[TelstraClear] Random STB resets!

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hudds

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#14142 18-Jun-2007 11:20

Hi all,

We seem to have random digital cable box resets. Where the picture freezes, the cable box turns off then goes through and scans for all the channels again. this process takes anywhere from 30 seconds to minutes. We also have issues where the on screen channel guide freezes and takes a while for it to unstick.

I was wondering if I was the only one experiencing this or do others have the same problems? it gets really annoying when you are trying to watch a show and it happpens right at the critical moment.

We have had a tech person around and have replaced the STB with a new one, and still the same problems.

Should I call them again? I would rather not as I dont like spending hours on hold.

cheers

rscole86

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#75001 18-Jun-2007 11:34

It happens to me once a day.

Usually between 6pm and 10pm.

I have had both my STB's replaced and tested and they could not fault them. So I have just "put up" with it.

hudds

9 posts

Wannabe Geek

#75002 18-Jun-2007 11:39

thats ridiculous. Our resets are often, but aren't that frequent.

Surely they (TCL) should be able to sort it out. Maybe they should use a different decoder???

JonC

425 posts

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#75007 18-Jun-2007 13:40

Happens to me a lot when I'm using the EPG.

munchkin

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#75057 18-Jun-2007 18:24

JonC: Happens to me a lot when I'm using the EPG.

When I have an EPG, I suffer from the same problem. But....because of this problem, I usually have no EPG.

ellboss

73 posts

Master Geek

#75103 18-Jun-2007 22:11

munchkin:
JonC: Happens to me a lot when I'm using the EPG.

When I have an EPG, I suffer from the same problem. But....because of this problem, I usually have no EPG.

Exactly! TC should get this sorted.

Tarq57

156 posts

Master Geek

#75308 20-Jun-2007 12:02

We've had this fairly frequently, and had at least two new decoders.
The trick seems to be to let it be on for at least a minute before asking any "complex" tasks of it, like opening the EPG.
Once in the EPG, and searching up/down fwd/back, should the "info" button be pushed, be prepared for it to take a while for the info to come up. I've found that pushing any other buttons during this time freezes or restarts the unit.
I believe it's a certified POS, but it's the only model on offer. Don't know the specs of it, but clearly too much is being asked of it, and it locks up frequently.
After a reset, it takes several minutes for the EPG to be available.
If anyone doesn't have EPG, try unplugging it, for a minute, plug it in, let it start up. Resets it, EPG should be up in 5 min or so.

munchkin

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#75359 20-Jun-2007 17:30

I've solved the problem with both decoders by setting up Media Center [sic] computers - as long as the internet works, there is a guide.

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BarTender

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#76751 3-Jul-2007 17:06

I think this is a known problem from TelstraClear since they seem to refuse to publish it anywhere but each time I have had a tech out to "fix" the problem they say, yeah this is a known problem.

Then they tend to spend 1 hour or so replacing the coax underneath my house, say it's "water damage between the POP (point of presence) connection on the side of my house and the termination point inside my house". And sometimes they replace the decoder, sometimes they don't.

I am getting pretty annoyed with this, it's crap in comparison to what I had with sky.

The issue is because the STB get's (and this is from the tech) "overloaded with the EPG (electronic programming guide)" when it is pushed out every 1 hour or so, it seems that because Telstra/Sky are adding additional channels and the EPG IP stream (humm must trace it on my PC to see what is going on....) is pushed out to the STB's on a set basis that if you are browsing the EPG, or changing channels or any of that "taxing" work for a poor little STB that the box itself reboots.

The sure-fire way to fix the problem is to turn off the STB's cablemodem so then no EPG is downloaded and no reboots. But hang on a minute, isn't the whole point of having digital TV so you can find out what is going on via the EPG, and use PPV (if you choose to).

Currently trying to see if I can get my dreambox which is on it's way (in theory!) with a Cable decoder instead of the SAT one and see if I can hook that up with the Telstra Card instead.

Other than that I think the CableTV offering it not much better than analogue TV with more channels IMHO.

ralphski

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#76986 5-Jul-2007 09:02

TCL has posted it on the Network Status page

http://networkstatus.telstraclear.co.nz/
at
http://networkstatus.telstraclear.co.nz/home/saturn_tv_digital_.html

Any opinions expressed on Geekzone are my own and not those of my employer.

JonC

425 posts

Ultimate Geek

#76989 5-Jul-2007 09:08

Yeah - at last they've acknowledged it and are doing something about it. I wonder if the July 10 "Estimated Service Disruption End" is a real estimate or just some filler date.

ralphski

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#76996 5-Jul-2007 09:19

JonC: Yeah - at last they've acknowledged it and are doing something about it. I wonder if the July 10 "Estimated Service Disruption End" is a real estimate or just some filler date.

Personally, I think it's a filler date, to the best of my knowledge they are still testing at least a couple of possible resolutions.
Which btw are.
One is to move the DTV services onto a different VLAN to what HSI modems are on to remove all the arp traffic which is the cause of all these issues (reboots/freezing/missing EPG/PPV)
Two is to upgrade the software on the ADB STU's to get them to ignore arp traffic.

Personally I think they should use both.

Any opinions expressed on Geekzone are my own and not those of my employer.

BarTender

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#77030 5-Jul-2007 14:14

So are you meaning to tell me it's just the ARP traffic that is causing the STB to reboot???

If that is the case then I will probably bridge two IP addresses (1 Real and 1 for the TCL STB Network) on my router and hand out a Static DHCP address for the STB on a different subnet, NAT it all through and hopefully poof all my STB Reboots should go away. Might be time to get Wireshark/Sniffer out and do a days worth of analysis to see what sort of junk goes over the network.

Interesting.......