Question Arris Freesat 4K gripe thread

Pyongyang

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Figured a single thread may be good to post problems with this box. Maybe someone at Arris may stumble upon it! I'll start with my gripe (the box has many issues but here's one to start the thread with).

Is anyone else experiencing an issue with the Arris Freesat box with regards the on demand apps? I have the 2tb 4k box on what I assume is the latest software as it won't update further.

More specifically, if I open YouTube and close it, I don't even have to watch a video, when I close the app and live tv comes back on it loses audio. Every single time. The only way to get audio working again is to reboot the box from the system settings menu.

Anyone else got issues with this box?
 
It's more to see if folks are seeing similar issues. Freesat CS probably won't care.
 
Freesat CS probably won't care.
Well they should. Only they (as the box specifiers) can really kick the supplier / maker (Arris). Other than the retailer(s) people buy from who might care if all purchasers were to complain loud enough / reject them as unfit...

I, for one, have no plans to buy this box when my Foxsat-HDRs die due to the problems I've read on that other thread (and in other fora). I'll go an Enigma style solution probably.

If broadcast is still continuing by that time.
 
Well they should. Only they (as the box specifiers) can really kick the supplier / maker (Arris). Other than the retailer(s) people buy from who might care if all purchasers were to complain loud enough / reject them as unfit...

I, for one, have no plans to buy this box when my Foxsat-HDRs die due to the problems I've read on that other thread (and in other fora). I'll go an Enigma style solution probably.

If broadcast is still continuing by that time.
Same here. The Arris box seems a mess. I have some spare Humax kit that I'll use first though.
 
Just got this back from Freesat support, in addition to the support request I put in, and I quote:

"The next software release is expected later this month and resolves a number of bugs customers have reported. There's a product development team working full time on improvements to the product and we will continue to release both fixes and new features and functionality via software update to improve our customers experience."
 
No promise it'll cover your specific bug, but let's be hopeful it does.🤞
 
No promise it'll cover your specific bug, but let's be hopeful it does.🤞
The person I spoke to also mentioned about adding the ability to switch HDR off and on manually.

I said that's all well and good but surely the box should be able to detect an HDR flag on a live broadcast, recording or on demand app? The person said it's been noted and will be looked at.......
 
The Amazon prime app never plays in HD on my box.

The streams eventually produce a decent SD image, but as soon as there's a fast moving detailed scene, the image produces inch size blocks all over the screen.

Tried watching Star Trek into the Darkness, but everytime the actors are running through grass fields, it blocks out, as soon as it cuts to a scene inside the ship, the image instantly cleans up again.
 
What is your Internet download speed?
 
freesat and Amazon are very closely monitoring this very thread for such fault reports.



not
I reported to freesat, never got back to me. Tried to send message to Amazon and they phoned me back. The rep from Amazon was just going through procedure that was mostly irrelevant to the box, none of his suggestions worked.

I noticed an email address for Amazon in the settings of the Prime app on the box, it's for feedback related to prime on Freesat, so I sent them a message.
 
I lost Netflix on Thursday night. Says there's a network error, but when I run the network test it passes. Says everything is fine! Netflix CS currently investigating.
 
Mine is going back to Amazon. The list of ridiculous faults is just getting longer. The latest one tonight was the box randomly recording the same programme 4 times and me having to manually delete them all from the planner. Non freesat mode is unusable. The default HDR problem is hardware I think and cannot be solved with a software update. Recordings boot you out at exactly 18:58 each evening. Freesat haven't even responded to my email about whether these problems will be fixed.

Think i will switch to freeview and get the Humax Aura.
 
Wow, here is part of the email that they have now sent:

Im sorry to hear you are not completely happy with your product.

The box does always output a HDR signal, but the team are looking to add settings to turn this option off.

With your issues with non Freesat mode this is not a primary feature so that is why it is not very well synced in with the rest of the box, what I have done is fed back your input to the product team to hopefully make this feature better in the future.


So apparently, it doesn't matter that non freesat mode is completely unusable (and actually causes my box to require a full factory reset every time) because it is not a primary feature!

These boxes are not fit for market and I say that as one of freesat's biggest supporters. I have had freesat hardware since 2008 and been very pleased with it. I still have two Echostar HD600RS's which work pretty flawlessly apart from occasional remote niggles.

In my opinion they will be recalled when they realise there is some kind of hardware issue preventing them turning off HDR.
 
As you’re one of FS’ biggest supporters why are you concerned about non-FS?!
 
How does being a supporter of freesat stop you wanting to watch channels that aren't on freesat? Hmm?
 
Only channel on non-FS I'm interested in is Freesports. The rest is a load of shopping and religion channels.

Still better than paying €56 a month to Sky for the basic channels plus UHD (the cheek in 2021 to charge for HD/UHD).
 
I watch Freesports HD and Channel 4 HD on the non-freesat side. Both good channels obviously(Well channel 4 is largely bilge but does have HD films). But the function is always useful in case channels go FTA but not on the EPG.

Box back with Amazon. I may rebuy it in a years time if they genuinely do sort out the problems and drop the price. At £230 for the 1TB model it is vastly overpriced.

What I really want of course is the Humax Aura but I don't have an aerial but may be moving house soon. It solves everything as it even has the possibility of adding plex and kodi etc but there are reports of early problems with that box. I don't think now is a good time for buying PVRs to be honest.

Just to add, another problem that was infuriating on the Arris box was that you cannot do anything while in a recording. If you are watching a recording and press guide (for example) then you are just unceremoniously dumped from the recording. That must surely be addressed. Even my 10 year old echostar lets you do anything you like while still playing a recording.
 
Looks like a new update was released on the 18th. Anyone noticed any improvements?
 
Spotted another bug, playing back recordings randomly will play with no sound. Fixed by unplugging the power and then back on again.

Argh!

N.B I'm on the Feb 18 update.
 

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