Advice on resolving pixilation on TV

[sdredger1]

I have had repeated intermittent issues with pixilation whilst watching sky sports over the last few months, recently this has spread to other channels resulting in the tele being unwatchable today for periods. I have reported this issue and the VM agent was very helpful and ran some checks and then offered to send me a new digi box. 

After some thinking this afternoon and during another period of pixilation I ran upstairs and checked my other box. The other box (V6) had not got the same level of pixilation but appeared degraded in the way that you would expect with noise on an analogue tv picture.

This suggests to me that replacing one of the boxes will not fully resolve my issue. 

In addition i have noticed that several doors up from my property there is flood water coming out of their CATV cover at the boundary of their property. Could this be causing the degradation of my cable quality? 

Can anyone suggest a way ahead as it'll be difficult to get a tech out to investigate the VM cables on my road being under water and it is also difficult to pinpoint/diagnose an intermittent fault.

any suggestions or help from admins would be gratefully received. 

[japitts]

First off, you've posted in the TV360 forum but referred to your "other box V6" - you can't mix TV360 & TiVo/V6 on the same account, it's either one or the other. Which do you have? https://www.virginmedia.com/care/tv-fault/which-tv-box 

Secondly - if you have multiple TV boxes in your home but only one is affected, then that rules out an external fault. Can you post a picture of the issue on that other box?

Ultimately, swapping the two boxes around will be a good test of whether the fault follows the box move or remains with the specific internal cabling.

[sdredger1]

First off, you've posted in the TV360 forum but referred to your "other box V6" - you can't mix TV360 & TiVo/V6 on the same account, it's either one or the other. Which do you have? https://www.virginmedia.com/care/tv-fault/which-tv-box 

apologies - both boxes are 360, the upstairs one is half of the size as the downstairs one.

Secondly - if you have multiple TV boxes in your home but only one is affected, then that rules out an external fault. Can you post a picture of the issue on that other box?

The upstairs box has had degradation of picture too (i will try to get a pic next time it happens) just not the same level. There is also an occasional pop up box that says "Channel Failed" but it doesnt stay on long enough to get a photo. 

Ultimately, swapping the two boxes around will be a good test of whether the fault follows the box move or remains with the specific internal cabling.

as the 2 boxes are different builds - 1 is half the size can i still swap them arround?

thank you

[japitts]

So what you have is a TV360 master (with hard drive) and a TV360 mini (without hard drive)

Yes, both boxes can be swapped around - the only difference is that recordings are on the hard drive, and the mini-box streams them. For live TV, both are identical.

Pixellation is a sign of a signal fault, and "channel failed" is a loss of signal error.

If both are affected, then an external fault is back in play.

[newapollo]

Hi @sdredger1 

As japitts said, there isn't a problem swapping them around. Its just a test to see if the fault still follows the box, or if exactly the same fault shows on the other box when you swap them around. It helps determine if it is a box or signal fault.

If you are like me and like to pause programs then I would swap the main and mini boxes back to their original locations once you've checked the faults

The reason I suggest this is that the mini box only pauses for a couple of minutes since it doesn't have a hard drive.  If you want it to pause for any longer then you need to set it record that program

[sdredger1]

thank you, as you have both suggested i will swap the boxes,. hopefully if the issue persists it presents itself early as it is frustrating waiting for an intermittent problem to show itself 🙂