[DeadMan]

I have a Wharfedale DV832BN Freeview box and from today I cannot get any BBC channels for more than a couple of seconds before the picture goes blank, the audio goes garbled and then the box reboots. All other non-BBC channels are working perfectly. I am in the Crystal Palace line of view. The box has rebooted before at random intervals but not sure if it was always when viewing BBC channels or not.

I have rerun the first time installation and switched it off at the mains for a bit but it did not help. The firmware is showing version 3.6

[alanwarwic]

Mine too. A Tevion.

It is caused by the interactive red button.
Subtitles turns it off and has made a temp fix.

[mpewsey]

I've got the same problem with my ancient Tevion PVR 801 (ex beta test machine if there are any of the other testers out there).

Subtitles has got it working for now - thanks Alan

[robdive123]

Same here - and subtitles fixes it as well

[crazymanc]

yep same here just swiched over to watch esatenders lol and picture goes off sounds stays for couple of secons then my box reboots thats on BBC1 BBC2 AND BBC THREE

[Keyser Soze]

Me too. I'll try the subtitle button.

[DeadMan]

Switching subtitles on does not fix it for me.

[alanwarwic]

I do recall that some boxes do let you turn off interactivity via the settings menu.

[DeadMan]

Originally Posted by alanwarwic

I do recall that some boxes do let you turn off interactivity via the settings menu.

Not on mine it doesn't. I cannot believe this. Freeview has to be the biggest cockup ever made and looking at Freesat it isn't much better!

[pfcso]

All BBC channels have suddenly started causing my Nichimem 1622 PVR (purchased as a reconditioned item from Maplins a couple of months ago) to reboot repetitively as described in other postings. Turning subtitles on fixes it for now but hopefully this is not a permanent feature.

What has changed to cause this? It was OK the night before last.

Whom do we notify officially that there is this problem? To whom do we complain?

Thanks

Paul

[alanwarwic]

Originally Posted by DeadMan

Not on mine it doesn't. I cannot believe this. Freeview has to be the biggest cockup ever made and looking at Freesat it isn't much better!

Bit of luck they will fix it very very soon.


However an ongoing changeover to a dual EPG stream has already made/making a million plus boxes worthless.

Could this be a 2nd scheme to boost industry!!!!!!!!!!

[firefocks2k]

It's the same as you guys describe for me here in South West Leicestershire.

I think I am looking at the Sutton tx mast.

Where are the rest of you?

Glad this is not an F1 weekend.

Dave.

[Rabbit80]

Its crashing my TV set... Hannspree 32"

Picture goes off - sound stays on. TV stops responding to remote or buttons on the set - all I can do is turn off at mains then as soon as i turn back on it crashes!

On Bilsdale transmitter!

[Soupytwist]

My digihome is doing the same thing. I did notice yesterday when doing a rescan that the BBC channels appeared in a different order than before,

[DeadMan]

If this is as common a problem as it seems then a fix from the BBC should hopefully be forthcoming. Otherwise they are a bunch of cowboys. Well they are anyhow. Bloody ridiculous!

[firefocks2k]

Just spoke to BBC on 03700 100 222. They are aware of a problem and insist that engineers are looking at it now.

She would not say how long they would take and I forgot to ask when they 1st became aware of a problem.

[Rabbit80]

I was just about to call them myself!

[Soupytwist]

seems to be ok now

[firefocks2k]

Mine seems to be fixed! We shall see..

[Rabbit80]

Mine is fine now as well

[pfcso]

Mine is OK now too but this kind of glitch is surely not good enough. We, on Rowridge transmitter, are having a complete re-allocation of frequencies on 25 March (next Wednesday). Tonights problem does not fill me with confidence!

Paul

[DeadMan]

Originally Posted by firefocks2k

Just spoke to BBC on 03700 100 222. They are aware of a problem and insist that engineers are looking at it now.

She would not say how long they would take and I forgot to ask when they 1st became aware of a problem.

Well that's good to know.

[DeadMan]

Fixed. Phew!

[nwhitfield]

The problem will be a crappy MHEG engine in some boxes, which suddenly crashes when the BBC change something in one of the interactive applications on their channels. It's happened with other boxes in the past, and will probably happen again.

It's not so much the BBC's fault, as that of the box manufacturers who use unreliable MHEG engines - even if the engine can't process the interactive service, it really shouldn't crash the whole box. The BBC has a test right, with lots of equipment, so they can check things like this - but with so many cheap bits of tat on the market, of dubious provenance, there probably are some models that they don't have in their test rig - and they obviously can't test on every single firmware version of every box ever made.

As well as speaking to the BBC, it's worth pestering the maker or distributor of your boxes, and asking if they have made sure the BBC have their models available to test, and make sure these things don't happen.

[pfcso]

Hi Nwhitfield

I take your point about the manufacturers liaising with the BBC, but there seems to be a problem with standards here.

Surely box manufacturers and the BBC are all adhering to some minimum specs?

Supposing the electricity companies suddenly decided to change the voltage/frequency of the mains supply! OK, so that is a bit simplistic but, as a consumer with only a limited knowledge of digital transmission, it should not be up to me to rectify shortcomings in television transmissions!

There seemed to be enough of us complaining last night on this forum for it not to be a problem of limited scope. I am guessing that there are a fairly small number of generic versions of firmware. I expect the Beeb to test on the cheaper models as well as the expensive ones.

I did mail a complaint via the BBC website. I'll be interested to see if I get a reply and what they say.

Best wishes

Paul