Hi @adm7007,
An ongoing issue with the picture feed can certainly be frustrating to deal with. Do you have multiple boxes in the home experiencing the same issue? Was the issue identified from our support team to be the equipment or a signal issue in the area?
We certainly understand the need to want to keep the same services but the new Ignite platform has a lot of great benefits and features, coupled with our latest equipment, it is a viable solution that can be considered to help get to a resolution for some issues.
Regards
RogersJermaine
@adm7007 fwiw, its worth looking at your modem signal levels to see where they are at the present time. They should be close to the signal levels at the Nextbox, depending on the splitter signal drop at each port.
When you have time, log into your modem and navigate to the STATUS .... DOCSIS WAN tab. Place your curser just ahead of the Downstream Overview line. Hold down the shift key and scroll down and to the right, all the way down to the bottom of the upstream overview. Keep going until you're at the bottom right hand corner of the last data group, which will be the Upstream Overview or the OFDMA Overview depending on what modem you have. Stop when your curser is sitting just to the right of the last character in the bottom right hand data cell. Release the shift key and with the data selected or highlighted, use Ctrl c to copy the data, or right click and select Copy. The white Hitron CODA 4582 modem will have the OFDMA Overview as the bottom data group. All other Hitron modems will only have the Upstream Overview data group as the bottom data group.
Then in a new post, use Ctrl V or right click .... Paste to paste in the data. It should look just like the tables in the modem. That data will show just how good, or how bad your current signal levels are at the modem. Keeping in mind that you have a splitter installed to run the modem, Nextbox and Digital Adapter (?), that splitter will cause a 3.5 or 7 dB drop in the signal level enroute to the equipment. Knowing the signal drops which are shown on the splitter would help if you're able to see the face of the splitter to grab the model number and signal drops indicated at the ports.
If you can post the signal levels, I can tell you how good or bad they are. Ideally you should have 24 or 32 downstream channels depending on what modem you have and they should be at 0 dBmV on the downstream receive side, with a signal to noise ratio of 36 to 40 dB. On the upstream side, you should have 3 or 4 upstream channels running at 36 to 40 dBmV for the output level.
Typically, if the receive side is below 6 / 7 dBmV, you start to see problems, even though the modem signal range on the receive side is +/- 15 dBmV. On the transmit side, 52 dBmV is the failure point. At that point the modem should start to shut down upstream channels one by one, in order to maintain communications with the Cable Modem Termination System (CMTS) on a reduced set of upstream channels. If you're at that point you definitely have problems. When the upstream channels start to shut down, the downstream data rates will suffer as well, due to the receive responses required in TCP/IP data transmission. If the upstream responses are not received, or are significantly delayed due to signal problems, then the CMTS will retransmit what it believes are missed data packets. End result, your real data rate slows down.
So, the modem signal levels can tell you a lot, even though you're perceiving the issue as a Nextbox issue. It doesn't take long to grab the signal levels and post them in a new post. If you have the time, please give that a go.
@adm7007 wrote:
1. I have two TV's,a Samsung series 6 smart TV which experiences pixelation with Nextbox 9865.
2. I have a old Toshiba TV on a digital adapter that has never had pixelation.
1. If you've got a signal problem coming to your home, Rogers will need to get that fixed for you, especially since everyone will be migrated to IgniteTV, probably very soon and a good signal for IgniteTV is imperative
2. The DTAs send an analogue (not digital) signal to the TV which doesn't have pixellation, just a very poor Standard Definition 480i picture quality.
3. You can check the signal (strength and S/N ratio) on each box yourself using the instructions in following link:
https://www.digitalhome.ca/threads/57-faq-tips-for-sa-cisco-stbs-also-pace.17719/
This is better than the modem levels since the box will give you accurate levels taking into account any cable or splitter losses in the home.
4. One thing you can try as a test is removing any splitters in the home and moving a 9865 as close as you can to the demarcation point (where the cable comes into your home), to see if the issue gets better. Sometimes a few dB is all you need and a splitter or poor cable may lose you that much.
