:50 AM

Ya i totally agree with ya, I just hope you will be able to get some info from them and not have them say its on Directs end again.

I love Direct but i dont like Fox lol.

MontanaXVI

10-20-2009, 01:25 AM

Made another call to D* just now who said they are getting numerous reports from this area about this issue.

BUT, now the part I have been waiting for, they say it isn't their problem and that it is a broadcast issue I need to take it up with WTTE.

Finally took them 3 weeks to pass the buck back to WTTE so now here I sit, Joe Consumer in the middle paying for a service that doesn't work and no one wants to fix. I will be calling WTTE in the morning and finding out what the deal is.

riversidedawg

10-20-2009, 08:43 PM

It has to be WTTE because it does it OTA as well as Directv

spudohio

10-20-2009, 09:10 PM

FWIW....I've had no issues with U-Verse. That has me scratching my head if it is screwed up OTA. :blink:

Clint

10-20-2009, 11:04 PM

I have four separate OTA tuners. I have a tuner card in my media center PC, a USB tuner for my laptop, an OTA tuner in my Dishnet PVR and a tuner in my Samsung TV.
Fox WTTE is breaking up badly on all four OTA systems. All of the other Columbus DTV stations are working perfectly for me.

All of my receivers are on a very good UHF/VHF fringe rated antenna on a rotor and today I climbed up on the roof and inspected everything. My conclusion is that WTTE has transmitter problems.

I don't know how Dish Network picks up local signals, but WTTE is all good on the satellite.

Rumble

10-20-2009, 11:52 PM

This has got to be figured out soon, weeks of it is enough, and well Fringe will be on here in 2 days lol.

Scott

10-21-2009, 05:56 PM

This is really getting annoying.

hazard

10-21-2009, 11:23 PM

This is really getting annoying.

Ye<bbbbbrrrrrrrip>s, I tota<brrrrip>lly <brrrriiip>agree.

Although I do have to say I'm watching the Fox News At 10 right now and it has actually been watchable.

I wasn't sure what was causing it, but it seemed to start right about the same time I got the last update. Not to mention the hard drive going crazy. I'm not a light sleeper, but had dozed off in the chair and it actually woke me up! I thought it was my WAP I have sitting above it, but after some checking realized it was the HD on the DTV box.

MontanaXVI

10-22-2009, 03:34 AM

I made calls to both D* and WTTE in the last 2 days and have gotten nowhere with either of them.

Buck passing all around, WTTE says that OTA, TW, WOW, Insight are all OK and it is strictly a D* issue.

D* gave me 3 months of free Showtime because of the problem then say it isn't their problem.

Wed. 10/21 Fox was unbearable when I got home from work around 9pm, it is OK now at 2:33 am as I write this.

kevinbuckeye

10-22-2009, 11:12 PM

I'm on WOW cable and it is stuttering bad. I'm a Yankee fan and it's making it real hard to watch. I got on here to see if others are having the problem and apparently they are.

MontanaXVI

10-22-2009, 11:19 PM

@kevinuckeye

I URGE you to call into WTTE tomorrow morning, get engineering on the phone and make sure you let them know you are NOT on D*, if it really is an issue that isn't strictly D* if enough of their local market lets them know they suck they might actually fix it instead of pawning it as a D* only problem.

Granted there may be some hiccups with D* and WTTE but others are reporting issues on here that don't have D*.

Wife called me at work today around 5:30pm and said it was terrible but within a couple of hours it had cleared up, when I got home around 8 it seemed ok but I haven't turned it on since.

Scott

10-25-2009, 06:46 PM

This is HORRIBLE! Fix it damnit!

jpdublin

10-25-2009, 07:55 PM

I was watching the Steelers/Viking game, which was a FOX broadcast on Directv Sunday ticket and it had NO issues. This leads me to believe it is local broadcast issues. Strange!

Rick

10-25-2009, 10:21 PM

rossl

10-26-2009, 07:47 AM

I watched both the Browns game and Bengals game on WTTE Oct 25. I watched both the OTA antenna and the TimeWarner cable box. There were numerous times when the audio paused or stuttered. There were also some times when the video stopped up, showed color bars, and then restarted. I don't know if those were FOX network issues or local to Columbus. But the audio glitches happened 20 or 30 times in 6+ hours of watching.

festivus

10-26-2009, 02:30 PM

I have dish network and use an HD dvr, the VIP622. I was having issues trying to watch football on 28.1 OTA yesterday. The audio was awful. When I switched to the HD satellite feed it was fine.

Seems to be an OTA issue with Dish receivers.

Scott

10-26-2009, 07:15 PM

Hello HDTV Columbus Forum users.... received a couple of calls from a few of you last week, learned about this forum and decided to sign up on this site.

Reading through this discussion I see two known problems with WTTE.

There is a known issue with audio buffer and lipsync issues between WTTE & DirecTV and both parties are trying to work on a resolution. Some changes had been made based on DirecTV input should not have been DirecTV issues Saturday, or Sunday but received some emails indicating otherwise. DirecTV was to have reset their receiver at 7:00 PM ET.

