R-T-B's house of Hisense Firmware

[R-T-B]

So what is this weird place? Well, it's what you get when you buy a Hisense TV, young padawan.

See, Hisense TV's are generally pretty solid spec wise, but their firmware is all over the place. Some excellent, some alright, some downright awful, and they never ever list them all in a consistent fashion, generally only listing the latest one at their website (if anything). This archive is an attempt to rectify that.

Right now it just features all known builds for my personal TV, the 55" 55U8N, as well as it's other model number it was sold under, the identical 55U8K. But Hisense's are interesting beasts. They allow downgrading, crossflashing, anything really. Once you stick a firmware in and tell it to update, it will do it, no questions asked really. If you follow the right procedure anyways. I document those too.

So yeah, how do you use this? Start here:

http://glacialsoftware.net:8080/FIRMWARE_HISENSE/

It's a real simple text based directory-like FTP style website (I don't have the willpower to throw anything better together, or the time to maintain security on anything more than static pages so...). You should probably start at the root readme.txt. Read the readme.txt's in each model TVs folder too and you can't go wrong honestly. The other .txt docs? You can ignore them unless something tells you to read them. The .zip firmwares? Don't touch those until told to. You've been warned. I won't be held responsible for your "I didn't read" stupidity. Sorry, but I have to say it.

So, enjoy. I'm actively seeking firmware from Hisense TVs of all shapes, sizes, and ages. If you have any plus any info on what that firmware does and/or how to flash it, please PM me and I'll try to add it to the listings!

PS: I actually still think this TV was a great value, but man, from my experience with this TVs firmware the past 2 days or so Hisense has some great specs that really deserve better software. The autoupdate is furthermore very cruel, activating an unskippable screen nearly immediately upon connecting to internet or wifi. I also have a guide on how to disable that for my TV, for the curious.

In short, I love this TV because it's a tinkering nightmare. But would I advise it to people who just want things to work? Uh... Hard to say. Probably not. Just keep that in mind. You can get great value with this brand, but it's going to be an uphill battle with regards to firmware fun.

PSS: If anyone wants to make these pages into a better looking static html thingy, I am not a webdev at all and would probably appreciate it. Not essential at all as the text pages do their job, just ugly to look at. Probably could use a WYSIWYG editor, but again, time...

-RTB

 

[_JP_]

Don't have an Hisense, but I support what you are doing, because the SmartTV landscape is a nightmare currently.
TCL comes to mind regarding that "looseness" on flashing but good luck find the right image for your model anyway, you'll probably just find the release version or the version that was launched just about as the model was discontinued (usually 1 year after releasing).
Sony just erases access to firmware to anything dating pre-2022, and I wonder when they will do it again for newer models.
Then there's all of those brand-licenses ones that you never know what you are going to get.
But this is for ATV. Cannot even tell how it's going for folks with FireTV, RokuOS or TiVO OS. Then there's the ad-infused Titan OS that really concerns as it seems not to bring any actual benefit to the consumer but is making the rounds at a number of brands.

 

[R-T-B]

Hisense seems to have some kind of flasher in the bootstrap of the core boot loader that activates on a remote key at power on with a properly formatted usb and file name. This means that you could potentially flash google tv firmware to say, a VIDAA or FireTV POS (or the other way around if you’ve lost your mind), as long as the chipset and panel were basically the same the flash program would probably just do it. The flasher doesn’t seem to do anything more than a very basic integrity check of the file.

Of course, you are on your own if you want to try that, but do report back if you do…. Even though it’s most likely a very bad idea.

PS: Hisense absolutely erases non-latest firmware btw, the only reason I have these is I surveyed long and hard on avsforum and /r/hisense. Heck, you need to input a serial number just to see firmware for your device, and its always the latest, not a list. Pretty horrible system considering they will happily break your TV with an OTA update right as soon as you connect.

 

[Solaris17]

Not sure if this is getting the hug of death or not, but I cant reach any of those links at 8080, only the TLD.

 

[R-T-B]

Not sure if this is getting the hug of death or not, but I cant reach any of those links at 8080, only the TLD.

Hmmm. I did JUST open that port. Let me double check I did it right.

EDIT: Doh! Firewall issue, thanks.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I have the Hisense 55" U7 and I only use it as a PC monitor. Should I be concerned about firmware for my use case? I already tweaked everything using the guide from RTINGS. The OOB experience was indeed less than stellar. I am loving it as a 144Hz VRR gaming TV for the $479 I paid.

