[TelstraClear] T-Box issues continued

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127 posts

Master Geek

#489762 5-Jul-2011 18:37

I've been cycling my T-Box + decoder (in the proper sequence) for months. That alleviates the freezing, but I experience regularly pretty much everything that's been mentioned in this thread. It's hard to see how anyone has had zero issues since some of reproducible. I guess they are just using their box in a particular way, e.g. rarely scheduling concurrent recordings. I would be astounded if anyone does not find the box sluggish. TC acknowledges that they are.

clivestart

82 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 2

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#489810 5-Jul-2011 20:32

Over the last couple of days we have been having scheduled recording "fail" for no obvious explanation, including several today.

Clive Start
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lanceanz

127 posts

Master Geek

#489816 5-Jul-2011 20:45

Had one fail on Saturday evening. Info said "Failed for an unknown reason". It was the only recording scheduled at that time, so wasn't caused by an overlap.

Just finished cycling my system as the EPG disappeared. That did restore the content.

Wanted

54 posts

Master Geek

#489899 6-Jul-2011 07:48

I find it very hard to believe anyone is not having issues if they actually are using the thing. If some are trouble free surely it's easier to locate the fault that is causing these wide-spread problems that is if anyone is even trying to fix it.

D1023319

527 posts

Ultimate Geek
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#489952 6-Jul-2011 10:22

I doubt that anyone here is so silly but just in case.

My wife told me the EPG on the t-box would not work after she had turned it on on off.

Turned out she didnt know the difference between using the on-off knob on the remote and actually turning the t-box off at the wall for a minute.

The again when she turned the TBox off via remote - the tv screen went blank.
This to her meant the tv was off and therefore safe to power off at wall.

zenourn

281 posts

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#490222 6-Jul-2011 19:32

Yet another issue tonight - T-Box was taking 1 min+ to respond to commands so did the usual power cycle. However once back up it didn't have any video/audio for live TV although displayed channel info, EPG, recorded shows, etc. Rebooting again didn't help. Called TelstraClear and they couldn't resolve the issue, said a replacement T-Box is likely needed again (4th one now!).

Wife is tired of all the issues - and I'm starting to agree with her. They are going to confirm tomorrow if the contract can be terminated without penalty - I don't really think the unit is fit for purpose! Looks like MySky is the better option - cheaper, good iPhone app, fewer issues ;-)

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lanceanz

127 posts

Master Geek

#490227 6-Jul-2011 19:50

zenourn: They are going to confirm tomorrow if the contract can be terminated without penalty - I don't really think the unit is fit for purpose! Looks like MySky is the better option - cheaper, good iPhone app, fewer issues ;-)

Three boxes already? Wow. My replacement made no difference, so just confirmed that my problems were software and EPG issues. With your experience, if they refused to terminate the contract without penalty you could always take them to Small Claims. I've always found TC very helpful though.

Before you give up maybe talk to a few people who have MySky. The rain problem would really annoy me. When it's pouring down outside that's the very time when I welcome TV. It's in TC's commercial interest to have a reliable T-Box and happy customers. I'm sure they've already lost some prospective T-Box owners. I'm pretty sure they will be passing on complaints to the developers (who I think may be in Russia). I've thought pretty seriously about asking for a refund and a digital decoder back, but it's another 1/2 day of wasted time for me. I'm just keeping fingers and toes crossed that after a couple more patches things will be better (although not so confident about the EPG service).

imd6662

134 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 22

#490269 6-Jul-2011 21:19

OK. So the thing won;t work again tonight.

How do we get TC to fix this properly.

quickymart

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#490295 6-Jul-2011 21:46

E-mail Tim in this thread, he seems to be quite good at responding. Don't bother calling, you're wasting your time.

BigBadaboom

151 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 9

#490332 6-Jul-2011 22:45

zenourn: However once back up it didn't have any video/audio for live TV although displayed channel info, EPG, recorded shows, etc.

