Golf Channel Quality

[RRF1]

Picture quality of the Golf Channel lately is absolutely terrible. The whole picture is broken up into little squares. Even when it was better it was still way below the quality of the major networks. How is this even permitted?

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[websurferdude]

Pixelation has been an issue for  me on random channels at random times over the last month or so.  That and occasionally having just black screens on channels i turn to.

Just prior to this becoming more of an issue, i received an e-mail from Rogers saying that they were doing work in the area to upgrade the network to give us a better 'experience'  It seems all it did was create problems.  Spoke often to customer service who said my signal was good.  Even had a 'tech' out who didn't even come in - told me he did something at the box on the street & that "should fix the issue."  It didn't - had another one show up who didn't come up to the apartment either who monitored my signal frrom his truck & said it showed OK on his end.

The issue, like i said, is random so hard to pinpoint but when it happens, it's frustrating & angering!  A ticket was open for the 'engineers' to monitor.  Well, just about an hr. after the ticket was placed, i received a call saying "we've fixed the issue"

They didn't...

[Lurker_Returns]

This would indicate the problem is inside the house....

Rogers is only responsible for maintaining the cables up to the demarcation point. Beyond the wall of the home, it's the homeowners responsibility.

It sounds dumb, but try some simple troubleshooting like retightening the cable at the box and the wall.

[Datalink]

@RRF1 @websurferdude are you using Nextboxes or the newer Ignite TV service which runs off of the XB6 or XB7 modem?

[RRF1]

I am on digital cable with SA8300HD STB's.  I have not succumbed to the constant pressure to switch to Ignite, for half the channels and only 1 STB for more $$.

My home equipment is of the highest headend quality... triple shielded silver coated conductor cables, and Maxnet splitters... not the typical end user quality. The diagnostic screens show no errors,  my S/N is 37dB, and since the Rogers pedestal is on my property, only 40 ft. from the demarcation point, I have also run a temporary drop to eliminate the possibility of a damaged drop. 

Also, I am retired from 30 years with Rogers engineering, designing, building and troubleshooting headend services, equipment and transport systems.

In fact, I evaluated and tested the digital cable's SDV system many years ago, so I have a pretty good background on how the whole encoder/ decoder/ transport system works.  It could deliver a much higher quality picture on the Golf Channel than it is currently.

My last employment was working for the Pan AM Games, designing, building and servicing the video distribution and broadcast systems for each venue. I had not picked up the tools in almost 20 years, but heck, it was the Pan Am Games !

[RRF1]

Here is a screen capture of the Golf Channel this evening.

(3rd party link removed for security reasons. Please upload the image using the Insert photos option from the toolbar. - RogersMoin)

[websurferdude]

Two 4K Nextboxes

[RRF1]

Significant improvement this morning to the GLFHD channel.

Still an issue with full screen fast movement of heavily saturated colours, but 90% better.

[RRF1]

After a few more hours of viewing...and comparing GLFHD to NBCHD's coverage of the US Open, it is obvious that GLFHD has a much lower quality picture, as it cannot follow the ball without the picture breaking up and, details, like the green's surface, just aren't there. On NBCHD you can make out the blades of grass on the green...on GLFHD it takes an extreme close-up to make out those details.

[toolcubed]

“I have not succumbed to the constant pressure to switch to Ignite, for half the channels and only 1 STB for more $$.“

Surprised that it will cost you more to switch. For me, it was the complete opposite. As my discounts on digital were coming to an end, the only way to get good pricing going forward was to switch to Ignite. It would’ve been almost $100 more per month for me to stay on digital. It was similar for my friends and my next door neighbour who’s digital promotions were coming to an end…they had to switch to Ignite to get much better bundle pricing.

I don’t subscribe to Golf channel (swapped it out for another Flex channel) so I can’t check its picture quality on Ignite. Perhaps another Ignite TV customer can. Having said that, I’ve found picture quality on Ignite TV to be noticeably better than digital overall. There is SOME content that has more judder compared to the same content on digital, but sharpness, colours, etc. are much better on Ignite. There’s also less compression from what I can tell. I’m saying this based on my comparison of Ignite TV with a Nextbox 3.0.

[OLDYELLR]

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@toolcubed wrote:
“I have not succumbed to the constant pressure to switch to Ignite, for half the channels and only 1 STB for more $$.“

Surprised that it will cost you more to switch. For me, it was the complete opposite. As my discounts on digital were coming to an end, the only way to get good pricing going forward was to switch to Ignite.

