BT TV Box Pro Software Update - 4.0.250 / 0.6.152

Alex

Hi All,

Please feel free to discuss the BT TV Box Pro Software Update - 4.0.250 / 0.6.152 in this thread.

This is a maintenance software release for BT TV Box Pro devices which contains no new features.

Thanks,

Alex

zulu17

Well when I checked yesterday the two previous updates were still showing in progress (ie neither shown as complete ),So this now seems to add a third update to the queue.
Have the two previous updates been consolidated  into this release or is there a queue of three updates to be delivered separately ?

Victor_Delta

Despite several manual update attempts etc, my recently arrived BT Pro box still appears to be on 4.0.238 / 0.6.112. What am I doing wrong? 

Roy

@Victor_Delta

Not a thing. The updates are phased out to the eligible boxes across the update period, and you can’t load the update before your box is notified that the update is ready to be delivered to it.

And once that happens, the update will be installed automatically overnight, if the box is in standby or on, and idling.

So there is only ever this very short window of less than 24 hours before the update would be installed automatically anyway, during which you can pull it down manually.

Victor_Delta

Thanks. And, typically, how long is the update period - days or weeks?

Roy

Victor_Delta said:

Thanks. And, typically, how long is the update period - days or weeks?

@Victor_Delta

Weeks rather than days. But you need to ask YouView how long exactly.

There’s something unusual going on with the new boxes at the moment, as updates normally come out one at a time, yet there are several on the go at present, which is something I don’t understand.

Victor_Delta

Thanks. Perhaps one of the admins will be kind enough to explain these points on here?

jonesh

Victor_Delta said:

Thanks. And, typically, how long is the update period - days or weeks?

@Victor_Delta,

The Latest box versions page is updated when a software rollout is complete.

Your box is starting from a different version from the one shown, but it should still update to the latest version before the rollout completes.

Is your box working as it should?

Victor_Delta

jonesh said:

Is your box working as it should?

I wish I knew!
When I installed the box on 4 November, it immediately updated its software to what it said was then the latest version, so I would have thought it would at least be on 4.0.246 / 0.6.124.

I tried another manual update this evening but it's still on 4.0.238 / 0.6.112. Guess I'll just have to wait until it updates automatically in due course...?

jonesh

Victor_Delta said:

jonesh said:

Is your box working as it should?

I wish I knew!
When I installed the box on 4 November, it immediately updated its software to what it said was then the latest version, so I would have thought it would at least be on 4.0.246 / 0.6.124.

I tried another manual update this evening but it's still on 4.0.238 / 0.6.112. Guess I'll just have to wait until it updates automatically in due course...?

@Victor_Delta,

I meant is it functioning correctly as a BT Youview PVR?

Is it playing the BT and Freeview channels? Does it record? Do the apps work?

There is little point in trying to update the box manually. As @Roy said, leave it in standby overnight and it should update itself when its turn comes.

Report back if the software hasn't updated by the time that the rollout has been marked as complete.

Victor_Delta

Yes, by and large, it does seem to be functioning correctly although there are one or two things I haven't mastered yet.

I have set it to the (recommended) Smart mode. Surely one doesn't need to leave the box switched on overnight in order to catch the updates...? The blurb says it updates automatically - implying you don't have to do anything special.

jonesh

Victor_Delta said:

Yes, by and large, it does seem to be functioning correctly although there are one or two things I haven't mastered yet.

I have set it to the (recommended) Smart mode. Surely one doesn't need to leave the box switched on overnight in order to catch the updates...? The blurb says it updates automatically - implying you don't have to do anything special.

@Victor_Delta,

You don't have to do anything special.

Leave the box in Smart standby. Just don't turn it off at the mains at night.

Victor_Delta

OK, thanks.

rbz5416

Like @Victor_Delta, my box appears to be stuck on 6.112. So has missed this & the previous 6.124 update from 10th October. When (if?) the box ever updates will it go straight to 6.152 or does it need to install 6.124 first?

"Weeks" isn't particularly helpful given that a year is comprised of "weeks". So at what point can we reasonably assume that something is wrong? A BT employee previously confirmed that some boxes have been put in test/trial groups that prevent updates.

