Samsung Box problems

Stuart

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I've just had a Samsung box installed to replace my Thompson and there are a couple of problems.

1. The box frequently doesn't respond to button presses on the remote control. I've tried the original remote and a Harmony One with the same results. You can point the remote directly at the box and you can see that about every fifth press doesn't get picked up, demonstrated by lack of response and the red light not blinking.

2. When I switch to Dolby Digital channels, either 5.1 or 2.0, there is a loud instantaneous, crack/pop from my front speakers. I am connected by optical to an Onkyo 605 and never experienced this with the Thompson. For now I have changed the Optical audio from Dolby to Normal because I don't want to damage my system.

Any thoughts or has anyone else experienced these issues?
 
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Ive only had Thomson and now a Pace box and have to say that both have been sluggish at times responding to the remote. Thomson one was by far the worst though.
 
Ive only had Thomson and now a Pace box and have to say that both have been sluggish at times responding to the remote. Thomson one was by far the worst though.

I found the Thomson to be ok. Much better than the Samsung anyway.
 
I found the Thomson to be ok. Much better than the Samsung anyway.

Samsung must be bad then lol

Ive had 3 Thomson boxes in a short space of time, all were very unresponsive with the remote and also had Lip Sync issues amongst other things.

The Pace box is so much better IMHO on all counts although the Lip Sync issue is still there.
 
i have the Samsung HD box and mine is awful and very unresponsive when using the Remote control, its identical to my last Pace HD box

i have had enough of all this, bloody lip sync, crap remote controls!
 
Oh this isnt good news, Im planning on getting sky hd in the next few weeks and was planning on getting the samsung box if possible... But now I dont know.

It seems all boxes are much of a muchness....:rolleyes:
 
since emailing the head honcho at Sky, his personal assistant has rung me everyday to see how my new box is going, i told her today it was ok, now im gonna ring her tomorrow and ask her to take the stuff away, knew it wouldnt last long before lip sync reared its ugly head!
i dont want a service that doesnt work properly, im not paying any more money and i want a full refund, goodbye SKY
 
My Thomson HD box has been good for me albeit the rare occassion of it locking up, i even have it in an AV cabinet behind frosted glass and the IR remote works fine.

I am after a Samsung box as it will output 576i for my cinema equipment in my sig, reading these problems is not good but it's the only model that will work correctly for me, i'll still be after one nethertheless.
 
People must be insane to buy sky HD if they read these forums. These forums being the reason why I will not buy it until they get the bloody thing sorted out. Day after day on here people with the same problems, lip sync, boxes not responding. Sky need to take the finger out and get this sorted because charging £10 pm for this is a joke.
 
understandable but when it gives you a variety of HD content for your HD capable equipment we don't have much choice, i'm sure Virgin boxes have their own problems and don't think we will get the perfect box solution any time soon.

I enjoy Hd content via blu-ray etc... but wouldn't want to just watch movies all the time especially the family.
 
I've just got off the phone to sky cs and they're going to swap the box on Friday. They've put a note on it to bring all 3 makes to help find a working solution.

I've had another play with the remote by pressing a button every second and looking at the red light. Frequently 2-3 presses in-a-row where not acknowledged. It means that the sequences on my Harmony One remote are unusable now as-well. :thumbsdow

When it was working, the Thomson was far better than this Samsung, it just wasn't working frequently enough. :(
 
For what its worth my Samsung box works fine, it was a bit noisy to start with but its calmed down now.

One thing though; i use a philips wireless AV sender to watch Sky in my bedroom and when I place the IR extender infront of the Samsung box it completely 'blocks' the remote signal getting through - yet its fine with my Thomson box.

Could the Samsung box be suffering from IR interference?
 
My Samsung works fine and does not have the loud popping noise from the amp when switching to a DD channel, however, my old Thomson box did make this noise. I'd say the Samsung box is better than the Thomson. I also don't get any of the remote problems some people are reporting.
 
I had Sky HD installed first thing on monday morning. I'm very impressed with the HD channels, as i was expecting to notice a lot more compression than i can. The SD channels are a let down though, as the box does a terrible job of upscaling to 1080i, causing everything to look like a poorly deinterlaced image that is only showing either the odd or even lines (my tv does a good job of deinterlacing do it's not the tv). I've set the box to 'automatic' to conquer this so the box outputs 576p for the SD channels.

