Image corruption on certain channels - V6 box...

[gingamonkey]

Hi,

Over the Christmas break, a problem has developed with my V6 box, whereby the image is corrupt and pixelates heavily, making some channels (but not all!?) unwatchable. Audio is fine, but the image is mashed entirely. 

Of the channels I watch, the free ones appear to work fine, such as BBC and ITV, but the channels I pay a premium for are unwatchable (*most notably the Sky Sports HD channels), meaning I've missed out on the bumper haul of football over the Christmas break. 

I've just got off the phone to technical support, who were no help whatsoever, asking me to switch HDMI ports, etc, even though the issue is obviously network side as it only affects certain channels.

I've repeatedly tried rebooting the box, even leaving it unplugged overnight and trying again the next day, etc - Still the same issue remains. 

After having broadband issues around a month ago (*which were fixed thanks to the intervention of the forum mods on here speeding up an engineer visit - Many thanks!), I'm really starting to lose my patience with the service, which up until recently has been pretty much perfect. 

The engineer who came out to fix the broadband only a matter of weeks ago, checked connections, wiring, etc, so pretty confident the issue is not on our side.

Subscription to Virgin Media services isn't cheap, and I've had nothing but trouble over the past  month, during the time of year where you rely on it more than any other. 

Hoping someone on here can help, as the call centre were pretty much no use whatsoever! The guy I spoke to on the phone was completely stumped and brushed me off by saying to try again in 24-48 hrs, even though I'd already informed him that I'd gone through this process through the online service status tool. 

Currently paying for a service that I'm not receiving. 

Any help much appreciated. Thanks!

[gingamonkey]

Hey thanks @japitts. Totally missed your message and it appears you could be correct. I've just done a bit of investigation work, and all of those channels ARE definitely suffering with the same issue. 

I've dived into the diagnostics on the box and any tuners running channels with zero errors are showing a 99/100% signal strength with zero RS Uncorrected errors. The tuner running the corrupted channels looks like it IS having issues - The signal strength fluctuates at around 70% and it was reading 1,331,995 RS Uncorrected errors when I took a quick snap of it.

@Virgin Forum Support - I keep missing your messages as I'm at work when you keep asking me to turn my box on. I've now toggled it in the settings to be 'Always On', but with the energy prices the way they are, I'd appreciate it if you could run your diagnostics asap and let me know so that I can switch it back to standby mode. 

As mentioned above, it looks like I could still have a potential issue with my connection (*though my previous issue with broadband, resulting in similar errors to this turned out to be an issue on the network side), which was magically fixed one morning at 6.30am, days before the engineer came out to investigate?!

Any help would be much appreciated as this has been an issue for far too long now. 

Many thanks!

[insx]

You should definitely get an engineer visit. We've just had the same thing fixed and it was a connection in the box outside the house.

[gingamonkey]

Thanks insx, good to know it's all sorted for you now!

What's weird is that an engineer DID visit us in mid-December when we were having broadband issues - He changed all the external wiring during that visit so it doesn't bode well! 😬

[insx]

We also had a broadband fault fixed outside the house a few months ago.

[japitts]

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@gingamonkey wrote:

I've now toggled it in the settings to be 'Always On', but with the energy prices the way they are, I'd appreciate it if you could run your diagnostics asap and let me know so that I can switch it back to standby mode.

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No need to do that. Just use "connected low power" in the settings rather than "eco low power" - the eco option disables remote access, connected retains it.

If VM still can't connect, then that could potentially be more evidence of a fault.

[gingamonkey]

Thanks Japitts. Yep, it was previously connected in low power mode, so I guess there are ‘issues’ 😬

[Ashleigh_C · Accepted solution]

Hello

Thanks so much for your private message, I have now booked you a visit for your set top box – you can check the date and time via your online account here. If you have any issues with accessing your online account or unable to see your visit, please do let us know and we’ll pop you a message to confirm.

There will be no charge for this visit unless:
• The technician diagnoses the faults as not being caused by our network/equipment 
• The technician discovers that the fault or problem relates to your equipment
• The technician discovers that the fault or problem relates to any system that we are not responsible for
 

The technician will confirm during their visit if any of these instances apply, and if so, a £25 charge will be applied to your account. 
 

Please ensure there is someone over the age of 18 present at the time of the visit. If you need to change or cancel your appointment you can do this online or via the My VM app by 4pm the day before the appointment.
 

If you do miss an agreed appointment for any reason, a £25 missed appointment charge will be applied to your account on the day of the appointment.

Thank you
 

[gingamonkey]

Thanks to everyone for your help. The engineer that visited had to escalate it to the network team, as it was an issue in the pavement. 

They visited a couple of days after his visit, and all working as expected again.

Many thanks all!

On a side note, that's two occasions in the past 5/6 weeks where I've had to get help from the forum mods on here (who have been brilliant - Thank you so much!), but why oh why should customers have to resort to posting for help on this forum, when the first line of contact should be the support line, who in my opinion are a complete waste of time!?

Virgin services have generally been pretty solid for me over the years, so this is probably my first proper experience of trying to get something fixed, and that phone line is absolutely not fit for service!

Anyway, all working again now

[Akua_A]

Thank you for the update @gingamonkey.

Glad to hear the issue has been resolved by our team. We do apologise for any inconvenience caused in the last 6 weeks.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you need any further help.

Thanks,