Iq 2 Recording Problems

[jonnydrama]

Hi All

Thought i would start this thread for people who have the freezing / black screen recording issue from HD recordings.

Im one person who has this problem that techs cant fix. 3 different boxes no solution. been told that foxtel are aware of the issue. cable adelaide here.

bigfish, you mentioned the same issue. please add it to this forum. This is read by foxtel.

firmware update needed!

thanks

JD

[marco1968]

Had a tech guy out here today to address this issue.

Apart from replacing something on the cabling/box outside my house (didn't catch the name of "the something"), and actually reducing the strength of my signal as it was apparently a bit too high(!!), I have been told by the tech guy that the HD recording issue is a genuine issue which Foxtel are looking into. The guy seemed very confident and seemed to know what he was talking about. He even mentioned the DTV forums by name without prompting from me, and that many people are experiencing this issue, so I do believe Foxtel are treating this matter seriously.

I've been told to keep an eye on it in the next few days and record as many things as possible to test it (as I was experiencing failures on not just HD programs but also FTA and Foxtel SD recordings) - but not to expect perfection with HD recordings until Foxtel fix the problem (something to do with the boxes not being able to handle all the encoding). I think for a while now I might just record the FTA SD channels to avoid the possibility of a failed recording whilst Foxtel sort this problem out. I shouldn't have to, I know, because I'm paying for a supposed service, but anything to reduce the possibility of a failed recording and constant frustration.

Looking at all the signal strengths on my IQ box now, all 4 tuners are -18 with not a single bar showing for signal strength, which is a little scary to say the least. But I'm sure the tech knows what he's doing.

I'm too trusting, aren't I?

[loony]

Had a tech guy out here today to address this issue.

Apart from replacing something on the cabling/box outside my house (didn't catch the name of "the something"),

The Isolator i would guess.

For me, since having the High pass filter installed the black recordings have completely stopped.

However they were never a large issue for me. I record alot of HD content and before the filter was installed i had ~4 black recordings however the blackness would only last 5-10 minutes after which the recording would be prefect again.

[bigfish1503560993]

bigfish, you mentioned the same issue. please add it to this forum. This is read by foxtel.

firmware update needed!

Have had another visit from the Foxtel tech and he did a full signal and cable test and found that everything is OK with the signal. He offered to change the IQ2 again, however he said that he was fairly confident that doing so wouldn't fix the problem.

He spoke with his supervisor (deliberately on speaker phone so I could hear) and the supervisor said that there was a Foxtel known software issue with the IQ2 causing 'black screen' recording failures and nothing could be done until Foxtel release another firmware update. He lamented the fact the you can't roll back to a previous version (as do I!).

I guess I'll take it up with Foxtel and try and get a refund for the unusable service.....

Roll on the next firmware update!

[marco1968]

The Isolator i would guess.

For me, since having the High pass filter installed the black recordings have completely stopped.

However they were never a large issue for me. I record alot of HD content and before the filter was installed i had ~4 black recordings however the blackness would only last 5-10 minutes after which the recording would be prefect again.

I've had the high pass filter on my box all along (since install) but still the problems occurred.

Interesting to see if anything he did today will fix or reduce the problems.

What I did pick up this week: I recorded Ugly Betty and then Eli Stone after it. Tthe end of Ugly Betty started to pixellate then freeze at the exact same point the recording for Eli Stone started (which still had the Ugly Betty footage at the start of the file), so I was able to watch the end of Ugly Betty on the Eli Stone recording. So there may be some validity to the IQ2 not being able to handle so much encoding at the same time...still, why allow all the tuners to be active if they can't handle the pressure?

I'm hoping on a sooner rather than later fix, cos surely Foxtel must be getting a heap of complaints.

[jonnydrama]

I've had the high pass filter on my box all along (since install) but still the problems occurred.

same- i tried with and without didnt make a difference still had problems occur

[jonnydrama]

same- i tried with and without didnt make a difference still had problems occur

anyone heard when next firmware upgrade is yet?

i have reduced my packages by 50%- i still get the problems mentioned above. if there is no fix in a few months i will get rid of it completely.

positive is we will save money by not having a non essential service!

