Pixelation on recordings mini box

[Anthonyh1976]

From a reboot pixelation is never as bad. It takes a day or so to build up and gradually gets worse.

[Q-tips]

FWIW, my engineer yesterday insisted on switching my main box and both Minis out of 'None' standby mode and left them set to "Active". He said that forcing the boxes to reboot regularly clears out caches and various digital debris which could cause the picture to degrade over time if left to proliferate.

This makes some sense as PCs and other electronic equipment can benefit from a reboot so I have left them at Active for the time being (there was a good reason at the time for switching to None but I can't remember what it was).

Anyway, I've been watching TV for about eight hours since he left (80/20 recordings/live) and haven't yet seen any pixellation but time will tell.

[JFDIT]

Sky can tell you to stand on your head and whistle Dixie but that also won't fix THEIR fully acknowledged Software issues. There is nothing we can do to resolve it. Hopefully their Software engineers can - one day - possibly.....

[Q-tips]

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@Q-tips wrote:

FWIW, my engineer yesterday insisted on switching my main box and both Minis out of 'None' standby mode and left them set to "Active". He said that forcing the boxes to reboot regularly clears out caches and various digital debris which could cause the picture to degrade over time if left to proliferate.

This makes some sense as PCs and other electronic equipment can benefit from a reboot so I have left them at Active for the time being (there was a good reason at the time for switching to None but I can't remember what it was).

Anyway, I've been watching TV for about eight hours since he left (80/20 recordings/live) and haven't yet seen any pixellation but time will tell.

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So, a few days on and I don't think I've seen any pixellation yet; but I'm getting 10 times more audio dropouts than before - on live viewing and recordings. I used to get maybe 2-3 a day on my Mini but yesterday it was 2-3 per hour during live golf and football [SkySports], live news [CNN], recorded boat race [BBC] and recorded movie [Film4]. In all cases, the dropouts weren't reproduced when I hit rewind for a few seconds. Hopefully the next software update will fix those.

The engineer didn't find anything much wrong with my wired gigabit mesh network, cabling, connections or settings and I think he was clutching at straws when he said his tech team advised rewiring my house ethernet cabling so that the Minis connected directly to the router instead of connecting via passive switches attached to separate mesh nodes. I pointed out to him that I still got the same faults when I switched my SkyQ boxes over to wireless operation which presumably bypassed my nodes and switches.

AFAIK, he changed the following while he was here:

1.   Standby mode to Active;

2.  Switched all boxes to wired networking [one had inadvertently been left in wi-fi mode];

3.  Changed two HDMI cables back to Sky standard issue [we had tried various cables];

He didn't suggest changing any boxes: the main box had anyway been upgraded to 2TB only a month ago.

He did think that my 30+ connected devices was too many and could be causing issues. This is well below the max for a gigabit network and simply can't be an issue since only half a dozen max are ever being used at the same time - and even though we have two Mini boxes, they are never both used at the same time.

[Skycambs]

Hi I have an engineer visit today, not sure if he allowed to enter my house. My setup is main box connected via Ethernet and WiFi turned off.  Three minis all WiFi connected  and one sky WiFi booster all boxes set set to active power mode. I do have several devices mostly smart switches, some Alexa streaming devices but never used when watching sky. If I do speed tests around the home I get 50 mb most places and at least 25/30 mb everywhere else.  I get blue screens on the mini boxes that come back after a few seconds without intervention, and pixelation, audio drops and also were it repeats the last few seconds. I can  be watching the mini box and stream HD content to my iPad while next to my mini box and that doesn't seem to bring on the any problems. Seems to be very random regardless of what other devices are doing.  I have never seen the problem on my phone or iPad when streaming recorded content from the sky box. 

See what happens today. I would be quite happy to beta test any new firmware/software, as my viewing experience couldn't be any worst at the moment.
#Q-tips

[Q-tips]

@Skycambs those issues sound all too familiar. I can only tell you that speed is definitely not the cause in my fibre-to-the-premises house with 900Mbps available to all wired devices and over 500Mbps available to all wi-fi connections. Unfortunately, the Mini boxes only have a 100Mbps ethernet port (otherwise I would be able to stream 4K to them) so they are always getting as much speed as they can handle.

Anyway, the fact that the upcoming software update allegedly fixes the pixellation and audio dropout issues tells you all you need to know about the root cause of those problems.

Good luck with your engineer. Keep us posted.

[Annoying+sky]

I had an issue with the the main sky q box so I had to pay £50 for an upgraded uhd box as I now have a uhd tv. I am now getting pixels on most recordings. It's so annoying you spend a load of money and you just want it all good but oh no that's too much to ask. Pixels on every recording takes away viewing pleasure 

[pjhaahl]

@Annoying+sky 

If its on Fox with certain programmes like family guy its not your box. there is a problem which Sky are investigating

[Annoying+sky]

No it's on most recordings. 

[Ant1328]

Any update on software update ?

That is the only thing that will solve this issue 

[Lanzarote2013]

Had engineer visit, mini box changed, still pixelation, reported again, another engineer visit today scheduled, will see who happens next 🙄

[Skycambs]

Pointless having engineer visit as it's a software/firmware problem and nothing will improve or fix it until release of software upgrade. 
Engineer who visited mine said her mini box pixelated too, 

[Rhonny]

@Skycambs

Nonsense. There must be near on 10 million working mini boxes in the UK. If the problem was fundamental software issues, they'd all be affected. It'll be a lack of signal strength from your main box to your mini box, due to your house and network topography. 

[drunkensailor]

I believe that sky have already admitted that it is a software issue. My box was fine until December ish and since then I've had the problem but not on all channels just certain ones. 

[Skycambs]

It may be nonsense but the engineer who came last week showed me her handheld device and the briefing re pixelation and that the software engineers were working on it. 
I would be surprised if it was the mesh network  as there is no more than 4 metres  between devices and 30/50 mb speed  everywhere I test. 
Apart from that there is not millions of people on this forum  so how would you know.