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Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

srrv
I've been around

I constantly experience intermittent screen freezes and have the audio drop out, to the point that it is often impossible to simply watch a show or movie.  No amount of reboots or any of the other solutions suggested by Rogers works.  I see that others have been experiencing the same issue.  When you pay so much for a service, it should work reliably.  I have checked the connection and even my Rogers box says the connection is excellent.  And the thought of actually wasting the time that is inevitably lost calling Rogers tech support with no resolution is exasperating.  I will be transferred 5 times, lose a minimum of an hour of my time on the phone with support, have to repeat the problem endlessly, and I will still have the same issue.  It is truly unfortunate to have to be resigned to such terrible service. 

 

 

 

***Edited Labels***

39 REPLIES 39

Re: Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

-G-
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

@srrv  Is this set-top box connected directly to the Ignite gateway or is it connected indirectly through a Pod?

 

If it is connected through a Pod, you need to ensure that the Pod is placed in a location where it has a good connection to the gateway and can also still provide good connectivity for the Wi-Fi clients that connect to it.

Re: Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

TLP71
I'm here a lot

Hello!

I am adding my voice to the people who are experiencing the intermittent screen freezes and the audio drop out as well. It is frustrating and calling Rogers technician does not solve anything despite coming to my home. The TV box has been changed but was not the problem. The last time the tech guy came, he replaced the cable connected to my house, and still the same problem has persisted since, on and off.  Rogers acknowledge the problem, good and what are they doing about it?

PS I have experience these problems since mid-October 2022 on and off after my land line went dead.

Not enjoying Ignite TV as much.

Re: Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

DAJ3
I plan to stick around

Another "victim" of the problem here. Both TVs in the house experience intermittent video freezing and audio drop out that can last up to several seconds.

 

Both set top boxes -- one within a couple of feet of the modem and the other directly below the modem one floor down -- have been rebooted, as has the modem. The problem persists.

 

Although not a scientific test by any means, I have yet to notice the problem when watching recorded shows. Perhaps there is something in that, or maybe I've just been lucky not to have experienced the problem at those times.

Re: Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

mebe
I'm a trusted contributor
IPTV works well for many, while victimizing others relentlessly.

The POD Squad might be able to solve some issues, while other more complicated issues often require divine intervention to remove the curse of IPTV (Intermittent Problematic TV).

Just curious: Do you notice any screen freezing or audio dropout while watching On Demand content?

Perhaps the servers dealing with your smooth recordings are protected by Law and Order:SFU (Screen Freezing Unit) ... To Server and Protect. 👮

Re: Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

-G-
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

@DAJ3 wrote:

Another "victim" of the problem here. Both TVs in the house experience intermittent video freezing and audio drop out that can last up to several seconds.

 

Both set top boxes -- one within a couple of feet of the modem and the other directly below the modem one floor down -- have been rebooted, as has the modem. The problem persists.


You should try connecting the set-top box next to the modem with an Ethernet cable.  If the problem is WiFi-related, your audio/video dropouts should go away.

 

There are a lot of things that can cause your Wi-Fi network to perform poorly, and that can also result in poor Wi-Fi performance even for those devices that are very close to the Ignite Gateway.

 

As for why those A/V dropouts occur, it could be a problem in the back-end, that occur at the time of encoding.

 

They can also occur if you have network problems or insufficient bandwidth on the network path that make it impossible to sustain an HD stream.  A certain amount of streamed content is buffered, enough to ride out minor network problems or packet loss.  However, if the buffer runs out and the set-top box does not have any data available to decode and render, you will get audio/video dropouts.  This can happen if you have extreme packet loss on your Internet connection; it can also occur if you have absolutely horrible Wi-Fi performance.  Either way, the problem would have to be so bad that you don't even have enough effective throughput to sustain a 10 Mb/s HD stream.

 

Although not a scientific test by any means, I have yet to notice the problem when watching recorded shows. Perhaps there is something in that, or maybe I've just been lucky not to have experienced the problem at those times.


