Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

In light of the Red Button thread that's running in the ntl DTV forum here, I am interested to hear from current/past ntl subscribers as to the reliablilty of their STB-I.E. did it crash, & if so how often (roughly)?

This thread is also not to discuss any other aspect of ntl-E.G. Customer Service etc, solely to discuss your ntl STB locking up (or not), thanks. :tu:

N.

Re: Does/Did Your ntl STB Lock Up?
 

4 boxes in my house and only ever had a problem with one of them.... engineer came, removed one of the splitters and recabled slightly differently and haven't had a problem since.

Re: Does/Did Your ntl STB Lock Up?
 

I went through 3 NTL STB's when I was with them, each of them locked up on average 2-3 times a day.

Re: Does Your ntl STB Ever Lock Up?
 

Mine have been pretty stable, just slow.

Re: Does/Did Your ntl STB Lock Up?
 

When I had NTL DTV it used to lock up fairly regularly but the main problem was freezing and jerking of the picture. Several box swaps and engineer visits never cured the problem.

Re: Does/Did Your ntl STB Lock Up?
 

2 boxes, both crash and lose the data almost daily :(

i also get the "press to fix the problem" but it wont let me select it!

Re: Does/Did Your ntl STB Lock Up?
 

I have three boxes;

One has never locked up (that I can recall).
One locks about once every two/three months.
One locks about once a month.

Take your pick ..... :)

Re: Does/Did Your ntl STB Lock Up?
 

I'm wondering if either of these threads will get a reasonable sample as
a) those with problems are more likely to respond than those without
b) the user base of this site is predisposed to having problems with NTL.
c) no it's gone (perhaps I'll remember and edit this later).

Re: Does/Did Your ntl STB Lock Up?
 

Samsung STB never locks up never loses EPG Data, sometimes has a delay of a few seconds if i flick through 20+ channels in one go.

Pace STB locks up 2 or 3 times a month, never has EPG Data unless I reboot it.

Re: Does/Did Your ntl STB Lock Up?
 

4010, never locked up, had the same box since dtv was available.

Re: Does/Did Your ntl STB Lock Up?
 

I've only had my ntl digibox for about three weeks now, and it crashes at least 2x a day.

Re: Does/Did Your ntl STB Lock Up?
 

Would be more useful if, as in a CM thread, responders included details of which model STB they had/have. Thanks.

Re: Does/Did Your ntl STB Lock Up?
 

Well mine is a PACE DI4001NC

Re: Does/Did Your ntl STB Lock Up?
 

I used to have a pace 4001 that only locked up if the red button was pushed. I now have a Pace 4010 that has not locked up.

The last engineer cabled it up differently also the previous engineer had used an analogue attenuator that could have caused some problems with locking the old 4001 box

Re: Does/Did Your ntl STB Lock Up?
 

I have a Pace 2000 box. Well, actually I have two.

The NTL one never locks up of its own accord. It does need to be rebooted periodically though to keep running optimally. It's as if some of the software subprocesses just give up after it's been running for a long time, and they need a reboot to wake them up. Note that I'm running broadband off this STB, which may make a difference.

My Telewest one has locked up on me twice, both times while using the News 24 multiscreen thing. It does seem to be able to keep running well for longer without requiring a reboot, however. I'm not using this one for broadband.

Re: Does/Did Your ntl STB Lock Up?
 

Pace 2000 one lock up in 3+ years (pre-upgrade)
Samsung no lock ups to date since reaplcement

Re: Does/Did Your ntl STB Lock Up?
 

yep, regularly. Tends to put things like the history channel on BBC 1 as well. Very annoying if your an avid fan of Eastenders like me! (Sorry to those who hate soaps :) ) My mothers resets itself all the time and then stays off untill the following day. Next door to myself they had a resetting box and blamed it on a ghost!


My box also needs resetting most days in order to view the guide. I am not sure which one it is , I know its new though as I have had it for a year.

When i first joined NTL my box broke twice. They replaced them. I moved and the box i brought with me decided it didn't like my new premises so NTL had to change that too along with the remote! They were stuck onthe boot screen for ages.

Now (touch wood) I haven't got any problems apart from the flick of channels and having to reboot it every two days.

SeTi^

Re: Does/Did Your ntl STB Lock Up?
 

Might be better to make that poll mention that it's for a digital box, the analogue ones never locked up AFAIKR.

I had both, the digital STB was always locking up, esp if we used the games.

Re: Does/Did Your ntl STB Lock Up?
 

Pace Di4000-N return power 47dBmv

Regularly crashes, red button & interactive sometimes work and quite often causes freezing or crashes. Box also crashes from time to time for no apparent reason, this used to ba a daily occurence but not so often now.

I'm rather puzzled by CA IPPV status: UKNOWN does this indicate a problem.
Our first box was a Samsung but it refused to show half of the channels.


:erm:

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

My PACE 1000 never ever locked up but NTL changed it as my broadband kept failing. Was nothing to do with the STB in the end. My PACE 4000 locked up all the time and lost channels too.

I now have a Sammy and that regularly "hangs", i change channel and the box just sits there doing nothing and a minute or so later it decides to change channel. Using the red button does cause it to lock up too. Also on occasions channels are black but on return to the same channel the picture and sound are present.

My final whinge with the Sammy is that when i change channel the new channel appears and the picture freezes and jerks for the forst 2-3 seconds and make a horrible noise some of the time.

Did i say final whinge? ok this is the last one. As i use widescreen when i turn the STB on it doesnt auto change my AV input on the TV, i have to change channel of the STB several times to make this happen.

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

Pace 2000 also running 750K BB rarely locks up.

Pace 1000 does lock up, mainly when using interactive. ( has locked up a lot recently but that is not down to the box ) ;)

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

Is it pretty conclusive then that the Samsung box has no problems?

