New firmware released for IceBox 1.11.6

[TimC]

Do I need to do a hard reset and start from fresh?

If you don't have any recordings, a hard reset might be worth a try.
A hard reset will wipe them. If you don't care the go ahead.

If you do have recordings you want to keep, you could try copying them off onto another computer (provided you have space.
I find that a computer on the same network will show ICEBOX in the Network folder. 
Open it and navigate to the recordings folder and copy the contents to somewhere that has enough space (if you have space).

When the Icebox gets to the Login point, copy them back and log back in.   

Note: I haven't tried this, so there may be issues.  It may be that you may need to follow with a soft reset the recapture the recordings.

Good Luck.

[Daniel Hall at IceTV]

Do I need to do a hard reset and start from fresh?

If you don't have any recordings, a hard reset might be worth a try.
A hard reset will wipe them. If you don't care the go ahead.

If you do have recordings you want to keep, you could try copying them off onto another computer (provided you have space.
I find that a computer on the same network will show ICEBOX in the Network folder. 
Open it and navigate to the recordings folder and copy the contents to somewhere that has enough space (if you have space).

When the Icebox gets to the Login point, copy them back and log back in.   

Note: I haven't tried this, so there may be issues.  It may be that you may need to follow with a soft reset the recapture the recordings.

Good Luck.

If you do this, then you must get the '.backups' folder from the "Recordings" share as well, and ensure that they are copied back onto the IceBox before completing the IceTV setup wizard.

[pargy]

AdSkip is fabulous!  There are a few shows where it never works (eg Seven News) but when it does work, watching is a dream.  I particularly like the display at the end of each skip showing the duration of the skip.  It really shows how many ads the networks are squeezing into their supplementary channels (up to 5.56 for example on 7bravo!).

[TimC]

There are a few shows where it never works (eg Seven News) but when it does work, watching is a dream.

I don't know why 7 News wouldn't work, but there are a few things that may cause Add Skip to fail. A small reception glitch at the wrong time.  It is also worth being aware of the fact that there is a bit of serial post processing done (one program at a time) on the recorded material. At a rough estimate 1 hour of recording requires 1 Hour of Post Processing.  I have no idea of timeframes really, but it is not seconds or a few minutes.
If for example, you recorded 9 and 7 news at the same time and tried to watch them both an hour later, there is a chance that 9 news had finished post processing, but 7 news hadn't (or vice versa).


 

[IanL-S]

I suspect that the processing time is dependent on the transmission codec (for example h.264 HD is more resource intensive than MPEG2 HD), the resolution, and bit-rate.

HD channels use h.264 codec (although in some regional areas some HD uses MEPG2). Most SD channels use MPEG 2 - notable exceptions include 7Flix (Melbourne and probably elsewhere) and racing.com. The bitrate used on a particular (logical) channel is not fixed and can change from on program to the next.

[nedsnow]

However, the most significant problem was with the ad skipping whereby after the ad break, the video repeatedly cut off and on, until finally there was just a blank screen.

That looks more like a HDMI issue.  Do you have a HDMI cable connected directly to your TV or is there something else in between, e.g. an AV Amplifier, a HDMI extender, HDMI splitter, HDMI switch, etc.)?

Sometimes with HDMI, something that interrupts the data flow can trigger the receiving device to go through a housekeeping check which results in a bit of flashing while the HDMI reconfigures itself. Sometimes the result can be a blank screen.  The more devices in the chain, the worse the flashing can get.

Usually a directly connected TV doesn't do that, but a bad cable may cause something similar.
 

I don't think HDMI is the issue. I am having the same symptoms on various recordings. Today, I was watching a recording of the PBS Newshour, when it started having intermittent black screens, then just went back to the menu. When I tried to restart it, it said "Failed to Start" on both Resume and Play from Beginning. I tried to reboot from the power menu, but the box crashed (looked like a kernel panic), so I did a long press of the Power button and it rebooted successfully. I then played the same recording, and it played without any black screens or other issues.

I'm also having a number of other anomalous problems. Sometimes when I select a recording to play, I just get a black screen. When I press "Back", it goes back to the menu, but I can see the recording playing in the background. When I select it again, it plays.

Something new today: I tried to watch live TV, but I get a message from TVHeadEnd saying "No Free Adapter Available". I rebooted a few times, but got the same result. I looked at the TVHeadEnd web page, and Configuration->DVB Inputs->TV Adapters is an empty folder. Something must have gone wrong during my efforts to watch the PBS Newshour this morning. I unplugged the tuners and plugged them in again, and they have come back. Unfortunately, I didn't do it in time to get today's recording of the PBS Newshour.

During one of the many reboots I've done this week, the box updated itself, so I'm on 11.6.2 now. It retained my channel settings, which is one good thing.

[IanL-S]

Yes, updating to 11.6.2 does not require a service scan let alone a full setup wizard.

I do not recall seeing the black screen artifact. I have seen greenscreen on my Toppys which is caused by problems with the HDMI handshake between the Toppy and the TV. But that tends to stay rather than coming and going and you can see the output but it is green.

If you are lucky then the move to 11.1.2 may resolve the problem.

[TimC]

However, the most significant problem was with the ad skipping whereby after the ad break, the video repeatedly cut off and on, until finally there was just a blank screen.

That looks more like a HDMI issue.  Do you have a HDMI cable connected directly to your TV or is there something else in between, e.g. an AV Amplifier, a HDMI extender, HDMI splitter, HDMI switch, etc.)?