Live broadcasts are different from watching a recorded program.  With a recoded program, the data is all there waiting to be streamed, and you can have a lot of buffer depth, so your set-top box will never run out of data to decode and render.  With a live broadcast, the source signal needs to be received, possibly deinterlaced , possibly transcoded, encoded for transmission, then streamed.  This is also all very processor-intensive and needs to be done quickly so as to keep the encoding delay to an absolute minimum.  As it stands, the encoding delay on most channels is approximately 30 seconds.  If your in-home network or your Internet connection is not working well, you are much more likely to experience glitches when watching live broadcasts.

Re: Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

DAJ3
I plan to stick around

Both of the household computers are connected via WiFi. I watch a fair bit of streaming video on my computer and have yet to notice any issues with video or audio quality. I realize that this is somewhat anecdotal evidence, but my impression is that the WiFi signal is solid. I'm not sure what differences there might be between a streaming service like Prime or Netflix and a TV program, so there may be an error in my reasoning.

Re: Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

alanirenekerr
I've been here awhile
Same problem here

Re: Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

Good day @DAJ3 & @alanirenekerr,

 

We appreciate your contributions to the community!

 

Disruptions during your TV watching time are definitely not ideal. We'd like your experience with Ignite TV to be much smoother, for sure.

 

Did either of you have an opportunity to try connecting your TV directly to the set-top box via Ethernet as recommended by @-G-? This would definitely help us in identifying if the WiFi connection is the culprit. @DAJ3, you did make mention that the streaming seems to be solid while using a computer and so on, which is also interesting. Are you streaming Live content or recordings/on demand videos during those times?

 

You may also send us a PM @CommunityHelps for further troubleshooting and we can also have a peek on the back end.

 

Thank you!

RogersYasmine

 

 

Re: Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

DAJ3
I plan to stick around

I have not tried an ethernet connection between the modem and the set top box. Partially concerned that it might require some configuration that I am liable to mess up. <g>

 

As to streaming on my computer, I cannot with any certainty say that the TV video/audio issues do not happen at the same time. But I have had the issues when I know that no one is using a computer. I assume it is safe to eliminate the WiFi signal being unable to cope with the demand as a possible source of the TV issue.

Re: Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

MontyDoo
I've been around

I am having these issues and the Rogers keep telling me to repeat the exact same trouble shooting over and over.  They won't believe me that the issue is on their end.  How is that there are some many people in different markets having the same issue and it has to be on the users end.  I open up case numbers and they get closed saying the issues are resolved and never are.  Don't waste your time changing boxes, gateways, connecting to ethernet, going in and out of bridge mode, changing the settings in the gateway, moving modem, pods, personal mesh systems, rewiring the house or trying multiple TVs none of it works.  The issue is rogers!  They won't believe me, but every time they modify their bundles or program packages I have the exact same issue year in and year out and when I change my package (always more expensive) the problem always disappears.   They ran fibre op wiring through my neighbourhood and increased node capacity last summer which also interrupted our services and we were told we would have better services from that point forward.  Laughable honestly.  I think I have been troubleshooting Rogers tech issues longer than most of the advisors have been alive.  Bell will be coming next week to move us over.   I have about 5 case numbers that are closed, but never resolved.

Re: Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

-G-
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

@DAJ3 wrote:

Both of the household computers are connected via WiFi. I watch a fair bit of streaming video on my computer and have yet to notice any issues with video or audio quality. I realize that this is somewhat anecdotal evidence, but my impression is that the WiFi signal is solid. I'm not sure what differences there might be between a streaming service like Prime or Netflix and a TV program, so there may be an error in my reasoning.


The major streaming services are not really a great test of the quality of your network.  A movie already exists, stored on some server, popular movies are cached on local servers, and they can design the streaming client software to buffer as much data locally on the streaming device as memory allows, perhaps even several minutes of content.  As a result, Prime and Netflix can ride out intermittent glitches, even if the network drops out for several seconds at a time.

