# Black Screen Lockup



## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

I had a Black Screen Lockup yesterday and wondered if other folks Black Screen Lockups were in any way similar.

Software Level: 0x10B - Release Candidate



brott said:


> link to original post
> 
> Had a lockup tonight for the first time in a long time (pre 0xFA).
> 
> ...


Did anyone else with a Black Screen Lockup have their HR20 tuned to a station that became unavailable while you were away? In my case it was a Sunday Ticket program, but there are other sports subscriptions that might fall into this category in the evening.


----------



## wakajawaka (Sep 27, 2006)

I left mine tuned to an NFLST channel last night (724). When I turned it on this morning I had a black screen but was able to hit guide and change to a different channel and all was fine. What's interesting is that I recorded a bunch of stuff last night after I turned it off while watching NFLST which would require both tuners changing channels (Fox, CBS) but this morning it was changed back to 724. So it must remember what the last channel you were watching live and chage back to that channel after recording?


----------



## St Louis Cardinals Fan (Oct 22, 2006)

I have had two lock up since I've down loaded 10B.
The first lock up occurred Sunday night. I was watching the Sunday night game on OTA and I switched back to Sat and watched a show for 30 minutes, I then pushed the prev button and a pink box showed up behind the mail icon and the screen went black. No sound, no picture, no reaction from the system period. The lights were on but nobody was home. I waited for 15 minutes but no action at all. A red button push solved the problem.
This Morning I turn the TV and system on and all I have is a black screen, but this time I could see the menu and move around in the menu but no picture and no sound. I had to do a menu reset to get things back again.
I have never reset the machine until I downloaded 10B.


----------



## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

wakajawaka said:


> I left mine tuned to an NFLST channel last night (724). When I turned it on this morning I had a black screen but was able to hit guide and change to a different channel and all was fine. What's interesting is that I recorded a bunch of stuff last night after I turned it off while watching NFLST which would require both tuners changing channels (Fox, CBS) but this morning it was changed back to 724. So it must remember what the last channel you were watching live and chage back to that channel after recording?


Are you 100% sure that everything recorded? I missed the first 1/2 of Survivor because I didn't get back from an outing before the show started. Both I and my wife checked about 5 times to make sure all was set to record - missed all of last 2 Survivor Finales (on TiVo no less) due to various recording conflicts.


----------



## DblD_Indy (Dec 3, 2006)

"Black Screen Lockup 

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had a Black Screen Lockup yesterday and wondered if other folks Black Screen Lockups were in any way similar.

Software Level: 0x10B - Release Candidate"

Me too, only way out was RBR..


----------



## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

DblD_Indy said:


> Me too, only way out was RBR..


Do you remember the channel your were tuned to?


----------



## Dusty (Sep 21, 2006)

I had a similar experience at 0x108. It was fixed with a RBR. I have not parked my channels at OTA since and I haven't seen that again.


----------



## tunce (Jan 19, 2006)

I had a black screen too yesterday. When I first turned on my TV/ Receiver / HR-20 I had no picture but I had sound. The only thing that fixed was the red button. I have 0x10B


----------



## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

Dusty said:


> I had a similar experience at 0x104. It was fixed with a RBR. I have not parked my channels at OTA since and I haven't seen that again.


I didn't even think about OTA (I can't get it). But it is VERY possible that the HD OTA feeds shut down in some places overnight. That would be much like the Sunday Ticket channel going away.


----------



## qlanus (Sep 22, 2006)

Yep - I had two, one on each of two HR-20s. Am running 010B.

One was 'typically toasted' - no response all around.

The other was interesting in that I could not switch from one channel (Sat-provided 2) to any other. When I did, I received a black screen (with the appropriate 'info' screen), w/no sound. I could, however, return to channel 2. 

Interesting behavior.

In both cases RBR resolved.


----------



## bgartz (Jun 24, 2006)

I have had 3 black screens since the 10B. Everything else works great, and even when I get the black screen, it still records what is scedualed without error. But the only fix is a red button reset.


----------



## Dusty (Sep 21, 2006)

bgartz said:


> I have had 3 black screens since the 10B. Everything else works great, and even when I get the black screen, it still records what is scedualed without error. But the only fix is a red button reset.


I have been wondering about that. It is good to hear it still records during the lock up.


----------



## byron (Nov 15, 2004)

turned my unit off last night, this morning it was black screen (no audio or video) menus were responsive and tried changing to SD, HD (mpeg4, mpeg2 and ota), and also watching recording programs.... no change. RBR was the only thing that worked. i wouldn't bet my life on it, but i think the unit was tuned to 4-2 (nbc weather plus) when i turned it off last night.


