Intermittent picture pixelation and sound problems.

[Matthew161]

Hello, i've recently moved to EE TV after twenty plus years with Sky and i'm having a couple of problems that I hope can be fixed.

We have the EE TV Box Pro and a Mini, and both are showing the same problems. Both boxes are in internet mode and are connected by ethernet cable to the provided EE Smart Hub Plus router. We have had no problems with the internet connection, and are receiving the 300Mbps we are paying for.

First Problem - We are getting intermittent pixelating of the picture and a drop out of sound that lasts for just a second or two and then goes back to normal. Sometimes this doesn't happen for a while, then it will happen every ten minutes or so. 

I haven't personally used the TV service as much as others in the house as I mainly use it for the football and other sports, but yesterday I watched the Charity Shield on ITV and some of the Olympics on the BBC and it was happening on both channels. I then watched a League One football match on Sky Sports and MMA on TNT Sports through the box and didn't notice it on either. Small sample size but I thought i'd mention it.

The Second Problem - This may be linked to the first problem and is harder to explain. As a gamer, it sort of seems like when you get a momentary drop of frame rate, but it's a bit different to that, and is at it's most obvious when watching the football. For example, I didn't notice it much yesterday during the 90 minutes, but during every penalty in the penalty shoot out it was very apparent, i'll try to explain it better. In the player's run up it sort of seems to slow down on/around him where your eyes are focused but you still see the full penalty. Like I said, hard to explain.

Both these problems are happening on both boxes and they are both there in the same place when I rewind the box.

I tried to have a look around to see if I could solve these problems without having to make a thread, but most people who are having similar problems were using aerial mode and/or a wifi connection, which we are using neither.

I also haven't contacted EE yet, as having a look around some threads on here there seems to be some knowledgeable people who may know what the problem could be, @DarrenDev was a name in particular that kept cropping up, and he seems to have inside knowledge and know what he's talking about 😀.

Thanks.

[CBoasty]

We don’t have an aerial and have this issue. 

[Stiltsel]

The strength was 94% and the quality was 100%.It was the quality which would periodically drop momentarily to about 60% and then come back up.

I have today had an aerial fitter return to my property and check the signal. He identified that these were unreliable and also very weak on certain channels. The aged booster in the attic has been replaced and it seems this evening that this has solved the problem. 

What was confusing the issue was that I did not seem to have a problem if I did not use the EE box so the EE box is evidently more sensitive to signal issues than just using the TV without the box. 
In conclusion the pixelation and blip and sound drop would appear to have been caused by an unreliable/weak aerial signal. All seems to be OK now and I am happy again. 😀👍. I will confirm if this reliability is lasting. Thanks for your advice folks!

[Peter_W]

Thanks for the update on this one @Stiltsel, I'm really glad to hear that sorted it out for you!

Peter

[Midnight_Voice]

@Stiltsel 

Glad you cracked it! 94 PQ sounds alright-ish, but it’s actually pretty poor; I have a variable attenuator I can put in my aerial chain, and things stop altogether at 92.

There was a long-held view on the YouView Community that YouView box tuners were less sensitive than most TV tuners, and that seemed to be the case.

Some people thought this was down to them having two tuners, though I always thought that they should be electronically compensating for that.

But now we have your marginal experience with the Box Pro, which has four tuners, playing up on a setup where a two-tuner YouView box was OK.

Maybe they were right all along…..

[RGCAston]

I have had similar problems recently when my TV is taking its feed from my EE Box, it seems to be worse later in the day and re-booting the box corrects it for a while. Recordings are also affected to the point where they become unwatchable.
The sound problem can be preceded by a distinct 'click' when the level drops but recovers in a few minutes, other times it is as though the speaker has developed a severe stutter and is normally accompanied by bad pixilation. 
Swapping the HDMI input point makes no difference.
Switching the TV to 'Live TV' eliminates the problem but that doesn't help with recording, but it does suggest the cause lies within the EE box. 
Live TV reception from the Oxford transmitter, has been affected by atmospheric conditions at times, but then live TV is also affected.
I haven't contacted EE help yet as I know they will only do a factory reset, which I can and will do shortly.
As I have tried all the remedies suggested here and on the internet, if factory reset makes no difference I will ask for a replacement box.  I will come back if/when the problem is solved.

[Stiltsel]

I can only reiterate that replacing the aerial booster in my attic solved the problem. The fact that the TV worked OK when not using the box suggested to me that the aerial was OK but when checked out by an aerial installer the signal was found to be weak. I assume that the new EE box is more sensitive to a weak signal. Anyway new booster solved the problem. I suggest that you get your aerial signal checked by an aerial installer rather than just relying on the so called quality and signal strength data that appears on the TV screen in settings. Best of luck, Cheers, Nick

[Mdotsworld17]

Evening Matthew161 I’m having the exact same problem as you are I’m also getting “there is a problem with this channel” and to check connection between box and router! With a code IPC6023… this again like you on the pro and mini tv boxes, they sent me a new box out as they said it was possibly faulty and shock horror it does exactly the same thing whether I’m using wireless or Ethernet cable. Also gave me the spill about its because it has to pass through walls etc! Which is nonsense as I live in a poorly built new build with 9mm plaster walls and no insulation between cavity’s! It’s getting a joke now and I’ve tried everything they have stated to do and still the same crap! 

[Peter_W]

Good morning @Mdotsworld17.

Welcome to the Community. 
There are multiple factors that can be at play with this one, and I'm disappointed to hear that none of the steps we have tried so far have been able to resolve this issue. 

As well as the thickness of the walls, the quality of the connection and depend on the distance from your Hub, materials like water and glass blocking this, and interference from other devices too. 

Have you had a chance to test your box with a wired connection to see if this makes an improvement? 

Peter

[CHLOEBAGPUSS]

My box is connected by an Ethernet cable and it still does it. This issue is the box as I have tried a manhattan box and it doesn’t do it with that box.
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