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Perhaps the poster was on grandfathered  VIP, some 600-odd channels (but multiple duplicates).  That's what I had. But checking Ignite when it was fist offered, I found it would have cost me twice as much and I would have had to switch to Rogers as my ISP, which was a deal breaker. I ended up switching to the IPTV from my ISP, which is similar to Ignite, and was able to get channels I really wanted, like Fox News, that I didn't have with digital VIP, all for about the same price.

[toolcubed]

Nice. I’m paying about $15 less per month with Ignite compared to my discounted legacy digital bundle (i.e. with my old credits that were set to expire next month) and I have the Premier TV package. I had Popular with digital. So I’m getting more for less.

[RRF1]

Sorry about the delayed response...I don't get in here often.

Right now I pay $101 for the VIP package, which gives me up to 5 outlets, 350(?) channels, and I own 2 SA8300HD PVR's. My internet is just $50/m for 75Mbps/10Mbps with a TPIA service and I own my modem...so all in at $150/m

I have never received any discount from Rogers, even though I have been a subscriber since 1980 !

They are offering me Ignite at $184/m with a $25/m discount for 1 year...with no guarantee the cost will not increase during that year. For that I get only 1 PVR, so I would have to rent another. Modem speed would be 150Mbps/15Mbps, but that is shared with the TV's. It does include the modem rental, but that is subject to increase at any time during the year also.

I would also be required to put the modem in bridge mode, as my home 1Gbps network is quite robust, with VLANs, multiple switches, firewalls, and VPN client /server...for monitoring security cameras when away from home. From what I understand, Rogers will not service you if you run the modem in bridge mode.

All in all, it is not worth switching to Ignite.

[toolcubed]

You can do far better than $150/m with the Premier pkg especially with your tenure. Keep trying. Also, even though the tv service uses your internet bandwidth, we’re talking about a very small amount (approx 10Mbps) and it’s bursty…it’s not a continuous stream. You wouldn’t notice any impact to your internet speeds while watching tv. With respect to using your own network equipment and gateway bridged, you’re correct in that it would be an unsupported configuration, but it will work just fine. Many of us here are running the Ignite gateway bridged with our own 3rd party routers and everything has been fine…some have been running in this configuration for several years without a single hiccup.

[mroadster1]

Did you ever get any resolution to your Golf Channel issue? I'm in Ottawa, and have reported this several times and had techs out a couple of times. They can never find any issue, but pass it upwards. Seems to then improve for a while and then get bad again. It's been good for weeks, but is suddenly bad again. I'm tired of fighting Rogers over this issue as they just don't seem to care. This is on all of our boxes, digital with 8300s.

[RRF1]

Is your issue just on GLFHD, or several channels?
Yesterday afternoon I noticed GLFHD was bad...tiny square pixels over the whole screen. Still looks like that...very poor quality.
This is processor/compression issue...not a distribution issue. I just checked for errors on the channel, and there are none. So this is definitely a headend issue.

[mroadster1]

Yes, we've only ever seen it on the Golf Channel, on and off for close to two years. It was terrible in the early evening yesterday, but this morning is fine (except for fast motion). As I mentioned, we've had techs out a couple of times, and there's never been anything found. No poor signal quality on any of our boxes, no errors on any channels. If only Rogers would monitor these forums a bit more and realize this isn't an issue isolated to just one household, it would be great.

[RRF1]

I concur with your assessment. Any camera or other movement and the picture breaks up, pixelates, and at it's best, exhibits a DSE .
I do not know if Ignite (IPTV) subscribers experience the same issues with their service.

[RogersCorey]

Greetings @mroadster1!

Please let me assure you that we are monitoring these forums all day, everyday!

The "problem" is that we can only launch escalations from an individuals account, so we do need our customers to PM us directly in order to launch an investigation. Escalating cases is the fastest way for us to identify a pattern of complaints.

For anyone that's encountering this issue with the Golf Channel, feel free to send a private message to @CommunityHelps so we can investigate this properly and ensure it's being looked into. For more information on how our Private Messaging system works, you can find out more here.  

Regards,

RogersCorey

[mroadster1]

Thanks for the response, good to know you are watching. I will send a private message, is there any way of referencing this discussion on the PM? As noted in my response above, I have had techs out a couple of times, and no issues were found at our end. Each time it was escalated by them, and the problem went away for a few months. I've also reported it at least one other time without having a tech out, but having techs come out seems futile at this point. How do we get this issue escalated as a general issue that appears to be at your end and needs monitoring/fixing, rather than continuing with our current way of escalating? Thanks.

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@mroadster1 wrote:

...is there any way of referencing this discussion on the PM? 

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Copy/paste the URL from the browser for this thread.