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Nucleic TV

Troubleshooting

Find your problem, see why it happens, then follow the steps. Most problems come from the playlist address, the provider or the network, not from the player.

The TV will not activate

What is going on

The pairing page does not accept the code, or the TV cannot reach our server. Four things make a code fail: it has expired (codes last 10 minutes), a character was mistyped, all seats of your licence are in use, or you have no active licence.

What to do

  1. Read the code on the TV again and type it exactly as shown. It has six characters, letters and numbers.

  2. If the page says the code expired, use the new code the TV shows. The TV gets one by itself.

  3. If the page says all seats are in use, open your account page, release a TV you no longer use and pair again. One licence covers up to three TVs.

  4. If the page says you need a licence, choose a plan on the pricing page. If it says your licence has ended, buy 12 months on your account page.

  5. If the TV says “Cannot reach the server”, check the TV network connection and try again.

The playlist cannot be loaded

What is going on

The TV could not read your playlist. It shows the reason under “The playlist could not be loaded”, and the reason tells you where to look.

What the TV says

The server did not answer in time.
The provider is slow or down, or the TV connection is weak. Check that the TV is online. This is usually temporary.
The TV could not reach the server.
The TV never got through to the address. The host in the address may be wrong or offline, or your network blocks it. Check the network and the host in the playlist address.
The server refused the request.
The provider answered but said no. Typical reasons: a wrong username or password, an ended subscription, or the provider blocking this connection. Check the account with your provider, then the address in your Nucleic TV account.
Nothing was found at this address.
The link points to nothing. It may be mistyped, or your provider changed it. Check the playlist address in your Nucleic TV account.
The server did not accept this address.
The server refuses the link as it is written. Check the address in your Nucleic TV account.
The server reported a problem.
The provider server failed or is busy. This is usually temporary.
The TV has no network connection.
Connect the TV to your network. The playlist loads by itself when it is back.
The playlist has no channels.
The address answers, but the file holds no channels. Check the address, then ask your provider.
The file could not be unpacked.
The TV could not open the file. It may be damaged on the server. Check the address. If it keeps failing, ask your provider.
The file could not be read.
The file is damaged or is not a playlist. Check the address. If it keeps failing, ask your provider.

What to do

  1. Press OK on the TV to try again now. The TV also tries by itself: every 30 seconds for temporary problems (no answer, no connection, a server problem) and every 60 seconds for the rest. Each try asks our server for your playlists again.

  2. With more than one playlist, press left or right on the TV to try another.

  3. To fix an address, edit the playlist on your account page, then press OK on the TV. The new address reaches the TV within a minute even if you press nothing, and the app does not need a restart.

  4. While you watch, choose “Reload playlist” in “Settings > Playlist” to do the same. To open Settings, press Up (or Menu) on the TV, then choose the “Settings” tile in the quick menu.

A channel does not play

What is going on

The TV shows “This channel is not available” and a reason. The picture comes from the stream your provider gives, so the cause is usually the stream, not the player.

What the TV says

The channel did not respond in time
The stream is down, overloaded, or blocked for your country or network. A blocked stream looks like a dead one.
Could not connect to the stream
Same causes: your provider is not serving this stream to you right now.
This channel uses a stream type the TV cannot play
Streams such as rtmp, rtsp or srt do not play on this TV, and no setting changes that. Ask your provider for an HLS or MPEG-TS version of the channel.
This stream address is not supported
The TV’s player does not accept the stream link as it is written. Check the channel link in your playlist, or ask your provider for a working one.
This stream uses a format the TV cannot play
The TV cannot decode this stream. Ask your provider for another format. If you added a server, username and password, paste a link that ends in output=m3u8 instead; we keep the output of a link as it is.
This protected stream could not get its licence
The stream is protected and its licence server did not answer or refused. That is on the provider side.
The stream could not be played
The player gave no clearer reason. Try again later. If the same channel keeps failing, ask your provider.
Connecting… 5 s
The channel is slow to open. The screen shows a moving scale and the channel’s number and name. After two seconds it counts the seconds; after five it lists the keys that help: channel up or down tries another channel, Back returns to the last channel that showed a picture (where there is no other channel to return to, Back leaves the app), OK opens the channel list. A channel that shows no picture within 15 seconds is reported as “The channel did not respond in time”.