Edited December 12, 2008 by jonnydrama

[loony]

anyone heard when next firmware upgrade is yet?

When it comes out we can tell you.

Foxtel dont publish firmware release dates.

[gonzo32]

Untill couple of weeks ago I never had this problem but then one day when I turn the Tv on in the morning the whole screen was green so I did a reset that actually fixed the green screen & since then I been having this problem with the pixelation some times like every 30 seconds but its only in recording never on life TV. What I found more wierd is that recordings that were in the box beafore this problem which they were perfect recordings now when I watch them againg now they are pixelated as well. Has this happen to anyone with recordings that were perfect & now are pixelated?

[Coramx]

Just an update from me. Unfortunately, it's still happening to me. Recorded the Carols on both of my IQ2s, both had the playback issue.

[Guest Ravage05]

I seem to be getting "Recording Signals Blocked" when I try to record to my stupid LG DVD Recorder.

Sometimes it will start recording, but then five or so minutes into the recording I get the same "Recording Signals Blocked" messgae..

Whats with that?

IQ2

HDMI Cable to Samsung HDTV

AV Cable to LG DVDR

HDMI Cable LG DVDR to Samsung HDTV

[Jupe24]

I have been recording the NBA games on ESPN HD for about 6 months. The last 2-3 weeks my recordings have had intermittant video freezing, with loss of audio for up to 30-40 seconds at a time. I assumed the problem to be the live feed for the games having a dropout and that dropout being recorded, but this thread makes me think otherwise. Has anyone seen any games live recently and noticed any issues? Saturdays Suns/Mavs game is an example. Thanks.

[xordis]

I am getting the same thing.

I have only noticed it on HD channels so far

Here is what I am experiencing

- live TV

Sound dropped and looks like a reset on my amp.

Amp is brand new so I can only assume it is fine (all other sources work flawlessly)

- recorded programs

Every 20-300 seconds maybe the sound will drop, then five second after the sound drops out the picture will pause.

Maybe 5-10 seconds later the picture will continue from the point that is paused and start again perfect.

This is not a problem with the recording as I can rewind before the fault, and it will play again without issue.

[RaúlGB10]

I have been recording the NBA games on ESPN HD for about 6 months. The last 2-3 weeks my recordings have had intermittant video freezing, with loss of audio for up to 30-40 seconds at a time. I assumed the problem to be the live feed for the games having a dropout and that dropout being recorded, but this thread makes me think otherwise. Has anyone seen any games live recently and noticed any issues? Saturdays Suns/Mavs game is an example. Thanks.

Hi there, here's a copy & paste from a similar thread, http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtop...7244&st=520 (page 27-28)

QUOTE (RaúlGB10 @ Jan 14 2009, 12:52 PM) *

Sambo90 it looks like I've got identical issues with you as far as FTA HD recording on TenHD is concerned. I don't seem to have any issues with 7HD, but then again I only ever record 30-minute shows from 7HD. I've noticed that the main issue is when I record a show from 10HD that is actually in HD format, recording SD-content shows from 10HD doesn't seem to be a problem, but if I record NCIS or Letterman I'll be lucky to be able to watch the first 10 minutes before the dreaded black screen of death kicks in. I'm doing further tests with 7HD and 9HD tonight - can't speak much for ABCHD or SBSHD as they have very minimal HD-content programming. Fox Sports HD seems to be recording fine, however!

I do, however, have a new problem with ESPN HD that I've noticed just in the past week - and this is with normal programming, not when recording. The sound seems to cut out randomly - sometimes up to every minute - the sound signal cuts out for a few seconds and then sounds like it's trying to catch-up to the visual signal, resulting in the programming sounding fast-forwarded! When I record shows on ESPN HD and watching the playback, once the sound cuts out I press the PAUSE button twice quickly and it seems to fix it, but as you would imagine that gets annoying! This may also have to do with the fact that my IQ2's HDD's capacity is now below 30%?

New issue #2: Watching shows from standard On-Demand channels is next to useless, the signal pixelates and just cuts out for chunks at a time! I've only ever tried to use it from last night, so might this be down to low HDD capacity as well?

