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Bnatural's avatar
Bnatural
New Contributor
4 years ago

Contour mini box wakes up to COX advertising

I recently added a Contour mini box to one of my TVs. The box worked fine for several weeks.  Starting about two weeks ago, when first turned on in the morning, the TV displays a sort of advertising for different COX programs.  There is no sound. Touching any key on the contour remote gets rid of it and displays the current program on the channel.  This is not the pastoral landscape type of screen saver that appears on main contour box in the house.  It's just a silent, scrolling advertisement of COX programs. 

So, here is the problem.  This TV is the one we wake up to in the morning.  Or used to.  Since this comes on with no sound we've been sleeping in lately.  Like I said, it did not do this for the first few weeks.  

I have checked the settings and found nothing.  I have called in and talked to 3 different support agents who could offer nothing but to tell their manager about it. I even had a level 2 support agent but no solution. I have not noticed it happen other times of the day when I turn the TV on.  Maybe because I always use the remote to turn it on and in the morning the TV turns itself on???

Any ideas from the community?

Thanks

BC

  • Bnatural's avatar
    Bnatural
    New Contributor
    4 years ago

    The last thing I said, in my question (Maybe because I always use the remote to turn it on and in the morning the TV turns itself on???) never occurred to me until I wrote it in the question.  So I went up and used the TV power button and it turned on to a screen saver.  Not the screen I described but something we have never seen when using the remote to turn the TV on.  So, pressing any button on the remote disables this "feature/bug", even the power button.

    Feels like a eureka moment except for the fact we went weeks with the TV turning itself on in the morning, to wake us up, before this other behavior happened.  What I need is a way to disable this.

  • CurtB's avatar
    CurtB
    Valued Contributor III
    4 years ago

    If you don't have a power on channel selected, you might try selecting one to see if that makes a difference.

    I've noticed that mini-boxes get hot.  You might try unplugging it for a while when you aren't watching the TV to see if that fixes the issue.

    • Bnatural's avatar
      Bnatural
      New Contributor
      4 years ago

      I've seen that setting on the plain mini box but I went through all of the settings menus and do not find it on the contour box

      • CurtB's avatar
        CurtB
        Valued Contributor III
        4 years ago

        You said you were having an issue with a mini-box so I gave you a couple of troubleshooting suggestions for a mini-box.  I wasn't referring to a Contour box.  I can tell you though that a Contour 1 box has a power on channel option, but a Contour 2 box does not.

  • Bruce's avatar
    Bruce
    Honored Contributor III
    4 years ago

    Isn't the Mini Box an always-on device?  I have the XG-something and it's always on.  If I turn off the TV while Contour is in screensaver mode, it turns on in screensaver mode...although audio of the last channel would be there..  I don't doubt something has changed for you but what exactly is turning on...a wake-up setting within Contour or the TV?

    Can you disable the screensaver?  I don't know of another mode displaying ads besides the screensaver.

    Do you have a Power Saver option on the Mini Box?

    • Bnatural's avatar
      Bnatural
      New Contributor
      4 years ago

      The timer function on the TV is what turns the TV on in the morning. I saw screensaver settings on the contour remote box settings but none that disabled it. I really don't see why I need a screensaver when the TV is turned off. Support guessed it was a new "feature" that got upgraded but it conflicts with our TV and how we've used it for years as a wake up thing. I know there are options to wake up to but this is our preference.

      • Bruce's avatar
        Bruce
        Honored Contributor III
        4 years ago

        Okay...it's actually the TV configured to wake-up.  This makes sense because the TV powering is controlling its HDMI input.  You may have different inputs connected, but the TV is overriding them.

        What's the make and model of this TV?

  • Bruce's avatar
    Bruce
    Honored Contributor III
    4 years ago

    I'm unsure if I clarified anything because I don't know how the Mini Box works in some setups.

    I think a subscriber could have a sole (1) Mini Box in their house for cable-TV service.  I also think a Mini Box could be setup as a client to a "Maxi" Box, such as a DVR, for its programming, such as a recorded show.

