Picture breakup on mini box recordings

[S84A]

Hi,

I am unable to watch recordings from certain channels on my mini box without picture breakup and occasionally sound breakup. It's like a brief pixelation usually across the whole image.  

The worst affected channels that I use are TNT Sports and ITV4. TNT Sports 1 is worst of all. It can happen anywhere from every 10 or 15 minutes to every minute or 2. It seems to be better or worse on different days and at different times of days. 

I mostly watch Recordings but today I watched an hour of TNT Sports 1 from Live TV without any issues but then watched the same programme again from Recordings and had picture breakup within the first few minutes. Recordings from Sky Sports are never affected. 1TB Main box also completely fine on both Live TV and recordings. 

Currently on Virgin broadband but had the same issue even when I had Sky broadband. Issue possibly dates back to getting a new mini box about a year ago but didn't have the time or energy to figure it out with a newborn baby. I believe I have had the same main box and booster for about 6 years now. 

Recently disabled 5ghz wifi on my virgin router to eliminate the possibility of interference with the sky q mesh and did a full reboot and network reset of router, main box, mini box and sky q booster. 

Previously I had tried moving my virgin 5ghz wifi channel and changing the sky 5ghz channel to 40mhz. Also tried with and without sky q booster. However I didn't do full system reboots after those changes. At some point I will have to connect the mini via ethernet and watch a full recording that way. At least then I will know if it is something to do with the 5ghz connection between both boxes.

Main box is connected to router via ethernet. Mini box and booster connected to main box by wps.

2.4ghz wifi disabled on both main and mini. 

Any idea why such a difference between channels and perhaps more to the point why such a difference between Live TV and Recordings from the same channel on the same box? I could understand better if it was the same for both live and recordings if it was a connection or interference issue. 

Sometimes when I turn the mini box on and check network connection it will say there is a problem with the network connection but then in network setup it is fine and when I hit back the problem message is gone. Both boxes standby mode set to None. Also noticed on the couple of occasions I briefly connected the mini via ethernet either powerline or directly to the router it initially displays a different sky network name than the main box but reverts to the same one as the main after a few minutes. 

Only other thing I can think to mention is that main box is set to 1080i and mini to 1080p as it is connected to a monitor which doesn't support 1080i. However I did try it on the TV downstairs on 1080i and had the same issues. 

Apologies for the information overload but I thought it might be useful. 

[ftballman]

I have the same issue. I'm in Ireland so don't have the ability to record ITV but have the exact same issue with TNT sports.

For example last night I watched the 2 nights of champions league highlights on 2 different mini boxes. 1 went ok and the other suffered huge break up. I should add though that I've seen the break up issue on both, just more of a difference between them last night.

I've recently switched broadband to sky and tried a few different setups with the same unpredictable intermittent issue in all setups.

And yes as much as I can see the issue is the same in that it's not breakup on the recording itself, watching live seems fine and other non TNT recordings seem fine.

[S84A]

Just tried the powerlink adapters again and still had the picture issues. Watched 50 minutes and it happened about every 10 minutes. 

No connectivity issues beyond the picture breakup and able to watch live tv and download from on demand at the same time so not a bandwidth issue?

[ftballman]

It's 1 of those areas where Q is so frustrating as a black box. It would be useful if it was possible to check the strength of signal on a mini, stuff like that.

It's a painful issue in the sense it's there but you could get an engineer out and not be able to replicate it, yet have it all over the place 5 minutes later.

[S84A]

Took the mini downstairs and connected to the TV. Set the resolution to 1080i. No better. Tried ethernet. No better and for some reason refused to join the same sky network as the main no matter how long I left it, how many resets, power cycles etc I tried. Beginning to think the mini box is ....ed in some particular way. Heard about power cuts being particularly bad for them. 

[ftballman]

One thing I've thought of that I still haven't tried is lowering the resolution on the mini box below 1080. Not the best outcome but just worth a try if still in a try everything mood.

I'm pretty stumped on it. I have a third mini box that is just on the borderline of connection. I get some issues on everything if it misbehaves, but the level of "bad picture" is different to the TNT picture issue. In this instance it's more of a freeze, stutter or repeat. Where the TNT issues are mixes of colours, blocks etc.

[S84A]

Would someone be able to escalate this for me please?

[Oharedm]

I have been watching recordings of "i am a Celebrity ..."  at night over past few weeks and the pixilation is back quite badly.  It has been a topic on here for years.  For me I only get it (i) watching recordings (ii) on mini boxes.  I have 2 mini boxes and I get it on both.  

[Chodley]

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@S84A wrote:

Would someone be able to escalate this for me please?

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Didn't see this thread at the time. Interesting problem. The fact it doesn't do it live and the main bix doesn't so it with the recording is really odd. And thanks for putting in so much detail about what you tried.

You still want it escalated?

[S84A]

I went ahead and cancelled multiscreen (effective 21st December) so not sure escalating will help. 

I might try again with a new mini box if I can get it without an upfront fee or contract from 22nd.

Otherwise it might be that the main box is past it. 

Tried a hard drive reset but it had no effect. 

[Oharedm]

You could post an open thread is see if it is still a problem.  There was a long thread on this a year or so ago.

A one point I also thought recordings from some channels were worse than others.

I have not tried the 1080p vs. 1080i switch on the mini boxes to see if it is related to that. 

[ftballman]

I don't think a new mini box will help. I have 3 and it happens on all. I've tried changing the resolution and it hasn't helped. I've also looked at mixing what boxes are on or off at times and that doesn't help.

My own opinion yes it's an issue with the way the main box sends out these recordings and a suspicion that the connection between the boxes isn't resilient enough to cope with the amount of data in this instance.

Running speed tests on the minis through Netflix just puzzles me more about the way the sky mesh works.

[S84A]

I tried tp-link to the mini the other day but not only did it not help the recordings picture break up issue, it led to the main box not being able to stream iplayer without buffering if I was using the mini at the same time. Any kind of ethernet/powerline setup also leads to live TNT Sports 1 stuttering on the mini if I download something to the main. 

[S84A]

Only reason I mentioned trying a new mini box is I don't remember having this issue with the previous one which I had from 2017 to 2022 first on BT broadband and then on Sky. 

[S84A]

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@Oharedm wrote:

You could post an open thread is see if it is still a problem.  There was a long thread on this a year or so ago.

A one point I also thought recordings from some channels were worse than others.

I have not tried the 1080p vs. 1080i switch on the mini boxes to see if it is related to that. 

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Apologies not sure what you mean by posting an open thread. 

I wonder is the issue confined to people with the same main box. Mine is the 1tb box with 32C at the start of the hardware version.