VOD : Intermittent breaking up with on-demand content

[philquinney]

Hi Everyone,

We're having some trouble when viewing on demand content; either through iPlayer or Movies on Demand. After a random period of time the picture will start to break up and the sound will be distorted.

This is only intermittent. Sometimes we can watch a program with no problem, other times its impossible to watch a program because it starts as soon as we start playing it.

We've had one technican out who changed the tap in the green cabinet, and then the fault was escalated to the "network team" but we heard nothing back. I reported it again at the weekend and another technician was sent today who checked the signal levels and said they were fine. However, he said there was a national fault at the moment which wasn't due to be resolved until the third or fourth week in February and that it was affecting all customers!

The service status page in My Virgin Media shows no faults though...

Can I ask if there is a genuine national fault causing intermittent breaking up of pictures with on demand content?

Thanks,

Phil.

[essjay]

Not heard of any national faults, is this any particular programme ?

[philquinney]

Hey Essjay,

No. It doesn't affect normal broadcasts (not that I can remember!). It just affects us when we're watching programs from iPlayer or Movies on Demand. We were trying to watch "Taken" at the weekend for example.

Can you suggest anything?

Phil.

[Digital Fanatic]

Originally Posted by philquinney

Hey Essjay,

No. It doesn't affect normal broadcasts (not that I can remember!). It just affects us when we're watching programs from iPlayer or Movies on Demand. We were trying to watch "Taken" at the weekend for example.

Can you suggest anything?

Phil.

what area are you in?

[Pauls9]

When this happens to us, we find stopping the VOD, going back to the broadcast and changing channel, then restarting the VOD seems to work - most of the time.

Is there any technological reason behind this, like getting a different channel for the VOD, or is it down to pure luck?

[essjay]

depending on your area you will be assigned 1 channel from either 4, 6 or 8 available

[Pauls9]

Originally Posted by essjay

depending on your area you will be assigned 1 channel from either 4, 6 or 8 available

Thanks

[philquinney]

Originally Posted by Digital Fanatic

what area are you in?

Hi Digital Fanatic,

I'm in Purley, CR8.

Phil.

[Digital Fanatic]

Originally Posted by philquinney

Hi Digital Fanatic,

I'm in Purley, CR8.

Phil.

Just checked your area (Croydon Headend) and we are not seeing any other reports of this, so doesn't seem like a regional issue.

How long has this been happening for?

[philquinney]

Hi Digital Fanatic,

From memory I'd say its approximately four to five weeks. Its not something that happens all the time, but usually when we find something good to watch

There are times that it will be fine for a week at a time, and then we'll have a bad evening. When I've checked the error logs at the point at which we have the problem I see a combination of either "Post-RS Error" or "No Signal".

Hope that helps?

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Phil.

[Digital Fanatic]

Originally Posted by philquinney

Hi Digital Fanatic,

From memory I'd say its approximately four to five weeks. Its not something that happens all the time, but usually when we find something good to watch

There are times that it will be fine for a week at a time, and then we'll have a bad evening. When I've checked the error logs at the point at which we have the problem I see a combination of either "Post-RS Error" or "No Signal".

Hope that helps?

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Phil.

Sounds like a signal issue to the stb from what you are saying. I'd suggest a call to Support or post on the VM Community Forum. They can check your signal levels and errors remotely, they may need to arrange for a tech call out.

[essjay]

I'm back in on Sat if you PM me your MAC I will take a look