 

[R-T-B]

I have the Hisense 55" U7 and I only use it as a PC monitor. Should I be concerned about firmware for my use case? I already tweaked everything using the guide from RTINGS. The OOB experience was indeed less than stellar. I am loving it as a 144Hz VRR gaming TV for the $479 I paid.

If you aren't having issues that affect your experience my advice is to stick with it, keep it offline, and never update. If you have firmware zips though, I'll archive them for record keeping... that's about all this thread can do for you, though.

This thread is mainly a safety net for those trusting enough to let their hisense update freely, heh.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Gratitude for the advice. I have not backed up any of the firmware versions. But I have let it update at least 4 times since buying it November last year. I was wondering if leaving the RJ45 unplugged was a good idea or not. I was concerned it would brick itself if I did it. So I appreciate the info.

 

[nomdeplume]

I have the Hisense 55" U7 and I only use it as a PC monitor. Should I be concerned about firmware for my use case?

Consider the old adage about never updating BIOS or drivers of something that works (back when it was broadly applicable). Update over USB when needed is far more desirable than alternatives if used as monitor with no smart functionality.

If you gave it your wifi pass the chances are good you're stuck in the loop R-T-B is doing something about.

 

[R-T-B]

Consider the old adage about never updating BIOS or drivers of something that works (back when it was broadly applicable). Update over USB when needed is far more desirable than alternatives if used as monitor with no smart functionality.

If you gave it your wifi pass the chances are good you're stuck in the loop R-T-B is doing something about.

Yeah what shocked me actually was the shear speed with which it locks you into upgrading after you connect to wifi...

You have about three seconds to regret your decision.

Gratitude for the advice. I have not backed up any of the firmware versions. But I have let it update at least 4 times since buying it November last year. I was wondering if leaving the RJ45 unplugged was a good idea or not. I was concerned it would brick itself if I did it. So I appreciate the info.

Research the firmwares before you install them, is all I can say. There'll usually be complaints if they are bad. Reddit.com/r/hisense is ok for watching for firmware outcry... lol.

Letter I just wrote Hisense after getting in touch with support (they actually replied fast!), think they will care?

Hello Hisense Customer Support.

There aren’t any issues with my unit as of right now. Since I wrote I solved my issue. I had an older copy of the firmware on USB (build O0730) and I reverted to it via USB upgrade procedure and took the TV offline shortterm. I am happy with the performance of that firmware as a gaming TV for now.

The main issue is with firmwares newer than build O1030, where I first updated and began to experience my issue. The issue is at bitrates above and equal to 3840x2160@120hz @ 10bpc chroma RGB444, random horizontal colored lines appear on the screen and then quickly vanish. They are very annoying and appear sporadically but enough to ruin the experience. Raising the bpc to 12 bpc makes it worse, happening more frequently and violently on the screen, suggesting a bitrate issue maybe?

This persisted as I got an OTA update to P0414, which behaved identically.

Looking at the reddit for Hisense, it seems this is not an unknown issue. Some links:

link1
(see his number 2 complaint, the rest isn’t a big deal to me)

Here’s a video of it happening:

video

Hope this helps you develop a fix! Thanks for getting back to me! Full disclosure, I am a tech reviewer of sorts... kind of doing a different career now but still dip my toes in here and there, see my profile and posts at https://www.techpowerup.com/forums/members/r-t-b.41983/


Not saying that to ask for anything, just to let you know that a.) I’m happy to help you run tests, technical ones included, I am more than capable and b.) I will be posting about my experiences. So far though, you’ve replied reasonably fast, so thank you for that and good luck with the issues! Otherwise enjoying the TV!

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I use CAT 5e, I'll unplug it. Thanks again.

 

[Pets4Ever]

I'm always reluctant to install TV updates initially. Maybe this is Sony specific, and maybe not, but often Sony updates are usually waaaay to vague about what they do. "Performance improvements" tells me nothing and makes me nervous. It could be anything from fixing memory usage to totally revamping how DolbyVision works for all I know.

Here's the latest patch notes for my A95L:

• Improves the overall performance of the TV
• Adds support for adjusting the TV volume using the remote control for a connected soundbar
• Fixes an issue where a white LED flashes and the TV won't start after updating the firmware to version 112.631.085.1
• Fixes an issue where the TV cannot be powered on from deep standby mode with the remote control when connected to a USB 3.0 LAN adapter

I'm sure that the fix for the TV not starting is of GREAT comfort to the people who installed 112.631.085.1 and can't currently get their TV to turn on.


Anyway, good on you for trying to help people out in the TV firmware hellscape.