When your Bell Fibre PVR freezes during playback it could mean several things. Luckily there is more than one solution to this issue and in this, we’ve filtered only the proven fixes.
You’ll learn about ALL possible causes when it comes to PVR freezes and how to effectively troubleshoot them.
To solve your PVR freezing issues, you should first power cycle all equipment included in the setup. Then you should exclude the playback device as a possibility by replacing it and lastly, you can execute a factory reset on your receiver.
There is much more behind the solutions so next, we’ll be discussing the possibilities and later, how to resolve them.
Why Does My Bell PVR Keeps Freezing?
If your Bell PVR keeps freezing on any displayed playback, plenty of things could have happened to your device.
It is worthy to mention that your TV plays a significant role in this situation and simple lag might deceive you into thinking there is something wrong with your PVR.
But let’s not guess any further and summarize all possibilities for this issue before applying any troubleshooting methods.
Connection Issue
Fault with the HDMI or Coax cable connections might cause your PVR to freeze during the playback.
Bell Receiver Issue
A temporary issue with your Bell Fibre PVR might as well cause the playback to freeze.
Problem with Playback
If there is an issue with the PVR content itself, it is possible that you will watch recorded freeze screens.
Full Disk
If the memory disk within your receiver is full, it is possible that the playback will freeze due to overloading.
These are the most common causes and next, you’ll learn how to solve each of them.
How To Fix Bell Fibre PVR Freezes During Playback?
Before proceeding, have you tried restarting your receiver?
Sometimes these laggy frames could occur if there was a temporal malfunction with your device, so make sure to try that before applying any of the upcoming solutions.
If a simple restart did not manage to solve your freezing problem, let’s perform a more advanced kind of restart in our first solution.
Solution #1 Hard Reset Your Receiver
Unlike the normal reboot, a hard reset will discharge your receiver out of any remaining electricity, providing a cold boot the next time you start the device.
Just make sure to plug the receiver directly in a wall outlet after the hard reset, to evade possible interference with strips or dividers.
Here are the steps to hard reset your Bell receiver:
- Turn the receiver OFF by pressing the hardware power button once.
- Wait for it to shut down and unplug the power cable.
- Wait for 2-3 minutes before plugging the cable back in.
- Turn ON the device and try playing the playback again.
When your device is back on, make sure to play more than one recording to determine if the issue is still there. If it keeps freezing, let’s move on to the next solution.
Solution #2 Use A Different Playback Device
As we have mentioned above, an issue with the current playback device might trick you into thinking that there is something wrong with the receiver.
If the external playback device (in most cases your TV) is having freezes, the problem might not be in your Bell receiver.
Connect another TV or any compatible playback device to determine whether the problem is before or after the TV output renderer.
If you’re experiencing the same freezing issue on other playback devices, then the problem is most likely in or before your receiver.
Solution #3 Inspect Cable Connections
It is possible that some of the cable connections coming out and in of your Bell receiver are faulty, resulting in freeze frames while viewing the playbacks.
We’ve prepared some quick instructions to check & verify the condition of the wiring in your setup easily:
- Check if the Ethernet cable is plugged into the correct port.
- Plug the Ethernet cable all the way in.
- Clean the Ethernet cable from dust particles.
- Check the coaxial cable and make sure to plug it tightly into the port.
In addition, you can inspect the ports to determine if there are any broken parts from old cables that might be creating that severe outage with your TV and playback.
Solution #4 Update Bell Receiver’s Firmware
If your Bell Fibre PVR is freezing during playback the next best step would be to update the Bell receiver’s firmware.
Sometimes the playback might be incompatible with the current version of your receiver, resulting in annoying freeze frames and constant lagging while viewing it later.
If you don’t know how to check & initiate a firmware update for your Bell receiver, feel free to check out the instructions below:
- Navigate to the Main menu.
- Go to the Settings and scroll down to the Device section.
- From there, go to Device preferences and select About.
- Find the System update button and select Check For Updates.
- Once the result pops up, Confirm the action and initiate the update at once.
Your receiver will now take several minutes to update its firmware and then, it will reboot. Once it is done, try playing multiple playbacks to determine if the freezing issue is still there.
Solution #5 Factory Reset Receiver
If nothing has worked so far, then perhaps a factory reset should help to fix the playback freezes on your Bell receiver.
Note that a factory reset will erase the temporal system configurations you have made, and you will most likely have to re-establish them later.
Having that said, here are the steps to factory resetting your Bell receiver:
- Go to the Menu.
- Head to the System setup tab.
- Click on Factory Defaults.
- Confirm the pop-up message and click on Yes.
- Wait for 2-3 minutes.
Once ready with the steps, the factory reset should be completed. When your receiver turns ON, simply play several PVR contents to check if the issue still persists.
Bell Fibre PVR Still Freezes During Playback…
Unfortunately, the recordings are encrypted in PVR so there is no actual way to transfer them to a computer except if you directly record them from your TV screen.
If they are freezing, the recording will also be freezing so the best approach here would be to contact Bell customer service and ask for help to solve the issue or safely extract the recordings.
To fix freeze frames on Bell playbacks, hard reset the receiver and your TV afterward. Check the coaxial and HDMI connection and try using another device for the playback. Next, try to play several recordings and lastly, you can reset your receiver to factory defaults.
Read Next: How to Fix Bell Satellite No Signal?
Last Thoughts:
If your Bell Fibre PVR freezes during playback then our solutions will definitely help you either resolve your issue and discover where it comes from.
Depending on the outcome you should now know how to proceed and hopefully, you won’t have to replace any piece of your Bell equipment.
If this post was helpful to you, then you should definitely filter aside all of our Bell troubleshooting articles so you can easily tackle problems when they appear!
Kevin has over five years of experience working in various Tech startups and providing Technical solutions. He has contributed to many Tech publications and websites.