OLED always dims

[murryamorris]

I searched and didn't see anyone else with this problem. Saw a post where someone had it blink though.

I just got my S3 connected and did guided setup. Cablecards not in yet. When I set the OLED to any brightness, after I exit the menu it dims after about 5 seconds. It's actually dimmer than the "dim" setting, even on brightest setting. I can still see it but it's hard to read far away. Initially when I set the brightness, it's just like it should be at each setting.

Any idea if this might be a software issue or, more probable to me, a hardware issue. It's got 8.01b I believe right now.

Only change on the Tivo from stock is a Weaknees 750GB drive.

Thanks.

[SeanC]

What you are seeing is the normal behavior for the OLED display.

[megazone]

Yep - didn't I put this in the FAQ? I've been working all night so I'm so fried I can't recall. I know there was another thread about this, but it is WELL buried by now.

[Bierboy]

Yep - didn't I put this in the FAQ? I've been working all night so I'm so fried I can't recall. I know there was another thread about this, but it is WELL buried by now.Mega - Did a search of your S3 FAQ thread and didn't find any hit on "OLED" or "dim" or "brightness".

[murryamorris]

I did find it on Tivo's site under their forum. A few posts on it. Glad it's just a software issue and not hardware. Hitting "info" redisplays the brightness setting it has set in setup.

Just as an FYI, one person on Tivo's site said a tech told them this was not supposed to auto-dim and Tivo was working on it for a fix. I don't know if that's correct and the auto-dim seems like it was setup intentionally by Tivo since it comes back with Info button also.

[megazone]

Mega - Did a search of your S3 FAQ thread and didn't find any hit on "OLED" or "dim" or "brightness".Hmm, maybe I should ad that then.

[megazone]

Just as an FYI, one person on Tivo's site said a tech told them this was not supposed to auto-dim and Tivo was working on it for a fix. I don't know if that's correct and the auto-dim seems like it was setup intentionally by Tivo since it comes back with Info button also.The tech is wrong, the dimming is deliberate. I was one of the S3 reviewers and I noticed it back before the release and asked the project manager about it - by design, not a bug.

[msrolla]

Also, I found out somewhere burried in this forum that the program title does not show on the OLED if it is recording a "TiVo Suggestion". It took a while to find it and I was beginning to think I had a defective OLED.

It might not hurt to mention this in the FAQ.

[murryamorris]

The tech is wrong, the dimming is deliberate. I was one of the S3 reviewers and I noticed it back before the release and asked the project manager about it - by design, not a bug.

I've found more CSR's from different companies are wrong on a lot of things. With my Comcast cablecard issues, I've found 5 different people have 5 different answers. I guess that goes for all kinds of equipment though.

[GoHokies!]

Hmm, maybe I should ad that then.

Please? ;)

[SullyND]

I've found more CSR's from different companies are wrong on a lot of things.


He wasn't talking about a CSR but one of the program managers of the S3 rollout.

[paul355]

Personally, I wish there was a way to override the dimming. The only think I miss from my MOXI was the big digital clock on the front of it. The S3's is hard enough to read when bright, and impossible when dimmed.

Paul

[murryamorris]

He wasn't talking about a CSR but one of the program managers of the S3 rollout.

I was referring to the CSR who got it wrong (on the Tivo site).

[Mike Farrington]

The tech is wrong, the dimming is deliberate. I was one of the S3 reviewers and I noticed it back before the release and asked the project manager about it - by design, not a bug.
But consider this... you were writing a review!!! Of course he's going to say its by design.

Having said that, I do think that its probably by design. :)

[DamnedEyez]

Personally, I wish there was a way to override the dimming. The only think I miss from my MOXI was the big digital clock on the front of it. The S3's is hard enough to read when bright, and impossible when dimmed.

Paul

Same here. Like an option of Off and a couple different settings (3, 5, 15,30 seconds or something.) I mean, what is the point of allowing us to set the brightness if it won't be on long enough to bother with? If you have to hit a button to un-dim, you may as well hit Info and get the info on your tv.

[nathanziarek]

If you have to hit a button to un-dim, you may as well hit Info and get the info on your tv.

I have to agree. If it was by "design" why add the ability to select the brightness level? Seems like an under-thought feature to me -- kind of counter to the rest of the Tivo experience :)

[TheLievense]

I gotta agree that this is EXTREMELY annoying, especially since the only clock in my living room was the cable box.

Now there is no way when passing through the room to know what time it is, or to know what is actually recording, because the default setting it is at is all but unreadable from anything but 6".

If I explicitly go in and set the item to bright, then I expect it to stay that way the whole time, and frankly I'll pay the extra $5 a year to have it display that bright.

They should just create another option on that screen that is auto-dim and the amount of time it should autodim, with the setting never available.

[GoHokies!]

I gotta agree that this is EXTREMELY annoying, especially since the only clock in my living room was the cable box.

Now there is no way when passing through the room to know what time it is, or to know what is actually recording, because the default setting it is at is all but unreadable from anything but 6".

If I explicitly go in and set the item to bright, then I expect it to stay that way the whole time, and frankly I'll pay the extra $5 a year to have it display that bright.

They should just create another option on that screen that is auto-dim and the amount of time it should autodim, with the setting never available.

What would you do when the OLED burns out and then you have no display? Because that's why it's like that.

[Bierboy]

What would you do when the OLED burns out and then you have no display? Because that's why it's like that.I understand that, but why, if OLEDs are more prone to "burning out," would TiVo use that technology in the first place? Doesn't make sense to me.

[murryamorris]

What would you do when the OLED burns out and then you have no display? Because that's why it's like that.

