Now this wasnt on Ignite.. but this sounds like something really similar to what I had a number of years back.
The signal to the house is normal during most times.. but during peak times.. was having TV signal issues.
That there was an infrastructure issues in the area, in which when under the heaviest load, there was signal drops.
Ended up having to get maintenance out to fix more of the road issue. (as neighbors were having the same thing)
That would be a good test.
If you are able to log into your modem, and get the signal levels during a GOOD time, as well then during the bad time. See if there is a change.
@jjjjy7 There's no way that channels should take *minutes* to load... ever... not even if there are slowdowns due to node congestion in the evening. Worst case, it might take a few (less than 10) seconds for a stream to establish but even that should be a rare occurrence.
If Ignite TV starts behaving strangely, I would first power cycle the XB6 modem/gateway and wait for the status light to turn solid white. Then power-cycle each set-top box. If it's still taking a long time for streams to establish when changing channels, you'll need to call Rogers for further investigation. It might be a problem affecting your neighbourhood, but it could also be an upstream issue as well.
Whenever you get atypical results from a speed test, you always have to validate the results by testing with other speed test services and also performing the speed tests with a wired connection.
A few weeks ago, my (normally stellar) Ignite TV service suddenly got a little bit wonky. Channel changes were slower than usual, on all set-top boxes. I got occasional, momentary freezes, but not all the time, and only on some set-top boxes. I also found that streaming momentarily downgraded to a lower bitrate (the picture quality degraded) then went back to normal again. Wireless speed tests were horrible from my computer but fine from my iPhone. (Some readers here might be ready to ditch a service like this. Others might suspect that there are multiple underlying issues at play.)
Here's how I fixed it:
As I've suggested many times before, start by restarting the XB6 by power-cycling it. (When the modem/gateway boots up, it scans/tests upstream and downstream channels. It also reacquires IPv4 and IPv6 addresses and restarts all of its internal network services.) Next, either restart or power-cycle the Xi6 set-top boxes. (If anything about the underlying network changed, the devices on your internal network will also need to renew their network address. The IPv4 (private) network address assignment won't change but the IPv6 network address might.)
Result: I still have some weird issues with Ignite TV but channel changes are immediate now. Wireless speed tests are still all over the map.
I switched my computer to a wired network connection. Speed test went from 75Mb/s to 195 Mb/s on a 150Mb/s service. Logged into the XB6 modem; I'm not seeing any errors on my "Rogers Network" stats. The Internet connection is just fine.
I fired up "AirPort Utility" on my iPhone and performed a "Wi-Fi Scan". Bingo! Unbeknownst to me, MY NEIGHBOUR SWITCHED FROM DIGITAL TV TO IGNITE TV. Whoever installed their service didn't perform a wireless survey and did the worst possible thing: they assigned THE SAME CHANNELS THAT I WAS USING (in both the 2.4 and 5GHz bands) rather than using the same Wi-Fi channels that they had been using before for years!!!
Like @jjjjy7 (and possibly like @cafekief as well) my service was fine during the day but I noticed the glitches at night, when my neighbours were watching TV on multiple set-top boxes and generating a ton of traffic on the same Wi-Fi channels that I was using.
I ended up reconfiguring my Wi-Fi mesh network and assigned new channels in both the 2.4 and 5GHz bands. Thanks to my neighbour stealing "my" Wi-Fi channels, better channels became available and my wireless network performance actually improved.
Result: My Ignite TV service is now back to normal and working well again.
As for why my iPhone got great wireless speed test results before but not my computer, the iPhone was connected to a different node on my wireless mesh and using a different Wi-Fi channel, so it did not experience any interference.
That's a very good example of why anyone who depends on WiFi should fire up a WiFi scanning application on their laptop or desktop if applicable, at least once per week. IPTV is in use by Rogers, Bell, Teksavvy and I belive Start as well. Not sure about Cogeco or Videotron. In any event all it takes to wreck your WiFi is for your neighbor to install one of these systems and/or a mesh network and there goes your stable WiFi network.
For Windows you can load:
1. Winfi lite which is fairly new. This is available from the Microsoft store as a freebie. Don't know when the pro version will be available. This can also be downloaded from the developers site.
2. inSSIDer lite can be downloaded from their website and requires a free account to download or run, not sure which one.
