Ignite PVR recordings keep freezing and losing audio.

[Jhb0616]

I have tried rebooting system, and it now won’t play recordings and gives a XRE03091 error.

***Edited Labels***

[MiataMan2002]

As paying subscribers (who get rate increases despite signing 'fixed' contracts) we should not need to do this. We've had low signal strenght since moving here several years ago, but this never affected PVR performance before. After about a week without issues, I received an error message last evening while watching Monday Night Football. I'll probably need to call Rogers again if this reoccurs. I will try out Bell when my current 'deal' ends. Several friends have done this and the switchover was seamless... not that I expect a much improved service experience.

[dougjp]

I have noticed the same problem for several weeks. Last night while watching a program I recorded last Friday night, there were occasional audio dropouts and, for the first time, two Very Loud and brief annoying "electrical zaps". Nothing in my system or speaker setup to suggest any wiring problem and these have never happened on normal Ignite TV watching or other sources (Roku player, BluRay player).

Obviously no progress has been made in fixing these problems.

[MiataMan2002]

I watched a bunch of PVRed NFL games yesterday without issues. You may need to call or text Rogers support but be prepared to wait. At least you've added your concerns to continue this community conversation.

[57]

Update: Although it is much less frequent for me, I still occasionally get:

1. Audio Dropouts - Not as bad as at the start of this thread, but more than I've been seeing in the past 2 years.

2. Brief "freeze frames"- Not as bad as 3 weeks ago, but more than the past 2 years.

3. Lack of ability to FF - it may happen at one point of the recording and the rest of the recording is fine.  Interestingly when this happens, I can use voice commands to skip ahead 2 minutes (for example). I believe the 30 second skip also works.

This may affect 1 out of say 20-50 recordings, instead of almost every recording like it did weeks ago.

So, better, but not totally fixed.

[MiataMan2002]

Happened to me again watching Sunday Night Football. Third time in 3 weeks on Sunday evenings. No issues watching football last evening. Very frustrating. I rarely watch live TV because of invasive commercials. One more time and I'll have to call Rogers yet again.

[dougjp]

Yesterday (Monday) was by far the worst for me while watching recordings I did of two Sunday evening programs.

First there was the NFL game, with frequent freezes, audio dropouts changes in video quality (ie; alternating to and from SD or 720p type quality), and even occasional inability to use fast forward or pause. I had to exit and restart  a few times to get anything watchable. Once I noticed using rewind then play restored normal play for a short time.

Later in the evening, I watched a show which ran fine for awhile and then the same problems began. However, a short time after one of the video freezes happened, the screen went black and stayed that way. Hitting exit got me back to my recorded programs list. The program I was watching was not there! Nowhere, not even in the Recently Deleted list!

[MiataMan2002]

I'm afraid that if only a minority of users have this issue, the problem will continue. All those affected need to keep calling Rogers support. Strength is in numbers!

[dougjp]

Agree.

Follow up, I got a tech who said none of my scheduled recordings show "as being registered" even though to me they show in my list ?! And I'm supposed to understand that, how? He had a "solution" where I go and cancel recordings and then use the voice command to find the same show and then record on what comes up ? How this is a solution to something that only started happening within the past month, I don't know, and he couldn't relate his solution to my problem. I tried this record method and my list shows the recording is cancelled despite having set the recording afterwards, adding to my confusion..... So I had to go to the guide again and set an individual recording. 

After some time looking into my setup at his end, he arranged for a tech to come out on Thursday. Nothing said about what he found. I naturally suspect either or both (a) the TV Box is failing, or (b) they have a major problem at their end with recordings which they won't disclose, perhaps overall volume related as the recordings at issue were done on the weekend? 

[CynCyn]

This has been happening with regularity for some time with me now.  It seems to be more pronounced since they arbitrarily increased their rental rates on my outdated equipment that was purchased several years ago from Comcast in the USA (guess I know why they got rid of it).  My experience is that the audio cuts out mostly at the beginning of any recording.  The FF freeze is intermittent and frustrating as well.  I am paying a LOT of money monthly and expect premium service.  Since Rogers/Shaw has a monopoly in my area I don't have much choice, but it sure is frustrating.

