UPC Horizon Audio/Video cut out

ptha

I have had the new Horizon UPC box for nearly 2 months and am generally happy with it (besides the many slow/missing UI issues).
Has anyone else had an issue where the audio and video both cut out for maybe 1-2 seconds and then everthing is back to normal? It seems to happen a few times when I start to watch and then intermittently (maybe 3 or 4 times in 2 hours). I've tried a factory reset and made sure the media search is off, but no joy. I'm using new HDMI (v1.4) cables, but maybe I'll switch back to the old ones to see if there's any difference.

loup

This happens me too and especially on recorded programmes, the sound will drop out half way through but then if i fast foward and then rewind, sometimes it will play the sound then. Its REALLY annoying, another gripe to add to my list of gripes about the Horizon box.

Technoprisoner

is your tv a philips by any chance?

Sin City

From what I hear there is going to be a new software update early next year where all the problems will be fixed. I have the same issues and my gf just throws me dirty looks every time the sound goes or the pic freezes. The UPC agents said these are known issues and will be fixed when update is released.

ptha

Technoprisoner wrote: »

is your tv a philips by any chance?

Yes it's Philips 32PFL8605H/12. It cuts out both audio and video for a second or 2 and then both return to normal.
I have tried swiching to a different HDMI port on the tv, no difference. I didn't think it was the tv as I don't see the issue when playing files off my NAS directly on TV.

I've also heard of this magical fix-all update in the new year, it's supposed to include full series deletion. Let's hope it improves things.

Wabbit Ears

Check you have the latest version of the tv firmware

latest version is 000.140.048.000

http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/cpindex.pl?ctn=32PFL8605H/12&hlt=Link_Software&mid=Link_Software&scy=GB&slg=AEN

To view the
current TV software
version, press
home
>
Setup
>
Software settings
and press
OK

ptha

Wabbit Ears wrote: »

Check you have the latest version of the tv firmware

latest version is 000.140.048.000

http://www.p4c.philips.com/cgi-bin/cpindex.pl?ctn=32PFL8605H/12&hlt=Link_Software&mid=Link_Software&scy=GB&slg=AEN

To view the
current TV software
version, press
home
>
Setup
>
Software settings
and press
OK

I've got version: Q5551-0.140.48.0 which is the latest firmware I believe. The tv is quite old, so if it is a firmware issue I doubt Philips will be releasing an update for it.
Has anyone else with a Philips TV seen this issue?

Technoprisoner

ptha wrote: »

Yes it's Philips 32PFL8605H/12. It cuts out both audio and video for a second or 2 and then both return to normal.
I have tried swiching to a different HDMI port on the tv, no difference. I didn't think it was the tv as I don't see the issue when playing files off my NAS directly on TV.

I've also heard of this magical fix-all update in the new year, it's supposed to include full series deletion. Let's hope it improves things.

i had the exact same problem. its a known problem with upc and the horizon box...apparently it has something to do with the "hand shake" between the tv and the box across hdmi. if you use an analogue scart lead you wont have a problem but beats the purpose of having hd box. the only way it got sorted for me was when i got a newer tv from philips after a warranty claim

Technoprisoner

oohh and if you google.... horizon, philips, problem.... you will find lots of people with this problem not only in ireland

ptha

Technoprisoner wrote: »

i had the exact same problem. its a known problem with upc and the horizon box...apparently it has something to do with the "hand shake" between the tv and the box across hdmi. if you use an analogue scart lead you wont have a problem but beats the purpose of having hd box. the only way it got sorted for me was when i got a newer tv from philips after a warranty claim

Ugh... Yes I think switching to scart is not an option and the TV is almost certainly out of warranty.

I'm also having an issue with my LG NB4530A sound bar which is connected to the TV via the ARC HDMI port which sounds related to your description. Basically when I switch the sound bar on, the TV detects it, and switches the sound bar to the Optical input (from ARC) and mutes it. Only way around is to go into the TV settings and switch the TV speakers to off and then to EasyLink On (with or without autostart). I have to do this every time I switch on which is a pain (although sometimes it seems to work if I switch the sound bar on after the TV has been on for a while). I could maybe use the optical input, but with ARC, the TV, UPC and sound bar remote can control the volume which is handy and all HDMI inputs are routed through the TV. I was blaming the TV for this as I've tested the sound bar with a friend's Panasonic TV with no problems. Sounds like another HDMI handing shake/connection issue.

Found a Philips support forum thread detailing some of the issues: http://www.supportforum.philips.com/en/showthread.php?8514-DHCP-problems-Digital-TV&referrerid=8200
The last entry is the start of 2013 (and the topic is closed) with nothing further from Philips regarding a firmware update for older TVs

Thanks for the info though.

ptha

Sin City wrote: »

From what I hear there is going to be a new software update early next year where all the problems will be fixed. I have the same issues and my gf just throws me dirty looks every time the sound goes or the pic freezes. The UPC agents said these are known issues and will be fixed when update is released.

Found this article from April saying UPC was planning a major update to Horizon for it's Netherlands customers, who were experiencing much the same issues we've had in Ireland: http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2013/04/15/upc-plans-major-horizon-update/

From the article:

Improvements will include faster navigation, a better menu structure with less clicks needed, more programme information when zapping through the channels.The operator will also send a new remote control to all its Horizon customers, which has more buttons giving one-click access to a number of functions, such as the EPG and on-demand.

I wonder if our major update will include a new remote... I doubt it as we already have one click access to EPG and on-demand. I don't understand why they put the red/green/yellow/blue buttons on the back of the Horizon remote. A lot of the too-many clicks problems could be fixed by using the coloured buttons for context sensitive operations as they were on the old UPC remotes.

Technoprisoner

ptha wrote: »

Found this article from April saying UPC was planning a major update to Horizon for it's Netherlands customers, who were experiencing much the same issues we've had in Ireland: http://www.broadbandtvnews.com/2013/04/15/upc-plans-major-horizon-update/

From the article:

Improvements will include faster navigation, a better menu structure with less clicks needed, more programme information when zapping through the channels.The operator will also send a new remote control to all its Horizon customers, which has more buttons giving one-click access to a number of functions, such as the EPG and on-demand.

I wonder if our major update will include a new remote... I doubt it as we already have one click access to EPG and on-demand. I don't understand why they put the red/green/yellow/blue buttons on the back of the Horizon remote. A lot of the too-many clicks problems could be fixed by using the coloured buttons for context sensitive operations as they were on the old UPC remotes.

we have had that update already and the current remote is the one that replaced the older remote with less buttons. unfortuantelly if you want this to work properly for you its going to be either

1) buy a new tv
or
2) use a scart lead which defeats the purpose of having hd

ptha

Technoprisoner wrote: »

we have had that update already and the current remote is the one that replaced the older remote with less buttons. unfortuantelly if you want this to work properly for you its going to be either

1) buy a new tv
or
2) use a scart lead which defeats the purpose of having hd

Yes I don't think the update promised in the New Year will make any difference to my Philips TV/Horizon Box incompatibility woes. I'll probably just have to live with it until I buy a new TV.

The post regarding the Dutch update and our forthcoming one was mostly a rant about the remote design and the UI slowness. Whatever about hardware incompatibility and stuff that's just broken, I don't know why you'd release a UI that took more clicks to do simple tasks than the previous one. If the answer was "We wanted to make the remote simpler with less buttons" - then that was a bad decision...

Technoprisoner

i think it might have been more a beta version of horizon that was released in holland