Black Screen of death Solved?

[bobelliot]

I've had numerous black screens over the last few months when playing back recorded programs. Here's what I've found.

1. They only happen on HD records.

2. 25% of the time they are fixed by a soft or hard reboot of the STB.

3. They are ALWAYS fixed by unplugging the HDMI cable from the STB and a reboot.

It appears the connection on the HDMI is the problem, could be anything from power surge to bad connection. It also explains why some people can watch the program on another TV, since the HDMI only affects the TV connected to the STB.

Anyway, it now works for me, 100% of the time.

Would love to hear if it works for others.

[SomeJoe7777 ACE - Geek]

I've had one or two black screens before, but I don't use HDMI, I use component.  So there's nothing to unplug for me.

[mibrnsurg ACE - Geek]

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bobelliot wrote:

I've had numerous black screens over the last few months when playing back recorded programs. Here's what I've found.

1. They only happen on HD records.

2. 25% of the time they are fixed by a soft or hard reboot of the STB.

3. They are ALWAYS fixed by unplugging the HDMI cable from the STB and a reboot.

It appears the connection on the HDMI is the problem, could be anything from power surge to bad connection. It also explains why some people can watch the program on another TV, since the HDMI only affects the TV connected to the STB.

Anyway, it now works for me, 100% of the time.

Would love to hear if it works for others.

---

No, not for me, had 4 in the past six months that would not play no matter what I did.  What may be significant is all were 'orphan' recordings, nothing recorded before/after on the same channel.

Chris

_____________________________________________________________________

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-866-465-1496 for direct TS to avoid 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

[JefferMC ACE - Wizard]

We don't do HD, but I've seen it happen on SD.  I only remember it happening twice (in 8 months).  A soft reboot fixed it both times.

[dhascall ACE - Professor]

I've had several and they were not on HD channels nd I only use component cables on the DVR and composites or plain coax on the other two.

[jumpyg]

I had one today. My morning news recording was all black on my upstairs TV STB. I also could not start a manual recording on that channel ("television service temporarily unavailable"). However, I could view the program okay on my main TV with the DVR. ATT really needs to fix this kind of thing. I'd rather have the DVR just work all the time than add new features at this point (and the DVR really lacks a lot of features the other guys have). I've had more problems in 6 months with Uverse than I did with 7 years of Dish Network, and that is no exaggeration at all.

[dhascall ACE - Professor]

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jumpyg wrote:

I had one today. My morning news recording was all black on my upstairs TV STB. I also could not start a manual recording on that channel ("television service temporarily unavailable"). However, I could view the program okay on my main TV with the DVR. ATT really needs to fix this kind of thing. I'd rather have the DVR just work all the time than add new features at this point (and the DVR really lacks a lot of features the other guys have). I've had more problems in 6 months with Uverse than I did with 7 years of Dish Network, and that is no exaggeration at all.

---

That issue seems apples and oranges to the "normal" types of BSOD issues that we have seen.  All of my BSOD's have been on the DVR and you could actually play them on the non-DVR boxes.  Yours sounds like the system just wasn't communicating with the TV (U-Verse) Service at all.  I normally see this around midnight (+/- 2 or so hours) when I can't schedule recordings, start DVR's stuff nd so on.  It is odd, if you are playing a DVR'd program and one of those times that "the service is unavailble," your recording will play and /or record just fine but it's only when you want to initiate something (playing a show or recording a show) that you would see the error (or else every late night recording would be fragmented).

[RCSMG ACE - Master]

I only have sd recordings, and connected via composite on some tvs and coax on others.  There have been some that after I exited out of the recorded shows screen and went back in they played.  I have never gotten one to play after soft or hard booting dvr.  YRMV seems to be the constant on this issue.

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

Mine are always HD, happens with component & HDMI TVs, DVR can be Ethernet or Coax connected here.  Think mine is really a local issue with a certain channel.

[RCSMG ACE - Master]

Mine have happened with recordings from several different channels.

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

Think it's safe to say for now, it's still an unsolved mystery.

[RCSMG ACE - Master]

The only solution I have had work when I get a BSOD is go to the site of the network I recorded the show on and watch it there.

[Silgon25]

Best thing you can do in this situation is reboot the RG. When it comes back up, first reboot the DVR, wait for it to load completely where you can access the recordings from the DVR. Then reboot any receivers that are still giving you the black screen.

That should be enough to refresh the service connections and be able to view recordings on STBs again.

[RCSMG ACE - Master]

Has that worked for you every time you got the BSOD when trying to watch a recorded program?

[Silgon25]

Usually. It's mainly a network connection issue. Kinda like when you reboot the computer when you get a low connection on wireless internet.

Try it out and let us know how it worked.

[RCSMG ACE - Master]

I will, I have a BSOD video on my dvr.

[bri_man_65]

I had this problem twice, and the fix suggested worked for me both times.  YRMV

[RCSMG ACE - Master]

Cool

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

Interesting, will try if/when I ever get another one.

[RCSMG ACE - Master]

I have one, I just having had time to try this solution. Hopefully tomorrow (Friday)

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

Let us know, will be interesting.

[RCSMG ACE - Master]

I was about to try the BSOD solution and I went to check to make sure the program wouldn't play and guess what.  I clicked on it and it is playing.  I have to admit that I am a little disappointed because I really wanted to try this solution.  It seemed like a good solution.  Hopefully somebody can try this solution and let us know.

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

Drats! 

[RCSMG ACE - Master]

I still have a lot of recordings maybe one of them will have it.  Unless ATT has resolved the issue.  Then that would be cool.

[Silgon25]

Most of the time. There's been once or twice that I had to call in for help.

[mibrnsurg ACE - Geek]

The one time I called in about BSOD  they were no help, especially when I asked "why should we have reboot to get these programs to play?".  10 seconds of silence (not on his script) and I said byebye. 

A recent epanel had a number of questions about BSOD, so ATT is very aware of them, they just have figure out how to stop them.  Luckily have not had one in a while and been recording alot, keeping my fingers crossed.

Chris

___________________________________________________________________________

Please NO SD stretch-o-vision or 480 SD HD Channels
1-866-465-1496 for direct TS to avoid 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

[RCSMG ACE - Master]

I have an episode of "Dark Blue", I tried to play it and got the BSOD.  I tried the solution that was offered and the video will still not play.  I have did a hard reboot of the rg and the dvr, I will also try watching it on a different tv.  My install is coax, and the recordings is sd.

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

Thanks for the update.

[RCSMG ACE - Master]

No problem.  It would have been nice if it had worked for me.

[spd2demun ACE - Master]

Maybe it will be next on the list after 5.1 gets resolved.