Ok, your signal levels aren't bad at all. Here's the same chart, cleaned up slightly:
Downstream Overview
Port Freq Mod Signal Channel Signal to
ID (MHZ) Strength ID noise ratio
(dBmV) (dB)
1 597 256QAM 5.800 8 40.946
2 579 256QAM 5.800 5 40.366
3 585 256QAM 5.800 6 40.946
4 591 256QAM 5.500 7 40.366
5 279 256QAM 7.700 1 40.366
6 603 256QAM 5.000 9 40.946
7 609 256QAM 5.300 10 40.366
8 615 256QAM 5.300 11 40.946
9 621 256QAM 5.300 12 40.366
10 633 256QAM 5.400 13 40.946
11 639 256QAM 5.300 14 40.946
12 645 256QAM 4.900 15 40.946
13 651 256QAM 5.100 16 40.366
14 657 256QAM 5.000 17 40.366
15 663 256QAM 5.100 18 40.946
16 669 256QAM 4.700 19 40.366
17 675 256QAM 4.800 20 40.946
18 681 256QAM 4.400 21 40.366
19 687 256QAM 4.300 22 40.366
20 693 256QAM 4.900 23 40.946
21 699 256QAM 4.800 24 40.946
22 705 256QAM 4.500 25 40.366
23 711 256QAM 4.300 26 40.946
24 717 256QAM 3.800 27 40.366
Upstream Overview
Port Freq (MHz) Modulation Signal Channel Bandwidth
ID Strength
(dBmV)
1 32300000 ATDMA -64QAM 40.750 7 6400000
2 38700000 ATDMA -64QAM 41.000 8 6400000
3 21100000 ATDMA -64QAM 40.000 5 3200000
4 25900000 ATDMA -64QAM 40.500 6 6400000
Your downstream levels average 5.11 dBmnV with a SNR average of 40.6 which is pretty good. I’d like to see the signal levels somewhere around 0 dBmV, but, where their currently sitting, I wouldn’t expect any issues with the modem. The upstream levels, averaging 40.5 dBmV, aren’t bad. That’s a just slightly above the normal range for that modem. The upstream levels are interesting given the upstream splitters that are in place
Now, these won’t match the Nextbox or Digital Adapter signal levels. Given that you indicate that the modem cable is on its own, with the other the devices running thru a splitter, I would expect another splitter upstream of modem cable. Typically there is only one RG6 cable running to the home. That typically arrives at the exterior nylon enclosure, know as a Network Interface Device (NID). Normally that nylon enclosure contains a cable ground block, where the inbound cable connects to one side of the ground block and another RG6 cable runs into the house. A ground wire normally connects the ground block “ground point” to the exterior electrical box shell with a simple clamp. Now, its possible that there is a splitter in that NID which provides the single modem cable and another cable that runs to the splitter that in turn connects to the Nextbox and Digital Adapter. It would be extremely unusual to see two cable runs to a home, so, I’d suspect a single cable run, split somewhere upstream of the modem cable.
The question at hand is whether that upstream splitter is two port splitter which imposes a -3.5 dB loss in the signal levels, or, is it a larger splitter that was installed at one point and its still there, imposing a higher signal loss, depending on what port is used to connect the modem and the other splitter? Do you also run a home phone which has its own modem? If so, that requires another cable run from the upstream splitter.
So, you need to do some cable following and find the upstream splitter. If you don’t find it, that would imply that its located in the NID. If you look at that exterior NID, you should only see two RG6 cables running from / to the NID. One is the inbound cable from the local tap, the other will be the outbound cable which runs inside the home. If you see more RG6 cables, that definitely implies that there is another splitter inside the NID, and the question at that point is what splitter modem is it, and what ports are used. Typically for a larger splitter, beyond a two port splitter, you would have a -3.5 dB loss on one port and -7.5 dB losses on the other two or three ports. When you use even larger splitters, you can see -11 to -12 dB losses. So, some investigation is in order.
The question at the moment is whether or not you’re using a home phone modem, which requires a port off of a splitter. That could result in a -7.5 dB drop for the home phone modem and the Nextbox / digital adapter splitter.
One thing that you could do it disconnect and then reconnect all of the cable connectors in the Nextbox / digital adapter path. Sometimes that basic step will be enough to clean off some of the oxidation from the cable ends and bring the signal levels up to a point where the boxes will work as expected. Ideally, the first step would be to replace the cable connectors so that all of the connectors have clean copper exposed at the connection point.
Fwiw, if you can move the modem to the locations for the Nextbox and digital adapter, one at a time, connecting to the cables for those boxes, you could log into the modem over wifi, grab the signal levels and paste them into a post. That would show the signal levels at those locations and it would give me some idea of what’s upstream, in terms of splitters.
Any chance of a powered amplifier sitting somewhere in the cable path?
How long has the external cable been in place? Would you happen to know? I think there’s something else going on, so the question that I’m wondering about is whether this is a old cable issue, which can result in water ingress and signal drops, or if there’s something going on further upstream. The signal drops due to water ingress wouldn't show up in the signal levels, but, you would probably see the result when the Nextbox or Digital Adapter runs out of buffered data to process.
I think you need a Senior Tech (real Rogers tech) who has the experience, equipment, and authority to look further upstream. If this isn't a case of an old external cable, then there's something going on upstream, which takes a Senior Tech or a Maintenance crew to search for. Expecting a contract tech to come in to install a Comcast XBx modem, Xi6-A, Xi6-T, or XiOne set top boxes, and thinking that will resolve a years old signal issue is wishful thinking. Not trying to slag contract techs, but, they're basically paid to install the equipment. Get in, and get out, on to the next job. You need a real tech or maintenance crew to fix this.
