# TV Screen goes black for 0.5 seconds



## markmlewis (Sep 4, 2017)

There is a similar report at

TV screen goes black for few seconds ...

but since my "black spots" are shorter (0.5 sec vs. "few" seconds), I thought I would post this.

I have a Bolt+ connected to a Samsung TV with 4K. While watching play back, the screen would go black for about 0.5 seconds. This problem is not with the recorded show. If I skip back over the time where the outage occurred, there is no problem -- no 0.5 sec skip. If I continue watching, the black periods begin coming closer together. If I reboot the unit, I have no problems for about a week and then the skips reappear. Another reboot and I get another week of problem free watching.

I almost never watch live TV so I don't know if the problem appears during live watching.

I have an open problem on this but, like in the thread referenced above, one support person tried to tell me that since my SNR is 40 dB, that was the problem. I called back and got someone else. They had me reset the network connection so I'm going to have to wait a week to see if that fixes the problem. I'm 99% sure it won't but I've been wrong before.

My guess is that their code has a memory leak but I don't know how to check that.


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## Worf (Sep 15, 2000)

Try changing the HDMI cable you're using - usually long blinks are caused by HDCP failures, short blinks are usually caused by temporary interruptions in the signal.

If you're going through a receiver, try a new cable direct from TiVo to TV first, before swapping cables around.


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## Sparky1234 (May 8, 2006)

Set video to one output like 720P or 1080i and report back.


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## markmlewis (Sep 4, 2017)

Worf said:


> Try changing the HDMI cable you're using - usually long blinks are caused by HDCP failures, short blinks are usually caused by temporary interruptions in the signal.
> 
> If you're going through a receiver, try a new cable direct from TiVo to TV first, before swapping cables around.


Note that after a reboot of the Tivo, I get a approximately a week of problem free operation. It's hard to see how a cable could produce such behavior. Nevertheless, I am going to put a HDMI 2.2 cable in place and see what happens.


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## CaseyK24 (Apr 17, 2003)

I recently starting having a similar problem. When watching playback or Live TV with my Tivo Bolt the screen goes black for a second then come back. If I rewind the scene plays fine so its not the recording. Also for those saying its the HDMI connection I'm not so sure because with experimenting I found that when the screen goes blank I can still see the Tivo overlay information like the show name. So the Tivo is still sending a picture to the TV just the show goes black. Anyone else seeing this?


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

I've seen mine go black for a split second. But this is only when I start playing a recording or change a channel. Mine is caused from the HDMI connection resyncing. I've not seen it go black after that.


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## markmlewis (Sep 4, 2017)

@casey24 I submitted the report on September 4. My problem was "resolved" when I switched to 1080 p 60 fps. Apparently there is a problem with the Bolt and at least some 4k tv's.


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## CIR-Engineering (Sep 24, 2017)

markmlewis said:


> @casey24 I submitted the report on September 4. My problem was "resolved" when I switched to 1080 p 60 fps. Apparently there is a problem with the Bolt and at least some 4k tv's.


Not surprising. HDMI is a total pain to deal with. Glad your issue was easily resolved.

craigr


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## markmlewis (Sep 4, 2017)

CIR-Engineering said:


> Not surprising. HDMI is a total pain to deal with. Glad your issue was easily resolved.
> 
> craigr


Note that I put 'resolved' in quotes. I don't consider the problem fixed. I bought the Bolt to go with my new 4K tv and I would not like to find out that the two are permanently incompatible. Currently my supplier does not provide any 4K content but when they do, I don't want to watch it at 1080p.

If there is any there is any diagnostic information that I can collect I would be happy to collect it.

Thanks.


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## CaseyK24 (Apr 17, 2003)

markmlewis said:


> @casey24 I submitted the report on September 4. My problem was "resolved" when I switched to 1080 p 60 fps. Apparently there is a problem with the Bolt and at least some 4k tv's.


I have tried to go back and forth between fixed and the automatic resolutions. I also tried different fixed resolutions. I will try new HDMI cables even though I thought that was not a possibility with the On Screen Displays still coming through when the playback went black but now seems still a possibility.


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