@DMF1 Sounds like you may me reporting the same problem as this one, where audio goes silent and the screen goes blank for about five seconds before coming back on again.
I have personally seen this happen at my house and at my parents' house. .As far as I can tell, it's an issue with the set-top box, not a network issue or due to any problems with the Ignite TV streaming infrastructure in the back-end, and I have only seen it happen with the Xi6-T.
Good Day @DMF1! 😊
Thanks for bringing this to our much needed attention. As an avid sports fan myself, I can imagine how frustrating this experience is.
As @-G- mentioned, it could very well be a set-top box issue, or potentially a software issue. We'd have to complete a process of elimination via some troubleshooting to determine the cause and to find a resolution.
With that said, please feel free to send a private message to @CommunityHelps so we can assist you further. For more information on how our Private Messaging system works, you can find out more here.
Regards,
RogersJo
To all of you who are currently experiencing this issue: what model of set-top box do you have?
I have seen this happen with the Xi6-T, with varying degrees of frequency. I have not seen this happen yet with the XiOne. I don't know whether this affects the Xi6-A.
2..And, what model of TV do you have, just to see if this makes any difference.
3. And, is the Xi6-A, Xi6-T, or XiOne connected directly to the TV, or is it connected thru a receiver, then to the TV.
@Pelicanlady wrote:
Hmmm....all ours are Xi6-T What is the XiOne and why hasn't that been offered to customers as an alternative?
I don't think Rogers has a good understanding of the problem and if some do, they haven't passed that into on to their field and support techs.
I didn't know anything about the newer PODS that were available (albeit at a cost, whereas the Gen1 ones we had were n/c) until the Rogers tech pointed it out. I'm already paying for STB's every month, if I have to pay a little more to avoid this annoyance, I'd like that option. Thanks -G- for raising this point.
When I saw this problem happening (MANY times per evening) at my parents' house, my initial thought was that it was network-related, or perhaps that something was "resetting" on the set-top box.
Over the years, usually, with Ignite TV, if the screen went blank for any prolonged period off time, it was due to seriously bad network problems. If there was very low network throughput, very high latency, very high packet loss, etc., there won't be enough throughput to sustain even a 10 Mb/s network stream, the set-top box will run out of data to process, and when that happens, the only thing it can do is drop audio or display a black screen, depending on the severity of the network conditions. You may also see the set-top box temporarily lowering the video quality, when it needs to lower the bit rate in order to maintain the video stream.
However, when my parents' TV screen went black, I did not see any signs of any network problems. There were no uncorrectable codewords errors getting logged on the modem, ping RTTs to 8.8.8.8 were in the 15-25 ms range, no signs of packet loss that I could see, no problems with Wi-Fi -- from a network perspective, everything was healthy. It was also strange that the blank screen always lasted precisely 5 seconds. There were never any 2 second dropouts, or any less-minor problems, such as audio dropping out. The set-top box's stream buffer was intact and I could rewind the video to see what we had missed while the screen went black; the video stream never dropped. Another time, I had the Guide open; video went blank for 5 seconds, and when the picture came back, I was still in the Guide and nothing running on the set-top box showed any signs of resetting. Also, when the video comes back after going black, the TV also displayed the current input and resolution, as if I had just plugged the set-top box into the HDMI port. This all points to the HDMI connection dropping. I also tried several different HDMI cables but could not make the problem go away.
It may be a hardware problem with the set-top box. That might explain why I saw the problem all the time at my parent's house but very rarely on the Xi6-T set-top boxes at my house. However, MANY Rogers customers are reporting this same problem. ALL (that I have seen) report that their video is also dropping out for precisely 5 seconds. There may also be other contributing factors that cause this glitch to occur very frequently for some and very infrequently for others. That leads me to believe that something is getting "stuck" in the set-top box and its internal software is detecting this and resetting the condition after precisely 5 seconds. If the set-top box's software doesn't log any such recovery events, you would need a development environment and some expensive test equipment to capture the set-top box getting into a bad (but recoverable) state.
Upgrading the Pods in your home is not necessarily a bad thing. The Gen 2. Pods (if you require them) provide MUCH better Wi-Fi performance. However, it won't do anything to fix this problem, at least not as I understand it. As far as I can tell, it is NOT caused by a network problem, or by any problem in Rogers' back-end systems or the Ignite TV streaming infrastructure.
Switching to an XiOne may make the problem go away, or maybe there is a software problem that replicates on all set-top boxes. I don't know for sure, and that's why I'm asking which model of set-top box that people are using when they see this glitch occur.
@Kersinternet wrote:
When I think about it this recurring issue may have started after I installed the free pod. Who knows? I just unplugged my pod and the problem identified on this string occurred immediately thereafter. I will get back after a day or so to see if this is actually the problem.
Any time that I have seen this happen, it was definitely NOT network-related or due to any problem with Rogers' back-end systems. If that were the case, I would have seen this problem occurring with my XiOne set-top box as well (so far, I have only seen this happening with the Xi6-T boxes), or it would have also affected multiple set-top boxes in my home simultaneously.
Hello @tupelo,
We appreciate you sharing the details of your issue with us. I know first-hand how experiencing technical problems with your TV service can be frustrating.
If I understand correctly, you've started experiencing issues about a month ago, with your Ignite TV equipment. Is that right?
Can you tell us about your setup and the troubleshooting steps you've tried so far?
We'll need a bit more information from you to better understand the situation. Is everything fully functional with your internet service?
Looking forward to your reply!
RogersMaude
@tupelo if deemed valid, we can complete the modem order for you. Please click here to send us a PM @CommunityHelps to get started.
RogersZia
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