I've stopped using Voom button for now

[shelly]

In order to avoid the picture in upper right corner lockup, which seems to occur when using Voom button or Help button (both of which utilize this upper right corner box), I simply did not use the Voom button last night. No lockups.

Although it takes a little longer, and only one channel shows at a time, by pressing the Info button once, I then have the choice of scrolling through the Voom propietary channels (red button), all channels showing HD at the time (green button) or my Favorite channels (yellow button.). Another press of the Info button will, of course, bring uip the program desciption.

Drawbacks are that you cannot go both directions, only one channel appears at a time, and this is obviously not the way the system should work.

But it beats having to get up and reset the box and then wait 10 minutes for the program info to return (although the channels return in 2-3 minutes).

Shelly

 

[Ken F]

I haven't had any lockups so far just using my favorites button.

 

[Seanb61]

Great so you can avoid lock up's by not using the box functions......this is wonderful!

 

[Ken F]

Anyone who has used HDTV set-top boxes for the past 4-6 years has probably come across this sort of thing with Dish, DirecTV, and other STB products. Problems are discovered, and they get fixed.

The method described by the poster is just a workaround that lets us watch and enjoy HDTV without as many interruptions or lockups, until the new software is delivered. The software development cycle is not a short process; the last update was in the works for several months, and clearly 2-3 weeks was not a sufficient period of beta-testing. As an interim solution, VOOM may decide to roll back to the previous software.

The end result of this experience will probably be more extensively tested (read: more stable) software updates from VOOM. However, after this, we almost certainly won't get software updates as often or as fast as they (and we) might have wanted or expected in the past. In some respects, we are probably at fault, because many of us continued to push and nag Wilt for the new software, and a judgement call was ultimately made to give it to customers, rather than taking a few more weeks (or a month+) for debugging.

I'm sure they were aware of some issues with the software, but clearly they were not aware that the issues would be as bad, or as widely experienced, as they obviously are for many customers. They probably figured the software benefits (faster channel changing, program planner, etc) exceeded the negatives enough to warrant the release now, rather than a month from now, and that probably was an error on their part.

I don't blame Wilt. He uses a Samsung DLP. Aside from the occasional VOOM button lockup (two so far), I haven't experienced any other problems with the software on my Samsung.

 

[Ilya]

I don't know if the VOOM button causes lockups more often than other buttons, but I saw lockups caused by other buttons too. See my post here. My impression is that it is just a random event, and the more often I press buttons, the more often it occurs...

 

[madpoet]

I would also argue though that they need to expand their code test base. Using only internal employees can lead to situations like this.

 

[truqui]

I really haven't had any lockups yet...believe it or not!

Before the upgrade I had only two lockups (in two weeks) and I believe they were caused by me hitting too many buttons quickly while I was learning to use the remote (actually one time was a 720p issue). But now after the upgrade no lockups...granted I don't mess around with the buttons too much either but I do use th Voom button often and no problems (for now).

I have a Motorola Digital Cable box and it's never locked up but is very slow in getting wherever I want it to. If I press the buttons too quickly it doesn't respond until I slow down.

Maybe all of these are Motorola issues?

 

[Taron1]

I have 5 receivers which now have the upgraded software and no problems yet. I like the fact that it is 5 times faster then the pervious version. The problem that I have now is random channel break up with the Satellite channels only, like the Monster channel, which is my favorite.

 

[shelly]

I can't believe what I just did. I hit the Voom button to add some more channels to my Favorites list, and I locked up. First time I hit the Voom button in 2 days, and it locks up immediately.

But I need to add some more channels to Favorites so I will be playing the game of lockup until I am able to do so. Then, NOT again until they fix the software.
Shelly

 

[K4LK]

I really haven't had any lockups yet...believe it or not!

Before the upgrade I had only two lockups (in two weeks) and I believe they were caused by me hitting too many buttons quickly while I was learning to use the remote (actually one time was a 720p issue). But now after the upgrade no lockups...granted I don't mess around with the buttons too much either but I do use th Voom button often and no problems (for now).

I have a Motorola Digital Cable box and it's never locked up but is very slow in getting wherever I want it to. If I press the buttons too quickly it doesn't respond until I slow down.

Maybe all of these are Motorola issues?

I haven't had any problems so far either (knock on wood). I know posts like this don't make the ones who have the problem feel any better, but I have full confidence in Motorola's engineers. I have a pretty nice Motorola 4DTV c-band system.

Dana

 

[Ken F]

According to post by Wilt H, a fix is days away:

We're close to a fix, I'm told, on the black screen issue you guys reported and the "missing" channels should be back.
Talking days here for the fix, I'm told.
Wilt

 

[eschu97611]

According to post by Wilt H, a fix is days away:

I wonder what Wilt means exactly by the "black screen issue" exactly-does he mean sound no picture or the mili-second black screen which occurs when connected via DVI-maybe I'll post in Yahoo Groups to find out.