Picture Pixelation

[Bob_Jankers]

Hi.

Our TV picture breaks up on a daily basis and appears pixilated.  Sometimes it briefly displays "Channel Failed" before resuming.  It happens on any TV channel at any time, day or night.  Not sure if this is normal as we've only recently joined VM. We use the 360 box with 100Mb/s broadband.

I don't think it's related to signal strength as switching to a standard aerial through my TV works without any problems.

Do we need to book an engineer already?

Thanks

[Bob_Jankers]

Hi @japitts,

We've watched EastEnders on iPlayer and that was fine, so I guess this is just a live TV problem.  I guess that makes sense since the error that is occasionally displayed is "Channel failed" CS2004....?

Thanks

[Bob_Jankers]

Just an update, we had two engineers come round yesterday to test the frequencies and check & tighten the cabling etc.  They couldn't find any problems and somewhat predictably the picture didn't break up while they were here!  So they advised us to record videos on our phones if the signal problems continue to occur.  Unfortunately the problems have indeed continued (see videos below) so I'm now more certain that it might be a problem in the local area rather than with our installation - even though the service status page says there are no known issues! One of the engineers did say to my wife that they have had a lot of call-outs in the area (but she didn't ask them if it was related to our problems unfortunately), so it might be a localised network fault?

Not sure how to proceed to get this sorted, any further advice would be very much appreciated.

Video 1: http://bungo.duckdns.org/video/VID_20210524_204019.mp4
Video 2: http://bungo.duckdns.org/video/VID_20210525_001128.mp4

[Tom_F]

Thanks for keeping us updated on this Bob_Jankers, sorry that the previous visit wasn't successful. I've taken an in-depth look at this today and wasn't able to identify any issues, however we do understand these things can be intermittent, and as you have video evidence of the problem now it's probably best we arrange a follow-up visit with an engineer who will go through further diagnostics and raise with the networks teams if necessary. I'll get in touch via PM so we can get that sorted, just look out for the purple envelope.

Tom

[Bob_Jankers]

So it's been a few weeks since an engineer tightened our cabling and when that failed to solve the fault, a couple of weeks since he returned to change some physical switches on the Virgin box in the road. However, disappointingly, we still get pixelation off and on, so we're beginning to think this is to be expected from live TV? Has anyone else noticed this?

@Tom_F the channels are watchable and the pixelation is very intermittent (we can sometimes go several hours without seeing any problem). Should we just live to ignore it, or is there anything else that can be tried/changed?

[japitts]

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@Bob_Jankers wrote:

So it's been a few weeks since an engineer tightened our cabling and when that failed to solve the fault, a couple of weeks since he returned to change some physical switches on the Virgin box in the road. However, disappointingly, we still get pixelation off and on, so we're beginning to think this is to be expected from live TV? Has anyone else noticed this?

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No, if every Virgin TV customer had issues with live TV pixellating, this board would be literally swimming in complaints. I don't see any evidence of that.

What I do see evidence of, is perhaps multiple faults on your installation, or the recurrence of a previous one. Without knowing from the engineer notes what was looked at/checked last time, it's impossible to start surmising as to what could be the issue.

As ever - make sure your box is rebooted once and if symptoms persist.... forum staff should be along in a day or two to pick this up. If necessary, I (or any other VIP user) can give them a gentle nudge.

[Kath_F]

Hi Bob_Jankers, 

Thanks for coming back and updating your post. 

As mentioned by japitts, pixilation is not a common thing and shouldn't be happening as often as this. We can forgive a few anomalies but not if it's happening this often. 

Checking the box stats, it's currently showing as unreachable so I'm not able to see any of the signal levels on the box. Can you please reboot your box so it's online, post here to let me know and leave the box on until I post back. This will allow us to run through diagnostics at this end 🙂 

Speak soon, 

[Bob_Jankers]

Hi @Kath_F

Thanks for your reply.  I've rebooted our 360 box and it's currently on.  Please run your remote diagnostic testing.  Please note that the engineer tested the signal levels on both visits and found no problems.

Thanks

[Kath_F]

Thanks for coming back to me on this and for rebooting the box. 

I can see it is online now so have checked the levels and all is looking good. There are no issues with the box at all. 

Can you try making sure the coaxial cable is screwed in tightly where it joins the 360 box as well as at the wall and any splitters. 

Double check the HDMI cable as well to ensure that isn't loose. 

Let us know how that goes. 

Thanks,

[Bob_Jankers]

Hi @Kath_F

Our picture has been pixelating a few times since the reboot so that's unfortunately not made any difference.  The cables are tight, the engineer made sure of that on both visits. 🙂  He even gave us a new "Virgin-approved" HDMI cable free-of-charge.  I've checked if this was securely fastened and it duly is.

If there's anything else you could suggest, please let us know. 🤔

Thanks

[japitts]

Are there any particular channels that are problematic? If you can quote specific examples, including SD/HD, there may potentially be some commonality without you realising.