[mythtv-users] Fox Chicago (WLFD) OTA HD - Nearly unwatchable

[Steven Adeff]

On 3/21/07, matthew.garman at gmail.com <matthew.garman at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm trying to record over-the-air HD via a pchdtv-5500.  It
> generally seems to work, except with Fox (WFLD).  In particular, my
> girlfriend's "American Idol" recordings are almost too lousy to
> watch.  The recordings will have a lot of "jumps" and studdering.
> Immediately prior to and following one of these blips is a lot of
> blocky pixelation and artifacting of the video.
>
> During playback, my CPU is only at about 30%.  Also, the problem
> areas are not random---i.e., if we rewind/rewatch the recording, the
> problems are always the same and in the same location.
>
> The first time we recorded this show, these problems only happened a
> few times throughout the video.  The most recent recording, though,
> had this problem every couple minutes or so.
>
> As far as we can tell, we haven't had this problem with other
> channels.  But even within Fox, we haven't had these problems with
> the animated shows we record ("The Simpsons", "The Family Guy").
>
> According to antennaweb.org, we're 17.5 miles from *all* broadcast
> towers (I believe all stations are broadcast from atop the Sears
> Tower).  Unless Fox's signal strength is lower than its peers, it
> seems like we should have this problem with all channels.
>
> Our antenna is a cheap "rabbit ears and circle thing" sitting on top
> of a speaker.  I believe we have an older version of this:
> http://tinyurl.com/2asujb
>
> I'm not really sure where to start debugging this: new antenna,
> mythtv, etc.  I'm hoping someone on this list has experience with
> this and/or some more insight into Chicagoland Fox.
>
> FWIW, below is the frontend log creating during playback of
> "American Idol", somewhat edited for brevity (the original log is
> 700+ lines long!).
>
> Thanks for any help, suggestions or ideas!
> Matt
>
>
> 2007-03-20 23:13:18.340 TV: Attempting to change from None to WatchingPreRecorded
> 0: start_time: 8566.145 duration: 658.585
> 1: start_time: 8566.108 duration: 658.587
> 2: start_time: 8566.106 duration: 658.591
> stream: start_time: 95178.957 duration: 7318.038 bitrate=11494 kb/s
> 2007-03-20 23:13:18.366 AFD: Opened codec 0x4ede220, id(MPEG2VIDEO) type(Video)
<snip>

how's the signal quality on that channel, sounds like your just
missing data? Does the recorded length look correct? usually when
packets go missing the time shown is a lot shorter.



-- 
Steve
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