Just an FYI, the last 3 days (with no changes on my end), everything has worked without issues. Audio and Video at power on, no need to reboot the Xfinity box. Not sure what happened in the last 3 days, the version information is showing the same as it did on 1/17 when i took a picture of it with the exception of the Environment. On 1/17, it showed p5-rq, today it shows p6-tb. All other versions, timestamps are exactly the same though.
@Anon1464678 wrote:
My stb timestamp is November 21. Not sure what that even means. Thanks.
set top boxes are like computers in that they have an operating system that makes the hardware function. Comcast from time to time updates that OS that they call firmware.
@Anon1464678 wrote:
So the stb timestamp date is the date of the last firmware update? If that is the case, then what is happening every night when the box is updated?
it is the date and time of the version. the pushout takes several days, normally, and each will have the same date. the overnight boot is typical reset of memory, update windows of the firmware updates and a reload of the menu system. The DVRs get their recording information updates.
Any update if/when the latest firmware update releases will that resolve the handshake issue ?
My daily reboots started when I bought the latest SONY 4K UHD, but because of the distance between the XG1V4 and the TV I had to install a INNEOS REAL 4K fiber adapter. Every morning (well, 9 out of 10 mornings maybe) the adapter will indicate no signal coming from the XG1V4 and a reboot is required, then the lights indicate HDMI 2.2 and all is well; until tomorrow.
To eliminate the hassle of rebooting every morning I'm going to try something this week. I have ordered a "Belkin WeMo Insight Smart Plug" which apparently can be scheduled to turn on and off from the app (or alexa). I'm just going to set this to reboot the XG1V4 for me every morning. Although I still don't know if the XG1V4 loses the handshake ability after X number of hours or just overnight for some reason.
Seems that comcast could fix the problem by simply having the adapter do a self test every hour.
@vandenburg wrote:
My daily reboots started when I bought the latest SONY 4K UHD, but because of the distance between the XG1V4 and the TV I had to install a INNEOS REAL 4K fiber adapter. Every morning (well, 9 out of 10 mornings maybe) the adapter will indicate no signal coming from the XG1V4 and a reboot is required, then the lights indicate HDMI 2.2 and all is well; until tomorrow.
To eliminate the hassle of rebooting every morning I'm going to try something this week. I have ordered a "Belkin WeMo Insight Smart Plug" which apparently can be scheduled to turn on and off from the app (or alexa). I'm just going to set this to reboot the XG1V4 for me every morning. Although I still don't know if the XG1V4 loses the handshake ability after X number of hours or just overnight for some reason.
Seems that comcast could fix the problem by simply having the adapter do a self test every hour.
instead of rebooting next time, use TV remote to change to another live HDMI port, then back to the DVR. does that make the connection work? is the coax live behind the TV?
I have the same problem that everyone else seems to be reporting in SEVERAL different threads now.
Changing input is not an option - have no other HDMI devices. Xfinity button then exit - simply does not work. Page up/down - doesn't work either.
My only fix is to unplug power every day. This is getting old fast!
I'm going to return the XG1v4 since no real solution seems to be in sight.
BTW, my TV is a UN55JU6400 (2015) so it does not have the HDMI UHD COLOR setting either.
@philabundance wrote:
BTW, my TV is a UN55JU6400 (2015) so it does not have the HDMI UHD COLOR setting either.
The HDMI UHD Color setting only came on the 120 Hz. televisions, starting with the 7000 series. Your television is 60 Hz.
I found that disabling HDMI CEC in my Vizio settings helped with the problem. However, every now and then when I turn my TV on I get a black screen with only sound resulting in me needing to reboot. Seems like I should just request an older box and finally be done with this.
This problem continues. I called Comcast 7 times. Two technicians on two different occasions checked out the wiring inside and oustide of the house - no fault. The incoming singal is good. They swapped out the DVR once. Still the same problem. I have identical DVR and TV at another residence in a different state - no problem there. It must be a fault in local infrastructure. Comcast does not help.
@wvforu wrote:
I have had this problem for months. I have a Samsung, I’ve tried everything new cables new boxes and different settings. Nothing works to fix it. I have purchased and iHome plug and have it scheduled to turn the device off and on twice a day in the morning at 6am and in the afternoon at 3:30pm this way I have reduced the times of turning it on the black screen by having a smart plug do the constant restarting which is ridiculous.
Hmm. If that is working, it sounds like you might have an electrical wiring issue.
Can you explain please why you suspect it is a wiring issue?
@ahu1 wrote:
Can you explain please why you suspect it is a wiring issue?
