AT&T UVERSE - The Next Best thing to having Cable Television.

marcindublin · ‎03-17-2008

I am absolutely incredulous as I write this.

Within the last few weeks, on one of my (non-DVR) TV's, I'll be watching it and all of a sudden, for no reason, the screen will go blank. The box will acknowledge commands but nothing will appear on the screen. Sometimes, a reboot will fix the condition, sometimes it won't and sometimes, the condition will resolve itself after a period of time lasting from under a second to hours later.

I called UVERSE support. They mail me a new box but that failed to resolve the problem.

I call again. Now, they tell me that this is a known, widespread problem whose fix will be included in the next update, whenever that is. In the meantime, I am left without reliable cable service on at least one TV in my house which apparently, is just fine with AT&T.

Trouble is - I don't believe a word that the rep was saying. If this was a widespread problem, someone would have reported it on the forum. If this was a widespread problem, AT&T would be bleeding customers in droves since it essentially renders the service unusable for customers so afflicted. Now, after 3 years of relatively good AT&T service, I seem to be left with only two options. I can commit to the radically inferior Time Warner offering or I can simply not watch TV on those boxes that have the problem.

Oh - and they refuse to even stop charging for the box in the room where cable TV is but a distant memory.

Note that this problem is not the black screen on death. This happens when watching recorded TV, video on demand or live tv. It strikes randomly.

What to do?

texasguy37 · ‎05-18-2009

Which U-verse box do you have, and how is it connected to the TV?

By the way, I have noticed this happening recently but it has lasted only a few seconds before resolving itself.

marcindublin · ‎03-17-2008

It is a VIP1200 connected via HDMI. I can't say definitively that it only happens during HD programming but the bulk of what I watch is in HD and I always have closed captioning turn on for the box. Those are the only variables that might be different than my other boxes. Perhaps I'd have better luck with RCA cables and forego HD until the promised update.

dhascall · ‎04-21-2008

marcindublin wrote:
I am absolutely incredulous as I write this.

Within the last few weeks, on one of my (non-DVR) TV's, I'll be watching it and all of a sudden, for no reason, the screen will go blank. The box will acknowledge commands but nothing will appear on the screen. Sometimes, a reboot will fix the condition, sometimes it won't and sometimes, the condition will resolve itself after a period of time lasting from under a second to hours later.

I called UVERSE support. They mail me a new box but that failed to resolve the problem.

I call again. Now, they tell me that this is a known, widespread problem whose fix will be included in the next update, whenever that is. In the meantime, I am left without reliable cable service on at least one TV in my house which apparently, is just fine with AT&T.

Trouble is - I don't believe a word that the rep was saying. If this was a widespread problem, someone would have reported it on the forum. If this was a widespread problem, AT&T would be bleeding customers in droves since it essentially renders the service unusable for customers so afflicted. Now, after 3 years of relatively good AT&T service, I seem to be left with only two options. I can commit to the radically inferior Time Warner offering or I can simply not watch TV on those boxes that have the problem.

Oh - and they refuse to even stop charging for the box in the room where cable TV is but a distant memory.

Note that this problem is not the black screen on death. This happens when watching recorded TV, video on demand or live tv. It strikes randomly.

What to do?

I have not seen that issue. Does pressing Exit to TV do anything? I would not think that it would as that just frees up what seems to be a stuck remote.

Billing issues? PM Alex.

As far as Black Screen of Death - I have not seen that "recordings won't play" issue in many, many moons. It has been replaced by the "Black Screen of Live TV."

marcindublin · ‎03-17-2008

So after TG asked why kind of connection I had, I thought I'd change it up and use good old fashion RCA cables just to see what would happen. No failure, no hiccup, not a blip. Of course, no HD either, but SD is better than a blank screen. I'll find some component cables and see if that makes a difference.

If the problem is a widespread as the AT*T representative said, you would think they would know this and suggest it to the customer rather than the "Oh well... " response that I got from support.

texasguy37 · ‎05-18-2009

Try using component cables (red, blue, green) to connect the U-verse box to the HDTV. Component cables will give you an HD picture.

chuckbuck · ‎10-11-2010

Some time ago i was having problems with my HD picture and after talking to tech support for a while and i think that i had somebody come out and replaced my DVR and that didnt do any good. The TV that i was having the problem with was hooked up via a HDMI cable and i had a blu ray player that was hooked up via component cables. I just changed cables and i havent had any problems since.

mibrnsurg · ‎07-15-2008

texasguy37 wrote:

Which U-verse box do you have, and how is it connected to the TV?

By the way, I have noticed this happening recently but it has lasted only a few seconds before resolving itself.

Does it seem like the HDMI link has failed for a few seconds? Here I've been getting a few seconds of black screen when my TV puts the little HDMI graphic up in the upper left, 2 or 3 times since, but never before.

Seems to be happening after the .10 TV2 client download. Before that, the link would totally fail and get 'snow' on the TV, a DVR reboot would be necessary to bring back HDMI ( 2 or 3 times in first 3 years).

Chris

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-800-288-2020, After he gets acct info, press # a bunch of times, get a menu from Mr. Voice recognition
Your Results May Vary, In My Humble Opinion
I Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

texasguy37 · ‎05-18-2009

I am using HDMI cables, and I have seen the black screen. I don't recall ever seeing the HDMI graphic in the upper left corner.

mibrnsurg · ‎07-15-2008

The HDMI graphic may be specific to Panasonic TVs when the connection is lost momentarily.

Chris

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-800-288-2020, After he gets acct info, press # a bunch of times, get a menu from Mr. Voice recognition
Your Results May Vary, In My Humble Opinion
I Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more

marcindublin · ‎03-17-2008

OK, so what do the experts make of this.

As I said, I left the HDMI connection from my VIP1200 to my Panasonic HDTV in place but I also added RCA connectors so I could at least watch TV in SD while AT&T supposedly is working on this. The input selector on the TV corresponded to that of the RCA connection (e.g. SD).

Every few second, I'd get a message popping up on the screen:

HDMI ERROR

and then in the line below it

HDCP LINK INTEGRITY FAILURE

The message would disappear and reappear between 2 and 10 seconds later.

I disconnected the HDMI cable from the VIP1200 and watched TV for an hour with no interruption.

It could be the .10 version of the software or it could be the cable, but it seems clear the error has something to do with HDMI.

mibrnsurg · ‎07-15-2008

Marc, if you have an extra pair of RCA audio cables for audio then you could use the composite 3 pair as component video and see HD while you wait for actual component cables from monoprice.com.

Chris

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-800-288-2020, After he gets acct info, press # a bunch of times, get a menu from Mr. Voice recognition
Your Results May Vary, In My Humble Opinion
I Call It Like I See It, Simply a U-verse user, nothing more