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MrsDDG's avatar
MrsDDG
Joining in
5 days ago
Solved

Stream Box Drops Out Regularly!

Hello, I’m hoping someone on this forum will have the answer, surely there has to be one? I have had a Stream Box for the last 2 months and right from the off, it regularly drops out/loses connection.

It is worse when watching a streaming service (Netflix/Prime/Disney+/iPlayer), its happens sporadically, but multiple times whilst watching something. It’s could happen every few minutes, or go for 20 minutes before it drops out. When this happens, the screen goes black, the sound goes, momentarily on the black screen you see VIRGIN MEDIA DD+ 3840x2160@ 24Hz (or 50Hz) in the top right corner. Then you see this message (if watching Netflix for example) “There’s an issue with your streaming device. Let’s try restarting Netflix… Error code tvq-pb-101 (5.2.12)”. 

I have worked out the quickest way to get back to what I’m watching is to press the ‘back/return’ button on the VM remote. Once I do this, the screen returns to preview page of what I’m watching where it is paused, I am then able to press play or okay to resume.

If I am watching anything on live tv/terrestrial channels, again it will drop out (screen goes black/sound goes), but it is not as disruptive as I do not need to do anything because it resumes momentarily by itself - it’s still very annoying! My husband’s says that when the World Cup is on in the summer, he is going to switch off the stream box and watch through freeview instead!!

We also discovered that when the Nintendo Switch was played over Christmas which is also plugged into the TV using a HDMI cable, that dropped out too! 

I have a Virgin TV 360 Box and 1x Stream Box. My TV is a 4K Panasonic, with a Polk Soundbar. There are 3x HDMI ports, all being used. HDMI 1 is being used for the VM Stream Box, HDMI 2 (Arc) for the Soundbar and HDMI 3 for Blue Ray player or Switch. I have tried replacing the HDMI cable for the Stream Box, swapped the HDMI port, reset both the Stream Box, TV and rebooted the hub. I’ve also had an engineer out who was pretty sure that it was the Stream Box that was faulty, so replaced it (I knew that wasn’t the issue). He tested my connection speed and said it was good, so that wasn’t the problem either. I have booked for another engineer to visit next week, but I am sceptical that it can be resolved.

The answer has to be out there somewhere, can anyone please help? 🙏🏻

  • Adduxi's avatar
    Adduxi
    5 days ago

    Wired or WiFi connection to the Hub?  What happens when you swap the HDMI cables around? Have you tried an HDMI CEC blocker?

7 Replies

  • Adduxi's avatar
    Adduxi
    Very Insightful Person
    5 days ago

    Wired or WiFi connection to the Hub?  What happens when you swap the HDMI cables around? Have you tried an HDMI CEC blocker?

    • MrsDDG's avatar
      MrsDDG
      Joining in
      4 days ago

      I am using WiFi connection to the Hub which is located in a different room. The distance from the Stream Box to the Hub is approx 10m (on the same floor). I asked the engineer to check the signal as believed this could be the issue, but he said it was strong and as I had the latest Super Hub 5, so he didn't think this was the problem. 

      I have read that wiring in the Stream Box using an Ethernet cable may resolve this issue, however I don't think I can do this as it would require running a cable from the Stream Box to my Hub wouldn't it? 

      I have tried swapping the HDMI cables around and unfortunately it didn't make any difference.

      No, I haven't HDMI CEC blocker. I can purchase one, where do I plug it in to? The HDMI cable that's connected from the Stream Box to the TV?

      Thank you for your advise, it's much appreciated! 🙏🏻

  • newapollo's avatar
    newapollo
    Very Insightful Person
    5 days ago

    Are you using the  combined Stream-power-ethernet-adapter that was supplied with the Stream box? Is it a wired or wifi connection?

    Have you swapped boxes around to see if the fault follows the box?  ie have you tried the Stream box on a different TV ? Have you tried the 360 box on your 4K Panasonic TV?

    On your Stream box do you have Settings > Audio & Video >  Match Frame Rate set to on?

    If it's set to ON then people do see a blackout/or hear a sound drop/ or the picture may appear jerky when the Stream box or 360 or HDMI reconfigures for the difference in frame rate. (This is usually more noticeable on live TV when switching from adverts back to a program, or changing channels, but can also show up on apps such as netflix, Prime and Apple TV)
    If it's set to the default (OFF) then the box just accepts the frame rate difference which isn't noticeable by most users and shouldn't blank the screen or sound out.  (Either way try toggling this setting to see if it solves your issues)

    • MrsDDG's avatar
      MrsDDG
      Joining in
      4 days ago

      Hi newapollo, I am using WiFi connection as I am unable to run an Ethernet cable from the Stream Box to the Hub as the distance is too far. I wish I could, as I believe this may resolve it.

      I haven't tried the Stream Box on a different TV, so I could try that.

      I’m unable to try the 360 box on my 4K Panasonic TV, as the box is hardwired into the TV in my front lounge, where the external cable enters the property. This is a different room from where my Panasonic TV is located. I was unwilling to have an external cable run around the outside and rear of the house to connect to the Panasonic TV, which is why I opted for the Stream Box, as I believed it would resolve this issue.

      Regarding your suggestion re Match Frame Rate set to on, I thought you were on to something here, as I hadn't looked at this setting and it was indeed set to 'ON'. So I changed it to 'OFF'... I got through 45 minutes of watching a film with no drop outs and thought you'd cracked it! But alas, it happened again... and again 😩

      Your advise is much appreciated however! 🙏🏻

  • MrsDDG's avatar
    MrsDDG
    Joining in
    4 days ago

    I have purchased a Lindy HDMI CEC Less Adapter to plug into the Stream Box. Let's hope that might fix it... I will promise to provide an update as many threads I have read on this same issue does not seem to have a conclusion!

  • MrsDDG's avatar
    MrsDDG
    Joining in
    1 day ago

    ***UPDATE!***
    After 3 months of the Stream Box regularly dropping out, finally I have a fix! 🎉😅

    So I purchased a (Lindy) HDMI CEC Less Adapter as suggested by @Adduxi, it cost approx £11. I removed the current HDMI cable that was plugged into the Stream Box which connects to the Panasonic TV and plugged the CEC blocker/less adapter into the HDMI port. I then plugged the HDMI cable into the other end of the adapter. I restarted the TV and Stream Box and selected something to watch on one of the Apps/streaming channels and waited… and waited… waited some more until I reached the end of the film… NO DROP OUTS!!! 😅😅😅 It’s now been 24 hours of  lots of TV watching and I have experienced no further issues!!! It’s finally fixed!!! 🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻🙏🏻

    • Adduxi's avatar
      Adduxi
      Very Insightful Person
      19 hours ago

      Glad it worked, and hopefully it will remain so.  The CEC "blocker" just removes the automation function from the HDMI cable by blanking out one of the pins in the circuit.  I'm assuming the stream box was sending signals that was causing the blanking?