[MiataMan2002]

I still have several more NFL games and movies to watch this week and I'll watch all of them on both our TVs/cable boxes to troubleshoot the problem. We've had both boxes and our router replaced over the last 6 months so I doubt it's the hardware. This time I'll write down the days, times and error messages I get to build my case with Rogers. Since our issue is always on Sunday evening watching NFL football, I'll wait until next Monday morning before posting any updates. Rogers support techs are great but it's always a hassle to get through by phone. I'm a very slow typist so I rarely use the chat feature to reach them.

[kepler]

As some others have noted, the problems seem to be only with certain recordings.  For example, I recorded something off ABC Sunday night and whenever I play it back it consistently has the same problems described above, however, playback of other recordings moments after is fine.  This leads me to believe that Rogers has had a problem with the signal it received for certain channels *or* their recording of it (which of course happens on the Rogers cloud).  Therefore, at least in my case, it doesn't have anything to do with my Rogers equipment or with my signal, it's a Rogers core issue or a problem with the signal they received.

[Lorne4]

I encountered the same problem starting about 9:30 PM Sunday evening. I tried several of my recordings and all those I tried had the same issues. I then tried casting from the computer web interface. Initially  it suffered from the same issues but eventually about an hour later I could successfully watch one of  my recordings that way. I did not try the box again Sunday and everything was working okay Monday evening when I could watch all my recordings (including the ones that wouldn't work Sunday). I would think that, for me anyway, if there was a problem with Rogers receiving the signal (or something else at Rogers' end that affected the recording) when the recording was made (several weeks ago), the same recording would not have worked perfectly the following evening.

[ReneHache]

I have again get the same issues over the weekend in the evening, recording play for 2-3 seconds and keep buffering and when buffering it rewind 1-2 seconds. Or audio keep repeat or skipping, Or part of the video skip ahead, like part of the video is currupted.

[57]

Based on my experience, all of my recordings will play properly after a while. That may be an hour later or the next day.  This would indicate that the original source is fine and that the cloud recording is also fine.  It is highly doubtful that Rogers would "redo" all the recordings I watch with a new cloud recording.

My conjecture is therefor there is something not working at the head end or somewhere in the transmission to me (us), not in the cloud recordings and not in our hardware. Unfortunately, the issue is spotty for me. I can go days without issues and lately, if there is an issue it doesn't last long (for me)

What I find interesting is that this started at exactly the time IgniteTV became Xfinity and that may have messed up something in the flow.

[tbcuthbert]

Agreed, I tried watching the same recording through my iPad, and had the same delays. The next day they were fine.
So, either technical issues or possibly whether related issues.

[dougjp]

Excellent, it all makes sense to me. I had deleted the problem recordings (one got deleted/vanished without me doing anything too), so I wasn't able to re-test another day. However last night (Tuesday) I did watch two other recordings previously made (not on a weekend) and they worked fine. Its odd, possibly annoying, that two techs looking at their end didn't see or disclose a major problem but the second one is sending a tech here Thursday.

One other possible (but I don't know) variable is TV Box WiFi intermittent failing, or basic inadequacy in terms of range, or the modem. I always wondered why the living room box indicates 1 or 2 bars (fluctuating) out of 3 when its only 30 feet away and on the same level in the house as the modem. A speed test using an old tablet right next to the modem, and then right beside the TV box, shows 140 download and 130 download respectively, ie; nearly no distance degradation. Meanwhile Ethernet connected computers get 950 or better download speed readings. Huge difference, but perhaps that's partly due to limitations of the tablet.     

[dougjp]

Also had no problems watching recordings on Wednesday night.

Follow up to the tech visit yesterday. He quickly found a connection problem described as "low level", and then a wrong installation where the cable enters the house, going through a splitter. Also replaced the older modem and I noticed marginally faster wifi speeds at the living room TV box location.

This takes away the problems that were local to me, and we will see about the weekend recordings.