Freeview boxes locking up?

Chaps,

I'm hoping that someone else can add some light to a few issues I'm having with my freeview box (a Nokia media master).

In short, it has a tendency to completely lock up, on average once every 2-3 days. The result is a completely black screen with a single red dot on it.

I've just contacted Currys on the subject, and their response was that ALL freeview boxes do it when faced with an occasional drop in signal strength.

To me, that sounds like utter BS. Just why would anyone design a freeview box so that it would need a hard re-boot (i.e. turn it off at the mains), just to be able to sort out a temporary issue with signal.
Any thoughts?

 

Yup my panasonic does it all the time.

Although mine is whenever something is switched on which it doesnt like. My desktop lamp and fan almost always lock the thing up. Nothing you can do except unplug it and plug it back in. If it doesnt lock up I get bad lip sync problems.

Ive seen several friends ones do exactly the same thing as well, but his was related to his fridge doing something on and offy.

 

My Panasonic doesn't do it at all (at least not in the 6 weeks I've had it). My only gripe is the signal quality must be quite poor as I get "digital noise" one hell of a lot (particularly on ITV)

 

Similar problems, but not on a freeview box, on an NTL (Pace) cable box. Lock ups, digital drop outs, slow reactions - and I'm paying for this crap.

Methinks digital TV is in actual fact just rubbish.

 

I've got one of those tiny Pace freeview boxes (very limited connections - SCART out only!) but in the 12 months or so I've had it I reckon it's only ever locked up a couple of times and I can't remember it doing it at all in the last 6 months. Apart from the lack of connections it's very impressive - fast, good menu system, great picture and that's through a basic old roof ariel.

My folks bought on of the cheap (£40) Fergusson freeview boxes from Currys and it locks up all the time - and sometimes even refuses to right itself after removing and then replacing the power lead!

The Philips DTR1500 is on my Xmas list so we'll see how that one pans out - if it's not as stable as the Pace (which will be moving to the bedroom) I won't be pleased. Looking forward to feeding the Philips' digital out signal to my Tag processor though!

Matt.

 

I have a Nokia Media Master and it does on occasions lock up but normally when channel hopping using up and down keys. It seems to behave itself if I pause on each channel before skipping to the next.

 

Buy a Netgem

The only time mine has locked up is on some dodgy websites...

Seriously though, this is a good box, although there is currently an incompatibility with the BBC MHEG5 multiscreen displays.

It is by far the fastest STB I've used, most make me want to get a hammer to the box and smash it to bits

www.netgem.com

Andy.

 

The setup I have now is great. I have a simple 21" colour TV with a great Philips Tube. The cantrast is surburb, I have the sound coming out from my Toshiba NICAM VCR connected into my amp. Both picture and sound are perfect. The only reason I would ever want digital is more choice but the picture can often freaze on digital as no amount of error checking can solve bad signals etc.

 

I also have a Nokia 221t which locks up. I'm actually on my 3rd one now as 2 have died completely before now! As mentioned before they mostly lock up/die when rapidly changing channels. They also dont seem to like getting hot and or dirty mains/interference. So i recommend putting it on spikes or similar, not on top of anything else to aid airflow,
trying a mains surge suppresor/cleaner
not rapidly flicking through channels!

You could also try using a specialist mains lead (lat, RA, Audusa etc. but £50 mains lead for a £100 box seems to take the piss methinks)

Obviously this is a common occurance as not once has the bloke in dixons been the slightest bit surprised when i keep taking them back!

PS make sure you have the latest software version as i believe this helps; in addition I think a new one is out now/soon.

Cheers, liam

 

Hi

My sky box (a crappy amstrad believe it or not) locks up, drops the signal and has crap sound. Oh and if I try and flick over to sky news it kills it and I have to do a hard reset.

Try checking the signal strength of your box. Mines up and down like a bloody yo yo atm. Either the dish has slipped very slightly out of alignment or the box is knackered. I just have to get off my arse and phone for an engineer. Sods law that this happend AFTER the guarantee ran out eh? Mind you one thing about not having a working sky box is that it means theres less to watch on the tv these days, which gives me even more time to listen to the hifi

Cheers...

 

Most problems with freeview boxes are down to poor signal (inadequate aerial/coax) and poor software (older/cheaper boxes). Mind you, I have NTL cable and that has a tendency to lose lip sync. Annoying when you've been away and recorded loads of stuff on TiVo, and its all 12 frames out of sync.

 

A couple of minutes or so after crashing, my Grundig and Netgem boxes usually reset themselves. Does the Nokia not do that?

They rarely do crash but it's down to my very bad signal when it does happen. Except the Grundig which sometimes crashed when I flicked channels to quickly.

 

never had a locking up problem on either my old ex-ITV Pioneer, Philips freeview dtr1500 and Sony freeview DTXS800

the red dot is the sign that the signal strength isn't good enough though. consider better aerial cabling, bigger aerial or a newer stb