Pik TV is a big disappointment and nightmare - Page 2

clint17

Hello dominicl

Thank you for your response. I did search for Fs (3rd column after the time) but there are none. Instead there are lots of Es. What baffles me is that the system starts "dropping outstanding frames" long before it finally stops and goes to dream background. Somehow it gets out of sync in a long program sequence (Netflix error after 90 mins comes to mind). These long sequences are mostly between 21:00PM and 23:00PM on K. Therefore the error happens usually around 22:30PM.

I have a full 1Gb connection from the ONT to the box. YouTube on the box and other streaming services on the Roku work without errors.

I have a good file (0.5 MB) from yesterday with 10 mins before and 10 mins after the error which happened at 22:33PM. I would like to make it available to you to see because I have no idea how PikTV is supposed to work and I have no idea how to get parts of the file on the forum screen.

Marcel

clint17

Hello dominicl

You can see the file from yesterday here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1B_Hcfb9-DlsMSwqEY19Xy18Co_9lP6wN/view?usp=sharing

There are two big error sequences at 22:27PM and 22:32PM, but only the second one ended in the system going to sleep. Pressing ok 5sec later got it back to work.

Marcel

dominicl

Hi @clint17,

There is an idle timeout in Android for going to sleep. I don't have my box with me, but it's in the screensaver settings (aka daydream). Is it set to 5 minutes by any chance? That would explain the delay between 22:27 errors and the 22:32 sleep. Usually, playback applications will hold a "wake lock", which prevents it from sleeping even when the timer expires. However, it looks like the Pik TV app may have lost its wakelock along the way. The log doesn't give any hint (to many silenced lines due to "chatty" app). You can see around 22:32 Android goes to sleep intentionally:

01-19 22:32:23.698  2811  2913 I PowerManagerService: Nap time (uid 1000)...
01-19 22:32:23.710  2811  2885 I DreamManagerService: Entering dreamland.
01-19 22:32:23.712  2811  2885 I PowerManagerService: Dreaming...

A quick-and-dirty hack is to enable the "stay awake" option (Developer option). This will hold a separate "wake lock" independently of the Pik TV app, and will prevent your box to sleep, unless you actively press the power button.

clint17

Hello dominicl

My settings:

Screen Saver: 30mins (default, max 1 hour)

Put Device to sleep: Never (default, equals max)

I'm gonna try Stay awake and will report back in about a week. Thanks for looking into the problem. I'm concerned by the frame mix up and if there

might be a flooding of the box.

Marcel

dominicl

Thanks for the update. If the screensaver sleep timeout is arleady set to « never », I’m not very hopeful that the « stay awake » setting will make a difference, but it’s worth a try. I watched the K: channel last night from around 8pm to 11pm without problem. Does it happen every day for you?

By the way, does anyone know what happened to this thread? It used to be called « Box randomly rebooting (not just on Netflix) » and turned into something rather depressing.

NFtoBC

@dominicl wrote:
By the way, does anyone know what happened to this thread? It used to be called « Box randomly rebooting (not just on Netflix) » and turned into something rather depressing.

Either a moderator changed the title, or the original poster did.

Possibly it can be corrected......

NFtoBC
If you find a post useful, please give the author a "Like"

clint17

Hello dominicl

For me it did not happen Sun and yesterday. It always happened on uninterrupted sequences longer than 90min and between 22:00 and 22:45. The next window to watch will be next Fri and Sat. Then I will watch the program on my phone too to see if they die together, or if its only the box. Later on I will also replace all my equipment (2 ER-X with 2 subnets each) with the Telus supplied 3200 and only attach the box to it.

Does anybody know more about Sasktel who use the same box for their 'cheap' IPTV?

A moderator named DRU moved 2 of my posts into the 'depressing' one. Why?

Marcel

DanielK

yes thats correct, the box then reboots to the pik loading screen.

After booting up, i start netflix, and sign in as necessary. Then i watch a video from anywhere of 1m to 1hr and it will reboot in between. Netflix just launched a new build 2 days ago and I'm testing it now.

DanielK

update: crash hasn't occurred since the new build.

Skulchyski

Full on reboots! 2 red lights and only in Netflix for me! This is so frustrating I’ve had 3 boxes I am sure it not the hw it’s the app!!

Skulchyski

I really hope you are paid for your work. I think this forum is just a way for telus to get problems ironed out for free. They want the average joe to fix their crappy program and I just hope they aren’t taking advantage of people with enquiring minds!

DanielK

new update: crashed again on latest netflix build, so the issue is still there and not fixed entirely (or even at all).

Jean3

I get this same problem with Apple TV/Ethernet. It is rare that I can watch TV for an hour or two without it crashing.