Recurring issue on one channel

mburwen · ‎12-10-2012

I have the problem on 1007, our local ABC HD channel. It occurs only on the TV connected to the DVR receiver. I thought it might be a problem with the box, but I replaced it, and the new box does the same thing. The problem occurs at least 3 times per week. Uverse Tech Support claims it is a broadcast problem, which makes no sense since it doesn't happen on my other two recievers. Nor does it occur on the SD feed, only the HD feed. Now that I see that this happens to other users, I conclude that ATT does know about the problem, but won't admit it. They obviously don't know how to fix it. Shame on them. I wonder if any ot their people look at these forums.

[Subject edited to reflect new topic]

mburwen · ‎12-10-2012

Just becaue I had a few minutes to spare, I contacted ATT Tech Support via chat. The first agent escalated me to a "Tier 2" support person because she couldn't deal with the problem. That person told me that he would have to escalate it to a higher level and that someone would get back to me. haven't heard yet, but I'll post the reply if I get it.

gregzoll_1 · ‎06-23-2010

You really need to be working with the local affiliate regarding this also, due to it could be something wrong with the uplink to their HD equipment, or the feed to the Head end for ATT that serves your area.

Every now and then we lose the feed for the HD feed for our local NBC affiliate, and when I sent something to their engineers, they were very forthcoming as to what the situation was and that they were working on it.

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mburwen · ‎12-10-2012

What did they say the problem was? It is hard to believe it is the broadcaster because the show will record OK even though it doesn't appear on screen and because it is OK on the other receivers. Also, from the varied reports I've seen on other parts of this forum, the problem occurs only with the HD feeds of local stations, but of different stations and channel assignments depending on where one lives. If it is a generic broadcast issue, why doesn't it occur on more than one channel?

texasguy37 · ‎05-18-2009

mburwen wrote:

What did they say the problem was? It is hard to believe it is the broadcaster because the show will record OK even though it doesn't appear on screen and because it is OK on the other receivers. Also, from the varied reports I've seen on other parts of this forum, the problem occurs only with the HD feeds of local stations, but of different stations and channel assignments depending on where one lives. If it is a generic broadcast issue, why doesn't it occur on more than one channel?

Reading your first message, I'm not clear about what the problem is that you are having with this channel. What do you see on screen?

mburwen · ‎12-10-2012

The screen is black. No picture, no sound. However, while this is happening, the channel will record normally. Also, that channel appears on all the other TVs, indicating to me that the problem is in the DVR receiver's logic. I saw a suggestion on another forum indicating that power cycling the DVR receiver when the problem occurs sometimes solves the problem.

texasguy37 · ‎05-18-2009

Thanks for the additional information.

This is a known issue. Occasionally, a random channel may go black for a few minutes or a few hours before the picture returns on it's own. If you want to get the picture back immediately, reboot the U-verse receiver.

AT&T is aware of the issue, but it is an issue that Microsoft needs to resolve since the U-verse receivers use the Microsoft Media Room software. There was a post on this forum that AT&T has an open ticket with Microsoft on this issue; however, there is no ETA for a resolution. It must be quite a complicated issues to resolve because this issue has been going on for quite some time.

bauwls · ‎08-05-2012

Excellent response texasguy. There's an update being rolled out for STB's - Microsoft client 2.1.3.1 that is intended to fix this issue for grey receivers. I believe it's already applied already in most areas.

mburwen · ‎12-10-2012

FYI, my son-in-law is an "Evangelist" for Microsoft specializing in the entertainment industry and refuses to admit there is a problem with Media Room (I know that is the basis for U-Verse). When I discovered the problem discussed in this thread, I asked him about it. Got a typical Microsoft head-in-the-sand response. I think it is very strange that AT&T will not disclose the truth about this issue, if not to its customers, at least to its tech support organization.

texasguy37 · ‎05-18-2009

Yeah, we know that of all of Microsoft's software works flawlessly.

I thought the issues was pretty well known since it has existed for some time.

mburwen · ‎12-10-2012

I've had U-Verse for only a few weeks, so the issue is new to me. The problem came up tonight, and I was able to fix it by power cycling the receiver. You may think the issue is well-known, but it certainly is not to AT&T's tech support. Either that, or it is pretending it doesn't exist.

RCSMG · ‎12-10-2007

One thing I discovered about the black screen issue is one day I didn't change to a different channel when our local NBC Affiliate channel 4 was showing a black screen. And this is SD by the way. I turned the tv back on a few hours later and the channel was showing. No one rebooted the STB. But I also notice there is a certain time range when this can happen. It seems to be betweent 5am est and 12pm est. If I don't change the channel it will display just fine, but if I change the channel then come back I get the black screen.

If this was happening across the board then I would blame the local channel, but because a reboot will correct it, this is clearly a software iossue.

mburwen · ‎12-10-2012

Interesting. I find it happens between 5 PM PST and 10 PM PST. I've only seen it on HD channels, but I never watch SD. I found that, when the HD feed goes black, the SD feed is OK. I agree that it must be a software/firmware issue

HaroldT_1 · ‎02-24-2010

bauwls wrote:
Excellent response texasguy. There's an update being rolled out for STB's - Microsoft client 2.1.3.1 that is intended to fix this issue for grey receivers. I believe it's already applied already in most areas.

I have had a problem where the HD version of the local ABC affilate will freeze. When this happens we have to change to the SD chanel to continue watching the program. I hasn't happened to any of the other chanels that we watch. I eventually is corrected but the lengh of time varies.

I have checked all of my grey receivers, including the DVR, and they are all currently on version 2.1.2512.10 of the MS client software. All of these receivers are Cisco by the way. I have 2 WiFi receivers and these are at version 2.1.2512.52. I cannot say if we've experiance the proble on the boxes because we do not watch them as often.

Does anyone have an idea when the updated software will be rolled out to the Orlando, FL area?

Thanks, Jim

mburwen · ‎12-10-2012

Not sure what you mean by "grey" receivers. Mine is black - I was told it is the latest, most advanced box U-Verse offers, Model VIP2250. Supposedly has a terabyte hard drive, but I don't know how to find out the exact capacity. How do you find out the version number of the software?

RCSMG · ‎12-10-2007

HaroldT_1 wrote:

bauwls wrote:

Excellent response texasguy. There's an update being rolled out for STB's - Microsoft client 2.1.3.1 that is intended to fix this issue for grey receivers. I believe it's already applied already in most areas.

I have had a problem where the HD version of the local ABC affilate will freeze. When this happens we have to change to the SD chanel to continue watching the program. I hasn't happened to any of the other chanels that we watch. I eventually is corrected but the lengh of time varies.

I have checked all of my grey receivers, including the DVR, and they are all currently on version 2.1.2512.10 of the MS client software. All of these receivers are Cisco by the way. I have 2 WiFi receivers and these are at version 2.1.2512.52. I cannot say if we've experiance the proble on the boxes because we do not watch them as often.

Does anyone have an idea when the updated software will be rolled out to the Orlando, FL area?

Thanks, Jim

Rollouts are done region by region and ATT does not announce any kind of rollout schedule. You just have to keep checking to see if you have the update.