----------



## LGM2007 (Dec 17, 2006)

byron said:


> turned my unit off last night, this morning it was black screen (no audio or video) menus were responsive and tried changing to SD, HD (mpeg4, mpeg2 and ota), and also watching recording programs.... no change. RBR was the only thing that worked. i wouldn't bet my life on it, but i think the unit was tuned to 4-2 (nbc weather plus) when i turned it off last night.


I had the same thing today--except no mpeg-4 here  --I was tuned to CBS OTA.


----------



## tjboyd (Oct 5, 2006)

10b has been working flawless till today... It started with a return visit of "pinky" and audio dropouts earlier today while watching Sleeper Cell of "My Playlist' but they were gone once I returned to live TV. Tonight we turned on the TV and tried to tune to KTLA-DT (MPEG4) and had audio but no picture, Black Screen! Remote worked, "Menus" worked, but NONE of the LIL's had picture, just audio. Everything other than the LIL's was fine. Checked cables, connections - fine. Did a "Menu" reset and picture was back. Yes, the "Menus" would pop up on top of the Black Screen. Is it possible to lose just the picture "handshake" between my Sony TV and the HR20.


----------



## Vader14 (Sep 5, 2006)

I had one on Thursday night when I came home and none of the Thursday night shows recorded. One Saturday night, and when I came home tonight it happened again. Tonight I pressed the power button about 10 times for the HR20 and it rebooted itself (good thing everything was repeats tonight). I am running 108. I'm hoping a new update comes out soon since I do not want to go back to 0xFa and lose my OTA. I'll suffer through since there is nothing new on this week.


----------



## Frodtab (Sep 17, 2006)

I had this exact issue last night - version 108. I left my TV on a HD Sunday Ticket channel - came back a couple of hours later and tried to watch the NBC Sunday Night game. The game was recording but it would not play, no matter what I tried (skipping, FF, etc.) I ended up doing a RBR. The game deleted itself after the reboot and two other older programs were deleted for no reason on the reboot. I even looked at my History and they said recorded, not deleted, but they are gone. 

I won't leave my TV on a ST channel anymore.


----------



## mckingsley (Sep 25, 2006)

Yeah this is getting annoying for us also. I have 10B and getting a lot of black recordings. Seems to be when you try to watch something that is currently recording. It is basically messed up for sure then, a restart actually deletes the messed up recording in my case. I don't know if any new recordings since 10B get the black if they are already done recording. I might have to go back down to the older version.


----------



## Cyrus (Oct 22, 2006)

byron said:


> turned my unit off last night, this morning it was black screen (no audio or video) menus were responsive and tried changing to SD, HD (mpeg4, mpeg2 and ota), and also watching recording programs.... no change. RBR was the only thing that worked. i wouldn't bet my life on it, but i think the unit was tuned to 4-2 (nbc weather plus) when i turned it off last night.


This exact thing happened to me once. Turned TV on and no video or audio, not even for recorded programs, but menu and guide were working. This was with 108 release.


----------



## spidey (Sep 1, 2006)

brott said:


> Do you remember the channel your were tuned to?


santa special release b.

i thought i left it tuned to espn hd since I left it last night ok and wife turned it on this am to black screen. guide worked however couldnt tune to any stations. reboot brought receiver to an ota hd so not sure.


----------



## tfederov (Nov 18, 2005)

tunce said:


> I had a black screen too yesterday. When I first turned on my TV/ Receiver / HR-20 I had no picture but I had sound. The only thing that fixed was the red button. I have 0x10B


Same here, but no sound either. I reported it in the 10b thread.


----------



## satguy22 (Oct 1, 2006)

woke up this morning and mine would not come to life. Reset couple of times but nothing. unpluged for 5 minutes and pluged back in and it started back up. Had left it on a local channel over night.


----------



## MrBill64 (Aug 3, 2006)

Had a lock up yesterday 12/18, and used the rbr to get back up and running. Can't remember what station I was on but this was the second lock up since I downloaded Ox108. I missed the Ox10b download so I am still running 108.


----------



## byron (Nov 15, 2004)

mine was locked up again this morning when i woke up... i know for fact it was not left on a local channel last night. i turned it on showtime-hd before going to bed. the weird thing is is that my SD locals work and xm channels work... aside from that, everything is black with no sound and no video. 

when i go to bed i am turning off my unit, what about the rest of you? leave it on or turn it off? i also turned it off when i left for work yesterday, but it wasn't locked up when i got home from work.... so I'm not sure how that is any different?

running 10b btw.