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

Pace 1000 - Interactive is russian roulette - lockups, "Unexpected errors", the lot - Red button ... Red Alert, though it seems more of the recent problems may be interactive service related, rather than the box itself - but like a GPF in Windows, once you've had one foulup, just reboot the thing as soon as it's convenient - I think it has a memory leak!

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

So - what happens if I call ntl and tell them my box keeps crashing? Do they send an engineer round? Do I get a new box? And how do I prove it crashes as it does it intermittently?

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

How do I tell which box I have? I remember there being a guide somewhere?

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

Press page up+page down+ blue.

The third page will tell you your hardware type.

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

When watching TV: very rarely.
When accessing 'interactive': Guaranteed. Every time.

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

Had a fair bit of trouble with my first Pace 1000 (had 3 over the years and the first one never worked reliably). The other two were fine (although no 2 did throw a wobbly hence me getting no.3). All of the Paces were a bit flaky when accessing interactive.

The Samsung I have now is fast, and seems reliable on Interactive as well. The only thing that does sometimes cause the Sammy to crash is if I transfer a lot of data to/from my PC when attached to work's Virtual Private Network..

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

Pace 2000, stable as anything unless using EPG or any interactive when it's as stable as Rik Waller on a 2 legged stool

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

Time for my regular evangelising about ntl's TV service I'm afraid.

I have three boxes. Currently one Samsung and two Pace 1000's.

The Samsung is marginally faster than the PACEs, but not much. The Paces speeded up DRAMATICALLY when I put new Duracell batteries in the remotes last month, an interesting point to note.

Although I currently have a SACM, I used to run 1mb broadband via one of the PACEs and I couldn't make it crash even when using interactive at the same time.

I have had the odd crash but it is very occasionally and all three boxes normally perform excellently. I only ever get a 'no schedule data' error for a few seconds after booting the box up from scratch, other than that it's always there and useable.

I do not deny there are problems with some Pace boxes, and for some people with the TV service in general, however, my experience is more common than you might think.

I love the DTV service and would never be without it, it's as simple as that. My only gripe is that ntl are FAR too slow launching new channels compared with other platforms, though it was nice to see ITV3 launch on time.

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

Hi people....


Mine locks up almost all of the time, any channel etc... However, ive only just gotten round to telephoning Customer services to see if they can get the problem resolved. Hopefully have an engineer coming on the weekend...

Rob

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

Just thinking about the new VOD and NTL set top boxes.
What happens when you are half way through a film and the box crashes because you paused it or rewound or fast forwarded the movie!?

Painful!

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

I have had many STB's over the years. All have had problems, in particular the 4000. The 2000 seems more stable and this latest one has been pretty good only needing rebooting occasionally. HOWEVER, I put this down to the fact that it no longer carries the broadband interenet service which is now through a cable modem. This STB has lasted for nearly 2 years now :) , previous ones were as poor as 4 in 3 months.:td:

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

Ive had 2 boxes in the last 3 years. Both lock up periodically. The most annoying is the Guide that fails or doesn't keep up to date unless it is rebooted. The Fix It screen rarely does. It's interesting that the first thing the engineer explained to me when first installed was how to reboot!!
xtopher

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

We currently have a Samsung SMT2100c and a reconditioned Di2000 - ancient i know - and of the two the Sammy is, by comparison with the Di4000 it replaced, really stable and almost no lockups apart from the couple of occasions when we've been going too fast on channel change.

The 2000 on the other hand is about as good as a house brick - it needs rebooting practically every other day or so, when it locks up, or won't power to standby, or change channel.....

As the engineer who installed the Sammy said to me, "its not the boxes, but the software thats rubbish" - sums it up really.:D


Me, I'm just waiting to see which gives up first when VOD software is rolled out next year;)

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

Do you have Broadband through your STB? Mine was really unstable before I switched to a cable modem. With enough complaining, i.e. going through to disconections for terminating ALL services, customer services took over the call. They gave me a free modem, free fitting and 3 months free internet access to keep my custom. Worth going with the stand alone modem as now have very few problems with the STB (Ditv2000 Pace)

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

I have had the same 2 STB's for almost 4 years, 1000 box occasionally locks up when using interactive, the 2000 series also runs 750k BB and is virtually trouble free.

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

I've got BB coming through the STB - and it's been absolutely fine... although interactive is a nightmare... so the two are obviously aren't exclusive :)

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

I have the new beta software and my neither my pace boxes or my samsung box lock up.

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

I just turned my box on upstairs and it came up with a message saying the box was unstable and needed to be upgraded 'press select to continue'

So I did this and although I can hear it - it's just sitting on a black screen now.

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

Aah, but it's a stable black screen ;)

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

I can't argue with that :)

In the end I used the latest upgrade technique - and pulled the plug out and stuck it back in :)

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

Ok - so the engineer came out and looked at my box.

He put an attenuator(sp?) in as he said my signal was too strong.

But he also told me that to stop my box crashing 'don't push the red button' - 'we don't support it - it doesn't work'

Mind you he did say it was coming soon :)

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

That would certainly make sense - happens to a lot of people... Sometimes it's all fine when it gets installed, but if a few people unsubscribed it could make it a bit powerful where you are and be in danger of frying the box...

Classic - sometimes the irony goes straight pass these guys :D

Re: Does/Did Your ntl Digital STB Lock Up?
 

Just had our Pace4001 replaced with a silver smasung. and Zero problems whatsoever so far. Im really quite impressed with the speed of it too...

Also, credit where credit is due, all the people I have spoken to at CS and the engineers that have visited have been really decent people and seemed like they cared to get my problem fixed. Gold star for NTL.....

Rob