Asking if the box is functioning correctly is an odd question as every one of them seems to suffer from various bugs & glitches.And on that note, who is actually writing & distributing these updates, Youview or BT?

Why is there no changelog to identify which of the many issues are supposed to be addressed?

Roy

@rbz5416 @Victor_Delta @jonesh @zulu17

The link to .124 on this page:-
https://support.youview.com/youview-box/software-updates/latest-software-versions/
appears to be broken, but this entry, accessed from elsewhere, and the entry for .112 do not appear to show that they are still rolling out.

.112 appears in the YouView list of releases as the previous release to .124, so now it is time to report an issue with any Pro box that has not updated from this release to .124

YouView have never published changelogs, not since day 1, and are unlikely to start now. One thing that seems to have survived the tumultuous and unexpected journey from YouView as retail innovator to YouView as handmaid of BT is the slightly misplaced view that these boxes should be simple-to-operate consumer items with all their internal complexity hidden from us. 

Which paradoxically makes them more complicated; e.g. there is zero feedback when a YouView box is tuned, when even my everyday LG and Samsung TVs indicate which aerial channel they are currently tuning, and how many LCNs they are picking up from each, something YouView boxes are entirely opaque about, frustratingly, when you are having tuning issues.

[Edited to remove a confusion with Mini box software version .102]

rbz5416

@Roy

Thanks but report to who, BT or Youview? BT seem to have very little interest in the frailties of this box & reading between the lines, lay the blame at Youview's door. There is certainly no mechanism within BT to report issues beyond posting on their forums & hoping an employee responds. But even then the best we can hope for is the issue gets "passed on" to some mysterious destination where it may or may not be addressed, with no feedback.

Roy

@rbz5416

You haven’t said if you are a BT TV subscriber or not.

If you are, there should certainly be a mechanism for you to report faults with the box; but bear in mind that they can only address individual hardware faults with a particular box, and there’s no point them replacing one for a software issue that is just going to show up on the replacement box anyway, until a fix gets rolled out.

If you got a ‘grey’ box, then as far as BT are concerned, it (and you!) shouldn’t exist, and you must be using one of their (in the sense of ownership) boxes that has escaped down some unauthorised channel; so any help you get with it is a bonus.

As to who writes the software, assume that BT write some of it, YouView write some of it, and whoever supplies the hardware (Sagem?) write some of it. And hope the joins are seamless….

rbz5416

Well if there is a mechanism it's extremely well hidden, as no one has found it yet. There's only the standard CS (& I use the term in the loosest possible sense), who ironically do exactly what you describe in replacing one duff box for another. Or more accurately, send out another box in the hope that this one has a different fault to your one!

But getting back to my original query it seems the answer is nobody from BT or Youview knows or cares much.

jonesh

rbz5416 said:

Asking if the box is functioning correctly is an odd question as every one of them seems to suffer from various bugs & glitches.And on that note, who is actually writing & distributing these updates, Youview or BT?

@rbz5416,

Why is asking if the box is functioning correctly as a BT Youiew PVR an odd question?

I have been thinking about getting a Pro box. My contract with Plusnet is ending soon and I am considering moving to BT. It seemed to be a reasonable thing to do to ask somebody with first-hand experience of a Pro box how they were getting along with it.

What bugs and glitches are you experiencing with your box?

rbz5416

jonesh said:

rbz5416 said:

Asking if the box is functioning correctly is an odd question as every one of them seems to suffer from various bugs & glitches.And on that note, who is actually writing & distributing these updates, Youview or BT?

@rbz5416,

Why is asking if the box is functioning correctly as a BT Youiew PVR an odd question?

I answered that question in the same sentence I made that statement. Some current issues off the top of my head & in no particular order, some of which were first reported a year ago:

• Incorrect surround sound steering
• Very low volume
• Random black screens, especially after returning to live view from pause/rewind
• Box randomly becomes unresponsive, requiring power cycle.
• Loss of program data for subscribed channels from EPG
• Random failed recordings
• Stuttering video from live Freeview through an aerial

Now not all users experience all or indeed any of these symptoms. But those that do are left high & dry with, as I said, very little input from BT. Bear in mind that BT require you to be tied into a two year contract for their TV services. So you need to be careful before you commit. If you have the time, settle down & have a trawl through this section of the BT forum & see how many threads you can find where BT have provided a solution.

zulu17

Roy said:

@rbz5416 @Victor_Delta @jonesh @zulu17

The link to .124 on this page:-
https://support.youview.com/youview-box/software-updates/latest-software-versions/
appears to be broken, but this entry, accessed from elsewhere, and the entry for .112 do not appear to show that they are still rolling out.

