Philips DTR1500 gone bad

245

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  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 4
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    Have had to reset my box FOUR times tonight, seems to be an issue with QVC where the picture freezes and none of the buttons on the STB or the remote work.
    Also, another oddity is ITV news channel which has located itself on channel 804...not 81 as it should be. There is one possibility here- I receive pictures from two transmitters in Taunton; ITV West from Mendip and ITV Westcountry from Stockland hill. Have noticed that Channel 3 switches between the two regions!!!
    I think Philips need to think harder about any future STB's :confused:
  • peteroutpeterout Posts: 56
    Forum Member
    Seems at least one other person (Alton Towers) has described exactly what happened to my box. Got fed up button stabbing (and being very patient!) this morning and went to Asda where for £29.87 I bought a 'Durabrand' freeview box. For the money it seems excellent. 2 scarts and a 7 day EPG for a start! Absolutely no problems with it at the moment, the only feature that is missing is the 'swap' button so you can flick easily between 2 channels, but thats about all. Won't give up on the Philips, perhaps a few days unplugged and left in the cold garage might persuade it back into life. But I'm not banking on it!
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 157
    Forum Member
    Hearing all these tales of woe I feel very fortunate that I did eventually manage to get my two DTR1500s updated. But I feel uncomfortable about what might happen next time round there are major channel changes. I've had that sickening pit of the stomach feeling too many times already with these virgin mode resets.

    This bad product design feature and their terrible reputation for support convinces me more than ever to rule Philips out of future purchase considerations for any equipment.

    Maybe the company will finally get around to realising they have upset a lot of people here but then again maybe not.
  • peteroutpeterout Posts: 56
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    I had an early Philips IDTV and had plenty of experience of Philips customer 'service' trying to get the update to enable mheg function. After about 2 years they eventually offered those who complained enough about non-functioning iDTVs, a DTR 1500 box as compensation. Thats how I ended up with one. Which now has gone awol. I can't face trying to get any sense out of Philips about it!!
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 1,032
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    Did virgin reset - all went fine.

    However the box did freeze once it lost all sound (during C4 news) then wouldn't change channel and froze.

    I pulled the power and put it back again - all seems OK so far
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 22
    Forum Member
    all working okay now, I followed Boinng's post and I can now use my DTR1500 again.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 27
    Forum Member
    Mine is still broken. Will try to reset again (tried 20 times last night!). Philips customer care told me the usual (ie no support, they MAY be able to offer me an "upgrade" depending on when I bought the box). I will search for the reciept tonight and call them back. Not sure whether I want another Philips though if this is what happens!
  • MicrobialMicrobial Posts: 223
    Forum Member
    Oh dear, I had no complaints about my 1500 until now. Had a go at getting it to retune last night; virgin reset went OK but it didn't pick up all the TV channels and none of the radio stations, although they were all listed in the 'Channels' menu. This morning a few more TV stations had appeared but no radio. Am going to leave it overnight again and see what happens.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 2
    Forum Member
    I'm experiencing the same problem as several others here. Box died whilst watching E4 at about 10:45 last night. Power LED blinks red, and the multicoloured one briefly shows a solid red too. Tried a virgin reset etc, but the box remains unresponsive.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 106
    Forum Member
    Add me to the pile.

    Mine's stuck in blinking red mode.

    Virgin reset does not now work (I do know how to do it).

    I did a virgin reset this morning to re-arrange the channel numbers. Watched a bit of BBC1 and it crashed.

    Now it's dead.

    Nearly two years old so no warranty.

    Philips gear is terrible these days!
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 27
    Forum Member
    Who was actually responsible for the change that took place? Clearly this wasnt tested based on the the number of problems across a wide range of boxes.

    Anyone know of a contact (email, phone, address, whatever!) of someone I can complain to (not Philips, the organisation that managed/implemented this change)?
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 20
    Forum Member
    mine is the same as glenn 2 aparenty in the book its meant to be a software upgrade that is going on but mine went lke this last night i left it on all day up intil now expecting there to be some change( thinking software upgrades take along time) but i dont think they take this long....if somebody has rang phillips surely they would have mentioned a software upgrade?
  • NetizenNetizen Posts: 5,041
    Forum Member
    WWWlf wrote:
    Who was actually responsible for the change that took place? Clearly this wasnt tested based on the the number of problems across a wide range of boxes.

    Anyone know of a contact (email, phone, address, whatever!) of someone I can complain to (not Philips, the organisation that managed/implemented this change)?
    The multiplex owners, or in other words all the companies that make up Freeview. Of course it would be silly to blame them for Philips shortcomings, how can they be expected to ensure that all manufacturers make flawless products?
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 36
    Forum Member
    Still no response from mine, i read every word in the mannual last night lol. If the red light is blinking at the front then thats ment to signal that a software upgrade is taking place, what a load of crap mines been like that for nerly 2 days, ive tried everything over and over again i might keep mine for a few months down the line to see if its any better. But in the mean time i will be getting one from Currys tommorow.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 157
    Forum Member
    Some time back I realised that Philips were most unlikely to ever issue another OTA software update for the DTR1500.

