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I am wondering if anyone who has Directv and the Milwaukee Wi local
channels is having any type of problem with the local channels.
Approximately 5 times or more an hour I am getting z freezing picture
for a second or two, then the program will continue. Every once in a
while the picture will pixelate. I also have ghosting on Channel 4
(NBC) that is real notible on some pictures (especially whn graphics
are on the sceen). Most of my watching of the local channels is 4
(NBC), 6 (FOX), 12 (ABC), & 58 (CBS). Naturally Directv's answer is to
reset the receiver. I have 3 receivers and have done hard resets n all
3. and still have the problem. My neighbor with Directv has the same
problem. Now Directv tells me they can't (and won't) take any
corrective action unless a number of people complain about it (more
than my neighbor & me!) Everything tells me that they have a problem
with their local receiving equipment here in Milwaukee that captures
the local signal and beams it up to their(Directv's) satellite. If you
have Directv and receive the Milwaukee, WI locals let me know if you
notice the same thing.

In article <091020051813379317%jbelot@mail.com>,
Jim Belot <jbelot@mail.com> wrote:

I am wondering if anyone who has Directv and the Milwaukee Wi local
channels is having any type of problem with the local channels.
Approximately 5 times or more an hour I am getting z freezing picture
for a second or two, then the program will continue. Every once in a
while the picture will pixelate. I also have ghosting on Channel 4
(NBC) that is real notible on some pictures (especially whn graphics
are on the sceen). Most of my watching of the local channels is 4
(NBC), 6 (FOX), 12 (ABC), & 58 (CBS). Naturally Directv's answer is to
reset the receiver. I have 3 receivers and have done hard resets n all
3. and still have the problem. My neighbor with Directv has the same
problem. Now Directv tells me they can't (and won't) take any
corrective action unless a number of people complain about it (more
than my neighbor & me!) Everything tells me that they have a problem
with their local receiving equipment here in Milwaukee that captures
the local signal and beams it up to their(Directv's) satellite. If you
have Directv and receive the Milwaukee, WI locals let me know if you
notice the same thing.


Sounds like perhaps uu have a weaker signal from the satellite at the
location that handles your locals? And/or the wind is blowing tree
branches in the path?

Nope, my signal strength on 101W is 94 (transponder 1) and it has a
clear path to the sky. There is nothing to the south & southwest that
would block it's signal. Right off the bat the ghosts on NBC channel 4
tell me that whoever is providing the local channels to Directv has a
problem with multipath to their tv antenna and is converting the signal
from analog to digital. Digital tv doesn't have ghosts in the picture
but does have video artifacts, pixelization, etc. My goal is to find
somebody else that has the Milwaukee locals and to have them watch one
or more of the local channels to see if they notice the same thing.
Since the local channels for Milwaukee are on the 101W satellite you
would think that if it was my reception that was the problem I would
have problems on one of the network stations that one would consider a
cable/satellite network (for example TBS, WGN, DSC, HBO. etc.) I have
checked every channel and only have the problem with the local
Milwaukee channels that I get from DirecTv.

In article
jackzwick-BC9A5B.03435510102005@newscls ... rodigy.com>, Jack
Zwick <jackzwick@yahoo.com> wrote:

In article <091020051813379317%jbelot@mail.com>,
Jim Belot <jbelot@mail.com> wrote:

I am wondering if anyone who has Directv and the Milwaukee Wi local
channels is having any type of problem with the local channels.
Approximately 5 times or more an hour I am getting z freezing picture
for a second or two, then the program will continue. Every once in a
while the picture will pixelate. I also have ghosting on Channel 4
(NBC) that is real notible on some pictures (especially whn graphics
are on the sceen). Most of my watching of the local channels is 4
(NBC), 6 (FOX), 12 (ABC), & 58 (CBS). Naturally Directv's answer is to
reset the receiver. I have 3 receivers and have done hard resets n all
3. and still have the problem. My neighbor with Directv has the same
problem. Now Directv tells me they can't (and won't) take any
corrective action unless a number of people complain about it (more
than my neighbor & me!) Everything tells me that they have a problem
with their local receiving equipment here in Milwaukee that captures
the local signal and beams it up to their(Directv's) satellite. If you
have Directv and receive the Milwaukee, WI locals let me know if you
notice the same thing.


Sounds like perhaps uu have a weaker signal from the satellite at the
location that handles your locals? And/or the wind is blowing tree
branches in the path?

I have noticed increaed freezing and pixelization (sp?) on the Seattle
locals recently. I wonder if DTV is fiddling with the compression again.

