Optik TV Pixellation

[GMSailors]

New to Optik (from Delta Cable):

Setup: New Telus wi-fi hub/router, Telus home phone, connected to fibre on the street, Intenet 150, Optik Box hardwired with Cat5 through a switch and through a Netgear wi-fi router.

Issue: lots of freezing, pixellation when watching Optik TV and recording at the same time - very frustrating.  Note when watching the Neflix app by itslef through Optik there is no problem at all - that tells me the cabling is OK. I have not yet tried this while recording a program at the same time on the Telus box.

FYI: In the past we had Netflix through the older Telus router Internet 15 and it worked fine.

Testing plan:

1. watch 1 Optik channel and see if it occurs.

2. Start recording more chanels while watching to see if it occurs.

3. Do #2 but while watching Netflix.

Any suggestions are welcome.

[Nighthawk · Accepted solution]

The first problem will be if you have a Netgear router between the Telus gateway and the set top box. Most third party routers do not support multicast so the TV will be pixelated or worse. Netflix doesn't use multicast so it won't experience the same issue. I would recommend a direct connection from the set top box to the Telus gateway or use a good gigabit switch instead of a router.

[GMSailors]

Thank you - will do.

Further on the 'testing'. - change suggested above has NOT been done (yet).

Playing Optik Knowledge Network and no pixelation but as soon as I started to record one other channel - Weather Network - and immediate pixellation and freezing..

[Nighthawk]

That's either a bad switch or the router. Start by pulling the router and testing. A bad switch is harder to diagnose but can occur. I had one go bad and it pixelated my TV pretty bad, especially if trying to use two streams at once.

[GMSailors]

I pulled the Netgear router/wi-fi out and I'm now running from the Telus gateway through the switch to the Optik box.  Just tested recording 3 channels along with watching Globam news.  All OK!!!!!

Thank you 'Nighthawk'!