I've done a soft re-boot and it hasn't fixed anything, but I will also try a full re-boot by unplugging it from the electrical socket. If that doesn't fix it then it's a call to Foxtel, and judging from what I've read on this board, there's a good chance they won't be able to fix it either! *Fingers crossed*!

Hi again

I think my IQ2 and entire Foxtel HD+ set-up was working perfectly when first installed. And as per above it seems to be playing up of late - well I tried the full re-boot of unplugging it from the electrical socket and nothing happened. I tried one more trick before calling Foxtel Support and actually decided to watch and delete the older shows I had recorded - did that and was able to free up an extra 10% of HDD capacity and now all the symptoms above are generally gone or are now extremely less frequent - I suppose this service can never be made perfect as such. But the main thing here is not that I was able to delete an extra 10% of data, it was that I was able to delete OLD DATA. I'm not technically-savvy enough as far as set-top boxes go, but surely this wasn't a coincedence! I also tried to play the fourth-oldest recorded show I had stored; now when I first viewed that particular recorded show it was perfectly recorded, now all of a sudden it was just all black. So I deleted a show that was recorded earlier than the problematic one in question - and voila! - problem solved. My first guess is that this is somehow HDD/storage-related, but surely the HDD doesn't fragment (or get overly-fragmented) that quickly?! Then again, why would a storage issue be responsible for the sound cutting out whilst I'm watching live TV on one specific channel (the ESPN-HD issue in my previous posting above)? Is the IQ2 box so erratic that and enigmatic that perhaps no one can ever explain these issues, especially as they happen to different users at different times under different situations?

From what I've read of others' issues for this topic everyone seems to have similar issues but with differing severities, date ranges (e.g. some completely occur whilst unit is brand new, some - like me - only encounter the issues later on) and symptoms and have been advised to do all sorts of different things to solve them by Foxtel support, hope this at least helps rather than hinders!

[RaúlGB10]

Hi again

I think my IQ2 and entire Foxtel HD+ set-up was working perfectly when first installed. And as per above it seems to be playing up of late - well I tried the full re-boot of unplugging it from the electrical socket and nothing happened. I tried one more trick before calling Foxtel Support and actually decided to watch and delete the older shows I had recorded - did that and was able to free up an extra 10% of HDD capacity and now all the symptoms above are generally gone or are now extremely less frequent - I suppose this service can never be made perfect as such. But the main thing here is not that I was able to delete an extra 10% of data, it was that I was able to delete OLD DATA. I'm not technically-savvy enough as far as set-top boxes go, but surely this wasn't a coincedence! I also tried to play the fourth-oldest recorded show I had stored; now when I first viewed that particular recorded show it was perfectly recorded, now all of a sudden it was just all black. So I deleted a show that was recorded earlier than the problematic one in question - and voila! - problem solved. My first guess is that this is somehow HDD/storage-related, but surely the HDD doesn't fragment (or get overly-fragmented) that quickly?! Then again, why would a storage issue be responsible for the sound cutting out whilst I'm watching live TV on one specific channel (the ESPN-HD issue in my previous posting above)?

Just to answer a couple of my own questions... As far as the ESPN-HD issue is concerned, this seems to be an unrelated issue that ocurred at the same time as my primary "black screen of death" issue, refer to http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtop...&hl=espn+hd

Now as for the recorded shows black-screening... I currently watched and deleted plenty of recorded shows (AGAIN) on the IQ2, I was able to increase the HDD capacity from 30% to 50% - HOWEVER - the first page of recorded shows are now black-screening, some shows start off fine but the black screen kicks in at some point during the recording, but most are completely blacked-out! All black-screen shows are Foxtel SD, no FTA and no HD shows. Most, if not all, of said shows were viewable immediately after the original recording (I check the beginning and end to see if the recording was completed properly as I don't have much faith in Foxtel).

All other recorded shows from the last show on the first page-onwards seem to playback just fine. I don't want to delete the blacked-out shows as my thinking is that I'll happily sacrifice these shows in order to be able to watch the rest of the line-up without problems!

Seriously, it's like this IQ2 box is trying to play mind games with me!