 

On the other hand, live TV is more sensitive to network disruption.  If there are bandwidth constraints, adaptive bitrate codecs can temporarily and dynamically lower video quality to keep the stream alive but they cannot practically buffer any more than a few seconds of content -- enough to ride out minor packet loss but they cannot compensate for severely-degraded network conditions.

 

A real test of network quality is something like a Zoom call.  That application requires a fair amount of bandwidth, in both directions, and it is latency-sensitive.  Also, online gaming is VERY sensitive to network conditions.

 

As for the quality of your Wi-Fi, it mainly depends on signal strength (which affects the stability of your connection), the transmit and receive rates on that connection (which affects how much data can be transmitted in a given period of time) and how much free air time is available on the frequencies that are being used.  Forgive me for simplifying but Wi-Fi's Achilles' Heel is that only one device can transmit on a given frequency at a time, and a Wi-Fi device (client or Access Point) needs to wait for clear airspace before it can transmit.  If you have distant busy Wi-Fi clients on your network, with low data-rate connections, they will tie up more airtime and negatively affect Wi-Fi performance, even for those devices that are very close to the Access Point.  Likewise, If you neighbour's Wi-Fi network is not healthy and he/she/they are using the same Wi-Fi channels that you are, YOUR network will also perform poorly.  (I remember many years ago, before the 5 GHz band became available, my Wi-Fi performance would plummet every evening when my neighbours switched on their video baby monitor.). Wi-Fi performance is also dependent on where you place the Access Point.  Most people can only see whether their signal strength is good, bad or adequate, and don't have any ability to assess other factors that affect Wi-Fi performance.

 

A few years ago, Ars Technica posted some great articles about Wi-Fi:

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/03/802-eleventy-what-a-deep-dive-into-why-wi-fi-...

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/02/the-ars-technica-semi-scientific-guide-to-wi-fi-access-point...

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/04/remote-work-lagging-if-you-cant-plug-it-in-upgrade-to-mesh/

 

 

For Ignite TV to work well, your in-home network needs to perform well AND your Internet connection needs to perform well.  If you log into your Ignite Gateway and go to "Gateway > Connection > Rogers Network" and scroll down to the bottom, you should see few (if any) Uncorrectable Codewords errors.  If you are seeing a ton of uncorrectables on the downstream OFDM channel, that's a problem.  That's packet loss.

 

If your local fibre node is overloaded or Rogers has problems within their own network, you can do some testing to identify those issues but it's really on Rogers to maintain the quality of their internal network and Internet service.

 

It's also possible for back-end issues in Rogers' infrastructure to cause problems with Ignite TV, or for a single channel to be problematic.  However, those problems tend to be easy for Rogers to identify and resolve quickly.

 

For me, my in-home network is rock-solid stable, my Internet connection is good (most of the time), and my Ignite TV services performs well with no audio/video dropouts.

Re: Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

-G-
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

@DAJ3 wrote:

I have not tried an ethernet connection between the modem and the set top box. Partially concerned that it might require some configuration that I am liable to mess up. <g>


There is no configuration required.  Simply connect one end of the Ethernet cable to a free LAN port on your Ignite Gateway and the other end to the Ethernet jack on your set-top box.

Re: Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

RHstats
I plan to stick around

I'm not sure what is meant by "intermittent screen freezes" but in the last few days I have been experiencing frequent blackouts of less than a second but they occur approximately every 10-15 seconds. This has been happening primarily when watching recorded shows as well as when watching Netflix.

 

Today I contacted Rogers support using their online chat app. The problem was quickly solved by the "specialist" who, after checking the status of my service and getting me to reboot my stb while he checked the status, told me that my modem simply needed an update. Haven't had a problem since.