    So I set my two boxes to manual update.

    I think that might reduce the risk of some other box's update or just a spurious bad signal fooling the box into starting an auto update which of course cannot be successfully completed.

    The only thing to remember is every time you do a virgin reset you have to take the box out of auto update mode again.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 36
    Forum Member
    Ive had my box for nearly 2 years at christmas and i dont ever remembering it having a software update
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 157
    Forum Member
    AFAIK there was just one OTA update very early on in the life of the DTR1500. Initially the DTR1500 was in quite short supply but I bought one at the earliest opportunity I could. Mine was at sw version 0023 and the one and only OTA upgrade to 0032 had already past so it is still at 0023.

    Last February they were being superseded and I picked up a second box for £49.99 which was at sw 0032.

    I don't think there are any other sw versions out there in the public domain but I could be wrong.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 27
    Forum Member
    My DTR1500 is still broken. Tried unplugging all cables and virgin reset but the multicoloured LED only blinks red never orange.

    Spoke to Philips this morning and they said they couldn't help me as the unit was purchased too long ago.

    I asked whether other people had this problem because from this (and other) forums it didnt appear I was alone. The chap said he believed it was caused by an E4 popup. Other people reported that the unit worked until E4 was selected then the units crashed.

    Most were resolved by "Restore virgin mode" page 31 in the manual but a few (like mine) weren't.

    Basically there was nothing they would/could do.

    My concern is that I buy another box (or freeview PVR) and some channel sends out a dodgy signal without proper testing and they break my new box! The chap at Philips agreed this was a risk. Great!

    So, still annoyed that this has happened I rang Channel Four Viewer Enquiries on 020 7306 8333 and registered my displeasure with them for breaking my freeview box. They said that I was the ONLY person to report a total failure - all other owners they have spoken to (mainly PIONEER) are now working again following changing of the popup signal and a box reset.

    I dont expect this to go anywhere and I'm off to buy another box this weekend (not Philips!).

    I'm looking for a 2 scart, good picture/sound unit (no PVR) up to £70 that can survive E4 popups, re-scans etc! Any suggestions?
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 10
    Forum Member
    WWWlf wrote:
    So, still annoyed that this has happened I rang Channel Four Viewer Enquiries on 020 7306 8333 and registered my displeasure with them for breaking my freeview box. They said that I was the ONLY person to report a total failure

    I phoned them as well, so that's two now.

    I replaced it with Asdas Digibrand box, not bad for £29.
  • MicrobialMicrobial Posts: 223
    Forum Member
    An update to my previous post (I know you've all been waiting with baited breath):
    Microbial wrote:
    Oh dear, I had no complaints about my 1500 until now. Had a go at getting it to retune last night; virgin reset went OK but it didn't pick up all the TV channels and none of the radio stations, although they were all listed in the 'Channels' menu. This morning a few more TV stations had appeared but no radio. Am going to leave it overnight again and see what happens.

    After leaving it overnight again all the radio stations have magically appeared, no info alert to say they'd been found, they were just suddenly there.

    Perhaps this will work for some others, ie leave it off for a day or two.
  • [Deleted User][Deleted User] Posts: 157
    Forum Member
    The reason I bought my DTR1500s was simple - the Pulse Killer chip. I live in a flat and although the aerial system was renewed specifically for digital TV with the correct double shielded cable to the distribution amp in a communal loft, from there downwards to each flat it is the original 1981 vintage coax which would be very difficult to replace. Results were not too good at first with my On Digital (Philips) DTX-6371 - lots of breakup - but they are normally almost perfect with the DTR1500s (excepting virgin mode resets of course.)

    I heard that some other manufacturers are using the Philips Pulse Killer chip under licence and maybe others still are developing their own from scratch.

    Does anyone know where I could get more information on which boxes have this pulse killer technology incorporated? I might be interested in a Panasonic DVD recorder with in-built DTTV receiver but only if it is at least as good as the DTR1500 in terms of immunity to impulse noise.
  • DeanDSDeanDS Posts: 1,605
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    Mine is ok now except for BBC1 which was blank, I then had a brainwave, sure enough on channel 812 was BBC1. It bbviously decided to add the weaker signal from another transmitter to 1 and the better signal to 812! As the weathers bad now i think i'll try and rescan and hopefully get the better signal at 1!
  • martymartmartymart Posts: 242
    Forum Member
    I found that pulling the power lead out while the two red lights are on completed the virgin reset after about 10 attempts to do it by the book.
  • DeanDSDeanDS Posts: 1,605
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    A virgin reset again restored the best BBC1, everything ok. I used the virgin reset as posted on page one of the thread with no problems. Anyone else still having problems?
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