Pace HDTV 8/15/06 Firmware Update

[MarkMSM]

CactusJack started a thread on this, but I thought I would make the title more descriptive.

I turned my TV on and found that my pass-through settings had changed and I could no longer access the PACE menu by holding down the # key to change the resolution settings. The PACE box was forcing all channels to 1080i, and I had grey/black bars on the side of my non-high def channels. Since the resolution was fixed at 1080i, my TV's aspect controls would not work.

I got a BH rep. on the phone and he told me the new procedure to change the resolution:

- Power off the PACE box (keep your TV on)
- Hold down the Guide & Info buttons on the PACE box simultaneously
- A new on-screen guide will appear, and you will use your A B C buttons to navigate.
- I chose to force everything to 480i, so my TV can control the aspect ratio. HD channels are automatically forced to 720p or 1080i.

Good Luck

[Bschneider]

This is worthy of a sticky.

[CactusJack]

MarkMSM - My PACE box has a Guide button, but no Menu button. Holding these two buttons on the remote has no effect. So, is there another way to get into this menu to adjust the output?

While we're on the subject of firmware changes, there's a new entry in the Settings menu: "Set: Picture Format". The choices are Upconvert1, Upconvert 2, Auto DVI, and Fixed. What are these for?

And if I may vent a little, why oh why does BHN make changes to the functionality / usability of the box without notifying their customers of the changes and how to use them? It's extremely annoying.

Jack

[SixIron]

I just noticed the change. What got my attention was my Pace box powered off when none of the other electical stuff in my house had reset like usually happens after a brief power outage. Secondly, all the under 100 channels now had gray bars on the sides and my display claimed they were 1080i.

Initially I hoped Brighthouse had gone all digital (wishful thinking). I'm still trying to decide if SDTV looks any better, if not I'll use the above mentioned fix to reset the box.

Thanks for posting the info on how to change it back.

[rminor]

MarkMSM - My PACE box has a Guide button, but no Menu button. Holding these two buttons on the remote has no effect. So, is there another way to get into this menu to adjust the output?



Mine has no menu button either. Holding the guide and info buttons together gets you into the menu.

[CactusJack]

Hm, thought I'd tried that combination. I'll try again this evening.

Thanks!

[CactusJack]

Thanks to rminor, I finally got into the picture format setup menu; found you have to hold the buttons down a couple seconds, and then it takes a few more for the menu to appear. My results:

Went thru the Advanced wizard, and accepted all formats that my TV displayed, which was all of them. Effect: HD signals lost, and taking several seconds to change channels. Pressing the # key indicated all channels in 480P.

Went back thru wizard again, same results.

Back to the menu, this time taking the basic wizard, got msg "Congratulations! Your picture format has been set to 1080i" or similar wording. Effect: still no HD, still showed 480P.

At the end of the process is a msg saying you can change the pic format in the Settings menu. Went into that, found NO option to set by format (480i, 720P, etc.) only the above-mentioned Set: Picture Format choices. The typical customer would have no idea what these options correspond to in the format setup menu. I tried each, picture only got worse, now showing 480i.

Back into the pic format menu once more. This time I went thru the Advanced wizard again, and DEselected all formats except for 720P, which is my TV's native format. Effect: Finally got HD back, and # shows outputting at 720P.

Still no output on the Component cables.

Also, at some point in this process, I lost audio. Went into the Settings menu, all audio options were as I had them. Went into a couple anyway, didn't change anything, and all of a sudden, my audio came back.

BHN, if you're paying attention, this is NO WAY to take care of your customers. What do people do who don't have DVI inputs? Have they lost all signal, resulting in a call to Support, increasing your workload and the customer's frustration? How do I get my Component output signal back?

And BHN, this type of thing is SO making me look forward to getting Verizon FIOS in my area! I don't know at this point whether their customer service is any better, but I'm sure anxious to try them and find out!

Jack the Frustrated

[rminor]

I think I would take that receiver to a BH office and exchange it. I went through the same initial steps you did and it all went perfectly. Now when I change channels the picture blinks and the res. changes. I've got this on a 23" Samsung LCD and I'm able to check the incoming res on each channel and everything seems right.

