811- frame rate problem; video output stuck in "slow motion"

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Supremski

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Original poster
Jun 14, 2004
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I just got my 811 about two weeks ago. A couple of times now I have seen what I think is a bug in the 811's video driver. It has happened twice; once while watching Discovery HD and once while watching TNTHD. I will notice a a brief moment of partial pixelation, then the receiver will "downshift" to output only 2 frames per second. After that, the TV display appears to be running in slow motion with a crisp frame being updated about twice per second (instead of the normal 60 frames per second). The only way to get the receiver out of this goofy mode is to power cycle the receiver.

Anybody else seen this behavior with their 811?

I am using the DVI output in 480P mode. TV is a Sony KP-46WT500. My signal strength for both 110 and 119 is 92 and above.
 
Supremski said:
I just got my 811 about two weeks ago. A couple of times now I have seen what I think is a bug in the 811's video driver. It has happened twice; once while watching Discovery HD and once while watching TNTHD. I will notice a a brief moment of partial pixelation, then the receiver will "downshift" to output only 2 frames per second. After that, the TV display appears to be running in slow motion with a crisp frame being updated about twice per second (instead of the normal 60 frames per second). The only way to get the receiver out of this goofy mode is to power cycle the receiver.

Anybody else seen this behavior with their 811?

I am using the DVI output in 480P mode. TV is a Sony KP-46WT500. My signal strength for both 110 and 119 is 92 and above.
Click to expand...

Yes, I've seen this behavior from my 811 several times. Turning it off then on again always corrects the problem.

NightRyder
 
I use the 480P mode because this is the mode that looks decent on HD viewing and good on SD viewing. In 1080i mode, the HD looks a little better but for some reason my SD viewing is too "soft" and doesn't look as good. This may just be a characteristic of the behavior of the 811 with my Sony TV. Actully a number of things change with regard to the image size while viewing SD programming (even the Dish Network channel menu size changes) while in the 1080i mode. If I really want to park myself on a HD channel for a long while, I may be inclined to switch to 1080i mode, but in general, for the satisfaction of the whole family, keeping it on 480P seems the best compromise.
 
I once tried to watch a Nascar race on my OTA Fox. It was like a slde-show like the original poster said. I have never tried again to see if it is better. Of course, I also watch most races in a delay on a 510. The only races I get to see Live are night races. So far, all of those have been on FX and not Fox. I can't wait for another chance to check this "reboot" out to see if it cures the slide-show.
 
Have you ever calibrated your TV using a Home theater tune up Disk? I had questionable SD also, until I properly adjusted the contrast/brightness. I just could not imagine not watching everything in 1080i including the SD channels.
 
I have seen it also; it always seems to be in HD channels. I just go down one
channel, then go back to the problem channel. It seems to work without having to
turn it off and back on.
 
In response to Kevin's question... I have calibrated my TV using the Video Essentials DVD. DVD's look great on my TV, but that is expected as I am calibrating the TV to the Component input from the DVD player. It would be interesting to see if the TV calibrated differently if I had a DVD player with a DVI output (but I don't).

I am curious about your 1080i for SD channels comment. Even if I set the 811 to output 1080i I would not be getting anywhere close to that resolution for SD channels. For my Sony TV, the difference between an S-Video satellite input and a 480P satellite input is "dramatic". The 480P is so much better via the DVI input. The difference between 1080i and 480P (via the DVI input) is only "slightly" better (noticeable, but just slightly). The Sony TV I have can only display 1080i in native form. It cannot display a 720P signal in native form. So, 480P is a down conversion of sorts from the original HD source, but still looks very good. This is probably why the 1080i looks a little better on the HD channels. (Still there are some folks who argue that 480P is better than 1080i due to how the human eye perceives brightness changes. I haven't found this to be true in my setup.)

I will have to play around with the sharpness settings as well as the other adjustable video settings to see if I can get the 1080i setting on the 811 to look okay for the SD programming.
 
Supremski said:
In response to Kevin's question...
I am curious about your 1080i for SD channels comment. Even if I set the 811 to output 1080i I would not be getting anywhere close to that resolution for SD channels.
Click to expand...

If you have the output set to 480p then that is what the TV gets. Using the component (and I assume the DVI outs) with the box set to 1080i you get a SD program upconverted by the box to 1080i. It is a dramatic improvement of SD programming with my tv over having the box set to 480p.
I was hoping to figure a cure for your poor pq issues.
 
Supremski said:
Anybody else seen this behavior with their 811?
Click to expand...

You bet! Over the course of a week, it'll happen two or three times. The "solution" is to advance up or down a channel and then back.

This, added to the constant frame drops, will be a deal killer for me if they can't get them fixed.
 
Kevinw said:
If you have the output set to 480p then that is what the TV gets. Using the component (and I assume the DVI outs) with the box set to 1080i you get a SD program upconverted by the box to 1080i. It is a dramatic improvement of SD programming with my tv over having the box set to 480p.
I was hoping to figure a cure for your poor pq issues.
Click to expand...

For me, SD programming looks much better when the 811 is set to 480p than 1080i. Of course, HD looks better at 1080i. I just keep it at 1080i, because it's a pain to change it. Plus, I usually only use the 811 for HD anyway.
 
I contacted Dish Network "Tech Support" about this issue via email. They asked for my receiver specifics; rcvr id, smart card id; software rev, bootstrap rev, etc. I gave that to them along with my TV model and a link to this forum so they would know others are experiencing the same problem. Then I was told by tech support (via email reply) that my issue was being referred to engineering for review. I guess I'll have to wait and see if there is an official response from engineering. ... No engineering reply yet......
 
While watching Discovery-HD today, mine did the same thing. I had kind of a blip on the screen and then everything went to stop and go mode, rather than slo-mo. I went down a channel and back up and it fixed it.
 
Bulldog said:
I have seen it also; it always seems to be in HD channels. I just go down one
channel, then go back to the problem channel. It seems to work without having to
turn it off and back on.
Click to expand...

I've done this in our store. It's almost like the receiver "looses track" of where it's at, or something.

It does seem to happen a lot on Discovery for some reason.... :confused:
 
Tina C. said:
I've done this in our store. It's almost like the receiver "looses track" of where it's at, or something.

It does seem to happen a lot on Discovery for some reason.... :confused:
Click to expand...

I notice the frame dropping on all channels. Watch one of the news channels with a ticker crawling across the bottom and every minute or so, the ticker will jump.

When I see it on HBO-HD, it seems to be a smoother jump and less apparent, probably because most of what airs on HBO is film based.

Maybe we notice it more on Discovery HD because we watch that channel more.
 
I have had problems with mine going to "FREEZE FRAME" and unable to change channel or anything.
Only fix is to turn unit off and restart. One time was unable to turn off with switch and had to unplug the unit. Thought I was dealing with Windows and the Blue screen of death.

I will wait it out and hopefully that can fix these problems with software upgrades.

BTW, watch everthing in 1080 and SD looks ok to me....
 

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