WOLF/56 Pixelation

[lordodogg]

Since at least last Sunday, WOLF/56, the Fox affiliate in Scranton, PA, has been pixelating periodically on both their DirecTV satellite and streaming feeds.

At one point, it even pixelated so bad, a black screen saying "We are sorry for the interruption of service, there is no need to call us." even appeared for a few seconds.

I am assuming it is some kind of interference issue at the LRF.

 

[FTA4PA]

Since at least last Sunday, WOLF/56, the Fox affiliate in Scranton, PA, has been pixelating periodically on both their DirecTV satellite and streaming feeds.

At one point, it even pixelated so bad, a black screen saying "We are sorry for the interruption of service, there is no need to call us." even appeared for a few seconds.

I am assuming it is some kind of interference issue at the LRF.

Just an FYI. We get this channel via a deep fringe antenna - two-edge reception from over 50 miles away - and it has been rock steady here. Not sure what is happening with the DirecTV or streaming options.

 

[lordodogg]

It’s still happening today. I will try contacting the chief engineer, will see what they can do about it.

 

[FTA4PA]

Is this happening at any particular time during the day or night? How long does the pixelation last? I have still not seen it happen during our normal tv watching via antenna.

 

[lordodogg]

It happens all the time, roughly every 10 seconds to 2 minutes, and the pixelation itself only lasts for a second or two. I believe that's referred to more commonly as a "blip".

 

[FTA4PA]

It happens all the time, roughly every 10 seconds to 2 minutes, and the pixelation itself only lasts for a second or two. I believe that's referred to more commonly as a "blip".

I just spent the last hour plus tuned to 56.1 and did not see a single issue via our antenna. I wonder what is happening with DirecTV's version of the channel and their streaming ?

I sure hope you can get an explanation and get it resolved. Good luck! Keep us posted!

 

[lordodogg]

I have been watching for the last 15 minutes now and have not witnessed any pixelation. It looks like the issue has been fixed, despite me not receiving an e-mail back from the CE. Another guess I had besides interference is that the antenna used to send the signal to DirecTV for redistribution likely got knocked out of position somehow, and they just had to reposition it.
Regardless, as someone who mostly watches WOLF for Fox sports, I’m just glad the issue is fixed.

 

[FTA4PA]

I have been watching for the last 15 minutes now and have not witnessed any pixelation. It looks like the issue has been fixed, despite me not receiving an e-mail back from the CE. Another guess I had besides interference is that the antenna used to send the signal to DirecTV for redistribution likely got knocked out of position somehow, and they just had to reposition it.
Regardless, as someone who mostly watches WOLF for Fox sports, I’m just glad the issue is fixed.

Good to hear it is fixed!

 

[clucas]

My guess is that Direct picks up WOLF by streaming instead of an antenna since the same problem occurred on both services but not OTA. The CE probably fixed the feed to the stream.

 

[lordodogg]

all Scranton area locals on both DirecTV satellite and streaming are ingested from the OTA feeds & redistributed to both services.

that explains why WQMY, a sister station to WOLF, wasn't available in HD (instead it was in SD-MPEG4) on DTV Sat until 2018, when they upgraded the OTA feed to HD.

meanwhile, local cable systems (like Comcast, Service Electric, and Blue Ridge) have had WQMY in HD for longer than since 2018 because they get the local channels via fiber link.

 

[clucas]

Didn’t know that. Thanks for the clarification.