Troubleshooting a recent picture quality problem

dryslick

We’ve had FIOS since August and have had a great picture until now. We like it a lot more than our old provider. However, I’d like some advice on how I would troubleshoot a picture quality issue that has cropped up.

I first noticed the problem after a tech was out and worked on our cables in the house. He found and corrected a problem with an old line running through our attic but in the process of troubleshooting, he re-crimped some of the cables around the main line coming from the OTN and leaving from the splitter. He may have re-crimped our main feeder cable.

The SD channels now seem less sharp than they were before on our 50” Panny 1080p. Before the visit, I thought the SD picture quality was good on the TV (given it was a SD signal). Now, I think it is distinctly less sharp and it is harder to watch. In addition, when running the cable directly into the TV, I’m seeing a diagonal interference pattern on some of the channels. I don’t recall seeing that before but I haven’t watched without the cable box in some time.

Could a re-crimping or bending of the main cable coming from the OTN account for a problem in picture sharpness? I only see the blurriness on our 50” flat screen. Our other TVs are SD and small so I’m not too surprised at that. However, I do see the interference pattern on the other TVs as well if I bypass the cable box and hook directly into the TV.

I called Verizon and they basically said, I’d either have a picture or not. Since I’m seeing a picture, it shouldn’t be a problem with their signal. I checked the Motorola 6416 and d03 & d04 both report good signals.

I don’t think I’m imagining the issue but I only have my eyes to go on right now. To test out whether the problem is in the cable leading to the TV, I removed the splitter and connected the main line directly to the HDTV. The picture still looks poor.

Any guidance is of help even if you tell me I’m crazy.

Thanks,

Dave
Montgomery County, MD

JPL

I don't think you're imagining it. Here's the deal. When they rolled out the IMG some folks noticed a softening of their SD picture via their HD DVRs. I haven't noticed that, but others have. The only place where I've seen it is with the SD VOD on my HD DVR. On my SDTV (with an SD STB) the SD VOD looks great.

This is a problem that Verizon knows about and is (from what I understand) working on fixing. The CSR, btw, is correct about the receipt of the signal. As long as you're receiving a good signal, you should get the best PQ that they can offer. If it wasn't good, you'd get pixellation, blocking, frame drops, stuttering, or one of a bunch of other digital artifacts. The issue is with how the IMG s/w processes that signal. That's something that Verizon needs to fix, but if your signal is coming in fine then unfortunately the only thing to do is to wait until they fix it.

You could also try using one of the other outputs on your DVR for SD, to see if that makes any difference at all.

Loves2Watch

If you have diagonal interference/noise bard on your screen then something IS wrong. It would be in your best interest to call them back and complain about the interference and make them come out and fix it.

I used to live in MC Maryland but moved to the desert. I really like the average relative humidity of 20% here as opposed to fungusland.

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