topic Re: TV Hub hangs on boot up in TV

TV Hub hangs on boot up

richardbraine — Mon, 02 Sep 2024 19:48:36 GMT

Since the most recent Talk Talk software update on my TV Hub, the box gets to the YouView logo and then appears to stall, going no further.

My TV is a 15 year old Sony Bravia KDL-40W5810 which pre-dates the current YouView installed TVs that Sony currently produce. It has 4 HDMI inputs that work perfectly well with all other equipment I have.

On investigation and having discussed with the Sony community I have deduced the following:

The Talk Talk Tv Hub is working perfectly as, when I plug it in to my (even older and very poor quality) Samsung TV it boots up perfectly well and outputs to the TV as you would expect. It also works fine with another more up-to-date TV I have. So, I'm at a loss as to why it won't render on our main Sony TV. I'm using the HDMI cabling supplied by Talk Talk for all my trialing.

Now, what I have found is that if I boot-up the TV Hub whilst connected to, say the, Samsung TV then switch the HDMI cable from that TV to my Sony Bravia, the Sony does render the video the (in very odd colours) but no sound, from whatever settings it has negotiated with the Samsung. But the Talk Talk TV Hub will not communicate successfully with my Sony Bravia on its own. I've also tried toning down the resolution from the TV Hub to 720p but this makes no difference. Anyhow my Sony Bravia happily accepts 1080p from a DVD player and an Amazon Firestick that I have. I've also tried all 4 HDMI ports and tried other HDMI cables but see no change.

I've had zero luck getting any help from Talk Talk who have promised call-backs but not delivered.

Whilst most people will be using newer TVs than me, I can't believe I'm the only person having issues. Could this be a bug in their latest software version that my TV doesn't like?

Anyone got any ideas?

Re: TV Hub hangs on boot up

Karl-TalkTalk — Tue, 03 Sep 2024 07:12:23 GMT

Check the TV Menu and turn off any HDMI CEC features and see if that helps.

Karl.

Re: TV Hub hangs on boot up

richardbraine — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 07:31:20 GMT

Thanks Karl.

just tried that but no change.

cheers

Richard

Re: TV Hub hangs on boot up

Karl-TalkTalk — Thu, 05 Sep 2024 07:43:19 GMT

I'm at a loss for what could be preventing this from working with that specific TV. The Box is android based and the recent update included an update to android 12. This then has the youview App which will start automatically, but should not affect the output or display of the box.

I can only suggest to try playing with the settings in the menu of the TV, and make sure any TV software is up to date.

Karl.

Re: TV Hub hangs on boot up

KClark1 — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 18:16:21 GMT

I have exactly the same problem-our sony bravia tv is a couple of years younger. Tv working fine with aerial plugged in directly. Have had several long conversations with talk talk technical support, 2 new tv hubs and an engineer visit between 2 new hubs. Tried to let talktalk know this morning that the latest hub had not solved problem but gave up with chat as agent didn't seem to have read what said and tried to tell me how to set up hub - asking if had hdmi port on tv! Gave in this afternoon and bought new tv - hopefully latest hub will work when new tv arrives.

Re: TV Hub hangs on boot up

richardbraine — Mon, 09 Sep 2024 21:37:43 GMT

I totally get your frustration but there’s no way I’m replacing my supremely good Sony TV because of a dodgy STB software update!

Mind you, a new Sony Bravia with integrated YouView is appealing given Talk Talk’s “support”!

Talk Talk need to own this one and investigate properly!

Re: TV Hub hangs on boot up

Grumphart — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 16:26:41 GMT

I thought I was going mad, but I'm having very similar problems. In brief, January 24 had new TV box coz my old one didn't do ITVX. New TV hub lasted till August 24 when all I could get was a blank screen. I'm currently on my second replacement TV hub box but both stalled following the update to Android 12 during initial setup. All I get on rebooting is the initial YouView logo followed by a blank screen.

Guess what, my television is a Sony Bravia of about ten years service.

Over to you TalkTalk?

Re: TV Hub hangs on boot up

ferguson — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 16:37:24 GMT

This sounds very odd indeed. As the common factor appears to be Sony TVs of a certain age, have any of you tried reaching out directly to Sony support for their thoughts, perhaps they should be the ones to own this issue?

Re: TV Hub hangs on boot up

Grumphart — Tue, 17 Sep 2024 18:17:11 GMT

I've checked out Sony software support only to find that my TV model is no longer supported by Sony since 2022.

Your suggestion was worth checking out though for Sony to own the problem does goes against the idea of backwards compatibility something that has been a broad standard in telecommunications and computers generally.

