Text flicker on certain SD channels, particularly Weatherscan and local access channels

[chris601]

Hello!

I am a new Verizon FiOS triple play customer, having been connected for one week (11/25 install date) after fleeing Comcast for a variety of reasons.

For the record, I have a RCA LED 40" TV which is a few months old and this is the only TV in the house.  My STB looks like a Cisco product, software version 1.9.7.  I use a HDMI cable between TV and STB.  I am in Delaware County, PA.

I immediately suffered from a problem which, curiously, over the years seemes to affect many Comcast refugees coming to FiOS, that being a noticable decline in SD picture quality.  The HD PQ is better than anything that I've ever seen but SD PQ was aN obvious drop down from my old Comcast service.  Channels 49 (Weatherscan) and 43 (my local community channel) were especially bad with flickering text and an overall blurry picture, even ghosting in some cases.  

I called Verizon and the support agent really took an interest in attempting to resolve my issue and the issue of coax came up. The install tech used some of the old  (20 year +) unmarked coax, which the support agent found surprising, but could not guarantee that I would not be charged $90 for a second visit so I replaced the coax myself with new RG-6 quad shied from ONT to STB and this cleared up most of the SD channels but Weatherscan and some of the local channels still have an annoying flicker and fuzzy look not known previously on Comcast.   The text flicker is enough to make reading the text difficult and annoying.

I did many STB resets, checked all wiring and connectors and even went so far as to try a coax line between STB and TV instead of HDMI.  Oddly, the ficker disappered when using the coax but all SD and HD PQ was way down.

I finally noticed that I could eliminate the flicker but not the fuzzy picture if I power-cycle the STB using the remote.   This tells me that the TV and STB are re-synching somehow.  Being able to eliminate the flicker in this manner helps a bit but I am curious to know why I have to do this.     STB information indicates a good SNR and other data.

I  understand that, quite often, what I see is only as good as what is fed to Verizon.  If so in the case with these problematic local channels, I'm disappointed that Verizon is satisfied to provide this lower level of picture quality, especially since Weatherscan has a popular following and many of us do look at local channels to watch local government meetings, something which is now a bit challenging for my eyes.  Comcast had near-HD quality on its Weatherscan channel which helps when trying to look at the radar screen.  Yes, there is a nifty Weather Channel widget but the radar screen is quite small and not enlargable.  

>>>As an update to this message, I have to give Verizon kudos for a recent STB software update!   Last night I was reading IMG 1.9.6 and I thought 1.9.7, when writing this post, was odd.   What a nice update to the guide and SD channels are really nice now, but sadly, Weatherscan and a few of the locals still have the same annoying issue!  The HD PQ is outstanding, better than it was yesterday.  I was able to adjust some of my TV settings for the better.  Now, if the Weatherscan and whanot would only get better!!  >>>

I hope Verizon can find ways to address this.   I do know that my TV was in 720p mode with my old Comcast STB which was more optimized for CRT screens.   Sadly, the "SD Override" choices in my STB do not include this resolution as a choice nor are there any real adjustments to compensate for different TV models.   My SD picture quality has improved to the point where I can't help but think that the issue is related specifically to individual channel feeds.

Speaking of Weatherscan, I find Verizon's rendition of it to be odd with reports for five cities (Allentown, PA; Dover, DE, Atlantic City, NJ; Philadelphia, PA, Wilmington, DE).   They try to show two cities at once and it's confusing, but at least one can get information 24/7.  My thanks and appreciation to Verizon for keeping this channel when I hear that other markets are eliminating it.

[chris601]

I have noticed a distinct flickering of text in SD mode on several channels.   It is particularly bad with Weatherscan but is also apparent sometimes with any channel which has a text crawl along the screen bottom or sports score texts where the text can flicker with some artifacts.   Resetting the STB will temporarily stop the flickering but it comes back when I move to a HD channel and then go back to an affected SD channel.

I have a friend who has FiOS and he does not experience this but he has a CRT TV while I have a 1080 HD LED TV.

