VTV gen 2 freezing during All Blacks games and screen then goes black

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › VTV gen 2 freezing during All Blacks games and screen then goes black

RayHall

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#288717 18-Jul-2021 13:18

Both Fiji vs NZ games interrupted with the play freezing and then going blank. VTV has operated fine during the week in all other aspects. I can understand that the data stream perfomance might be pushed at times but surely the VTV gen2 box should cope with that? 100Mbps fibre connection to house and wifi to VTV STB.

Reported to VF after the 1st game and got the usual response "Reset the set top box".

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#2746613 19-Jul-2021 13:39

Sounds like you had quite a frustrating time during the games! Just so we can isolate the issue, does the STB work any better via Ethernet?

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RayHall

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#2747124 20-Jul-2021 13:33

I am sure the connection would be faster with an ethernet cable but that is not an option for us. The STB is only 3m away from the router and in direct sight of it.

This screen freezing happened on both all black games watched live, not recorded, a week apart but has not happened at all during the rest of the week. It is also a new occurrence, the STB with wifi has been good of recent times.

The only change has been the broadband plan which was on the advice of Vodafone cut back to a 100Mbps service

RayHall

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#2759997 14-Aug-2021 14:57

Once again during a live broadcast of a rugby game (Canterbury v Manawatu) at approx 2:45pm the screen freezes for a while and then goes blank and does not restart. No problems during the week at all.

cyril7

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#2760000 14-Aug-2021 15:28

If it's only 3m away could you not try an ethernet cable at least to remove doubt over the wireless as a test.

Cyril

RayHall

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#2760003 14-Aug-2021 15:44

Have tried the ethernet cable previously. As you would expect, it works fine but a cable trailing across the floor is not a permanent option. I am also bemused that it only happens during live rugby games. That makes me think that it is a download/buffering issue that the VTV cannot cope with.

cyril7

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#2760007 14-Aug-2021 15:59

Hi, its a pity you did not try the cable during the game to see if it helped. What I can sayi(and I am only summising here) is that live material is harder to compress to the level that is ideal as you dont have the luxury of multipass coding and more complex non realtime codec features that you get with recorded material. So I would expect the stream to be both of higher rate, but more likely less buffer length so less tolerant of micro dropouts that wifi might give.

Cyril

RayHall

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#2760010 14-Aug-2021 16:12

That is what I was surmising too, although without the same degree of technical content. That leaves the question though, shouldn't the VTV box be capable of managing that?

BTW, never happened once during the Olympics.

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Linux

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#2760068 14-Aug-2021 17:30

@RayHall 3m away and you will not connect the VTV over Ethernet? Sorry but that is crazy

RayHall

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#2760081 14-Aug-2021 20:59

@Linux Don't bother commenting if you cannot be constructive. I had already said that an ethernet connection was not an option.

cyril7

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#2760082 14-Aug-2021 21:05

But it is critical, a cabled connection is not impacted by other users in your network or interference from neighbouring networks. Yes live material is most likely more prone, so a cabled solution more solid.

Cyril

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#2760085 14-Aug-2021 21:19

RayHall:
@Linux Don't bother commenting if you cannot be constructive. I had already said that an ethernet connection was not an option.

Tell us why it is not an option then?

RayHall

17 posts

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#2760102 14-Aug-2021 22:16

@linux 16m of ethernet cable to go around the walls in one direction, multiples of that to go around in another, concrete floor so cannot go under and up the walls, through the roof and down again would look unsightly. Had considered going under the carpet but obvious costs in doing that.

Getting back to the whole point of my original posting. The VTV box is designed to work with a wifi connection. Sure ethernet is preferred but may not be possible for everyone for whatever reasons they may have.

@cyril7 states "a cabled connection is not impacted by other users in your network or interference from neighbouring networks. Yes live material is most likely more prone, so a cabled solution more solid.".

Accepting all of the above and previous comments, the VTV box shouldn't freeze and then go to a blank screen. It should be more fault tolerant than that.

Are rugby games the only programmes on TV that are truly live and consequently most affected by micro dropouts? Is the 100Mbps fibre service too slow to cope with surge in demand when there is a dropout?

MikeB4

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#2760104 14-Aug-2021 22:32

VTV works fine on WIFI. We have ours connected by WIFI and like the OP doing wired ethernet is not an option.

Handle9

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#2760118 15-Aug-2021 00:17

Linux:
RayHall:

@Linux Don't bother commenting if you cannot be constructive. I had already said that an ethernet connection was not an option.

Tell us why it is not an option then?

He's said it isn't an option for his setup. He doesn't have to justify himself to you beyond that.

Oblivian

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#2760146 15-Aug-2021 09:54

What now on Sunday am (for another 5) is live.

But different network so not apple/apples

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