Spectrum no longer passing through native broadcast resolution?

esterbenz

Folks,

I have been a Time Warner/Spectrum customer for over 40 years. Last 8 years on the current equipment. I have always had all three resolution settings enabled in the box settings so as to pass through the native broadcast resolution of the network. This has always worked. Sometime after 4/14/2024 this all changed. Nothing in my settings have changed, however, virtually all channels are coming in as 720p, even the ones that are supposed to be 1080i. The service tech thinks it might be an Arris update to the box, which he said was out of their control. I looked at the extended diagnostics for one of the channels that should be in 1080i and it says the "input resolution" is 720p. Sounds like something upstream. If anyone has any idea what is going on or how to fix it, it would be most appreciated.

thanks.

Satch

Hello,

I agree with the service tech, if it was a software update push nothing that you can do. There was an update to the Arris-210 about three weeks ago. What model box do you have? The Arris-210 is a world box without the clock on the panel.

I have seen the older boxes where you enable all four resolutions, or you set it to Auto, or the Highest Resolution that the channel supports. If you set it to the highest resolution that the channel supports, it will still say 1080i even if the box is outputting to 720p. I don't think on the no clock World Boxes that the resolution can be changed.

Satch

catchtwentytwo

My World Box 210 does offer resolution choices of 1080p, 1080i , or 720p and has offered them for some time. The STB application was last updated 2024-93-19.

Menu > Settings & Support > Preferences > Audio & Video > Video > Video Resolution > Select Resolution

HT_Greenfield

Edit: If it's an Arris DCX running the i-Guide software, hit up the off-line user settings and make sure that the Output setting (right below the TV Type setting) is still set to Native and then jog down to Native Mode Settings and hit OK and see if 1080i is still one of the formats that the Arris box is detecting as being supported by the TV and let me know what you find out.

Otherwise please name the channel and post an image of the "extended diagnostics" showing the "input format."

esterbenz

Thank you all. First my main box is an Arris DCX3600-M, software version 18.62 ODN UI. My secondary boxes are Arris DCX3200-M, software version 18.61 ODN UI. Just as an example, for the local CBS affiliate, which should be broadcasting in 1080i, if I go into the Extended Diagnositcs→Audio/Video Status, the "Input Format" is 1280x720p, which seems to me to imply it's coming from upstream.

Secondly, I am not familiar with the "off-line" user settings. How do I get to those?

Thanks.

HT_Greenfield

The off-line user settings i mentioned have only to do with the i-Guide software, not ODN. My bad for mentioning that; i should have known better.

Hit up some 1080i cable channels like Hallmark, History and Discovery and then see what format it is that the extended diags of which you speak do so happen to show and, furthermore, what format the TV shows as being input when you hit the info button with the TV OEM remote. Do the same with some 720p cable channels like ESPN, Disney and FX. And then furthermore do the same thing with some 480i cable channels like FETV and MTV Classic.

Furthermore, there are a number of CBS-affiliated local broadcasters - minor percentage but plenty of them nevertheless - that broadcast CBS in 720p and your cable simulcast would be the same. Look yours up by their call sign and see if they're one of them:

🔗 https://www.rabbitears.info

esterbenz

Sorry, tried to post response with all data you requested, but it's giving me an error. I'll try to type the info and see if that works. All the 1080i channels you requested were 720p in both Extended Diags and on TV. All the 720p channels were also 720p in both. The 480i channels you requested were 480p in ED and 1080i on TV. I found only one channel still in 1080i in both ED and TV.

The odd thing is that some channels will show 1080i for a few seconds when first selected, then switch to 720p. Once that happens they stay 720p. This all worked as expected prior to 4/14/24. I also checked several of the major networks over the air. Local CBS and NBC affiliates are still broadcasting in 1080i over the air, as expected.

esterbenz

So here you go:

Channel ED Input TV

Hallmark 720p 720p

Hist 720p 720p

Discovery 720p 720p

ESPN 720p 720p

Disney 720p 720p

FX 720p 720p

METV 480p 1080i (even after enabling 480p in settings)

MTV Classic 480p 1080i (same)

MILHIST 480p 1080i (same)

UNIV 1080i 1080i

The odd thing is that some channels will show 1080i for a few seconds when first selected, then switch to 720p. Once that happens they stay 720p. This all worked as expected prior to 4/14/24. I also checked several of the major networks over the air. Local CBS and NBC affiliates are still broadcasting in 1080i over the air, as expected.

HT_Greenfield

Play back a recording that was recorded off of any 1080i channel prior to April 14th on the DCX3600-M and see what format the TV shows as being input to the applicable HDMI port and, furthermore, which output format is back-lit just to right of the right-most character of the channel/time/etc. display on the fascia of the DVR (you may need to get up close to see this and, furthermore, might even need a 🔍.) Do the same with a recording off of the same channel recorded after April 14th and let me know what you find out.

esterbenz

Anything 4/14/24 and prior is 1080i on both the TV and box. Same channel after 4/14/24 is 720p on both TV and box. That is actually how I narrowed down the date when things changed.

Thanks.

HT_Greenfield

It sounds like you may now be getting MPEG-4 instead of MPEG-2 compression and, to whatever extent that involves transcoding, converting interlace to least-common-denominator progressive goes along with it. Who knows whether such would be permanent or temporary, or would have anything to do with "high-split" RF repacking, or is specifically applicable to legacic TWC zones and/or DCX boxes running ODN Navigator and/or even long-lived legacic TV subscriptions but i'm given to understand that Xfinity did that whole megillah years ago and what was 1080i is now 720p across their board.

esterbenz

Not the answer I was hoping for, but thank you for the explanation. I was hoping it was fixable. Looks like it's not.

Thank you so much!