It was suggested to me that I try 720p mode.  This is what I had with Comcast SD which gave a niceSD  picture.  Sadly, I cannot find a way of accomplishing this even to try it for grins.  The STB's SD Override settings only gives me a choice of off, 480i, 480p, and stretch and the TV has no way to picking the resolution in menu -- it adjusts automatically to the incoming video source.  None of these make a difference safe to say that it looks the worst on the two 480 settings.

Any suggestions?   Is Verizon planning to give us more video adjustment choices?  It seems like one's milage will vary based on individual TV models and specs.

Thanks!

[tns2]

You can set the STB to OUTPUT HD at 720P and that includes the SD channels if you don't have sd setttings set to use 480i or 480P.

Personally I don't recommend that unless your TV is natively a 720p set.

Double check if your set is showing 1080i WITHOUT overscan.  Various makers label this differently.  My Samsungs label this as P-size.  For it 16x9 means with overscan, and screen fit eliminates overscan and in general improves the picture quality.

[chris601]

Hello and thanks for the commentary!

I agree with your recommendation not to force 720p unless TV is native to that, which it isn't.  I did try that and got no better results anyway.  My TV does not have many choices for setup and the issue of overscanning, including the ability to select a specific resolution, isn't available in the menus.

My old Comcast STB, which set the TV to 720p, was from the days of tube screens.   That may have something to do with it, perhaps.  A friend of mine who has FiOS with the same STB as mine from what he says, uses a tube TV still and Weatherscan and SD channels are sharp.   I was in a Weatherscan wiki and it stated that FiOS still emits the feed in analog  but, in the future, plans to do it digital.  I do not know how accurate that statement is but it matches what I see -- Weatherscan has that nostalgic 1980's or 1990's analog cable channel look -- Weatherscan and some other local channels were digital channels with Comcast.  Sadly, there are some SD channels with no HD which I have that are pretty much unviewable most of the time but thankfully I don't watch them.

I'm guessing that it's a combination of the TV and the FiOS STB and how they interact as I had sharper SD performance overall with Comcast but FiOS HD is nothing short of spectacular - no pixelation, no artifacts!   It's funny -- I was fitting a 24" 1080i monitor to computer today and noticed how the lower resolution SVGA modes (1024 x 768) were just as soft and fuzzy as what I see with most of my FiOS SD channels.

Overall, I am happy with FiOS and enjoy the service -- I gather that they read these posts and seem to be interested in improving their service so we shall see how it transpires.  

[chris601]

I did a bit a bit more tinkering and discovered that SD Override set to "480i" seems to be the best combination with my TV video set to "100 % screen size."  It even reduces the flicker and sharpens the picture a bit.  I can simply enlarge the picture with the remote's "size" button if I wish.  

I find it curious that the STB help states that the 480 settings are "not recommended."   The "off" and "stretch" settings gave the most video artifacts and text flicker on SD.   But, I guess everybody's mileage varies.   I'm sure it's hard to try to match all TV models but having a good number of settings to choose in menus helps.

Weatherscan looks better under 480.  I appreciate Verizon providing this channel as the radar screen on the Weather Channel widget is too small and has no movement and one can see impending weather 24/7.

[chris601]

I'm guessing that Verizon did some work in the area as most of the SD issues went away and pretty much all of the SD channels now look nice even with TV in HD mode (I now keep the SD override in the STB set to "stretch" and the TV picture set to "normal" instead of "wide") -- except for the flickering on certain channels 43, 49, and 119.   Channel 49 has the poorest PQ out of all of the SD and has most noticable flicker.

The only way that I can make the flickering disappear once both TV and STB are on is by turning the STB off then back on with the remote's STB power button.   This fix works so long as I stay on SD channels.   The flickering will return if I change to any HD channel and return to a SD channel.   The flicker won't appear if I power up the STB set to a SD channel and then turn on the TV, but will return if I go to HD and then back to SD. 

Nobody has a solution for this and out of fairness, it's probably some strange quirk between TV and STB unique to my particular STB and TV combination.  At least, though, there is a manual work-around.