Second issue on Thursday night October 22, 2009 there was a problem with a device in the MPEG stream which caused strange problems which did not show up on the various equipment that is used to monitor the signal. Out of six different Set Top Boxes, two different digital television at my home only one of the set top boxes was acting up the others were all working fine. The second problem from Thursdy night has been fixed.

Any DirecTV customers having any issues during Sunday (Oct 25th Baseball game)? stuttering, motorboat, lip-sync or anything else?

Thank you Rick. I assume you are affiliated with WTTE? If so, PM me your details and I'll add your title under your username. We have members here from WBNS and WCMH that have been very helpful with past issues.

I'm noticing two problems. First, the stuttering audio on my DirecTV receiver. It did it all through the Browns/Bengals game every two-three seconds. It would then stop for a few minutes, then start up again. I switched over to my DirecTV TiVo (OTA) and the video would stutter while dropping the sound out at the same time.

I watched the last few innings of the baseball game last evening and still noticed the stuttering of audio with my DirecTV receiver--although not as often.

Thanks again for your help, and welcome to HDC!

Scott

Scott

10-26-2009, 07:16 PM

Rick

10-26-2009, 09:45 PM

Yes I do work there, however it is important to understand that any comments I make here are mine and not that of or represent my employer.
We have been working with DirecTV on the audio issue that their customers have been calling about. Currently we do not have any DirecTV or Dish Network receive equipment at the station to monitor what is going on, however it is on its way.
That is why we rely very heavily of viewer feedback. The direct viewer trouble number is 481-6631 with an associated email address of dtv@abc6onyourside.com.
Last Thursday we had a piece of equipment fail that caused a number of problems to many receivers, except the ones we have at work. It was really strange and affected a segment of OTA viewers, DBS, some cable, and of course DirecTV. This piece of equipment was removed on Friday morning. Also on Friday we tried some changes on our OTA stream to address what DIrecTV noted as an issue. These changes had some positive results and some negative ones, however none that resolved the issue with the DirecTV continual "motorboating" & lip-sync issues.
Both Dish and DirecTV get our HD signal over-the-air however we are not privey to what equipment they are using or firmware versions.
All of the motorboating audio complaints have been from DirecTV customers and none from Dish Network customers. If you are a Dish Network customer and watch WTTE's HD signal via Dish we would love to hear if you are experiencing this motorboating issue or not. (minus any problems from 10/22 thru 10/25 because we understand about them)
The audio muting issue this weekend was one of the negative things that occurred; the positive is we think we found some paths to dig deeper towards.

Rumble

10-26-2009, 09:53 PM

Thank you Rick for the comments, its good to see some notes even though they are your comments and not comments by your employer. It still gives you a little hope that what we say is heard thank you again!!!

I will definitely call the WTTE direct viewer trouble number, I really enjoy Direct TV but the stuttering and "motorboating" while watching your favorite shows are very annoying, especially when you have to switch to your little 17in monitor to watch them on HULU because of this issue.

Rick

10-26-2009, 09:58 PM

The feedback we have gotten from many DirecTV viewers is that there is no problems with the standard definition feed audio. Do you find that to be the case or are you hearing the problems there as well?

Rumble

10-26-2009, 10:01 PM

Actually on the SD feeds its barley noticeable, once in a great while my wife and i will hear it, but on the HD feeds it is horrible, and yes it will clear up for a few mins then right back to the stuttering again, or as i have read the Burrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrp as they call it.

rherdman

10-27-2009, 12:33 PM

We're getting the same problem with WTTE-DT up here in Delaware. I've got a Dishnetwork 722k DVR and all Fox shows are basically unwatchable in HD. Both the HD signal through Dish and using an antenna to get the OTA signal.

Has the station admitted anything to anyone yet?

Rick

10-27-2009, 11:28 PM

Was on a conference call today with both Dish Network, DirecTV and FOX network about the audio issue, the problem is not isolated to Columbus but there is not one clear smoking gun. We made some changs today about 5:30 PM and really need feedback if things are good or bad since 5:30 PM Tuesday 10/27.
If it is bad I need to get also the model number of the DirecTV or Dish Network receiver that the customer is using. Both DirecTV and Dish have lots of different models and different software running on them and we are trying to find all of the comonalities.
Thanks for those who have provided feedback to us.

rherdman

10-28-2009, 12:13 PM

I just confirmed this with my wife, but we watched all two hours of "So You Think You Can Dance" without any issues whatsoever (Delaware, DIshNetwork 722k, using the OTA tuner). So we'll cross our fingers again tonight.

Scott

10-28-2009, 01:49 PM

Thanks Rick! I'll watch some FOX tonight.

snodgrass23

10-28-2009, 03:13 PM

I also watched some FOX last night and didn't get any issues.

captenblack

10-28-2009, 08:31 PM

Thanks for making this thread. I noticed issues with Fox on DirecTV several weeks ago but didn't see a thread here so I was confident it was my dish pointing. I ended up switching to OTA Fox which was slightly better although it had a good number of breakups as well.