Ok, given that the two cables arrive from different directions, I would say that each cable probably comes in from the local tap on its own. There might be a splitter involved, but, a local tap can support up to 8 ports. Multiple Dwelling Units (MDUs) which are essentially a larger splitter, larger than 8 ports are installed to support larger buildings. So, don't know if you have cable runs to a local tap, or an MDU installed somewhere. In any case, that would explain the cables arriving from different directions.
So, 2005 was when the last cable rework was done. That's a very long time for external cables. Its time for another cable rework. At the present time one would have to ask how many residents are with Rogers and if its worth negotiating with Rogers for another cable update for the building. Any cables that are exposed to sun and rain over the years are probably long past due for replacement due to the weathering that they undergo. Don't know who you have to approach at Rogers to entertain the idea. And, there is also the option of abandoning Rogers service for the entire apartment block and simply going with Bell's fibre service.
I still think you need a Senior tech and/or a maintenance crew to look further upstream to find the problems. I would definitely guess that this affects all of the residents in the building who use Rogers services. It would be interesting to know if the neighbours on either side of the building and across the street suffer from the same problem. That would give you further evidence that this is a problem that affects other customers on your street, including those customers who might be using the Ignite modem and set top boxes that are supposed to miraculously solve the problem.
As far as communicating with someone who is interested in providing service to the customers, not just upselling to the Ignite system, you could send a message to the moderators at @CommunityHelps which is their collective address. No guarantees about the upselling however...... Follow that link to their public page when you're logged into the forum. On the right hand side is a link to send a private message. Follow that link to the message composition page. The address fills in automatically. Fill in the subject line and details, including your account number and simply ask the moderators to arrange for a visit from a Senior Tech. If you've already had three tech visits for this, then you can ask for a Senior Tech. When you're logged into the forum, look for a number overlaying the envelope symbol which indicates in message is waiting for you. Follow that envelope symbol down to the message inbox. The symbol also serves as a link. Good luck with that approach.
If the answer is yet another upsell response, send in a complaint to the CRTC. Maybe the CRTC needs to be involved at this point to clarify to Rogers what their responsibilities are for all of their customers, which includes those customers still on Digital Service and those who have been forced over to the Ignite system due to the upselling. Years long signal issues will not disappear because a contractor tech shows up one day to install a new modem. If you submit a complaint to the CRTC, you should point out how long this situation has existed and Rogers response to date. Here's a link to the complaint submission page:
https://crtc.gc.ca/eng/internet/plaint.htm
I still think you need a Senior Tech and / or Maintenance crew to look further upstream and determine the condition of the cabling that services the building. You might have to solve more than one issue here if Rogers is going to provide service to the building in the future. Or, you and the other building residents simply walk away from Rogers. You might have to seriously consider that one.
@adm7007 wrote:
1. Wouldn't a bad outdoor cable cause problems with all channels?
2. Strange thing happened last night.Channel 22 which is one of the pixelated ones went off air,just a black screen.
3. ...the digital adapter that has never had pixelation problems.
1. You could have a marginal signal which can affect some channels and not others. Sometimes a cable can be damaged and temperature fluctuations or wind can cause issues. These temporary issues are very difficult to track down. It could be the main feeder line to several houses in your area, not the line to your home - you stated that your neighbours also have/had issues.
2. Did you check the signal at the box as I outlined in post 5 of this thread?
3. I explained in post 5 why the DTA doesn't have pixellation problems.
In the link I previously provided there is a procedure for testing the signal at the DTA50 in the last post:
"Hold the INFO button on the DTA50 Remote for at least 10 seconds and you'll get the diagnostic screens. The Tuner Status screen has the signal level and signal to noise ratio. The signal level in dBmV should be between -10 and +10, with zero being about optimum. Larger numbers are a problem. The S/N ratio is good if it’s at about 35 dB or above. If your S/N is around 32 (or less), that could be a source of problems."
Testing the digital boxes is outlined in the first post.
@adm7007 with a cable or connector problem you can end up with absolutely goofy signal levels, with peaks and valleys in the signal level, where you should see 0 dBmV across the board on the downstream side. The end result is that any channel that corresponds to a peak in the signal level will do ok, while a channel that sits in a signal level valley might not run at all. Just depends on where those peaks and valleys sit in the 200 Mhz to 1 Ghz downstream cable spectrum.
Now, if you have water ingress into a cable, then it will result in a short to ground situation which should affect all of the channels. In that case, the center copper conductor is shorted to the external cable shield which should be grounded.
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