VIP7802 video freezing & audio delay

[Jazoulay]

Freezing of picture & sound delays seem to be increasingly an issue and indicate one of two potential issues due to Bell Bandwidth insufficiencies and streaming could be the problem. This looks like low cost net work exploitation from Bell not rendering expected quality. This problem is one that you’ll find in very low cost TV and Internet third party providers. Unless Bell addresses this inadequate TV transmission quality, Bell is incentivizing users to go with lower end services that have 5his very same issue.

[BellPatricia · Accepted solution]

Hey @Jazoulay  Thanks for reaching out to the Bell Community.

Which type of TV receiver are you using, and is this happening on one receiver or multiple? Is this affecting multiple channels or one in particular? Which Audio output setting do you have selected on your receiver?

Are your receivers directly connected to your modem via Ethernet or connected over Wi-Fi? If connected via Wi-Fi, can you please test a direct Ethernet connection from your receiver to the modem?

Is there any third party equipment plugged in between the receiver and your TV? If so, please plug the equipment directly into the TV via HDMI to see if there is an improvement. 

When your experience any issues with your Fibe TV or Internet service, we also recommend running the Virtual repair tool. The tool will help optimize your service and also detects and fixes issues.

Let the Community know if you're still experiencing issues after trying out those steps.

@BellPatricia 

[Southender]

Just got Bell Fibe 1.5Gb/s FTTH installed with a single Fibe TV 4K receiver (Arris VIP7820) two weeks ago.

Ever since it's installed, the audio on my Fibe TV VIP7802 keeps glitching. The audio will drop for approx. half a second every 2-3 minutes. It happens on every TV channel, some more than others.

Things I have tried:

1. Reboot the TV receiver
2. Reboot the modem
3. Replace the HDMI cable
4. Try a different TV
5. Run the ‘virtual repair tool’ on bell.ca
6. Connect the VIP7802 directly to the modem via ethernet cable
7. Have Bell send me a new VIP7802

NOTHING seems to work. It's driving me nuts as it's so annoying when you are watching TV to have these little glitches every minute or two.

[AlexS]

So the Internet speed tests showed no problem? Have you suspected the modem? Did you connect any speaker to the TV or the VIP7802 box? 

[Southender]

Internet speeds are 100% perfect. And TV picture streams perfectly, 4K channels and all.
The problem occurs when I connect the TV through my home theatre system - but to rule that out I plugged it directly in to a different TV with no amp/receiver and the same problem occurs.

[AlexS]

Try playing around the audio settings of the boxes and TV?

[Southender]

There is only one box, a single VIP7802 receiver.

The only audio setting you can change is to select Auto or None (no surround sound). Neither setting gets rid of the audio glitching.

[kibosh]

I am also experiencing this on 2 different boxes. It seems much worse if I use surround sound.  I have to turn surround off to make it more tolerable. It also seems that the volume fluctuates at least when watching hockey on TSN.

There is also a sound issue when watching recordings, after skipping through commercials the volume will be much lower sometimes.  Skipping back 7 seconds will correct it but it’s irritating. 

[Southender]

Yes! I am so glad it's not just me. I'm convinced the VIP7820 has buggy software. Never ever had such problems on the older, pre-Android Arris boxes in the past. It just seems so glitchy, even the video occassionally.

Turning of Surround Sound does make a small improvement, but that's not an acceptable solution for me since I paid more specifically to get the 4K and Dolby Surround for my home theatre - otherwise I'd have gone for the far cheaper Fibe App subscription. 

[kibosh]

Agreed!  Turning off surround is not acceptable. I don’t have a fancy 7.2 setup to listen to stereo sound 😉. I also notice video glitches on occasion. This also seems more pronounced with surround enabled. 

I am actually quite disappointed.  I had Bell a few years ago with the 4k PVR and the video and sound were rock solid. I am lucky enough to have had FTTH installed in my neighbourhood and didn’t hesitate switching back, I never imagined I’d have these sort of TV issues. Having said that, I am pretty confident they will be resolved. I think this offering is pretty new. 

Fingers crossed! 

[jmacd27]

Same issue here, it was worse earlier but has gotten better the last week or two. It seemed to be worse on the 4k channels and the Stingray retro video channels that we leave on at times for background music. This cloud PVR box is a mess.

[BellPatricia]

Hi there @Southender @kibosh & @jmacd27 Thank you for reaching out to the Bell Community.

We appreciate all of the troubleshooting steps you've completed, and would like to look into this further. 

We've sent you a private message so we can get more information. Please check your Messages within your profile avatar in the top right corner.

Unsure how to check or send a private message? See How to send a private message

- Patricia

[Southender]

OK folks, I received a call from Bell escalations today who finally had useful information for me.

The lady I spoke with told me that there is a known issue with video/audio glitching on the VIP7802 and call drops/failures withe home phone service. Apparently they are receiving thousands of complaints from users in my situation.

Both issues are apparently caused by a bug in the Giga Hub (HH4000) router firmware 1.13.

Bell's engineers are currently planning to deploy v1.15 to all affected customers by November 30th. Until that time, I've been offered a billing credit and asked to sit tight.

[Southender]

I have now received the firmware update v1.15 to the Giga Hub.

It has made NO difference. Watching the Canada vs Croatia match just now there was audio stuttering and glitching throughout the entire broadcast.

I'll be going back to Bell for a refund and getting rid of Fibe TV.

[Southender]

I've tried multiple high quality Certified HDMI 2.1 cables and it has no affect on the audio glitching/stuttering for me.