My box is a Samsung though and the remote is very unresponsive on mine too. I only sit about 5ft from the box with a clear line of sight yet i also find the box doesn't always receive the signal from the remote. It's definitely a problem with the box rather than the remote though as i could be pointing the remote in another direction yet the box will still receive the signal the same number of times (usually around 3 times for every 5 presses of a button). I'm hoping it's just to do with the software running in the box that can be fixed with a firmware update, as sometimes i press a button and get no response, but when i press the button again sometimes the box will then process the 2 inputs at once (by skipping a channel or skipping a couple of menu items). It's almost as though the software is a bit laggy or glitchy rather than a problem with the IR sensor.

The only other thing that bothers me right now is that the fan comes on even when the box is in standby. This wouldn't be a problem in a living room but mine is in my bedroom!
 
I had Sky HD installed first thing on monday morning. I'm very impressed with the HD channels, as i was expecting to notice a lot more compression than i can. The SD channels are a let down though, as the box does a terrible job of upscaling to 1080i, causing everything to look like a poorly deinterlaced image that is only showing either the odd or even lines (my tv does a good job of deinterlacing do it's not the tv). I've set the box to 'automatic' to conquer this so the box outputs 576p for the SD channels.
......

With 576p, the Sky box is still performing the deinterlacing, just not the scaling.

Are you looking at paused images when evaluating, because that will only display half the frame and is full of jaggies that disappear when the picture is playing.
 
I have no problems with remote commands on my Samsung, it's sits in a AV cabinet with glass doors and I use a Harmony 1000. I do get the quick burst of white noise on the audio side though.

Stef
 
With 576p, the Sky box is still performing the deinterlacing, just not the scaling.

Are you looking at paused images when evaluating, because that will only display half the frame and is full of jaggies that disappear when the picture is playing.
It's similar looking to when it's paused but nothing like as bad.
 
My box was swapped with another Samsung on Friday as that's all the engineer had. This has exactly the same problems and he is going to try and track down a new Pace for me.

However, after taking advice on this forum, I bought a Smart-Eye for £10 from Maplins, (Yes I know I can get similar cheaper online but I couldn't be bothered to wait), and after adding it to the Samsung I can honestly say that I am amazed by the performance. The remote signals respond 100% of the time and the response speed of the Samsung is incredible. For example, with my previous Thomson box the 30xFF would be very stuttery and when you press play you would always end up a minute or 2 further on than you intended, but with the Sammy, not only does the 30x kick-in a lot quicker but the picture is silky smooth and when you resume-play you are where you want to be. Also, I have some sequences on my Harmony One, (eg For HD Planner I have the commands: Sky>Guide>2) and the response is so quick that it appears to go straight to the final command.

I still have the very short burst of white-noise when switching to Dolby Digital broadcasts but I am getting used to it and I don't think it'll damage my system because it's the same noise as having the test-signal through my amp.

I am now extremely happy with the Sammy but will probably try a Pace to see if it has the same performance but hopefully the sound problem sorted.
 
Yes, its official. The Samsung box is a dog. I'm on my second box in 5 days (the Engineer only had Samsungs on board, in replacing the first one). The remote control reception is horrendous yet again. For every 10 key pushes only one is received by the Skybox. An engineer is coming again tomorrow, please God don't let the replacement be a Samsung. I'm getting really cheesed off with Samsung products - I have a 32" LCD (14 months old) sat by the bin outside which died just out of guarantee. :mad:
 
.... I have a 32" LCD (14 months old) sat by the bin outside which died just out of guarantee. :mad:

Don't bin it mate. You are protected under the sales of goods act for up to 6 years. Any warranty is in addition to this law and just because that expired 2 months ago doesn't mean that you are not still entitled to a repair or replacement.
 
Plasma screens can emit infra red radiation that can cause problems with remote controls signals effectively stopping the command reaching the box.
 
Plasma screens can emit infra red radiation that can cause problems with remote controls signals effectively stopping the command reaching the box.



I've noticed our Pace Sky+ box has a few problems with the IR remote since we got our plasma earlier this year..... Before that we had a CRT and had no probs with the Sky remote. :rolleyes:






Cheers

Dave.
 
Wow,scary reading, but some positive feedback. Had mine installed on Monday and everything works perfectly.No lyp sync issues,box is very quiet and i use a harmony 885 remote and the box responds with every press of a button.:thumbsup:
 
Cause of IR remote problem is in External Case. The IR signal can't go through sprayed surface, because on External Case is thick film of color. Without External Case ...no problem
 

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