Random Pauses?

[AhmedF]

I was watching a movie last night and the movie suddenly just stopped. After a few minutes the vudu logo came on the screen (large sized, much bigger than the screen saver) with 3 little boxes under it.

I left for a few hours, came back, started watching, and it happened again in 5 minutes.

I have a fast connection, and I've downloaded even HD movies without this problem. In fact I remember checking (once the movie/VUDU was working fine again) and I had over 30 minutes of playtime downloaded (and then it stopped again).

What is going on?

[Nded]

Welcome to the Vudu forum. Sorry you're having a problem.

Can you please post your Vudu box Client ID (looks like 0x12ab) and can be found in the Info & Settings area? Also indicate as close as possible the exact time this happened (be sure to tell us your time zone!).

With that information the Vudu engineers can look at your logs and let us know what really happened.

[NA9D]

That's the startup screen for the box. It looks like you were having some spontaneous reboots. I would call customer service promptly.

[RonV]

Originally Posted by AhmedF

I was watching a movie last night and the movie suddenly just stopped. After a few minutes the vudu logo came on the screen (large sized, much bigger than the screen saver) with 3 little boxes under it.

I left for a few hours, came back, started watching, and it happened again in 5 minutes.

I have a fast connection, and I've downloaded even HD movies without this problem. In fact I remember checking (once the movie/VUDU was working fine again) and I had over 30 minutes of playtime downloaded (and then it stopped again).

What is going on?

Sounds like your box is rebooting itself. Please contact VUDU support. A customer support person will be able to investigate it remotely if your box is connected to the internet.

http://supports.vudu.com/contact.php
Mon-Fri 8am - 6pm (Pacific Time)
Sat-Sun 8am -5pm (Pacific Time)

[AhmedF]

Just called the support # ... I was told that its open 9 am PST, even though it is 9:30 am PST right now.

Okay so - I've used my Vudu about half a dozen times to rent movies. Last one was maybe 2-3 night ago.

I started watching 'Ill sleep when I die' (with Clive Owen) - I think I got about 15 minutes in before it suddenly froze. This was around 10:30 pm MT. I press frantically, nothing happened, and left. Came back and saw it was on the reboot screen (which at that point I didn't know was reboot screen). Posted here!

So went back, saw it had loaded, and when I went to play, it said network unavailable. I tested the connection, and it came out fine (My speed comes in at Instant-HD, and I was working on the computer, so I know the internet was fine). And so this would repeat. Test internet, get it okayed, start watching movie, it would last maybe 30 seconds, pause for 10-15 seconds, play for another 5 seconds, pause for another 5 seconds, then play for another 10 seconds and just completely crashed and reboot.

This happened at least a half dozen times.

At around 1 am PST, when testing the connection, it could no longer connect to the Vudu servers.

So I just tried again now (10:30 am MT), and same exact problem.

Also when the vudu first reboots the home screen keeps flashing, and sometimes it shows the movie I've rented, and sometimes it doesn't.

My system ID is 0x4fcf.
I have version 1.3.0 rev 21005 and the db version is 14:1503

[MaxH]

Sorry you're having trouble. In addition to all the other fine advice, is there anything else plugged into the same power strip/outlet as the Vudu? It would be good to rule out power fluctuations, either in that specific room or your whole neighborhood.

EDIT: OK, while I was posting you added some interesting info in the above post. It probably isn't the power if it's locking up; power fluctuations would probably cause the screen to blank right away. And your software is current enough that it shouldn't reboot to install new software unless the unit is idle. (Earlier versions sometimes rebooted as soon as the new software was downloaded, but that was a little irritating. )

[AhmedF]

Yeah no power fluctuations or internet issues or plumbing issues and so forth

Whats odd is that it was fine to start ... it just randomly froze up while I was watching after a while, and has hated me since then.

I let it reboot a few times and without even playing the movie, eventually it rebooted.

[jleavens]

So you've tested the rebooting feature of the box, and that part is working fine

(sounds like a bum box to me)

[Greg]

Originally Posted by AhmedF

Whats odd is that it was fine to start ... it just randomly froze up while I was watching after a while, and has hated me since then.

Maybe the disk went south...
Talk to our Customer Service guys... They'll (hopefully) be able to check out your box status and determine the cause for the reboots.

Sorry for the inconvenience!

-- Greg

[AhmedF]

Well - Vudu is shipping me a new box, and then I'll ship my current one back.

Took all of about 2 minutes. Customer service left me quite impressed. Forgot to mention getting credit about my movie (or even having it rented again when I get the new box), but I'll deal with that once I have my new box.