Want to learn how to use the Support Forums?
Read the forum guidelines
My contour dvd box picture freezes every now and then when changing channels or starting a recorded show. The picture is frozen but the audio continues on the new channel. I see others reoporting the same problem. Is there a fix in the works?
Becky, I highly doubt that this is a signal issue. Here’s why: it also does this when I start playback of a previously recorded show. After resetting the box to clear the issue, I can go back and start playback of the EXACT same previously recorded material without any problem. How can that be a signal issue??
Now that you mention that, it does sound more like a problem with the hard drive or a buffer issue with the DVR. Do you notice if it only happens when recording something? Do you have any smaller client boxes? If so, any problems on those with DVR playback?
MouthOpen, it seems happen most often when switching from live tv to a saved dvd recording. That said, the “frozen” picture is usually seems to be the first frame of the recorded content. I have no client boxes and the only splitters are the ones Cox installed for phone and Internet. Others seem to be experiencing the same problem - try Googling “Contour frozen picture.” If I had to guess, I’d say the box has a software or firmware bug.
Do you have more then one box? If so, is it doing it on the other boxes? Also, when did this start happening? Strange if it was a bug I wouldn't have seen it pop up here or other Cox forums. Maybe it's something new?
No, I have only one box. It started about a month ago, I’d say. At first only once or twice a week, but now it is happening almost on a daily basis. And the only thing that cures it a hard reset of the box. And, Googling around, it is not limited to Cox - I see Comcast Xfinity customers complaining about the same issue. I believe Contour and Xfinity use the same STB manufacturer, yes?
Yes, but what are you looking for exactly? If your looking at all the people reporting tiling or distortion of picture, your going to get a ton of false negatives.
I think a better line of troubleshooting would be to use the diagnostic of the box to see the In-band or downstream SNR for both tuners. It used to be Power + Menu when shut off, but it could be different for Contour boxes.
Actually, my search was very specific. “Frozen picture and audio continues”. And you don’t even need to use Google. Just search “frozen picture” in this forum and you will find others reporting the same issue 5 months ago.
But LOTS of things can cause frozen picture. Not to mention "frozen picture" is generic for all kinds of tiling. But in the end you could be right. It could be a bug. However I think it makes more sense to troubleshoot it as it was not a bug until you have ruled out all other possibility.
Number one cause of picture problems is from signal problems. Have you tried getting into the diagnostics yet? If you can't get in, you can also swap your cable modem where the cable box is and use the modem's 192.168.100.1 diagnostics to look at signal levels. They wouldn't quite be the same as seeing your cable TV signal levels, but it would be close enough. What we would be looking for is low SNR on specific downstream channels.
SNR 39.4 dB, power level -8.7 dBmv. I believe that is within acceptabke limits. However, back to my original point, the problem occurs when initiating DVR playback of recorded material, and persists until a hard reset is performed. But after the reset, the EXACT SAME recorded content plays back flawlessly. Given that, I don’t really see how signal level can the cause.
Ok then, not sure how else I can help. Maybe if more people report this bug, it will gain some attention. Or maybe another user will have an idea. Good luck.