I don't think Robert understood your post was another way to currently deal with the "Handshake" issue between Comcast box and many UHD televisions.
You have no wiring issue.
That's what I thought., thanks. The iHome switch sounds like a workable temporary solution. But I wish one Comcast employee would chime in with a status report some day!
My recommendation of period restarts is a failure. It seems now my box is going to black screen just after a few hours of not using it. it is so frustrating I can't use this TV hardly.
@wvforu wrote:
My recommendation of period restarts is a failure. It seems now my box is going to black screen just after a few hours of not using it. it is so frustrating I can't use this TV hardly.
I have twol XG1v4's and one X1 DVR. Your issue sounds like something with the delivery rather than they box itself. I was having picture issues and a tech replaced the coax drop from my pole in the back to my home and did some other things in the attic; the tech said he put all my devices on "one network" whatever that means.
My picture is much better now.
I tried the HDMI 2 solution and it worked for a whilw, but no longer.
I'm convinced that it is a handshake problem between the cable box and the TV.
It is not a box problem if so many people are having problems.
It needs a firmware update.
@RobertWy wrote:
@wvforu wrote:
My recommendation of period restarts is a failure. It seems now my box is going to black screen just after a few hours of not using it. it is so frustrating I can't use this TV hardly.
I have twol XG1v4's and one X1 DVR. Your issue sounds like something with the delivery rather than they box itself. I was having picture issues and a tech replaced the coax drop from my pole in the back to my home and did some other things in the attic; the tech said he put all my devices on "one network" whatever that means.
My picture is much better now.
How can one get a firmware update?
@ahu1 wrote:
How can one get a firmware update?
updates are by region and are rolled out. The updates come during the overnight reboot process, loading a new one as available.
We have the same issues on our two boxes. Have to restart them every day by pulling the plugs.
We've replaced each box, the remotes, the batteries, all of the coax and HDMI cables and all of the connectors and faceplates and nothing has changed.
We have two Samsung 4K TVs.
There was at one time a Comcast Labs feature called HDMI CRC -- that worked and turned the cable box on and off with the TV, but that feature disappeared.
The power save option on device settings doesn't seem to work as the LED lights stay on on the boxes.
The Xfinity status center https://www.xfinity.com/support/status is inconsistent in that it reports connected sometimes and a box issue at others. The reports returned from this portal don't seem to reflect actual conditions and the sytem refresh option (whatever that does) is only avaiable once every 24 hours. The restart a box option seems to do something, but does not restore the signal.
The only option we have found is to unplug each box before we want to watch TV, and it's getting very tiring and frustrating.
FiOS is looking more and more desirable every day -- especially at 1/3 the price of what we pay now.
@vadeltachi wrote:
We have the same issues on our two boxes. Have to restart them every day by pulling the plugs.
We've replaced each box, the remotes, the batteries, all of the coax and HDMI cables and all of the connectors and faceplates and nothing has changed.
We have two Samsung 4K TVs.
There was at one time a Comcast Labs feature called HDMI CRC -- that worked and turned the cable box on and off with the TV, but that feature disappeared.
The power save option on device settings doesn't seem to work as the LED lights stay on on the boxes.
The Xfinity status center https://www.xfinity.com/support/status is inconsistent in that it reports connected sometimes and a box issue at others. The reports returned from this portal don't seem to reflect actual conditions and the sytem refresh option (whatever that does) is only avaiable once every 24 hours. The restart a box option seems to do something, but does not restore the signal.
The only option we have found is to unplug each box before we want to watch TV, and it's getting very tiring and frustrating.
FiOS is looking more and more desirable every day -- especially at 1/3 the price of what we pay now.
As an aside, you can do a restart without having to do the unplug/plug drill.
https://www.xfinity.com/support/articles/x1-system-refresh
Great solution, when you can access the information from the remote...
But you can't without rebooting the box.
I can restart the boxes from the iPhone app or the web portal, but it does not restore the signal.
A system refresh, available once every 24 hours, does not restore the signal either.
The only solution we have found that reliably works is to manually unplug the box and plug it back in - a hard reboot if you will.
As an aside, the HDMI-CEC feature that was once avilable no longer works.
Also, I have noticed that the LED lights on the cable boxed are not going dark after any number of hours unless I manully select power saver now from the remote. (The power save option is ON on both boxes).
I had the same issue, reboot the 4K box every day, found a solution in another forum.
The problem is the HDMI cable provided by Comcast. You will need to replace it with a HDMI 2.0, HDCP 2.2 After replacing the cable with the one purcased from Amazon the rebooting issue was fixed.