3. The Lizard Systems WiFi scanner can be downloaded from their website and requires a freebie license to use for personal use.
So, personal opinion, load Winfi light and learn how to display the graphical channel display and/or load inSSIDer lite on to a laptop or WiFi desktop. Fire one of them up once a week or more and keep any eye on your neighbors WiFi networks so that you know what networks are usually running and what network is brand new, killing your WiFi network. That only takes a minute or two to run a quick check, potentially longer if you have to reconfigure your WiFi network channels.
@Datalink I agree, but those tools still require a certain level of technical expertise. Not even the Rogers techs seem to be able to use them. It took me less time to troubleshoot and fix that little problem than it did to write my previous post...
Meanwhile, in an alternate parallel universe, another me has been on the phone with tech support all this time and still has not gotten any closer to getting his Ignite TV service working properly. Line stats look good. No errors logged on the XB6. Restart after restart doesn't fix anything. Techs have been dispatched to swap out "faulty" hardware. During the day, when the techs are on site, everything is working well.
The neighbours are experiencing a similar nightmare and they eventually cancel their service. The problems in "my" house suddenly fix themselves, but the other me does not believe Rogers when they say that they didn't do anything. Then, after hearing that "my" Ignite TV service is working again, the neighbours resubscribe.
I agree.. the techs should be outfitted WITH Those type of tools..
Really, takes what 5 mins to do, and see what needs to be changed make the change.
But really.. seems like 2/3 of the techs right now are not even making sure that the wifi works/reaches far enough in the house.. putting in the pods, etc.. they just plug in the modem, tv boxes and go...
Asking them to do more work..
I hate to badmouth the techs.. but it seems more and more hearing stories that it is the case.
There are some real GOOD techs out there too.
These sorts of issues are usually related to the signal coming to your home/neighbourhood. Have you called Rogers and have them check when you're having problems.
The PVR is in the cloud with Ignite, so there is no difference in the way the signal gets to you - it's just like on-demand or live.
The issue could also be with WiFi, but you say that's been taken care of with Powerline Adaptors, but they are not exactly the same as a hard-wired connection. Is there a way for you to have a hard-wired connection for one of the TVs as a test to see if that works perfectly?
@imcewan1 wrote:
I too have this problem very frequently during peak viewing time (the 8-11PM Prime Time I guess). Video quality comes and goes, sometimes skipping, even freezing and outright stopping with a black screen for a few minutes. The menu screens get slower, FF takes a sec or 2 to start, the whole system just get sluggish. It is not a Wifi issue as the last tech that came over installed a hard wired Ethernet over powerlines setup for our main TV. Also we watch shows on the PVR almost exclusively as opposed to live or on-demand.
Could you try logging into your modem, Go to "Troubleshooting > Logs > Event Logs" and check to see if you have any DHCPv6 errors in the log over the last week? Usually, when channels are slow to change, streams don't start, or you get errors like RDK-03117, it can be an indictor of an IPv6-related network issue. It shouldn't happen very often but if it does, you'll need to power-cycle the XB6 modem, wait for the status light to turn solid white, then reset your set-top boxes. Things should then (hopefully) return back to normal.
A freezing/slow-to-respond set-top-box (e.g. it takes a few seconds to respond when you press Guide or if you get slow response time to button presses when scrolling through the guide) is likely due to a set-top box software-related issue, not a network problem. That could also account for momentary freezes, if they last 10 seconds or so. If a video freeze ever occurs, press the replay button. If the stream replays at normal quality, it means the data was successfully received over the network but the set-top box was "too busy" and did not process a segment of video. Often, problems like this are momentary, but if they keep recurring, they can often be resolved by power-cycling the set-top box.
The momentary changes in video quality (typically lasting a few seconds) might be due to a set-top-box issue, network issues, or an upstream issue. Ignite TV can stream at different bitrates in response to adverse network conditions. However, it's rare for a video stream to go completely dark for a significant period of time unless you get a significant disruption to your Internet connection. If this problem goes on for a long period of time, try restarting the XB6 modem, wait for the status light to turn solid white, then reset your set-top box again. If that does fix the problem, call tech support so they can investigate this further.
If the network itself is slow, that's another issue altogether, but the bitrates for Ignite TV are typically low enough that you can still ride out minor network problems without any noticeable decrease in picture quality. The Rogers tech support team can check your link for errors or signs of network congestion in your local area.
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