Some people wouldn't care and just fix it if that happens. I know HD's go out, electronics go out but the option to brighten it all the time or at least set the autodim timeout or dim at certain time (like Standby, etc) would be up to the person. Personally, I'd leave it on at least medium brightness and if it burns out, big deal. I lose the clock which is unreadable from the couch anyway. The recording OLED's aren't on all the time so I highly doubt they will burn out.

I'm not quite sure why these would burn out that easily anyway. I have LED's in nightlights, displays, etc and unless these Tivo ones are way different, it shouldn't be a problem for a long time. None of the LED's I have on anything have burned out and they run bright and have for many years (nightlights and displays on my HD car music players).

[jtown]

That's my only other gripe so far besides the non-HD menus. I set the display to bright because I want it bright. If I wanted it dim, I'd set it to dim. Don't give me a choice, then ignore the setting. :)

[GoHokies!]

That's my only other gripe so far besides the non-HD menus. I set the display to bright because I want it bright. If I wanted it dim, I'd set it to dim. Don't give me a choice, then ignore the setting. :)

It doesn't ignore it - it sets the brightness for the the time that it is on.

You're also wrong about the menus in HD, but we'll leave that in the right thread.

[nathanziarek]

I have to agree with jtown. Once I set it I expected that the display would be bright all the time. So, I had the wrong expectation -- not Tivo's fault. That said, the dim screen is worthless from across the room. If I have to press a button to make it bright why not just look at the TV? It is an odd setting that really doesn't have any value.

As far as the HD menus - maybe they are 480p, but on my 1080p tv, they are pixelated. Better than my DirecTivo, for sure, and good enough to use, but they are not as sharp as they could be.

A serious question -- I was reading that OLED only have a lifespan of 40,000 hours max. On full-time (like the display is) that only 4 and a half years. I know that using cool buzzwords like "OLED" makes us geeks feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but why did Tivo choose a technology with such a short lifespan? LCD wouldn't have worked just as well?

n

[Bierboy]

...but why did Tivo choose a technology with such a short lifespan?Smeek (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4716913&&#post4716913)

[CheezWiz]

I understand that, but why, if OLEDs are more prone to "burning out," would TiVo use that technology in the first place? Doesn't make sense to me.


Price.... and they look cool... fancy new technology... sounds cool...

OLED's are short lived as bright as the high setting is.
I have a Kenwood car stereo with an OLED graphic display that has an inverting screen-saver to prevent burn-in. The entire display inverts every 10 seconds, quite annoying.

Anyone ever see the Vader cell phone from Motorola? Those things did not last long at all...

[nathanziarek]

Smeek (http://www.tivocommunity.com/tivo-vb/showthread.php?p=4716913&&#post4716913)

Hey now!

I was adding to the question. Before we just knew that they'd "burn out." Now we know that the max lifetime of an OLED is around 40,000 hours and...

Fine. I smeek'd.

[jtown]

If they can only be expected to last 4 years, then the OLED display was a poor choice. :P Sure, it looks neat because it's different but I can't read it from across the room when it's that dim. So what's the point of having it at all?

[Bierboy]

Hey now!

I was adding to the question. Before we just knew that they'd "burn out." Now we know that the max lifetime of an OLED is around 40,000 hours and...

Fine. I smeek'd.Not a big deal...appreciate the extra information!

[JohnBrowning]

If they can only be expected to last 4 years, then the OLED display was a poor choice. :P Sure, it looks neat because it's different but I can't read it from across the room when it's that dim. So what's the point of having it at all?


To me, the OLED display and the front panel buttons are simply a waste of $$$.

[Mike Farrington]

If they can only be expected to last 4 years, then the OLED display was a poor choice. :P Sure, it looks neat because it's different but I can't read it from across the room when it's that dim. So what's the point of having it at all?Is that 4 years at full intensity? Perhaps that's why there is no option to control the dimming -- to squeeze a couple more years out of the display.

[Pab Sungenis]

To me, the OLED display and the front panel buttons are simply a waste of $$$.

Re: the front button panels, tell that to my friend with an old SVR-2000 whose remote broke and he can't find a replacement. :)

[MiamiMan]

About the only thing I liked about my Motorola cable box was that it displayed the present channel number in a large bright display.

You'd think that the S3 would also display the channel number. In fact, why not display the channel number on both tuners, all the time (except during recording when it would display the program title)?

When I first got my S3 and before the CableCards were installed, I noticed that when I manually recorded a show, the channel number would appear in the display, so this tells me that the S3 is already capable of doing this.

As a suggestion for increasing the lifespan of OLEDs, what if Tivo would leave the display on bright for say, 2, 4 or 8 hours (do people watch TV longer than 8 hour stretches?) and then let it dim (people have to sleep, you know). To get it to turn bright again, simply hit any Tivo remote button and it would turn bright for another 2 hours or so. At eight hour on-bright intervals, and with a 40,000 hour life, that should allow over 13 years of life. Surely this is a simple software solution, no?

[murryamorris]

Some good ideas. Other options might be to have a setting to allow an auto-standby mode if the DVR isn't being used for a while. In standby mode, the OLED completely goes blank. When I'm not using it, I normally put it in standby and having no OLED at all will extend the life quite a bit. Or, the autodim suggestion at a few hours instead of a few seconds would work also and anyone really worried could still manually put the S3 into standby to turn them off completely.

[DamnedEyez]

About the only thing I liked about my Motorola cable box was that it displayed the present channel number in a large bright display.

You'd think that the S3 would also display the channel number. In fact, why not display the channel number on both tuners, all the time (except during recording when it would display the program title)?

When I first got my S3 and before the CableCards were installed, I noticed that when I manually recorded a show, the channel number would appear in the display, so this tells me that the S3 is already capable of doing this.

I was actually wondering about that a few days ago myself. It seem like a no-brainer, titles when recording, channel numbers otherwise. (At least have the option of setting it up that way)