Extremely frustrated with FIOS and Pixelation
hnh911
Newbie

We have an ongoing problem with our FIOS HD service.  The Pixelation randomly comes and goes and gets so bad you cant watch the HD TV.  Service is fine on our other settop boxes that are non-HD and we have never had pixelation issues.  We have had two techs out, replaced the box, replace the cables and it still happens to the point where you cant watch the TV.  They have reset boxes- reprogrammed boxes- checked cables- put new cables on- same issue- only on HD channels and its random, but once it starts it gets worse and worse and then will suddenly stop and all will be well.

Today my husband called again to FIOS tech support.  The first call he got disconnected but the girl on the phone continued the ticket and reset the box remotely- the issue continued.  Then he called back and the tech rep said to him Yeah its a known issue with Fios TV- there is nothing we can do.  She said try it through the component cables and see if that makes it better other then that there is nothing we can do to fix it.  She then terminated the call.  He tried the component cables and still pixelation. 

So let me get this straight- we switched to FIOS from Comcast- got locked into a contract and FIOS cannot provide me with a good HD picture which is what they constantly advertise?  I have a $2,000 tv that I cant watch on FIOS but never had an issue with Comcast.  I am about ready to sign up for the Football Party pack so I can invite other people over and see what crappy FIOS HD service we get. 

Seriously there is NOTHING that can be done to fix this? 

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Re: Extremely frustrated with FIOS and Pixelation
SantaOG160
Enthusiast - Level 3

From a tech I talked to at Verizon, it seems to be a bandwidth issue. certain times of day, depending upon usage, pixellation or temporarily frozen scenes or audio glitches seem to occur. He told me it could be a throttling of bandwidth issue.

Has anyone else heard this?

If so, is Verizon planning to upgrade their infrastructure since the amount of HD channels seems to be going up and not down in 2010.

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Re: Extremely frustrated with FIOS and Pixelation
JustLou1
Newbie

My experience is the exact opposite. I left Time Warner Cable a few weeks ago because their HD was just plain awful, with macroblocking and pixelation galore. I've had zero issues with FiOS HD. My picture is 100% perfect now.

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Re: Extremely frustrated with FIOS and Pixelation
ekem015
Specialist - Level 1

Never had that problem, on my end, in Massachusetts.

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Re: Extremely frustrated with FIOS and Pixelation
Hubrisnxs
Legend

@hnh911 wrote:

We have an ongoing problem with our FIOS HD service.  The Pixelation randomly comes and goes and gets so bad you cant watch the HD TV.  Service is fine on our other settop boxes that are non-HD and we have never had pixelation issues.  We have had two techs out, replaced the box, replace the cables and it still happens to the point where you cant watch the TV.  They have reset boxes- reprogrammed boxes- checked cables- put new cables on- same issue- only on HD channels and its random, but once it starts it gets worse and worse and then will suddenly stop and all will be well.

Today my husband called again to FIOS tech support.  The first call he got disconnected but the girl on the phone continued the ticket and reset the box remotely- the issue continued.  Then he called back and the tech rep said to him Yeah its a known issue with Fios TV- there is nothing we can do.  She said try it through the component cables and see if that makes it better other then that there is nothing we can do to fix it.  She then terminated the call.  He tried the component cables and still pixelation. 

So let me get this straight- we switched to FIOS from Comcast- got locked into a contract and FIOS cannot provide me with a good HD picture which is what they constantly advertise?  I have a $2,000 tv that I cant watch on FIOS but never had an issue with Comcast.  I am about ready to sign up for the Football Party pack so I can invite other people over and see what crappy FIOS HD service we get. 

Seriously there is NOTHING that can be done to fix this? 


I think the rep may have been confused, it's not a known issue with the boxes that it causes pixelization using HDMI.  there is an issue with "some tv's" but completely different symptoms.

And yes there is something that can be done to fix this, but it's going to require you call back into the center.

What I Would do first is bring another HD box over to this room, hook it up and see if the trouble is with the cabling or the cable box.

my suspicion is that it's the cabling.  Cabling meaning the coax cable that comes from the back of your cable box, to the wall, and then back to the main splitter and ultimately to the main ONT.     A technician can go out and take a look at this.  They may also need something to amplify the signal quality or dampen, it's possible the signal is coming in too hot.   But if I were a betting man, and I am I'd say it's just the single coax run to that one tv. 

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Re: Extremely frustrated with FIOS and Pixelation
Hubrisnxs
Legend

it could also be old rooms that weren't terminated and are sucking db signal noise too.     just a thought, but a technician can probably find something like that.    I would do the swap of cable boxes though, because when you call in to tech support, if you have that already done there isn't a lot they can ask you to do besides that,  that one act proves a lot about where the problem is.   

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Re: Extremely frustrated with FIOS and Pixelation
hnh911
Newbie

Here is my problem- I have had two techs out and numerous calls to Verizon Tech support- at what point am I going to get a straight answer on the problem.  We already swapped the HD box out via Verizons instructions. 

The verizon self diagnostic test says OOB - S/N ratio is 23db which the call center told us is good. 

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Re: Extremely frustrated with FIOS and Pixelation
JustLou1
Newbie

@hnh911 wrote:

The verizon self diagnostic test says OOB - S/N ratio is 23db which the call center told us is good. 


 Edit:

I misread the SNR. 23 might be OK, but most report 25 or higher.

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Re: Extremely frustrated with FIOS and Pixelation
Hubrisnxs
Legend

@hnh911 wrote:

Here is my problem- I have had two techs out and numerous calls to Verizon Tech support- at what point am I going to get a straight answer on the problem.  We already swapped the HD box out via Verizons instructions. 

The verizon self diagnostic test says OOB - S/N ratio is 23db which the call center told us is good. 


well oob is not for broadcast.  so you want your inband snr.   so if you do power -> select -> select on the front of the cable box, that will give you a diagnostic menu. and then you want to look for the in band snr.  in band is for broadcast quality, and oob is for their systems to communicate with the box for commands and stuff.

so that needs to be in the 30 + range, I think 32 and higher.  

What is important though is what happened when you did that HD box swap.   did the pixelization happen on the 2nd box at the same location, or did it go away?  

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Re: Extremely frustrated with FIOS and Pixelation
meomyo
Newbie

After reading this, I am curious as to where you are from.  When people don't give a location, I sometimes wonder if people are actually customers or not.  I am not saying I don't believe you are having problems, but just gives more credability.  Just my two cents, as I have never had problems here in South Jersey.

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