What to do

  1. To try a channel again, switch to another channel with channel up or down, then switch back to it. OK opens the channel list. While a channel is still opening, or has failed, Back returns to the last channel that showed a picture.

  2. Open “Settings > Playlist”. The line “Streams this TV cannot play” counts the channels the TV skips because of their stream type. It appears only when there are some.

  3. In “Settings > Playback”, “Skip channels that do not respond” is on by default. The TV then passes over channels it has found not to respond or that keep failing, and asks before it opens one you pick. See “A channel is marked Not responding”.

  4. To learn whether a channel is down or blocked, ask your provider or try the same link in another player. Nucleic TV cannot repair a stream your provider does not deliver.

A channel is marked “Not responding”, or the TV asks before opening it

What is going on

Nucleic TV asks the address of each channel in your playlist whether it answers: the playlist, then the playlist of the first picture size, then the first kilobyte of video. The TV does this itself, directly with your provider’s servers as it does when it plays; nothing passes through ours and the answers stay on the TV. A channel that does not answer all the way is marked in the channel list, Home, the guide and search, is skipped by channel up and down, and asks before it opens instead of leaving you on the tuning screen. The check runs by itself after a playlist loads when the last check is more than three days old (playlists of up to 600 channels; a bigger one only when you ask), and a channel that plays is working again at once. The markers and the message have not yet been run on a TV.

What the TV says

Not responding · The address did not answer
The channel’s address gave no answer at all: the server is down, the name is wrong, or the provider blocks this TV’s network. Often the provider has taken the channel down.
Not responding · The video did not load
The playlist answers but the video behind it does not, for example a channel that is on air only at certain hours.
Not responding · The provider refused access, sent an error or its server failed
The provider’s server answered with an error. Sometimes the channel needs a login, or a country the TV is not in.
Not responding · The address is not a stream
The address answers with a web page instead of a stream, usually a login or a notice page.
This channel is not responding
You picked a channel that is marked. OK opens it anyway, Right or channel up goes to the next working channel, Left or channel down to the previous one, and Back closes the message.
No channel answered, nothing was marked
The TV may be offline, or its network blocks the check, so no channel was marked. Check the network, then press “Check channels now” again.

What to do

  1. Open “Settings > Playback > Check channels” and press “Check channels now”. It shows how far it is (for example “42 of 174”) and then how many channels work and how many do not respond. “Stop checking” keeps the answers so far.

  2. Press OK on a channel in the list under the check to open it anyway. A channel that plays is working again by itself.

  3. To keep the lists short, turn on “Hide channels that do not respond”. They leave the channel list and Home but stay in “Check channels”, and every check asks them again. To walk onto them with channel up and down, or to open them without the message, turn off “Skip channels that do not respond” in “Settings > Playback”.

  4. A channel that stays marked is down or blocked on your provider’s side. Ask your provider, or try the same link in another player. Nucleic TV cannot repair a stream your provider does not deliver.

The sound goes away or the picture stops for a moment

What is going on

A live channel can stall or lose its sound when the provider’s stream stutters, and that is usually the stream, not the TV. Nucleic TV watches the picture that is running. If it buffers for more than a moment, the banner shows “Buffering…”. If the picture stops for 8 seconds, stays on “Buffering…” for 20 seconds, or runs without sound for about 15 seconds although the stream has sound, the app opens the channel again by itself: at most twice per channel in five minutes, so a dead channel is not retried for ever. Each of these events is recorded in the app’s diagnostics log. What makes the sound drop on some channels is not known yet, and these checks are built and tested but have not yet run on a TV.

What the TV says

Buffering…
The stream has not delivered enough data for a moment, so the picture and the sound wait for it. It continues by itself; if it lasts 20 seconds, the app opens the channel again. A slow stream is not something the TV can speed up.
The channel opened again by itself
The picture had stopped for 8 seconds, had been buffering for 20 seconds, or ran without sound for about 15 seconds although the stream has sound. For a missing sound the app first tries a different audio track when the channel has one; otherwise it opens the channel again. It does this at most twice per channel in five minutes.

What to do

  1. Wait a few seconds. If the banner says “Buffering…”, the stream is slow and will continue by itself.

  2. If the sound stays away while the picture runs, press Up for the quick menu and open “Audio & subtitles”. A channel with several audio tracks lets you choose another one. A track marked “not playable” is a sound format this TV is not expected to play; the app does not switch to it.