In article <pan.2005.10.10.22.53.35.851120@oz.net>, nielsen@oz.net says...

I have noticed increaed freezing and pixelization (sp?) on the Seattle
locals recently. I wonder if DTV is fiddling with the compression again.

Ditto! I was trying to watch Nova on PBS (KCTS) last night. Lots of
pixelization. A few times I thought the receiver had crashed since it took
quite a while for it to recover. Once I think I got it going again by
turning the receiver off then on, but it might have come back on its own.

I suspected the locals are the culprit since I tend to see far more
pixelization on them than the >200 channels. Also, my sat signal strength is
about 86, so not a problem with that or trees.

I also have one of the cheapo RCA receivers that seems to have a superslow
CPU in it (DRD430 or something). Sometimes when I want to popup the INFO box
or change channels, when I press a button on the remote, this slug receiver
has sometimes taken 5 to 10 seconds to respond to my command. I have a
feeling that there's so much Guide data these days, that this receiver really
doesn't have the horsepower to process the signal and manage the guide with
having issues.

Also, it seems that the receiver is most "sluggish" near the top and bottom
of the hours, probably because that's when the guide gets new information,
and has to toss out the current 1/2hour window.

Because this receiver is so horribly slow, I also wonder if it might pixelate
more because it's having trouble with uber-compressed signals. I tend to
think the locals have more compression because if I watch (PiP) the same
station off the cable and the DSS at the same time, locals tend to have a 7
second delay, whereas most other stations are about 3 seconds. Also perhaps,
this might be caused by an extra "hop" into space and back for locals.

I'm glad I found this thread, as I was suspecting that my receiver is dying,
but it might be a common problem for others too!

I am wondering if anyone who has Directv and the Milwaukee Wi local
channels is having any type of problem with the local channels.
Approximately 5 times or more an hour I am getting z freezing picture
for a second or two, then the program will continue. Every once in a
while the picture will pixelate. I also have ghosting on Channel 4
(NBC) that is real notible on some pictures (especially whn graphics
are on the sceen). Most of my watching of the local channels is 4
(NBC), 6 (FOX), 12 (ABC), & 58 (CBS). Naturally Directv's answer is to
reset the receiver. I have 3 receivers and have done hard resets n all
3. and still have the problem. My neighbor with Directv has the same
problem. Now Directv tells me they can't (and won't) take any
corrective action unless a number of people complain about it (more
than my neighbor & me!) Everything tells me that they have a problem
with their local receiving equipment here in Milwaukee that captures
the local signal and beams it up to their(Directv's) satellite. If you
have Directv and receive the Milwaukee, WI locals let me know if you
notice the same thing.


Jim

In article <091020051813379317%jbelot@mail.com>,
Jim Belot <jbelot@mail.com> wrote:

I am wondering if anyone who has Directv and the Milwaukee Wi local
channels is having any type of problem with the local channels.
Approximately 5 times or more an hour I am getting z freezing picture
for a second or two, then the program will continue. Every once in a
while the picture will pixelate. I also have ghosting on Channel 4
(NBC) that is real notible on some pictures (especially whn graphics
are on the sceen). Most of my watching of the local channels is 4
(NBC), 6 (FOX), 12 (ABC), & 58 (CBS). Naturally Directv's answer is to
reset the receiver. I have 3 receivers and have done hard resets n all
3. and still have the problem. My neighbor with Directv has the same
problem. Now Directv tells me they can't (and won't) take any
corrective action unless a number of people complain about it (more
than my neighbor & me!) Everything tells me that they have a problem
with their local receiving equipment here in Milwaukee that captures
the local signal and beams it up to their(Directv's) satellite. If you
have Directv and receive the Milwaukee, WI locals let me know if you
notice the same thing.


Jim

I'm having the same problem in the San Diego area. The problem started
several weeks ago and manifests itself as frequent, annoying, short
duration freezes. The signal strength is good and the problem appears
on all channels.

Since I posted my message I had a Directv service person out to the
house. He checked things out and found nothing wrong. The problems
haven't been as extreme in the past 2 weeks, but still persist. It all
started about the same time as Directv announced that they will be
switching over to XM radio replacing Music Choice. Since the number of
music channels is almost going to double, my hunch is that Directv is
trying to steal as much bandwidth away from the local channels as they
can get away with (the ones that are on the same satellite as XM will
be) before too many people complain. I've seen postings elsewhere where
people have the same problem, call Directv to complain about it and get
their standard response "You are the first person to complain about
it-Until someone else complains we are not going to do anything about
it." Well, Directv isn't going to pull one over on me. I have been
....