Case Of LG TV Freeze Cracked

Tens of thousands of LG customers will require a software upgrade for their TV sets, after the company identified the cause of a mystery software glitch that is causing them to freeze spontaneously.

LG says it will need to send technicians to every affected home to perform a "simple software upgrade" but wont be in a position to begin the mammoth task for at least another week.

"The problem is with the processing of the data within our decoder," said LG marketing manager Darren Goble.

He said "under very rare and random situations" certain LG digital TV processors and decoders had difficulty dealing with "the way that the data signal is packaged".

LG initially said the issue appeared to affect only Channel Nine broadcasts, but it has now admitted it could occur with the other free-to-air channels as well, depending on how the broadcast data was packaged.

The company has also revised the list of models that have been plagued by the fault from 10 to 16.

LG customers with defective units are being encouraged to register their details on the LG website (www.lghdtv.com.au/softwareupdate).

Mr Goble said he expected tens of thousands of people would require the free upgrade, but LG would only be "in a position to start [work] within the next seven to 10 days".

"It is a large job that is going to require work over the coming weeks and months to complete," he said.

Originally, LG said the problem was confined to Sydney and Melbourne, but yesterday admitted that it was affecting people nationwide.

Several readers of this website have written in speculating that the malfunction was caused by Channel Nine switching on encryption - to prevent copying - when screening shows in the high definition (HD) or wide screen formats.

This could explain why many readers who reported experiencing the glitch said it happened when they were watching prime time programs broadcast in the HD format, such as CSI.

One reader, who did not wish to be named, wrote: "Its most likely Ch9 [sic] encoding the HD payload within their ASI transport stream on their emission (transmitter) feeds at too high a bit rate for whatever feeble decoding chip set the LG uses in its tuner."

Another reader, who identified himself as Kieran, wrote: "The problem seems to be in LGs implementation of the DVB standard. Broadcasters can optionally encrypt the stream to prevent copying. Nine seem to have turned this on for some of their programming. This is causing problems with LG tuners."

Channel Nine is refusing to confirm or deny whether it has switched on encryption, and Mr Goble said he was not in a position to comment.

LG says 16 models in its plasma, LCD, rear-projection and CRT TV range with integrated digital tuners are affected.

The model numbers are LCD: 32LC2D, 37LC2D, 42LC2D, 42LC2DR; plasma: 42PC1DV, 42PC1DG, 42PX4DV, 50PC1D, 50PC3D, 50PB2DR, 60PC1D, 60PY2D; rear projection: 56DC1D, 62DC1D, 62DC1DA; CRT: 32FS4D.

"Only models purchased after August 2006 with serial numbers beginning with 608, 609, 610, 611, 612, 701, 702 or 703 are affected," LG said.

MashUp Blog: The LG TV glitch fix

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