.112 appears in the YouView list of releases as the previous release to .124, so now it is time to report an issue with any Pro box that has not updated from this release to .124

YouView have never published changelogs, not since day 1, and are unlikely to start now. …
..

Looking at the links
the non working one is
https://support.youview.com/youview-box/software-updates/bt-software-update-4-0-246-0-6-124https://support.youview.com/youview-box/software-updates/bt-software-update-4-0-250-0-6-152/  

whereas which looks clearly wrong and should probably simply be

https://support.youview.com/youview-box/software-updates/bt-software-update-4-0-246-0-6-124/

Interpreting the Latest box versions page is quite challenging currently 

rbz5416

I now have a more concerning issue. When checking for app updates, the Pro Box returns an error that it can't update apps. In true BT tradition, it refers me to bt.com/tverrors which contains no reference to this error whatsoever.

So can the apps not update because the software is out of date or something else?

Roy

@rbz5416

There’s an error in the error - YouView boxes, Pro and pre-Pro, have been giving this message for ages, and it just means that there are no app updates to install.

Or maybe there were, and it did them - it’s impossible to know 😢

Chips2

My box is also still on 6.112 and I get the error when attempting to update apps. My box is a grey one so perhaps I’ve finally been found out 😂.  Of all the bugs I experience on this box, which I’ve reported on this forum twice before in the hope it will get to the right people, all I want is the live tv stuttering issue fixed. All the others I can live with or can mitigate. The live tv stutter bug can be mitigated too but that means I have to lift my hand to the remote and do two button presses lol. If it turns out the software will never update on this box it looks like I may well leave my use of PVRs behind - every modern PVR I see on the market currently seems to be bug ridden, for years, or too old and clunky.

rbz5416

@Chips2

I'm not far off returning to my trusty Humax HDR-Fox T2. I simply can't be doing with "Coming up next" - 4 mins of adverts - "What you just watched"!

It may be 10 years old but it just works, & I can hear it without having to turn the volume up to 11! The custom firmware software written by enthusiasts puts BT/Vouview's efforts to shame.

I've numerous other devices to take care of apps, all of which have updated to ITVx already.

Chips2

I don’t have any volume problems with my box. For me it’s much louder than my tv as the freeview source. Have you checked the box volume level isn’t low?

rbz5416

Chips2 said:

I don’t have any volume problems with my box. For me it’s much louder than my tv as the freeview source. Have you checked the box volume level isn’t low?

It's well documented on the BT forums that the Pro Boxes generally have a low volume output, at least over SPDIF. Maybe HDMI is OK but I seem to recall others reporting that their issues were with HDMI. Although your experience suggests not. And yes, the volume is at max.

This seems symptomatic of the Pro Box, where different users have different issues.

But with no formal bug reporting process & only the occasional issue being acknowledged, it's anyone's guess what's being addressed & what's being ignored. The failure to provide a change log alongside software updates means we never know if something has supposed to have been fixed.

Chips2

Ok. Mine seems ok. I use SPDIF. Yes I agree it’s frustrating with no change log but I guess as I got my box on eBay I don’t have any real comeback on the issues. It was a risk I was willing to take. It’s a really good box if didn’t have so many bugs. 

Chips2

On the low volume on SPDIF I use my TV optical output not the pro box output. Perhaps that makes a difference, not sure.

rbz5416

Odd how it reports that the box is on the latest software when it clearly isn't.

Just out of curiosity I tried a maintenance reset of the Pro Box to see if it would update. Nope, but it did clear the error with the app update. So looks like a few of us have been left high & dry by BT/Youview.

Roy

@rbz5416

YouView boxes always report you are on the latest software, unless there is actually an update pending to install overnight, which it would then download and install.

They mean that no update is available for this box yet, irregardless of what other people might have.

We have been asking YouView to make this message clearer (surely just a simple text change?), though only for about ten years, so I don’t suppose it has bubbled up their priority list yet.