@srrv Is this set-top box connected directly to the Ignite gateway or is it connected indirectly through a Pod?
If it is connected through a Pod, you need to ensure that the Pod is placed in a location where it has a good connection to the gateway and can also still provide good connectivity for the Wi-Fi clients that connect to it.
@DAJ3 wrote:
Another "victim" of the problem here. Both TVs in the house experience intermittent video freezing and audio drop out that can last up to several seconds.
Both set top boxes -- one within a couple of feet of the modem and the other directly below the modem one floor down -- have been rebooted, as has the modem. The problem persists.
You should try connecting the set-top box next to the modem with an Ethernet cable. If the problem is WiFi-related, your audio/video dropouts should go away.
There are a lot of things that can cause your Wi-Fi network to perform poorly, and that can also result in poor Wi-Fi performance even for those devices that are very close to the Ignite Gateway.
As for why those A/V dropouts occur, it could be a problem in the back-end, that occur at the time of encoding.
They can also occur if you have network problems or insufficient bandwidth on the network path that make it impossible to sustain an HD stream. A certain amount of streamed content is buffered, enough to ride out minor network problems or packet loss. However, if the buffer runs out and the set-top box does not have any data available to decode and render, you will get audio/video dropouts. This can happen if you have extreme packet loss on your Internet connection; it can also occur if you have absolutely horrible Wi-Fi performance. Either way, the problem would have to be so bad that you don't even have enough effective throughput to sustain a 10 Mb/s HD stream.
Although not a scientific test by any means, I have yet to notice the problem when watching recorded shows. Perhaps there is something in that, or maybe I've just been lucky not to have experienced the problem at those times.
Live broadcasts are different from watching a recorded program. With a recoded program, the data is all there waiting to be streamed, and you can have a lot of buffer depth, so your set-top box will never run out of data to decode and render. With a live broadcast, the source signal needs to be received, possibly deinterlaced , possibly transcoded, encoded for transmission, then streamed. This is also all very processor-intensive and needs to be done quickly so as to keep the encoding delay to an absolute minimum. As it stands, the encoding delay on most channels is approximately 30 seconds. If your in-home network or your Internet connection is not working well, you are much more likely to experience glitches when watching live broadcasts.
Good day @DAJ3 & @alanirenekerr,
We appreciate your contributions to the community!
Disruptions during your TV watching time are definitely not ideal. We'd like your experience with Ignite TV to be much smoother, for sure.
Did either of you have an opportunity to try connecting your TV directly to the set-top box via Ethernet as recommended by @-G-? This would definitely help us in identifying if the WiFi connection is the culprit. @DAJ3, you did make mention that the streaming seems to be solid while using a computer and so on, which is also interesting. Are you streaming Live content or recordings/on demand videos during those times?
You may also send us a PM @CommunityHelps for further troubleshooting and we can also have a peek on the back end.
Thank you!
RogersYasmine
@DAJ3 wrote:
Both of the household computers are connected via WiFi. I watch a fair bit of streaming video on my computer and have yet to notice any issues with video or audio quality. I realize that this is somewhat anecdotal evidence, but my impression is that the WiFi signal is solid. I'm not sure what differences there might be between a streaming service like Prime or Netflix and a TV program, so there may be an error in my reasoning.
The major streaming services are not really a great test of the quality of your network. A movie already exists, stored on some server, popular movies are cached on local servers, and they can design the streaming client software to buffer as much data locally on the streaming device as memory allows, perhaps even several minutes of content. As a result, Prime and Netflix can ride out intermittent glitches, even if the network drops out for several seconds at a time.
On the other hand, live TV is more sensitive to network disruption. If there are bandwidth constraints, adaptive bitrate codecs can temporarily and dynamically lower video quality to keep the stream alive but they cannot practically buffer any more than a few seconds of content -- enough to ride out minor packet loss but they cannot compensate for severely-degraded network conditions.
A real test of network quality is something like a Zoom call. That application requires a fair amount of bandwidth, in both directions, and it is latency-sensitive. Also, online gaming is VERY sensitive to network conditions.
As for the quality of your Wi-Fi, it mainly depends on signal strength (which affects the stability of your connection), the transmit and receive rates on that connection (which affects how much data can be transmitted in a given period of time) and how much free air time is available on the frequencies that are being used. Forgive me for simplifying but Wi-Fi's Achilles' Heel is that only one device can transmit on a given frequency at a time, and a Wi-Fi device (client or Access Point) needs to wait for clear airspace before it can transmit. If you have distant busy Wi-Fi clients on your network, with low data-rate connections, they will tie up more airtime and negatively affect Wi-Fi performance, even for those devices that are very close to the Access Point. Likewise, If you neighbour's Wi-Fi network is not healthy and he/she/they are using the same Wi-Fi channels that you are, YOUR network will also perform poorly. (I remember many years ago, before the 5 GHz band became available, my Wi-Fi performance would plummet every evening when my neighbours switched on their video baby monitor.). Wi-Fi performance is also dependent on where you place the Access Point. Most people can only see whether their signal strength is good, bad or adequate, and don't have any ability to assess other factors that affect Wi-Fi performance.
A few years ago, Ars Technica posted some great articles about Wi-Fi:
https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/04/remote-work-lagging-if-you-cant-plug-it-in-upgrade-to-mesh/
For Ignite TV to work well, your in-home network needs to perform well AND your Internet connection needs to perform well. If you log into your Ignite Gateway and go to "Gateway > Connection > Rogers Network" and scroll down to the bottom, you should see few (if any) Uncorrectable Codewords errors. If you are seeing a ton of uncorrectables on the downstream OFDM channel, that's a problem. That's packet loss.
If your local fibre node is overloaded or Rogers has problems within their own network, you can do some testing to identify those issues but it's really on Rogers to maintain the quality of their internal network and Internet service.
It's also possible for back-end issues in Rogers' infrastructure to cause problems with Ignite TV, or for a single channel to be problematic. However, those problems tend to be easy for Rogers to identify and resolve quickly.
For me, my in-home network is rock-solid stable, my Internet connection is good (most of the time), and my Ignite TV services performs well with no audio/video dropouts.
@DAJ3 wrote:
I have not tried an ethernet connection between the modem and the set top box. Partially concerned that it might require some configuration that I am liable to mess up. <g>
There is no configuration required. Simply connect one end of the Ethernet cable to a free LAN port on your Ignite Gateway and the other end to the Ethernet jack on your set-top box.
@TLP71 wrote:
Live versus Recording
Thanks for the long explanation but it does not make any difference to me when I am watching a recorded program or live. I get the intermittent freeze screen and sound either way.
If that's the case, and the root cause is not a back-end issue or a problem with the signal feed that Rogers receives, then you must be experiencing some significant problems with your Internet service. If that is the case, you may not see any issues with Netflix but you may see glitches or intermittent poor video quality with Prime.
If the problems persist when your set-top box is Ethernet-connected, that will also point to a problem with your Internet service.
If your Ignite TV service is particularly glitchy, try performing a "ping test" on a computer to test for latency spikes and/or packet loss.
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