I can see this behaviour on every TV in my house, and eve...

[abdba]

I can see this behaviour on every TV in my house, and every TV in everyone else's house I've visited that has Shaw.  Have seen it in different parts of the Calgary area and on both Shaw Gateway (which I have) and Shaw Bluecurve (other people's).  The only catch is how good their TV picture is and whether it's been pointed out so that people know what to look for.

So @shaw-valerie I can book a support visit if you'd still advise but I believe it will be a waste of time since it's not specific to a particular TV, a particular portal or device, the area of the city, or even whether it's a Gateway or Bluecurve system.  Still if that's the necessary thing to do I can do it.  Or I can show them on the TVs at the Shaw store in Sunridge Mall.

[abdba]

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@Les_gould wrote:

I have this symptom too and thought a new TV would fix it, but seems others have tried this. What confused me is how we can have people reporting this problem, but it's not possible to reproduce. What have the service techs been able to diagnose or fix? 

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@Les_gould I do believe that it is indeed reproducible everywhere as I believe it's a signal issue, not a device or TV issue.  The key is that different TVs may exhibit or mask the problem more profoundly.  Motion smoothing, etc.  That's the first issue.  The second issue is that viewers just don't notice it.  If the TV mostly minimizes the effect and it hasn't specifically be pointed out to them, then they don't notice it.

Proof: next time you're at a friend or relative's house with Shaw & CNN, take a look at their feed now that you know what to look for.

[abdba]

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@mdk wrote:

Could it be a Shaw ground-located satellite-dish that is pointed at the CNN-feed coming from a particular satellite that, at a certain time-of-day, when the sun moves "behind" the satellite?  Time-of-day when it occurs? Season? The dish at your regional distribution centre (Victoria? Vancouver? Calgary? Edmonton? Other?)

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My opinion @mdk is that's not it.  It's an issue with the variable compression rate coming into the CNN-feed.  Some clues:

• When there is a US based commercial coming from the original CNN feed, the effect can be observed.
  • As soon as a Canadian sim-sub commercial comes on overtop of the CNN feed (added by Shaw?), the effect is gone and the HD quality looks perfect.
  • Back to a US commercial and it's back.
• I noticed that with the US democratic debate coverage on CNN (I can't remember exactly which debate), the issue was not present
  • Was broadcasted from some secondary location (they host those at Universities, or similar).  Likely they have procured specific bandwidth temporarily from that facility.
  • Problem seems worst with feeds from their New York facilities (i.e. AC360, Don L., Brooke B., etc).

[mdk]

> When there is a US based commercial coming from the original CNN feed, the effect can be observed. As soon as a Canadian sim-sub commercial comes on overtop of the CNN feed (added by Shaw?), the effect is gone and the HD quality looks perfect.

To me, that is an indication that the problem exists between Shaw's satellite-dish and the orbiting satellite -- when that feed is superseded by content injected by Shaw's "network operations centre", the effect is not visible. So, the question is whether the communication of the modified content is sent from that centre to each regional office by fibre-optic cable, or sent via a different (not the one used by CNN) orbiting satellite?

> I noticed that with the US democratic debate coverage on CNN, the issue was not present. Was broadcasted from some secondary location (they host those at Universities, or similar).  Likely they have procured specific bandwidth temporarily from that facility.

It's my understanding that those debates occurred after "sundown", when there was no solar interference in the line-of-sight between Shaw's ground-based satellite-dish and the orbiting satellite.

Also, any "procured bandwidth" will be carried via underground fibre-optic cables between the university and a CNN "broadcast center". That CNN office would send its feed "up" to the satellite, and Shaw's satellite-dish  at the Shaw "Network Operations Centre" would receive the modified content from the orbiting satellite. Given that all the USA-based universities are linked to "Internet-3", which uses fibre-optic cable, is there any need for any "procurement" of additional bandwidth? Doubtful!

[abdba]

All of this just indicates to me that the issue isn't with my equipment (Shaw boxes or TV) and that sending a tech for a support visit is pointless.

[Springtide]

I have this issue too. I have only noticed it on CNN. Roughly once every second the picture either goes out of focus, then comes back, or it looks like someone off camera is turning lights on and off in the studio. I’m not noticing it on commercials. I see it on both TVs in my home in Abbotsford.

The first post in this thread is 2 years old. So this has been going on at least that long and hasn’t been addressed?

[abdba]

Yes it has been going on for 2+ years and Shaw won't do anything about it.  Because most people don't notice it.

It does vary though - for example some CNN live events look excellent.  Other studio shows really show the effect severely.  It comes and goes.  It's something to do with the CNN feed compression algorithms.

You could try complaining to Shaw but it will be an exercise in frustration.  You'll first have to do all of the basic tier-1 troubleshooting.  After that they'll want to send an installer (unless covid prevents that currently).  And the installer will just say it's an issue with the source feed.  Save yourself the frustration and just learn to live with it - sadly that's probably your best course of action @Springtide  😞

[Springtide]

Yep, after reading all the complaints about this, and seeing the dates going back 2+ years, it was obvious nothing was going to be done about it. I find it's easiest to notice it when the anchor person is on camera. Look at their face and you'll see a pulse every second.

[jaycar87]

I notice the same thing in Calgary- its only on CNN and only when the anchors are on the screen. It’s Extremely annoying.

Shaw needs to fix this because it’s obviously an issue on their end. 

[mdk]

@jaycar87 -- it is only on CNN, and only when the anchors are on the screen.

To me, that seems to imply a problem with the cameras in the CNN broadcast studio.

> Shaw needs to fix this, because it’s obviously an issue on their end

Obviously it's not a problem that Shaw can fix, until Shaw purchases CNN.  🙂