The missing audio and video is also something that I've seen. Just once so far. My mother has had it also. I found you can resolve it by going into the EPG and switching channels a few times. It's also possible, I suppose, that changing channels was just a coincidence and that it might have come back of it's own accord after a while anyway.

zenourn

281 posts

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#490391 7-Jul-2011 07:58

BigBadaboom:

The missing audio and video is also something that I've seen. Just once so far. My mother has had it also. I found you can resolve it by going into the EPG and switching channels a few times. It's also possible, I suppose, that changing channels was just a coincidence and that it might have come back of it's own accord after a while anyway.

It did eventually come back several hours later. In my case changing channels in EPG didn't seem to do anything. I watched a previously recorded program, afterwards still nothing, and then watched a show that had started recording after the issue started (and was still recording). Interestingly this recording had video/audio and when I stopped it playing after a few minutes live TV was back. I think it is likely it just came back by itself.

They told me a big update is due out in 4 weeks to resolve most of the current issues. Will give them one more chance (even though one of my wife's friends works in support at TelstraClear and he has been saying to ditch the T-box for a while!)

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cyril7

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Subscriber

#490444 7-Jul-2011 09:55

The rain problem would really annoy me. When it's pouring down outside that's the very time when I welcome TV

If you are having any issues with Rain Fade then you need your dish checked, yes it does still occasionally happen, but since the downlink power was upped with the replacement of B1 with D1 the occurance of Rain fade is significanly mitigated, infact I cannot remember the last time I saw it, and yes settling down to some sports or movies on a wet drab day is good for me too.

From my observation of things I suspect you will have similar if not more downtime with TCLs HFC network than Skys Rain fade.

As for issues with MySky, other than the occasional series link issue, normally related to network changes, I cannot remember when we had any issues (nor need to reboot).

Got to remember that the Sky solution is infact the NDS XTV solution as used by most if not all the News Corp PayTV opertators, XTV had been deployed in UK and Europe and many other continents 4-5yrs before SkyNZ deployed it, so it was already a proven platform, any early teething issues were simply related to the porting of the product into SkyNZs setup. Pity TCL didnt take an existant platform rather than roll its own.

Cyril

zenourn

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#490460 7-Jul-2011 10:21

cyril7:
The rain problem would really annoy me. When it's pouring down outside that's the very time when I welcome TV

From my observation of things I suspect you will have similar if not more downtime with TCLs HFC network than Skys Rain fade.

Yes - several years ago TCLs HFC network was rock solid (over 600 days not a single issue...) but the last two years there have been lots of outages (even before the quakes).

Another issues is that living in east Christchurch power goes down all the time (3 weeks after Feb 22nd and still outages regularly). Although I have online UPSs, ATS, and a generator such that power stays up at home the HFC network dies and usually takes several hours to days after mains power resumes for it to come back up. I've been told it is battery backed up but this really doesn't appear to the be case, at least for the node we are connected to. At least Freeview and XT have worked during these times.

Sky will be immune to local mains power outages, although not sure how many dishes have needed realignment due to the quakes?

Fog

378 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 30

#490603 7-Jul-2011 14:44

Riposte: Getting frustrated with T-box so about to vent on you ..sorry in advance.
But its just getting insane - things seem to be getting worse rather than better.
The T-box is clearly a total piece of sh*t that is nowhere near ready for market.
Regular reboots required to sort out locked up user interface - and a clumsy, ill-thought out user interface even when it is working at its normal snails pace. You could get RSi of the thumb navigating through the menu system, list of recordings or EPG. You cant search for anything and it has numerous other issues with how it handles buffering and recording.

Im starting to wonder whether the two year contract for this thing is enforceable given it is such a stretch to describe it as fit for purpose. Don't see why I should be locked in for two years of beta testing. Any thoughts on that?

Looking at a move to MySKy - its probably not perfect either but cant be worse!

I am also wondering if the two year contract is enforceable. We have only ours for a few weeks now but am very sorry I ever changed from the old digital cable decoder. I certainly wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

clivestart

82 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 2

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#492618 12-Jul-2011 19:35

Lost all our EPG some time in the last few hours, again. Power cycle here I come.

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