    If the Mini-Maxi is the setup, does the Mini use 1 of the tuners of the Maxi or does the Mini use its own tuner?  If the Mini does use 1 of the tuners, does the Maxi need to be powered or awake during your AM process?

    "...old mini box for several years..."  Is there a difference between Mini Boxes, such as Contour-1 and -2?  I thought there was only 1 version because the Mini Box has tuning limitations, such as no advanced TV packages, paks, premium channels, apps, etc.

    I understand you replaced your Mini Box, paired your 11-year-old TV to the new remote and this started happening a few weeks later.  You must have changed something else.  Did you also replace the Maxi Box?  Change a setting on the Maxi Box?  Is the Maxi Box the Wireless 4K Stream Player?  If so, did you change a setting on the Panoramic, such as scheduling, parental control, MoCA?

    The screensaver wouldn't engage while watching a program or being tuned to a channel.  The screensaver would only engage if you've been inactive for, say 5 minutes, while navigating within Contour, such as viewing its Program Guide, info about a TV program, info about a channel, the Contour menu, etc.

    I'm curious if you enabled the Power Saver mode of the Maxi Box.  If the Maxi Box is inactive for 4 hours...I don't know what it disables...but if the Mini is a client, the Mini isn't receiving programming unless you press a button on its remote to wake the Maxi.

    This is weird because I reread this thread and you're seeing 3 types of screensavers.  I suspect you also changed something on the Maxi Box.

    I ask more questions than answer.

    • Bnatural's avatar
      Bnatural
      New Contributor
      4 years ago

      Nope.... we made no changes.  The TV connected to the mother ship plays the audio of the channel behind the screen saver.  I got the Contour remote box added to the TV the day after our neighborhood upgrade killed our boxes. I decided it was a good time to upgrade that TV.  Getting the boxes provisioned was a nightmare. After support and I failed, a tech was sent and spent 3 hours onsite (and on the phone with support). Finally he replaced the mother contour box and eventually got them all provisioned and working.  After all that I didn't change anything.  Maybe Cox would swap out the remote box and it might work better.  I just want an option to turn the "feature off" though.  Trying to attach a sample of the screen we see.  https://flic.kr/p/2kWwZBm[img]live.staticflickr.com/.../url] by [url=https://www.flickr.com/photos/185041962@N05/]Buddy Clark:320:50]

  • Bruce's avatar
    Bruce
    Honored Contributor III
    4 years ago

    It looks like a quasi-screensaver mode.  I've seen this Showtime ad on my screensaver, but I've never seen the weather graphic only display the temp.  My graphics show a combo of things:  a descriptive narrative, an icon and the temp...or...the time and temp.  Never just the temp...unless this is normal for the Mini.

    Also, if there are no accompanying landscapes or animals, it's not the full-blown screensaver.

    However, I don't know why the screensaver would kick-in because you're not in a mode...such as being inactive while navigating Contour...for the screensaver to engage.  Like I mention, screensavers don't kick-in if you're watching a program.

    You may have discovered a quirky...and inconvenient....mode of this "newer" Mini Box.  Normally, when you turn on your TV, you'd use the Mini remote and to get out of this quasi-mode, you'd need to press the Any key on the Mini remote.  Therefore, during normal ops (using the Mini remote), you'd actually never see these ads because you're using the Mini remote.

    However, you're turning on your TV via another means (timer).  It'd be the same as turning on your TV with the TV-supplied remote.  In either case, you're not using the Mini remote.  It seems like you've caught the Mini Box off guard by not using its remote.

    Other than an initial setup, I don't know when Mini users would ever see these ads because they'd normally use the Mini remote.

    HDMI, CEC or Digital Rights might be the issue by just pausing during renegotiation until you "command" a program to authenticate.  In your LG settings, anything resembling SimpLink enabled?

    • Bnatural's avatar
      Bnatural
      New Contributor
      4 years ago

      Yea... my mother always told me I was special. I thought about scrolling through the TV settings for any possibilities.