Playback freezing on recordings

[Ewalsh436]

Recordings keep freezing/buffering on playback. We have to pause and wait, then play again. Over and over again every couple of minutes 🙄 any ideas?

[roy247]

Is this happening on the main box or a mini box, or second upgraded V6 box. If you only have one box if live TV and on demand are working ok and it's just recordings it is pointing towards the hard drive having a problem. You can test this by recording a programme you are watching, if you don't see any problems with the live broadcast but your recording has problems then it is probably the hard drive.

If the problem is watching a recording on a second box, which the buffering problem could suggest, make sure both boxes are set to fast start or active start.

[japitts · Accepted solution]

You've not said, so I'll ask... is this playing back recordings on a single box? Or is there any element of multiroom streaming to a minibox involved here?

If the latter, then there's a few variables (mini-box > hub connectivity) that would need ruling out.

If this is just straight playback of recordings on a single box, the next obvious thing is to check that live TV is ok. If so, try pausing live TV for 30 seconds and watch it delayed. That will help prove whether we're dealing with a TV signal issue, hard drive problem, or something else.

[Ewalsh436]

Thanks for the reply. It’s the main box, we only have the one and it’s brand new. Just checked the live TV suggestion and all fine, just the recording has problems. If it’s a hard drive issue, what’s the best thing to do?

[roy247]

Phone virgin at 8am for the fastest response.

Curious to know if its a Humax box or Arris, if you go to Home, Settings, Info, About, it will list the manufacturer.

[japitts · Accepted solution]

Remember live TV doesn't use the hard drive, paused & delayed TV does.

VM Faults Reporting is...

150 from a Virgin phone, or 0345 4541111 from any other phone.

Or wait on here for a staff response - most likely a day or so.

[Ewalsh436]

It’s an Arris box.

[roy247]

As it's an Arris box it will be a refurbished V6 box so might well need a new hard drive, it could be about 5 years old.

[Ewalsh436]

Wow! Terrible problems again yesterday with more recordings. I'll get onto Virgin today.

[Megan_L]

Hi Ewalsh436,

Thanks for using the forums to get this issue with your TV services looked into, I am sorry if this has been causing some frustration. I would be more than happy to look into this for you. 

So what I know from the above messages is that you're primarily having issues with playing recordings, I can appreciate with them freezing it can ruin whatever TV show or film you're watching!

I can also see your box is a 360 Arris and you have no issues whilst watching Live TV. 

I've tried to check your services on my side but I believe your box is offline at the moment, if you're at home could you switch it on for me please? I want to do some diagnostic testing on my side to see what we can do. 

Also, can you tell me if the playback issue happens on all recordings or is there a pattern? (Same show, channel, time/date)

Let me know when you've switched it on and the answer to the above question 🙂

Thanks,

Megan_L