Sometimes with HDMI, something that interrupts the data flow can trigger the receiving device to go through a housekeeping check which results in a bit of flashing while the HDMI reconfigures itself. Sometimes the result can be a blank screen.  The more devices in the chain, the worse the flashing can get.

Usually a directly connected TV doesn't do that, but a bad cable may cause something similar.
 

I don't think HDMI is the issue. I am having the same symptoms on various recordings. Today, I was watching a recording of the PBS Newshour, when it started having intermittent black screens, then just went back to the menu. When I tried to restart it, it said "Failed to Start" on both Resume and Play from Beginning. I tried to reboot from the power menu, but the box crashed (looked like a kernel panic), so I did a long press of the Power button and it rebooted successfully. I then played the same recording, and it played without any black screens or other issues.

I'm also having a number of other anomalous problems. Sometimes when I select a recording to play, I just get a black screen. When I press "Back", it goes back to the menu, but I can see the recording playing in the background. When I select it again, it plays.

Something new today: I tried to watch live TV, but I get a message from TVHeadEnd saying "No Free Adapter Available". I rebooted a few times, but got the same result. I looked at the TVHeadEnd web page, and Configuration->DVB Inputs->TV Adapters is an empty folder. Something must have gone wrong during my efforts to watch the PBS Newshour this morning. I unplugged the tuners and plugged them in again, and they have come back. Unfortunately, I didn't do it in time to get today's recording of the PBS Newshour.

During one of the many reboots I've done this week, the box updated itself, so I'm on 11.6.2 now. It retained my channel settings, which is one good thing.

I believe that you are correct in your interpretation that much of what you experienced was related to the initial playback of the PBS recording. Something glitched and caused most of the follow-on issues you experienced.

You seem to have successfully diagnosed the issues and found suitable actions to resolve them.

You shouldn't really be having the Black/Flashing screen issue, but...

I have something similar, but part of the issue in my case is that I have a bunch of devices (HDMI Switches, extenders, splitters and converters) between the IceBox and my TVs. Every time I go from a menu to playing a recording, I get a Black screen and occasionally some flashing. It takes a few seconds while everything settles down.

I would love to find a way to get it more stable, but nothing I have tried has worked. From what I understand it just comes down to how each device in the HDMI chain, including the IceBox, deals with changes in the video data.

It may be that the way your TV does the HDMI handshaking with the IceBox is particularly sensitive to something the IceBox does (or vice Versa).

Have you tried plugging in a different TV to see if the behaviour changes?
 

[nedsnow]

Thanks, but my IceBox is plugged directly into the TV. I don't have another TV I can test it on. In any case, I didn't have any of these issues prior to the firmware upgrade, and the upgrade is the only change to my setup.

Ned

[TimC]

Thanks, but my IceBox is plugged directly into the TV. I don't have another TV I can test it on. In any case, I didn't have any of these issues prior to the firmware upgrade, and the upgrade is the only change to my setup.

Ned

I don't know how the Update might affect video behavior. Note: That comes from lack of knowledge, not certainty.

However, from memory, I recall someone mentioning tweaking their TV to work with their IceBox.
The IceBox video is supposed to work best at 1920x1080 @ 50 Hz.
Is that the setting you are using?

Is there anywhere in your TV's settings where you can specify the screen resolution to 1920x1080 @ 50 Hz?

[nedsnow]

Thanks, but my IceBox is plugged directly into the TV. I don't have another TV I can test it on. In any case, I didn't have any of these issues prior to the firmware upgrade, and the upgrade is the only change to my setup.

Ned

I don't know how the Update might affect video behavior. Note: That comes from lack of knowledge, not certainty.

However, from memory, I recall someone mentioning tweaking their TV to work with their IceBox.
The IceBox video is supposed to work best at 1920x1080 @ 50 Hz.
Is that the setting you are using?

Is there anywhere in your TV's settings where you can specify the screen resolution to 1920x1080 @ 50 Hz?

Much as I hate to say it, as I love the feature, but I suspect the video issues are coming from the ad skipping function.

Isn't the resolution set by the by the input source, i. e. the IceBox? When the box boots, it starts in 1920X1024, but shortly switches to UHD (3840x2160@60). I looked for a setting in the IceBox for the resolution, but couldn't find one.

[raymondjpg]

I looked for a setting in the IceBox for the resolution, but couldn't find one.

Settings|System|Display lets you change resolution and refresh rate.

However the IceBox switching to 4K looks more like something arising from the TV, Do you have the ability to disable enhanced video (4K) mode on the TV, and set the default to 1920x1080?

[nedsnow]

Thanks for that. When I looked at that settings page, for some reason I assumed it was read only. I changed the resolution, and also set the UI resolution limit to 1080. When I rebooted, it came up in HD.

[TimC]

Thanks for that. When I looked at that settings page, for some reason I assumed it was read only. I changed the resolution, and also set the UI resolution limit to 1080. When I rebooted, it came up in HD.

How is the Black Screen/Flashing?

One thing I have noticed with software updates in general (Windows, Office, Internet Explorer, etc.) over the years is that sometimes settings that the person who set up the update had for their setup can sometimes end up in the update. It would explain the alignment of the Black Screen/Flashing with the installation of the update.
I am not saying that happened here, but weird things do happen.

[nedsnow]

So far, so good, though I've only watched one recording since making the change. Fingers crossed :-)