Still, we'll see what TalkTalk suggest as a solution.

Re: TV Hub hangs on boot up

Karl-TalkTalk — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 07:23:35 GMT

If the common factor is older Sony Bravia TV's that are no longer supported by Sony then there may be little that can be done. I will make our devices teams aware of the issue but if they think the issue lies with the software of the TV, then Sony would not update this as they are out of support.

Thanks

Karl.

Re: TV Hub hangs on boot up

Grumphart — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 08:34:44 GMT

Hi Karl

Thanks for the prompt reply. I suspect that you may well be correct.

Having had this same experience with two recently supplied TV Hub boxes. The initial installation seemed to go to plan, I've done it with ethernet and WiFi connectivity. Following the automatic update and installation of Android 12 there was no further response from the TV to the remote.

Is there any way that the TV hub box can be uploaded with an earlier version of Android and also prevent it updating automatically?

My first TV hub box failed in the same way during what was 8 months of service. Could this have been due to an automatic software update?

Re: TV Hub hangs on boot up

Karl-TalkTalk — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 08:44:21 GMT

There is no possibility of downgrading the TV box as updates also contain security updates and these cannot be rolled back.

Thanks

Karl.

Re: TV Hub hangs on boot up

Grumphart — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 09:13:33 GMT

Please see if the device teams can suggest a fix/patch otherwise it looks like doing without TalkTalk TV until my TV fails and that doesn't feel like progress.

Thank you for you response and attention to this rather niche problem.

Re: TV Hub hangs on boot up

Karl-TalkTalk — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 09:15:39 GMT

I've raised it to them to see if testing can be done.

Karl.

Re: TV Hub hangs on boot up

KClark1 — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 09:26:31 GMT

Hi Karl

As far as I'm concerned I bought a new TV to go with new living room decor/rebuild so I no longer need the talktalktv box at all. My account has been updated and I have returned all the boxes. However I note that I was not the only person with old Sony Bravia tv to have the problem so if tech team can find a fix I'm sure the others will be delighted!

Re: TV Hub hangs on boot up

Karl-TalkTalk — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 09:28:55 GMT

I'll certainly escalate this and see what can be done 🙂

Karl.

Re: TV Hub hangs on boot up

Grumphart — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 12:47:46 GMT

In case it becomes relevant my Sony Bravia model is KDL - 32BX400.

Thanks again for your support.

Re: TV Hub hangs on boot up

Karl-TalkTalk — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 12:49:29 GMT

Thanks, I'll note this down here 🙂

Karl.

Re: TV Hub hangs on boot up

richardbraine — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 18:25:20 GMT

Thanks for your message.

The common factor certainly appears to be some Sony TVs, however the problem lies with the latest TalkTalk Android 12 update. Backwards compatibility is not being adhered to.

I have had this response from Sony....

It’s very worrying that TalkTalk tech can’t understand the problem, because in principle, it’s very simple 😢

The TalkTalk YouView box (Hub) boots up at 576i, which clearly works, as you are seeing the YouView logo on the TV. At this point, the Hub interrogates the Sony TV as to what higher format it can support, and should switch to it.

So the possibilities are:-

The Sony TV doesn’t hear the question, or doesn’t understand it, and so doesn’t reply, leaving the Hub hanging waiting for an answer that never comes;

The Sony TV replies, but the Hub doesn’t hear the reply, or doesn’t understand it, leaving the Hub hanging without an answer.

So, assuming the TV hasn’t been broken by a Sony update (vanishingly unlikely after 15 years!) some change that TalkTalk made in the latest Hub update has broken the second - though not the first - HDMI handshake.

So the first thing that TalkTalk should do is scan the Hub software and firmware for any changes to the second HDMI handshake, deliberate or accidental, and see about reversing them.

If they can’t find any such, then they will need to do some work on the lab bench to examine the HDMI handshake, to see what’s going wrong. For this, they may need an old Sony TV.

Re: TV Hub hangs on boot up

richardbraine — Wed, 18 Sep 2024 18:39:34 GMT

Hi,

I just received a third TV Hub in the hope that I could stop/bypass the Android 12 update but it is fully automatic with no option to decline. 😢

I posted (to another community member in this thread) Sony's response when I explained what I was experiencing.

You'll find my thread on the Sony community pages under 'Talk Talk TV Hub stopped working with TV' but not sure there's much more they can do to help given their TVs have been faultless for over a decade! As you rightly suggested, this is backward compatability issue that lies with TalkTalk - surely?