Thank you for the suggestion; however, I've tried the new cables and they didn't solve the issues here.
I've also tried the suggestion to turn on the "HDMI UHD Color" on the HDMI port connected to the Comcast 4K box and that didn't solve the issue either. According to Samsung, turning this feature on tells the Samsung TV to expect 10-bit color signals from the source.
The issue definitely seems to be related to Samsung 4K TVs and the 4K Comcast box.
I am not sure to tell what software is running on the 4K Comcast box. One version is dated 2/22/19 and another version is 11/12/18.
We are still having to manually reboot the box every time we want to watch TV.
The once- daily system refreshes we are able to perform manually do not resolve the issue.
@vadeltachi wrote:
Thank you for the suggestion; however, I've tried the new cables and they didn't solve the issues here.
I've also tried the suggestion to turn on the "HDMI UHD Color" on the HDMI port connected to the Comcast 4K box and that didn't solve the issue either. According to Samsung, turning this feature on tells the Samsung TV to expect 10-bit color signals from the source.
The issue definitely seems to be related to Samsung 4K TVs and the 4K Comcast box.
I am not sure to tell what software is running on the 4K Comcast box. One version is dated 2/22/19 and another version is 11/12/18.
We are still having to manually reboot the box every time we want to watch TV.
The once- daily system refreshes we are able to perform manually do not resolve the issue.
The suggestion was to turn "off" the UHD color on the HDMI port. Was that just a typo. on your post here?
@huskur wrote:
My rebooting was cleared up by switching HDMI slots to HDMI 1 (best) on my Vizio TV. In HDMI 3 ARC (audio return channel) it would require reboot every day. All I did is was switch cables and a different HDMI slot and it’s fixed. Use the provided Comcast HDMI style 20276
The HDMI ARC port is normally reserved for 5.1 or 7.1 S.S. systems that used ARC. Most UHD televisions are designed to use HDMI 1, or 2 port, for Cable, Satellite, or DVR boxes.
@huskur wrote:
Though what you say is certainly accurate, they ARC HDMI should be treated equally for use. What I was stating is what worked for me and that not all HDMI cables are created equal.
Correct; if you are okay with using a digital optical cable for a 5.1 surround sound system. The HDMI Arc port can be used for anything else.
In my case, @Steamboat927 it's a "no signal" on the TV from the 4k x1 box.
The power saver doesn't seem to work one way or another as the LED cable box light never goes off when the TV turns off, and the LED light remains on all night no matter what the device power save setting is. The only way I have been able to power down the cable box is by a voice command "power down," but that still has not resolved the "no signal" issue the next time we turn the TV on.
I read in another forum that the power save feature saves very little energy -- someting on the order of 1.5 watts on the 4k x1 box. When active, power save apparently turns the LED light off and kills the signal to the HDMI port. Everything else is still on and running, including the rather noisy hard disk.
https://venturebeat.com/2018/08/16/pay-tv-dvrs-waste-energy-mislead-consumers/
https://energy.cablelabs.com/comcast/
https://forums.xfinity.com/t5/X1/How-much-energy-does-the-X1-set-top-box-use/m-p/1563341#M9542
Not to digress, but why is there a hard disk in a cloud-based DVR? And if there is a need for local storage, why is it not a solid-state disk?
Quote: "Not to digress, but why is there a hard disk in a cloud-based DVR? And if there is a need for local storage, why is it not a solid-state disk?"
Mainly because the DVR was manufactured before "Cloud based services" and has been modified.
Personly; I have been programing since 1979. I don't trust clould based systems to save my data or protect it from hacking. I never use the feature. For program use it may be okay but you are still trusting another company to not mess up, or get hacked.
I see this with my box as well. I just traded in my old non X1 box that performed well for the last 5 years. My first X1 box was DOA as was the second. The third box worked. Every morning I have to reboot the box to get a picture. It isn’t the cable and it isn’t the TV. I figured out it is after they do the daily updates. Every time Comcast remotely accesses the box for their daily whatever, it bricks the box. I changed the time from 4 am to 2 pm and when I got home from work today, it was bricked. It follows the daily update time. It is likely a software issue that is not compatible with the hardware. This should be something they should fix ASAP or there will be a lawsuit against them. It is unreal. I’m going to turn off as many features as I can to see if there is some feature incompatibility during the daily updates that is causing the issue. I doubt it though. Probably need a different model box, like maybe my old one, that will fix this. Techs and calls to service won’t get you anywhere. It is a software/hardware compatibility issue thatgot past their quality control testing, if they do any.