HDTV and frame rates sporadically dropping?

[BlahBlahYouToo]

has anyone ever had their frame rate drop for a second or two when watching an HD broadcast (in my case OTA)?
i have both a plasma and LCD and it happens on both.

best way i can describe it is that it's running at 30fps (or whatever is normal) and will drop to 5-10fps for 2 seconds and then back to normal.

not too sure if it's the reception, but i don't think it is because usually that manifests itself as blockiness, completely frozen image, etc.

this is just a slowdown. it doesn't happen often, just once in awhile (every other day, but then again i don't watch that much TV so it could be more frequent if i watched more).

 

[kalrith]

Is it connected directly to your TV's tuner? What's the signal strength?

 

[vshah]

this has happened to me, but not often enough for me to care about it. maybe once a month for a few seconds.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Is it connected directly to your TV's tuner? What's the signal strength?

yes and signal is pretty good. usually around 80-90%.

 

[kalrith]

Hmmm...I'm not sure what the problem is then, unless the signal strength drops below 80% during the frame-rate drop. Does this occur with every channel?

I personally experience blips every now and then, but like vshah they're so few and far between that I don't really care. Sometimes I wonder if it's the station (either the network or the local channel) and not my setup.

If it's just with certain stations, you might try looking up your local-area thread on avsforum and seeing if anyone else has the same problem: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=453241

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Hmmm...I'm not sure what the problem is then, unless the signal strength drops below 80% during the frame-rate drop. Does this occur with every channel?

I personally experience blips every now and then, but like vshah they're so few and far between that I don't really care. Sometimes I wonder if it's the station (either the network or the local channel) and not my setup.

If it's just with certain stations, you might try looking up your local-area thread on avsforum and seeing if anyone else has the same problem: http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=453241

i think it's the blips that you guys are talking about. is it a signal problem? tv problem? line problem? technology problem? station problem?

 

[kalrith]

I think the blips for me are a station problem, but I can't be certain. I use an antenna connected to a tuner card on an HTPC, so there are a few different points of possible problems. My blips are typically less than a second long, and about once a month I'll get one that's about 3 seconds long.

 

[simonizor]

It is more than likely just some small interference with the signal that is causing your issue. With digital TV, when the signal is lost, it shows a bunch of blocks and the picture will freeze up, just as you described. I had it happen quite a bit when using an antenna with my TV. Your only real solution is to find a better place to mount your antenna if it's not already in the best possible spot. If it is, you're going to have to live with it (or get cable lol).

 

[piasabird]

Maybe it is interference like police signals.

 

[JoeBleed]

This happens all the time with the cable company in my town.

They are still broadcasting most of their stuff in analog. But you still get the digital block/glitches on several stations. It is because they are getting a crappy signal and rebroadcasting it. Several times i see some of the stations with a little balloon txt moving around the screen telling you there is no signal. Just like the digital OTA converter boxs do when they lose their signal.

That is probably the problem. Oh, we usually only see this on the local channels. I assume they are just using an ota antenna. It seems that way anyway.

 

[simonizor]

I just remembered that at my last house that I rented we had an outdoor antenna on the side of the house. It would get blocky and freeze up every time a car went by... lol

 

[Modelworks]

I have an outdoor OTA antenna with mast mounted amplifier and have channels that read 95-97% that do that. If anything with a large metal structure passes between your antenna and the tower you will lose frames while it recovers. For me it is airplanes and semi - trucks. There is a road behind where my antenna is that luckily isn't used by large trucks often, when one does go down it , signal drops from 97 to 10 for a split second. Same for planes flying over.

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

I just remembered that at my last house that I rented we had an outdoor antenna on the side of the house. It would get blocky and freeze up every time a car went by... lol

i get that when a plane flies by, the blockiness and freezing, but that's not what i'm talking about.

imagine everything is perfect, no blocks, 30 fps.
then all of a sudden, image is still perfect fine, but flowing at 10fps.

 

[thomsbrain]

I've seen a couple dropped frames with Comcast. A friend has Direct TV and it drops frames all the freaking time.