  3. Check the volume and mute of the TV, and its sound output (the speakers or a soundbar). Nucleic TV never changes the volume or the output; the TV keeps both.

  4. If it keeps happening on one channel, switch to another channel and back. If that channel fails again while others are fine, the cause is most likely its stream: ask your provider.

Multi-view: no button, only two pictures, or a picture will not start

What is going on

Two pictures at once need two video decoders in the TV. The Frame (2022) has them for exactly two: we measured that a third or fourth picture hangs the app or freezes the others, so Nucleic TV offers two there and never four. The Multi-view tile is shown only on a TV whose number of pictures we have measured; on any other TV it is hidden rather than offered and failing. A picture can also fail by itself: its channel may be down, or your provider may allow one connection at a time and refuse the second stream, which looks the same as a channel that is down. The screen has not yet been run on a TV.

What the TV says

This TV shows 2 pictures at a time
A picture was refused a video decoder, so the app removed it and remembers how many pictures this TV shows. It will not offer more until the next version of the app, which asks the TV again.
Could not connect to the stream, on the second picture
The channel may be down. If the same channel plays alone but not beside another one, your plan probably allows one connection at a time: each picture is another stream from your provider.
“Buffering…” right after a picture got the sound
The TV starts that picture’s stream again when the sound moves to it. This takes a moment and is not an error.
Locked
A locked channel in a picture asks for its PIN when you press OK on it. It does not play before.

What to do

  1. No Multi-view tile in the quick menu: this TV is not one we have measured, so the tile is hidden.

  2. If one picture shows an error, press OK on it to try again, channel up or down to try another channel, or Down to open the channel list. The other picture is not affected.

  3. If the second picture never starts but the same channel plays alone, ask your provider how many connections your plan allows at the same time.

  4. To go back to one picture, press Back: the channel of the picture with the frame opens full screen.

There is no programme guide, or it does not match

What is going on

The guide and the playlist come from different places, and the TV joins them by channel ID. A guide stays empty when its address is missing, when the playlist channels carry no tvg-id, or when the guide uses other IDs than the playlist. The banner says which of these it is in one line, and the Info screen in the quick menu says it in full.

What the TV says

This playlist has no programme guide
No guide address is saved for the playlist. Add one in your account. The Guide screen, and the Info screen in the quick menu whenever a channel has no programme because of this, show the address of your account page and a QR code for it. Home says “No programme guide for this playlist” on each card.
The programme guide could not be loaded
The guide address did not answer, or the file is broken. Your channels still play. The TV tries again by itself, and “Reload playlist” in Settings tries now.
The guide has no programmes for these channels
The guide loaded, but none of its channels match your playlist. The address may belong to another provider, or the channel IDs differ.

What to do

  1. Add or check the address: edit the playlist in your account, fill in “Guide link (XMLTV), optional” and save. Then choose “Reload playlist” in “Settings > Playlist” on the TV.

  2. Use the guide address that belongs to your playlist, normally from the same provider.

  3. Open “Settings > Playlist” and read the report. If most channels have no guide ID (tvg-id), the guide cannot match them. Those IDs come with the playlist file.

  4. If some channels have no guide, “Settings > Playlist” also shows a “Match guide channels” row. It appears only while some channels have no guide and the guide lists channels of its own. It suggests, by name, which guide channel belongs to which playlist channel. Confirm the suggestions that are right; the TV keeps them for that playlist.

I forgot my PIN

What is going on

The PIN is stored on the TV only. It never reaches our servers or your account, so we can neither show nor reset it.

What to do

  1. After five wrong tries the TV locks PIN entry for one minute. Each further lock doubles the wait, up to 15 minutes. A right PIN clears the count. Wait for the lock to end, then try the PINs you may have used.

  2. Without the PIN, locked channels and groups stay locked, and simple mode cannot be switched off while it is on. Everything else works as usual.

  3. A PIN cannot be reset from the website or from your account today.

The picture is stuck after standby

What is going on

A stream that sat through standby, or another input, goes stale because its connection timed out. When you come back after more than two seconds, Nucleic TV opens the live channel again by itself. It leaves a paused picture alone.

What to do

  1. Wait a few seconds. The channel tunes again.

  2. If the picture stays frozen, press channel up and then down, or pick the channel from the list.

  3. If that does not help, press Back to leave the app and open it again.

  4. A paused picture stays paused until you press Play.