unreachable thumbnail link "hangs" hd100

[drewg]

I recently updated from 6.4.8 to 6.6, and did all the STV updates.

On my HD100, if I browse to the Science/Tech Online videos, and scroll to the bottom, the HD100 appears to hang. From the logs:

Mon 1/11 9:03:44.526 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017] Loading RawImage of size 16x16 for http://webbalert.com/images/webbalert-itunes.jpg
Mon 1/11 9:03:44.972 [EventRouter-00085c53c609@36143614] Online Video category selection: xPodcastScienceTech--Tekzilla
Mon 1/11 9:03:44.972 [EventRouter-00085c53c609@36143614] FeedContext: Tekzilla/URLContext=http://revision3.com/tekzilla/feed/quicktime-high-definition
Mon 1/11 9:03:44.972 [EventRouter-00085c53c609@36143614] Searching Science-Tech for Tekzilla, URL:http://revision3.com/tekzilla/feed/quicktime-high-definition
Mon 1/11 9:03:44.972 [EventRouter-00085c53c609@36143614] processOptionsMenu optionsMenu=default:BASE-70961|OptionsMenu:Wait while video list is downloaded
Mon 1/11 9:03:45.870 [ReProcessHook@4dfc4dfc] setUI(sage.b4@4f254f25[Online Video Search Results]) histIdx=3 uiHistory=[sage.b4@204e204e[Main Menu], sage.b4@757e757e[Online Services Menu], sage.b4@3e4d3e4d[Online Video Menu], sage.b4@4f254f25[Online Video Search Results]]
Mon 1/11 9:03:45.906 [Fork-OPUS4-112543@71457145] STARTING background online video results thumb preloader thread, ID = 0.9231210722962665
Mon 1/11 9:03:46.826 [AsyncURLImageLoader@149e149e] UI Comp refreshing due to resource load finished of: http://bitcast-a.bitgravity.com/revision3/images/shows/tekzilla/tzdaily/0530/tekzilla--tzdaily--0530--ces-cameras--mini.thumb.jpg
Mon 1/11 9:03:47.068 [AsyncURLImageLoader@51bb51bb] UI Comp refreshing due to resource load finished of: http://bitcast-a.bitgravity.com/revision3/images/shows/tekzilla/tzdaily/0543/tekzilla--tzdaily--0543--2010-01-11foxytunes--mini.thumb.jpg
Mon 1/11 9:03:48.984 [AWTThreadWatcher-00085c53c609@6f566f56] EventThread-00085c53c609 Hang Detected - hang time = 750
Mon 1/11 9:03:49.734 [AWTThreadWatcher-00085c53c609@6f566f56] EventThread-00085c53c609 Hang Detected - hang time = 1500
<...>
Mon 1/11 9:06:47.202 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@3f913f91] STARTING background online video feed thumb preloader thread, ID = 0.5383969560911679
Mon 1/11 9:06:53.593 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017] ERROR with URL download of:java.net.ConnectException: Connection timed out
Mon 1/11 9:06:53.594 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017] ImageLoad failed for:http://webbalert.com/images/webbalert-itunes.jpg with:java.lang.NullPointerException
Mon 1/11 9:06:53.594 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017] java.lang.NullPointerException
Mon 1/11 9:06:53.594 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017]       at sage.cu.aH(Unknown Source)
Mon 1/11 9:06:53.594 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017]       at sage.bn.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 1/11 9:06:53.594 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017]       at sage.cu.for(Unknown Source)
Mon 1/11 9:06:53.594 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017]       at sage.bn.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 1/11 9:06:53.594 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017]       at sage.c.e$48.try(Unknown Source)
Mon 1/11 9:06:53.594 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017]       at sage.ax.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 1/11 9:06:53.594 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017]       at sage.a.m$b.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 1/11 9:06:53.594 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017]       at sage.a.m.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 1/11 9:06:53.594 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017]       at sage.e.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 1/11 9:06:53.594 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017]       at sage.bb.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 1/11 9:06:53.594 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017]       at sage.bb.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 1/11 9:06:53.594 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017]       at sage.bb.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 1/11 9:06:53.594 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017]       at sage.bb.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 1/11 9:06:53.594 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017]       at sage.bb.a(Unknown Source)
Mon 1/11 9:06:53.594 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017]       at sage.bb$2.run(Unknown Source)
Mon 1/11 9:06:53.594 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017]       at sage.cs$a.run(Unknown Source)
Mon 1/11 9:06:53.596 [Fork-OPUS4-112452@40174017] MiniUI client error11:java.io.IOException: Broken pipe

If I add webbalert.com to my server's hosts file (so the image load fails immediate, rather than taking minutes to time out), then I no longer see the problem.

Is there some properties setting where I can reduce the amount of time that my HD100 will seem to hang when there is an unresponsive web server somewhere that refuses to send a thumbnail?

Thanks,

Drew