BT TV Box Pro problems with WiFi and wired connection

[DavidCheshire]

I renewed my FTTP contract in July this year (2023) with Full Fibre 500 and was persuaded to take BT TV services, so a new BT TV Box Pro arrived along with the rest of the gear. 

My BT TV Box Pro is too far from the Smart Hub 2 to connect directly by WiFi. I have only broadband for TV services, no aerial (or at least, poor signal). 

I was aware of this problem 12 years ago, so when I had some building work done, I ran two Cat 5e cables to the back of the TV. There is also a mesh WiFi system that covers the house. 

When I first set up the BT TV Box Pro, it would not recognise either of the Cat 5E cable connections; when I plugged them into the box it wouldn't even sniff at them, it just kept acting as if there was no cable connected at all.

It did connect to the WiFi mesh, but when playing live or catch up TV the box kept interrupting and stopping the programme with a full screen message saying that it had lost connection and that I needed to restart the hub. These interruptions didn't seem to be genuine; often pressing 'back' and playing the same thing or connecting to another channel was enough to clear the message.

Having got fed up with the interruptions, I decided to check the cables and retry them. Using a laptop to do a speedtest, each cable checked out fine, several hundred Mbps. I also did a reset on the TV Box Pro and on the Smart Hub 2. After plugging each cable in several times with the same result as previously, the box suddenly recognised one of them and said it was connected by a wired connection. Yippee! I thought.

Now the interruptions are different. Every few moments a message flashes up at the top of the screen "We can't detect your broadband". This is then followed a few seconds later by "Broadband connection restored". All the time the programme keeps playing without halting.

I am baffled. Especially as to why a wired connection the to Smart Hub 2 with several hundred Mbps bandwidth isn't enough to stop the messages, even though the programme plays through them without interruption.

The message on wired connection:

Then seconds later:

 

[Ewan1]

I have my BT TV Box Pro connected directly to my SH2 and do not have any issues using a CAT5e ethernet cable that is about 20 years old that I installed when I brought the house. It runs outside and is not classed as for external use.

It sounds to me like there might be a poor connection. The socket on your TV Box may be faulty, if you can connect other devices without issue, using the ethernet cables.

As a test re-connect your laptop and try watching a movie on it. Say using Netflix if you have that available as part of your TV package.

If the movie pays without issue then its the ethernet connection on your BT TV Box .

[DavidCheshire]

That's a good suggestion, thanks. But of the two CAT 5e cables, the one that the BT TV Box eventually condescended to accept was the one that is usually plugged into the TV, and the TV has been working fine with that one for years, wouldn't that be effectively the same test?

The two CAT 5e cables have both been in constant use since they were installed and I have never previously had a problem with them. Is the BT TV Box unusually picky about the IP signal that it will accept?

[Ewan1]

It is looking like you have a faulty TV Box, ie the Ethernet Port.

You can go into settings and set it's IP to a fixed value, if you do not want it to change.

[DavidCheshire]

Following your suggestion that there might be a poor connection, I re-tested the two CAT 5e cables at the TV end and got over 500 Mbps from each one, so the connection seems OK that far. I sprayed the ethernet socket on the back of the BT TV Box with a switch contact cleaner and worked the plug in and out a few times to clean the contacts. The box still wouldn't accept the blue cable, but it did accept the red cable again. Testing live TV and some BT iPlayer shows didn't give any glitches, so fingers crossed that might have sorted it. I'll see what happens this evening.

[DavidCheshire]

It was OK last night for a couple of hours without any interruptions, so I think that fiddling with the ethernet port on the TV Box might have done the trick, thanks for pointing me towards that.