OTA broadcast from one channel is turning off my TV

[gadgetguy]

I have a 2007 Visio VX37L 37" flatscreen TV that works great for all but one channel. (Actually 3 channels, but all from the same broadcast channel.) When I am watching any of the three channels after about 10 minutes or so, the TV turns off for no apparent reason. It didn't always do this, but the broadcaster recently did an upgrade to the On Screen Display guide, and it seems to have started about that time. I can't be sure because I'm not sure exactly when they did the upgrade and I really only watch these channels on the weekends (although I've tested and it happens throughout the week.) I talked to the broadcaster and while they are willing to work with me on this, they don't know why it might be happening, if it can be fixed, or how. No one else has complained, so it seems the problem is specific to the TV. I'm guessing there may be a signal command that this older TV sees that isn't recognized by other manufacturers or newer models.

Visio support is useless. All of their suggestions boil down to sleep timer or power problems, neither of which explain why it only happens with one broadcaster. But I have followed their suggestions and it made no difference.

I've set up a workaround by using a digital converter box and putting it into one of the AV ports, but I'd really like to be able to just use the internal tuner. It seems like some of you guys know the ins and outs of digital broadcast so if you have some idea of where I can point the broadcaster to look for something in their signal that might be causing this, I'd welcome the suggestions.

[JVRaines]

How weird. There is a guy on YouTube who complains of content-related shutoff with his Vizio (another model). My guess is that there is a bug in the decoder firmware that's triggered by very specific conditions in the program stream. For whatever reason, this broadcaster produces those conditions a lot. Can you make a log of dates and precise times that your TV shuts off? Recordings of what was on the air just before the shutdown would be helpful, too. I don't know if your broadcaster is willing to devote so much time to it, but I would start with finding out what the triggering content has in common.

[gadgetguy]

I haven't taken the time/effort to log occurrences. The first night it happened I was watching MeTV's Sci-Fi Saturday (50's Superman, '60s Batman, 70's Wonder Woman, and 60's Star Trek) and it seemed like I had to turn the TV back on every 10 minutes, but I didn't log it. I did try to discern a pattern from the content, but couldn't identify a common occurrence (like the guy is the video's scene change). The broadcaster is a small independent, and often experiences glitches, outages, etc. as they go through growing pains, so I thought if I gave it a week or so, it would sort itself out, but the following week, it started again on another of their digital channels (Retro TV) during 50's One Step Beyond. When it continued after changing the channel to MeTV, I reached out to the station and explained what was happening. They were sympathetic and eager to help, but just didn't know what to suggest. That's when I did a lot of experimenting (trying different TVs and tuner combinations) and came up with my work around, and I related all of my information to the broadcaster. They had put out a request on Facebook for anyone that might be having the same problem, but only got one response that repeated Visio's advice. (Much the same as the guy in the video, although his issue seems a little different, Visio's response ignores the evidence.) Of course the broadcaster didn't include any of the details, so based on the question, her response was appropriate, even though it wasn't helpful in this case.
Trying to put two and two together, the fact that I've seen it happen on two of their three channels (I don't watch the third, although I might for a while to test) and the pattern seems to be the same, and the fact that they recently updated their OSD guide, I'm guessing it probably isn't related to any show's content, but perhaps something in the guide signal. Would the guide info maybe update every 10 minutes or so, rather than being a constant stream?

[stiltman]

What is the broadcaster? Call letters? MeTV is their .2 or .3?

The last major change to broadcast systems is the requirement of text to speech. This was a mandatory change that went into affect last November. Basically a tone is sent out notify a blind person to switch to the SAP audio channel to hear what is scrolling at the bottom of the screen. Also another possible change is the broadcaster could be using a tone sent out by the major channels that automatically trigger commercial breaks

[gadgetguy]

WLLA-TV64 in Kalamazoo MI broadcasting on UHF-45 (Digital 64). MeTV is their .2 and RetroTV is their .3, but the problem occurs on the primary and both subs. I seldom watch their primary, but I tested and it displayed the same problem as the sub-channels. I don't think it has anything to do with scrolling text, as I can't remember ever seeing any. (With or without the shut-off problem.) There doesn't seem to be any connection to commercial breaks, unless the commercial break on one channel affects what happens on the other two somehow. I still think it has something to do with the program guide, but I don't know how that fits into the signal or how often it updates.

[JVRaines]

The program guide is part of PSIP, if you're up for studying the nitty-gritty of it.

[gadgetguy]

Thanks for the link to PSIP. I'll read through it when I get a chance.