[MarkMSM]

You are correct. I've updated my original post.

[Newbie]

While we're on the subject of firmware changes, there's a new entry in the Settings menu: "Set: Picture Format". The choices are Upconvert1, Upconvert 2, Auto DVI, and Fixed. What are these for?

Can anyone explain the "Picture Format" options?

Thanks.

[CactusJack]

Can anyone explain the "Picture Format" options?

Thanks.
I don't know what each option does, but according to the Setup instructions here http://tampabay.mybrighthouse.com/customer_care/product_assistance/hddigitalconverter.aspx you should select "Pass-Through", which isn't even listed.

Jack

[CactusJack]

I figured I should call Customer Support before taking the box in for replacement, to see if they wanted to try the firmware update again (probably a big mistake anyway) or something. After about 20 minutes on hold and being transferred, I was told that the box "didn't take the earlier update" and that I should have it replaced. (They didn't offer to reset / reflash the box.) I asked the rep to check stock at the Largo office; oh, yes, they have plenty.

So I disconnect everything and take the box to the Largo office for exchange. "Sorry, we've had a ton of these come back this week, and we're all out." The guy behind me in line was returning one for the second time this week!

I was told they would have more boxes on Monday; I think I'll call before making the trip again.

Jack the Still Frustrated

[anthony_b]

I went into the setup menu just like in the instructions indicated and everything worked fine. I was already familiar with the menus only becuase they are the same as the ones for the HD Scientific Atlanta boxes I use to play with up in New Jersey.

[SixIron]

I had been beating my brains out trying to figure out why I couldn't get my box back into pass thru. Finally went back and reread everything. I had been using the guide/menu buttons on the remote. Once I used the buttons on the Pace box it worked properly.

Duh!

[CactusJack]

I swapped the Pace box yesterday, replacing my DC550 with a 551. Main difference I noted was the 551 has an HDMI output but no DVI, so I've ordered an HDMI cable to try that out. The component output works, tho.

Went thru the picture format setup, and everything seemed to work well, including now having a Pass-Through option. I did notice on some SD channels some distortion / garbage in a thin line across the top of the picture, and the picture quality didn't seem quite as good as it was on the 550 (if you can even call the SD pic quality "good"). I went back thru the picture format setup, and disabled everthing except 720P, since that's the native resolution of my TV. This got rid of the distortion at the top of the picture, and even seems to have improved the PQ on SD channels (or it's my imagination!).

Time will tell how this box works out; hopefully, they won't deploy another firmware update that breaks the boxes!

Jack

[rminor]

I thought my 551 was OK after the update but now it's started losing channels. 609,631,690, and 691 are the ones I've checked and there's no video or audio. Rebooted and they came back but tonight there gone again. And it's the same channels. Guess I'll call them in the morning. I went with Dish Network in 1996 and in the ten years with them I had zero receiver problems. If it stayed on in heavy rain and they offered the locals in HD I would still be with them.

[CactusJack]

Well, all seems to work well with the new box, except for the audio. When the box is first turned on, there is no audio. I go into Setup and select "Audio: Volume Ctrl", leave it at "Fixed", and hit Accept, then the audio will work until the next time the box is powered off. Maybe I'll get up the courage to call support and see if they can fix this without messing up something else.

Jack

[CactusJack]

Was visiting a good friend this morning who works for BHN RR support. Told him about my Pace box problems, and he was well aware that there had been issues. In fact, he said the stuff was hitting the fan that this firmware update was released without being thoroughly tested first. Apparently a LOT of customers were adversely affected.

Funny thing, when you call support with a cable TV issue, the first thing they usually do is have you unplug the box for several minutes, then reconnect to "reset" the box. It seems that in the case of this firmware update, resetting the box actually made matters worse.

