Disappearing picture!

stanno · 25-04-2008, 09:12

Three times in the last couple of days a strange thing has happened. A couple of minutes after starting the V+ from sleep the picture on my TV goes black, on all channels. To get the picture back I have to go to the V+settings and change the output from HDMI to SCART, then back again.

Anyone else had this? I presume it is some kind of fault on the V+ box, although as I don't have another digibox I can't rule out the TV playing up.

mouqeet · 25-04-2008, 09:19

wel have you tried switching it off for 10 minutes and then switch i bak on ?

Bhoya · 25-04-2008, 09:24

I've had something pretty similar. The mini-guide and all menus still show up but the picture just goes black and I still get the sound from whatever TV show should be on. This is on my V+ box and on my normal Pace box upstairs picture, sound and menus are all showing fine while this goes on.

Unplugging for about 10 minutes seems to be the only thing to fix it for me but I've got an engineer booked for tomorrow afternoon because this has been going on for weeks now and seems to be happening more frequently. In case it might be a geographical thing I'm in SG17.

edit - damn registered three years ago and this is my first post :p

stanno · 25-04-2008, 09:30

I tried re-booting, which didn't sort it. Haven't tried switching off for 10 mins yet as I don't have the patience for that every day! As Bhoya says, the programme guide and all other graphics still work, only the actual picture goes.

Sounds like it is the V+ then. Bhoya, could you do me a favour and let me know what the VM engineer says tomorrow? Cheers.

accessjunky · 25-04-2008, 09:38

There were a number of posts concerning the same issue some months ago and, from reading those, it appears that there may be an issue with the HDCP handshake from the V+ box to the HD device.

It seems that if it fails the menus can still be seen but not the picture. In some cases the picture appears for a couple of seconds then disappears again.

I would think it's the V+ box that's got a technical fault and that replacing it will solve it.

I'd be interested to know what the engineer says too.

higgsfield · 25-04-2008, 09:38

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bhoya

edit - damn registered three years ago and this is my first post :p

A welcome is then overdue!

Hope you get it sorted.

mouqeet · 25-04-2008, 09:49

Quote:

Originally Posted by stanno

I tried re-booting, which didn't sort it. Haven't tried switching off for 10 mins yet as I don't have the patience for that every day! As Bhoya says, the programme guide and all other graphics still work, only the actual picture goes.

Sounds like it is the V+ then. Bhoya, could you do me a favour and let me know what the VM engineer says tomorrow? Cheers.

ahaa lol you have to have patients

Bhoya · 26-04-2008, 15:02

Thought I'd give an update. The engineer came round today to have a look, first thing he said when I described the problem - luckily about 5 minutes before he turned up it happened again - was "well we only get 2 boxes for replacements a week and I've already used them".

He had a fiddle around and saw that the signal levels were a bit erratic - his words - so he tried to stabalise them and told me to give them a phone in a week if it's still happening and he'll try to save me a replacement box.

JethroUK · 26-04-2008, 16:01

I had this few times - reseting makes no difference - mains power off fixed it first time - 2nd time even power wouldn't fix it (left for couple hours no avail) - i assumed it was HDMI lead and sprayed with WD40 and it worked straight away

accessjunky · 28-04-2008, 09:55

Quote:

Originally Posted by Bhoya

Thought I'd give an update. The engineer came round today to have a look, first thing he said when I described the problem - luckily about 5 minutes before he turned up it happened again - was "well we only get 2 boxes for replacements a week and I've already used them".

He had a fiddle around and saw that the signal levels were a bit erratic - his words - so he tried to stabalise them and told me to give them a phone in a week if it's still happening and he'll try to save me a replacement box.

I'm not in any way technically experienced to know what's going on but I'm not sure how signal levels can have anything to do with the menus appearing but the picture not appearing through an HDMI connection whereas the picture is fine through other outputs.

As for saying they only get 2 boxes a week for replacement - how can that possibly be a reason for not correcting your fault? To 'save' a replacement box for you, as if he is doing you a favour, is an amazing failure in customer service and sounds more like a dodgy small business that might appear on the tv programme 'Rogue Trader' than a national media company.

If there is a limit imposed on the number of boxes an Engineer can replace then that's wrong.

I've always been very satisfied with the Engineers that I've dealt with but this seems to be another example of the inconsistent level of service that is reported on the forum (which I know isn't necessarily representative of all experiences).

It may be worth a follow up call to report that the fault hasn't been resolved otherwise you may get lost in the system.

Good luck

stanno · 16-05-2008, 13:42

Well, the disappearing picture got gradually worse, happening more often until I couldn't get any HDMI at all. The VM engineer came this morning and tweaked a few things (I was in another room so didn't see what he was doing) and got it working.

It wasn't the HDMI cable or the telly - he said it was a something in the V+ box but didn't explain what, so I'm none the wiser really. But I'm glad they didn't have to replace the box cause it has all my settings and a lot of recorded stuff I wanted to keep.

Honeymonster · 29-05-2008, 12:17

I starting having this problem yesterday and found it was caused by the PC I'd just connected to another HDMI port on my TV. Even with the PC powered off the problem happened. It only stopped once I physically disconnected the PC from the TV. So maybe try disconnecting stuff connected to other HDMI ports on your TV?

BexTech · 01-06-2008, 03:18

I've had it happen about 6 times up until a few months back. (The HDCP handshaking problem). For me the fix is to turn the TV off completely, put V+ into standby, switch TV back on and then V+ out of standby.

I had tried the V+ in another HDMI socket but the fault still happened again.

My Hi-Def satellite receiver doesn't have the same problems.

However it's not happened for a while.

hansi · 01-06-2008, 07:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by mouqeet

ahaa lol you have to have patients

Why? Are you a doctor

stanno · 26-06-2008, 14:04

Quote:

Originally Posted by stanno

Well, the disappearing picture got gradually worse, happening more often until I couldn't get any HDMI at all. The VM engineer came this morning and tweaked a few things (I was in another room so didn't see what he was doing) and got it working.

It wasn't the HDMI cable or the telly - he said it was a something in the V+ box but didn't explain what, so I'm none the wiser really. But I'm glad they didn't have to replace the box cause it has all my settings and a lot of recorded stuff I wanted to keep.

An update - just after the above engineer visit I lost HDMI again and also SCART output (i.e. no picture of any kind).

I was back to using my old freeview box.

Several weeks and a couple of aborted engineer visits later I got a new box yesterday. The VM guy said it was obvious that the output section of my old box was dodgy - there were signs of actual physical damage on the back which must have happened before I got it.

Anyway, I'm up and running again - well, almost, because the interactive service is playing up in my region and won't be sorted for a couple of weeks apparently, according to VM India.