Re: Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

TLP71
I'm here a lot

Live versus Recording

Thanks for the long explanation but it does not make any difference to me when I am watching a recorded program or live. I get the intermittent freeze screen and sound either way. 

 

Re: Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

-G-
Resident Expert
Resident Expert

@TLP71 wrote:

Live versus Recording

Thanks for the long explanation but it does not make any difference to me when I am watching a recorded program or live. I get the intermittent freeze screen and sound either way. 


If that's the case, and the root cause is not a back-end issue or a problem with the signal feed that Rogers receives,  then you must be experiencing some significant problems with your Internet service.  If that is the case, you may not see any issues with Netflix but you may see glitches or intermittent poor video quality with Prime.

 

If the problems persist when your set-top box is Ethernet-connected, that will also point to a problem with your Internet service.

 

If your Ignite TV service is particularly glitchy, try performing a "ping test" on a computer to test for latency spikes and/or packet loss.

Re: Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

Peete22
I plan to stick around
Having same issues in Stratford,Ont. I am running my cable box off ethernet cable and cable cuts out for a couple seconds on a few channels. Signal is fine, cable to the house was replaced in the spring and internet is perfect. No splitters as we only have one cable box and running ethernet to cable. Box is brand new as we just got ignite the end of May. They want to send a tech to have our signal checked for the 6th time in the last few months. It is a Rogers network problem and they are either unaware of it, are aware and don't know what is causing it and how to fix it or simply don't care. Multiple people are having the issue in various regions. Either live with the issues.or switch providers if you can, I unfortunately don't have options where we live, if I did I would switch in an instant. Watching a movie on 284 Hollywood suite right now and the picture has gone scrambled 3 times while I wrote this lol.

Re: Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

mebe
I'm a trusted contributor

I don't have the patience to deal with IPTV issues, so I applaud you for sticking with the frustration, while you wait for a senior technician to hopefully figure out what's going on.

 

You can try testing your WiFi tv connection to see how that works (even though you say your Internet is perfect). Ping pong games can be played by the techs, or perhaps if your problems are with the same channels that others in your area are having, it might just be an area issue as you suspect (not that it can't be an entirely different area issue). Still, since you are fairly new to Ignite TV, it's not unusual to run into problems as Rogers plays the multiple-service-calls game.

And since you live in Stratford, it's possible that your next technician might be a descendent of MacBeth ... well-known for his perceptive diagnosis of most Ignite problems:

"Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow,

Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,

To the last syllable of recorded time;

And all our yesterdays have lighted fools

The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!

Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more.

It is a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing."

Re: Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

vinnies2014
I plan to stick around
I've been having this issue for a couple of weeks now and I've been given a bunch of different reasons. From an aoutage in my area, a signal interruption to my home. I've restarted my TV boxes and my modem at.least.20 times. No one has been able to explain to me why the problem only happens at night at.the exact same time. I'm going to have to bite the bullet and have a home service visit meaning.more of my time wasted.

Re: Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

Peete22
I plan to stick around
The problem is in their network, still having the same issue on CMT channel 38 and a couple other channels. They are either unaware of the issue, can't find the source or don't know how to fix it. They are going to blame your equipment, replace it and connection to your house, replace your line and in the end it won't fix anything. You either learn to live with it or switch services if you have the option. Where I live my only other option is bell.expressvu using technology from the 1990s lol.

Re: Intermittent screen freezes and audio dropout

DAJ3
I plan to stick around

Not normally one who praises Rogers, but I did have my problem solved by a technician at my house. I had two splitters on the line (to provide connections to two TVs and the modem), The technician replaced the splitters with new straight-through connectors so there was a single line going to the modem, put new connectors on  everywhere and repeatedly monitored the signal lever at the modem until he was satisfied that everything was at optimum levers. We did have to reboot the modem a couple of times following the changed connectors, and then reboot of the two TV set top boxes.

 

Everything has worked properly since that date (now at least two months ago). No loss of internet connection, no glitches with the TVs.

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