Jack

[tinmann8]

I have a Panasonic 56 inch DLP and recently I've noticed that I can only watch programs full screen in 1080 and zoomed using the picture adjust on the set top . Before it would stretch the picture also . I can no longer get channels above 100 . And setting the resolution to 480i widesceen still gives me borders on both sides of the picture although I can use the picture adjust on the TV . The Set top no longer says HDTV on it just Bypass and the picture quality has suffered quite a bit. What is brighthouse doing ? I'm thinking of picking up some hdmi cables but I'm not sure that will resolve the problem. Brighthouse needs to get their act together , I've been hearing good things about Verizon's new service.

[gmclaughlin]

All,

What Bright House is thinking is that we have a major bug in this download, and revised software is being worked on as we speak. I'm pretty unhappy about this as well, and will ensure we get this right.

We'll get this fixed.

[CactusJack]

All,

What Bright House is thinking is that we have a major bug in this download, and revised software is being worked on as we speak. I'm pretty unhappy about this as well, and will ensure we get this right.

We'll get this fixed.
Thanks for the reassuring words. Do you know whether my lack of audio on power on of the box is one of the bugs being addressed?

Jack

[gmclaughlin]

It wasn't until I read your post. Yours is the first I've heard of that one, so I passed it to the engineers.

I'm promised they'll do a thorough "bug sweep" prior to delivering the new code. We'll see.

[tinmann8]

Okay , I have my digital channels back and my HD channels and they look great on my new DLP set but the regular channels still leave something to be desired. I'm just glad to have the science and military channels again.

[Harry]

I have some friends who are BHN customers and just got a DLP HD setup. They swapped their normal cable box for a Pace 551 and at first everything was okay but now they are having weird problems with the color. It will be fine for a while and then will go bad with all kinds of strange colors, yellow in particular is effected. We called BHN they sent out a guy who showed them how to adjust colors. That was no help since they shouldn't be fine for an hour and then go bad then be fine and then go bad. I hooked up a DVD player for them and told them to play that for awhile. If the color stays good then it is a BHN problem if not it is a TV problem. Does anyone know if this bad firmware could be causing the problem with BHN. I sure know that the tech they sent out was of no help at all.

Harry

[HDJerry]

Your suggestions of 480i was great. Works perfectly for me now!

[CactusJack]

Got my HDMI cable yesterday and tried it out last night. I couldn't really see much improvement, if any, and it was impossible to do any kind of A-B comparison. When the HDMI cable is attached to the Pace box, it DISABLES the Component output. A couple of annoyances caused me to go back to Component, however. When changing channels in the digital range, it would take several seconds for a picture to appear. By the time it appeared, the guide would be gone, so you wouldn't see what was on without selecting the guide again. Minor, but still annoying. Worse, though, was on the HD channels; often, the picture would not come in at all until I changed to another channel then back. I'd get audio but not video.

As for my "no audio" problem mentioned in previous posts, it was still evident on HDMI.

Jack

[David8956]

In case this helps anyone............

I had gone through the "new set up procedures" and my TV accepted all formats (16 x 9 Sony HD). Didn't matter though if I selected 1080i, 720, 480, etc I was still getting the scroll across the bottom of the screen on some channels cut off (on ESPN & ABC for example, lost the bottom half of the scroll)

Finally had time to call BHN, guess what ....there IS still a pass through mode you can select they didn't tell anyone about. The rep I spoke with said they had just recently gotten a message on their computers about this issue. I reset mine to pass through and everything works like before. To get there:

With the box & the TV on, hit the "settings" button on the BHN remote TWICE. Scroll down to "Set: Picture format". Right arrow over, select pass through (you are probably set as "fixed", I was), exit out and you are good to go.

[djkilla]

David8956 - Tried the above and there was NO pass through to select. I also have a 42" Sony widescreen HDTV LCD.

-D j K i l l a- "Somebody fix this mess!"

[HDJerry]

Would love to be able to select Pass Through, but mine also does NOT give you that option:(

[CactusJack]

It appears that my audio issue has been fixed. Audio works on box power-on now. Everything now seems to be working well. Hopefully, we won't have to go through a bad update again!

Jack

[gmclaughlin]

I have the test code working on a box in my office. The analog video looks a lot better.

But send me your specific issue you observed and I'll ensure we look at it in addition to the test protocol.


Greg