----------



## LGM2007 (Dec 17, 2006)

byron said:


> mine was locked up again this morning when i woke up... i know for fact it was not left on a local channel last night. i turned it on showtime-hd before going to bed. the weird thing is is that my SD locals work and xm channels work... aside from that, everything is black with no sound and no video.
> 
> when i go to bed i am turning off my unit, what about the rest of you? leave it on or turn it off? i also turned it off when i left for work yesterday, but it wasn't locked up when i got home from work.... so I'm not sure how that is any different?
> 
> running 10b btw.


I turn mine off. The blue lights in the middle of the night freak me out a little.


----------



## jsnable (Aug 19, 2006)

Second black screen for 10B. Left the unit tuned to ESPNHD Monday night - stopped watching the game near the end and turned the unit off. Today turned on and noticed black screen, but could watch news recorded on MPEG4 local. After stopping that recording, I saw what looked suspiciously like the Bengals and Colts in the preview window. I exited the list and had the frozen picture of Monday night's game, stuck at 1:35 remaining. I could switch to MPEG4 locals, but MPEG2 locals, OTA and all other channels were black. RBR fixed the issue.

Jay


----------



## jsevinsk (Sep 14, 2006)

I just saw the black screen for the first time tonight. I have 10B. I could bring up the guide and menus, but selecting other channels gave me just a black screen and no audio. Satellite signals looked good. I red button reset fixed the problem.


----------



## btmoore (Aug 28, 2006)

Black death cause much pain
Red button reboot, again
DirecTV F U


----------



## jbstix (Dec 29, 2005)

I had one today as well...

Odd, pressed Play to see where I was in the buffer, and got a message something like "DVR service not active, blah, blah, blah, contact D*" 
Then things got worse from there, tried to change channels, nothing, then the black screen, then went into Setup to try a Reset via the remote, pressed the Dash - stalled out, then RBR.

bummer...


----------



## PLamarine (Dec 3, 2006)

Same set of problems here in MA with newest release.


----------



## fpd917 (Aug 16, 2006)

I had a lockup yesterday and had to do a rbr on mine. This is the first time that it has happened with the new software for me.


----------



## wk2000 (Nov 2, 2006)

Two Black screens here- never had one before this update.


----------



## thegamer36 (Dec 15, 2006)

I had my first lockup yesterday. I was recording one show and tuning to live tv. I went to the List to start watching the item that I was recording. When I selected play, I just got a black screen with the time bar at the bottom. The show did not record but the time bar acted like it was recording. I could not ff or rw at that point.

This is my first lockup. I have the latest update 0x10b. I had to perform a reboot.

  :nono:


----------



## ZDawg (Nov 7, 2006)

I had one this morning. Was tuned to a SD station, and nothing... Tried to play a recorded show, nothing. Oddly, I could tune to MPEG-4 HD and get video. I did a RBR and all is good.... This is a brand new box too. I just replaced my old one, hardware crash. I hope this isn't a common thing, but it looks like it is going to be.

Z


----------



## byron (Nov 15, 2004)

this has to be something that is happening across the board... mine did it again last night and it hadn't done it for 3-4 days. was tuned to HDNET and turned the unit off. only SD locals and XM channels work.


----------



## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

DirecTV is aware of the Black Screen issue.

As you all have pointed out a RBR will restore the video image.


----------



## byron (Nov 15, 2004)

Earl Bonovich said:


> DirecTV is aware of the Black Screen issue.
> 
> As you all have pointed out a RBR will restore the video image.


good enough... hopefully this is an easier fix than..... say..... pinky.


----------



## chrisexv6 (Sep 14, 2002)

Sounds eerily like the issues I first had with my Samsung 160 HD box. Didnt play well with PSIP (sp?) data from any OTA/local channel source. Also did not play well with the fact that most of the locals/OTA stations I receive turn off broadcasting overnight. if you left it on one of those channels when they went dark, the box would hang. Same for "bad" PSIP data (it actually wasnt Samsungs fault, they fixed the firmware so it was less stringent about the data it was receiving).

Coinciding with the release of software that enables OTA on these boxes leads me to believe its an OTA data thing. Nice to hear D* is on the ball with fixing it (as was Samsung at the time).

-Chris


----------



## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

byron said:


> good enough... hopefully this is an easier fix than..... say..... pinky.