I have a couple different DirecTV HD receivers so I'll watch some of the World Series tonight and report back.

Dbailey

10-30-2009, 08:25 AM

I was watching the baseball game last night and it was watchable except for random times the screen would break up(pixelate), this happend on Directv and on my OTA Signal, It was not bad, but it is not fixed....

captenblack

11-01-2009, 05:38 PM

I noticed the motorboat issue on Fox for a portion of the first game of the world series on Wednesday (Oct 28), using an HR20-100 Directv DVR. It was around the 5th and 6th innings. There were also several other dropouts as well (picture/audio) throughout the game, but I noticed the motorboat in the 5th and 6th innnings the most.

I used OTA for Thursday's baseball game and did notice break-ups every so often. A year ago (and prior) OTA Fox was my best local OTA HD channel as far as signal, now it's my worst for some reason.

Will likely watch Fox today and report back any further issues.

Edit-- Watching football on Fox on HR20 DirecTV DVR and also tested on HR23 DVR. Motorboating is horrendous. Noticing a ton of issues during halftime of Packers/Vikings game so far.

festivus

11-01-2009, 08:06 PM

Awful motorboat sounds during the Vikes/Pack game today. I noticed my receiver going in and out of dolby digital during the motorboat events.

This was happening to me both OTA and via my dish network feed.

Rick

11-04-2009, 12:06 AM

Rob052067

11-16-2009, 06:12 PM

Sunday there were problems with the bit stream from FOX, from what all indications we have they started problems that continued through the night. We made some additional changes to our bit stream Monday morning that appeared to fix DirecTV issues but received feedback from some Dish Customers with VIP 612 were experiencing a loud bursting motorboat sound every 10-15 seconds. Did have a very positive discussion with Dish Netwok and working on another seperate approach to the problem. I do know this is frustrating, it is frustrating to us as well. Once again thanks for all the feedback.

Thanks for the update, Rick. I've been experiencing the sound problems on Sunday nights for several weeks. I don't seem to have the problems on other nights, just on Sundays during the animated series. (Dish ViP722 via HDMI)

Edit: I guess I shouldn't say Sundays are the only day I have sound problems. For the past several weeks, I've been recording Bones and Fringe via Time Warner Cable instead of Dish (too many shows to record on Thursdays and not enough DVR space) and there's been no sound issues via cable. Dollhouse has been off the schedule the past few weeks. And, I'm several episodes behind on watching Glee, so I don't know if there's been sound problems during that one (recorded on Dish).

Rob052067

11-24-2009, 04:44 PM

Few to no sound problems during this past Sunday nights programming. There were, however, several video glitches during 'Cleveland'.

Rick

11-24-2009, 11:44 PM

The video glitches and the sound issue(s) was that on your Time Warner service or Dish or both?

farmerd79

11-28-2009, 09:38 PM

I'm not sure if this should go under the OTA section but in Lancaster I've gotten 4, 6, 10, 18, 20, 28 and 34 for a couple years OTA. Lately, I would say the month of November, Fox 28 has been unwatchable. The signal is constantly in and out. I tried to read through this thread to see if the issues were Satellite and Cable based but it seemed all over the board. Is there an issue with Fox 28 digital? As I stated before I had 28 just fine, now, not so much. :(

Rob052067

11-29-2009, 06:13 AM

The video glitches and the sound issue(s) was that on your Time Warner service or Dish or both?

Just Dish...

Rick

12-19-2009, 10:07 PM

Just curious out there... we now have bth DirecTV and Dish HD receivers at the station now so we can check on the DIrecTV and Dish signals. When we got the receivers operating we were able to hear the issues many Dish and DirecTV customers were experiencing.

FOX network has made some changes and we have done some software updates to the exciter in the transmitter that was not liking the FOX network mpeg feed.

Since the changes were made we are not hearing the audio issues on the DirecTV and Dish receivers when tuned to WTTE.

So it brings me to a question for DirecTV and Dish HD subscribers, are things better now with football and FOX network programming on WTTE via DirecTV and/or Dish?

Thanks
Rick

jpdublin

12-20-2009, 09:36 AM

I have not noticed any of the issues that were occurring back in November.

Rumble

12-20-2009, 07:37 PM

Yes I agree it seems the issues that plagued us in November on Direct have been solved. Its been great watching programming as its meant to be with out the hiccups.

Thank you Rick!!!!!!!

Also i hope you troll around here often in case other issues arise that we may complain about here. Phone calls dont seem to do as much as what you did here again ty.

Scott

12-23-2009, 06:46 PM

Yep, thanks Rick! I haven't noticed any D* or OTA hiccups in some weeks now.

natebo

01-24-2010, 11:04 PM

All was well... but... now its back.

MIN vs NO game... Started up right after half-time :( I was hoping not too see this issue ever again...

:(

snodgrass23

01-25-2010, 08:30 PM

yeah, I had the issues during the football game too. It was pretty frustrating.

snodgrass23

01-31-2010, 08:45 PM

Watching Til Death tonight and it's doing it again.