Why is Firestick flicking my Panasonic TV off?

[Riley Blue]

We have a fairly ancient Panasonic TV, a TX-L32E6B, which must be 10 years old but suits us in terms of screen size and picture quality. Connected to it via SCART is an equally old Sky box for the free to view channels and also a Firestick Max via HDMI for Prime, YouTube etc.

The problem is that when using the Firestick, sometimes the TV switches off when the programme goes to adverts and the red LED flashes once every four seconds until the on/off button on the rear is reset.

I'm completely out of touch with TV technology but this is an infuriating problem that I'd like to solve to maintain my sanity.

Any thoughts?

[JEA1K]

Riley Blue said:

We have a fairly ancient Panasonic TV, a TX-L32E6B, which must be 10 years old but suits us in terms of screen size and picture quality. Connected to it via SCART is an equally old Sky box for the free to view channels and also a Firestick Max via HDMI for Prime, YouTube etc.

The problem is that when using the Firestick, sometimes the TV switches off when the programme goes to adverts and the red LED flashes once every four seconds until the on/off button on the rear is reset.

I'm completely out of touch with TV technology but this is an infuriating problem that I'd like to solve to maintain my sanity.

Any thoughts?

Sounds like CEC (HDMI control) is turned on and the Firestick is sending signals down the HDMI. You should be able to disable this somewhere within the TV settings.

[Riley Blue]

JEA1K said:

Sounds like CEC (HDMI control) is turned on and the Firestick is sending signals down the HDMI. You should be able to disable this somewhere within the TV settings.

Thanks, I will investigate.

[stevoknevo]

Riley Blue said:

JEA1K said:

Sounds like CEC (HDMI control) is turned on and the Firestick is sending signals down the HDMI. You should be able to disable this somewhere within the TV settings.

Thanks, I will investigate.

It's very likely under Viera link, have a look in those settings.

[Riley Blue]

stevoknevo said:

It's very likely under Viera link, have a look in those settings.

It's showing me:

Viera Link - On
Power on Link - On
Power off Link - On
Standby Power Save - Off
Intelligent Auto Standby - Off

Which of those needs changing?

[Lucid_AV]

Riley Blue said:

It's showing me:

Viera Link - On
Power on Link - On
Power off Link - On
Standby Power Save - Off
Intelligent Auto Standby - Off

Which of those needs changing?

Viera Link to OFF.

It's likely that when you do that the Power On Link and Power Off Link settings will either go off or disappear. They're conditional settings. Viera Link has to be on in order for these additional settings to operate. Without Viera Link then these other settings should be disabled automatically.

[Riley Blue]

Lucid_AV said:

Riley Blue said:

It's showing me:

Viera Link - On
Power on Link - On
Power off Link - On
Standby Power Save - Off
Intelligent Auto Standby - Off

Which of those needs changing?

Viera Link to OFF.

It's likely that when you do that the Power On Link and Power Off Link settings will either go off or disappear. They're conditional settings. Viera Link has to be on in order for these additional settings to operate. Without Viera Link then these other settings should be disabled automatically.

Thanks, I've done that and the other settings are now disabled. I'll report back with how it goes.

[OldSkoolRS]

Interested to see how you get on as I have a 39" and 50" version of the same TV. I use a Firestick in HDMI 3 socket (my AVR is connected to HDMI 1/ARC). I haven't had any issues with mine cutting out during adverts, but possibly your Firestick is a later version than mine as mine is a 1080p version to suit the TV. I have a 4K Apple TV for my projector, so I didn't need to get another 4K device.

If the earlier suggestions don't work then I wonder if it's a resolution issue and the Firestick is trying to output something out of the TV's range? I'd have thought you'd just get a blank screen though in that case.

[Riley Blue]

So far, so good. I've been watching those channels on which we had problems previously and it's no longer happening i.e. when adverts end the set stays on and the programme continues.

I've noticed that we now have a countdown timer at top left that indicates how long the adverts have left to run, it's very useful.

Virtual pints all round

[OldSkoolRS]

I find the countdown handy to see if I have enough time to nip out to the loo or kitchen. At least the other suggestions sorted it for you.

I found a really odd trick with my similar TV recently: I was trying out a new stereo amp with HDMI/ARC and it wouldn't work using the TV remote like my other AVR would. The someone told me there is a section in the 'App' screen to select TV speakers or AV amp. Really odd how my TV has worked fine for years never needing that setting (which resets if turned off at the switch on the side), with just the Viera settings.

I keep thinking I'll get something newer, but it works fine and my main viewing is on a projector. Still think it's a decent TV for what it cost though.

[Riley Blue]

I spoke (wrote) too soon. The problem has reappeared and this morning as soon as the TV was switched on from standby it flicked off with the same red LED flash once every four seconds.

I've waded through all 17 pages of Amazon's Firestick forum, no suggestions there so now I'm looking at the on-screen Firestick settings menu but it might just as well be in Martian...