Ha. I think maybe DirecTV actually likes pinky :lol: . Thanks for the update Earl. The good news is that the fix is easy although moderately painful. It appears as if getting OTA out was more important than fixing the BSL bug for 0x10B (fair enough). The good news for me, though is that it has only happened one time.


----------



## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

chrisexv6 said:


> Sounds eerily like the issues I first had with my Samsung 160 HD box. Didnt play well with PSIP (sp?) data from any OTA/local channel source. Also did not play well with the fact that most of the locals/OTA stations I receive turn off broadcasting overnight. if you left it on one of those channels when they went dark, the box would hang. Same for "bad" PSIP data (it actually wasnt Samsungs fault, they fixed the firmware so it was less stringent about the data it was receiving).
> 
> Coinciding with the release of software that enables OTA on these boxes leads me to believe its an OTA data thing. Nice to hear D* is on the ball with fixing it (as was Samsung at the time).
> 
> -Chris


Chris,

Your description of the Samsung HD problem does sound like this bug as well. It's not just OTA, but I've observed from my experience and others' reports exactly what you are stating. It appears that if the data stream goes "off" for a particular channel that a lockup occurs. Some are able to issue menu commands, etc. while others suffer a complete lockup (nothing works - total black screen).


----------



## byron (Nov 15, 2004)

brott said:


> Ha. I think maybe DirecTV actually likes pinky :lol: . Thanks for the update Earl. The good news is that the fix is easy although moderately painful. It appears as if getting OTA out was more important than fixing the BSL bug for 0x10B (fair enough). The good news for me, though is that it has only happened one time.


its not a big issue for watching live TV... but its a big problem for DVRs. once this thing goes black... any and all recordings are going to be affected until you do a reboot.


----------



## Doug Brott (Jul 12, 2006)

byron said:


> its not a big issue for watching live TV... but its a big problem for DVRs. once this thing goes black... any and all recordings are going to be affected until you do a reboot.


Agreed. Yes, there are some potential recordings lost. I'm sure that DirecTV was aware of the problem. It was reported over the weekend and the release happened on Tues/Wed mornings. It just appears as if DirecTV chose releasing OTA over immediate concern for the BSB. I think that that is a fair choice given the decision that had to be made. However, I still expect the BSB to be fixed at a later date. I'm not letting them off the hook.


----------



## thegamer36 (Dec 15, 2006)

Earl Bonovich said:


> DirecTV is aware of the Black Screen issue.
> 
> As you all have pointed out a RBR will restore the video image.


Earl, have they been able to reproduce it? I know if they can reproduce it, they will be able to fix it. Reproducing a problem is the hardest part usually.


----------



## Earl Bonovich (Nov 15, 2005)

thegamer36 said:


> Earl, have they been able to reproduce it? I know if they can reproduce it, they will be able to fix it. Reproducing a problem is the hardest part usually.


As far as I am aware, there isn't a way to reproduce it on command.
Doesn't mean they can't fix it, just makes it that much more difficult to ensure it was fixed.


----------



## shendley (Nov 28, 2005)

Had my first black screen lock out this morning. Turned on the tv and HR 20 and no picture and the unit wouldn't turn off until I did a RBR.


----------



## Argee (Oct 16, 2006)

Yep, I got it here as well and also got the failure to respond to remote bug for the first time as well. RBR reset fixed each problem.


----------



## akihabaraTECH (Dec 21, 2006)

I have received 4 Black Screen (partial) Lockups (aka BSB) in the past two days. The most recent one involved the HR20 being powered off while recording 2 HD programs. The first recording was on a DirecTV provided HD local; the second one was from HDNet. I powered the unit on only to be greeted by the now infamous Black Screen, I waited till the recordings ended to further investigate. I discovered that my only access to Live TV was through the DirecTV provided HD Locals, every other channel (SD & HD) gave me nothing but a black screen. I still have access to the menu's & guide but nothing else. I checked the two HD recordings that were taking place during the Black Screen Lockup; I found that I was only able to view the recording that took place on the DirecTV provided HD local, the HDNet recording was nothing more than a Black Screen(until I reseted). I tested the unit through the menu's which indicated that everything passed though my HR20 was unable to back out of the results (near freeze?) to get to anything else thus I had to initiate a RBR which (temporarily) resolved the problem. Again note that this is the fourth Reset (RBR or Reset via Menu) in the last two days (12th overall since I had the unit installed & 0x10b firmware installed). On a side note, I have noticed the Pinky problem with Trickplay.


----------

