The latest software release for the HV250 has just been added to our web-site www.tvonics.com.
This is the one we've been promising for a while adding a few features to the HV250 that we added to the HD boxes recently. These include the beta test video and audio players, the high contrast colour scheme, sorting the library chronologically within other sorts and the improvement in operation of the trailer booking feature.
We've also included the reliability improvements we've made for the upcoming HD release.
Those with an internet connection will get the update automatically (assuming you haven't turned off utomatic software updates), otherwise it can be downloaded from the web-site.
I'm loving the new "High Contrast Blue" colour scheme.
Chris.
Here, here!
Now I've upgraded my DTR-HV250 to V2.0.A2225.D369, I will await the equivalent of the HD Update of 3rd May for an audio navigation option on the SD PVR with pleasure.
My Z500HD appears to have bitten the dust. Last night it started clicking, upon which the picture would disappear, to be replaced with a blue screen for a couple of seconds. The picture would then return very briefly, for the same thing to happen again. This repeated over and over, until it settled down for a couple of hours. But eventually the behaviour recurred and now, though the green light is on, there is a permanent "blue screen of death". Any ideas?
So far I have been very pleased with the DTR-HD500 but I have just had my first problem. I was recording Come Dine With Me this evening, and the recording did not stop. I was unable to work out how to stop the recording, so ended up deleting it before it messed up other recordings I had scheduled.
So my question is, what do I do if this happens again? Is there a way of stopping the recording without losing what has been recorded so far?
Thanks, H
My Z500HD went through a funny phase of doing this a few months ago; on one memorable occasion the recording of an hour-long programme continued until I noticed it was still going on the following day! It seemed to right itself after a reset, and it didn't happen again until last week, when it did it twice on two consecutive days. On both occasions, the recordings were on ITV2 + 1. Like you, I couldn't stop the recording by just pressing Stop; I had to go into the Library and delete the programme.
Anyway, hopefully it's just a blip. Everything else is working perfectly. I know the digital switchover has sent a few things haywire in my area (Crystal Palace transmitter) so maybe that's the culprit this time?
The latest software release for the HV250 has just been added to our web-site www.tvonics.com.
This is the one we've been promising for a while adding a few features to the HV250 that we added to the HD boxes recently. These include the beta test video and audio players, the high contrast colour scheme, sorting the library chronologically within other sorts and the improvement in operation of the trailer booking feature.
We've also included the reliability improvements we've made for the upcoming HD release.
Those with an internet connection will get the update automatically (assuming you haven't turned off utomatic software updates), otherwise it can be downloaded from the web-site.
Sorry this took so long!
Tim
First attempt at internet upgrade for my HV250 worked a treat - loving the clarity of the hight contrast update.
Just a quick one here. I have noticed a recurring problem with my DTR-HD500 box in that when the box is on and I turn it on in the middle of a recording it does not show a picture on my telly. The box comes on but the screen is blank. I usually have to wait until the recording is done and then the picture appears again when I turn the box on.
I don't know what the problem is as this only happens if their is a recording happening the box was off?
Any solutions?
Same here no amount of unplugging HDMI cable or switching in & out of standby restores picture have to wait for recording to stop,also happens when putting a recording into standby and turning TV off,my TV is a Samsung A786 appears to be a problem with handshaking maybe it could be improved?.
Same here no amount of unplugging HDMI cable or switching in & out of standby restores picture have to wait for recording to stop,also happens when putting a recording into standby and turning TV off,my TV is a Samsung A786 appears to be a problem with handshaking maybe it could be improved?.
My Z500HD appears to have bitten the dust. Last night it started clicking, upon which the picture would disappear, to be replaced with a blue screen for a couple of seconds. The picture would then return very briefly, for the same thing to happen again. This repeated over and over, until it settled down for a couple of hours. But eventually the behaviour recurred and now, though the green light is on, there is a permanent "blue screen of death". Any ideas?
Does the box respond to the remote? i.e. does it flash the red LED when you press a key on the remote? Can you put the box into standby with the remote?
Same here no amount of unplugging HDMI cable or switching in & out of standby restores picture have to wait for recording to stop,also happens when putting a recording into standby and turning TV off,my TV is a Samsung A786 appears to be a problem with handshaking maybe it could be improved?.
Is there any solution to this problem as it is rather difficult to watch the box? And what does handshaking mean?
Hi. We're not aware of any solution. This is of course partly because we weren't aware that there was a problem until yesterday. The more information we get about the problem the easier it will be to fix, so the information from pvrfanboi is appreciated. Is this 100% repeatable for you? i.e. does it happen every time you turn on the box while it is recording?
Incidentally, 'handshaking' is a term used to describe the exchange of information between two devices. In this case the box and the TV exchange information over HDMI as to the highest quality signal that both can support. If this went wrong you could potentially have a mis-match between the HDMI resoultion the TV expects and the resolution being output by the box .. which might result in a blank screen.
Hi. We're not aware of any solution. This is of course partly because we weren't aware that there was a problem until yesterday. The more information we get about the problem the easier it will be to fix, so the information from pvrfanboi is appreciated. Is this 100% repeatable for you? i.e. does it happen every time you turn on the box while it is recording?
Incidentally, 'handshaking' is a term used to describe the exchange of information between two devices. In this case the box and the TV exchange information over HDMI as to the highest quality signal that both can support. If this went wrong you could potentially have a mis-match between the HDMI resoultion the TV expects and the resolution being output by the box .. which might result in a blank screen.
Tim
This happens every time the box is doing a recording unfortunately. It might be something to do with handshaking as I have my box connected via a HDMI splitter as I have a TV with only one HDMI ( aN old TV even I am aghast). I think it may be the hand shaking thing but as I am not technically aware I don't kbnow for definite.
This happens every time the box is doing a recording unfortunately. It might be something to do with handshaking as I have my box connected via a HDMI splitter as I have a TV with only one HDMI ( aN old TV even I am aghast). I think it may be the hand shaking thing but as I am not technically aware I don't kbnow for definite.
We're working to see if we can repeat the problem in the office and I'll report back when I have some information,
In the mean-time though, if you're using a switch to allow you to connect several HDMI devices to your TV, why not use the box as the switch? .. as that might solve the problem?
We're working to see if we can repeat the problem in the office and I'll report back when I have some information,
In the mean-time though, if you're using a switch to allow you to connect several HDMI devices to your TV, why not use the box as the switch? .. as that might solve the problem?
Tim
I'll try that to see if it makes it easier. I did once but I thought it was interfering with getting a good signal from my antenna but maybe now that is has improved I'll try again.
I have an 18 month old Tvonics DTR-HD500 which has always worked pretty well... until the last few weeks.
It no longer holds its tunings. If it goes into deep standby then when it's powered up again whole swathes of the channels are gone and replaced by a single channel (which varies). It also loses any timers which have been set.
Presumably this has been triggered by the recent digital switchover & switch-off. Will it settle down? The signal strength is good, and the box says there are no software updates to download.
I have an 18 month old Tvonics DTR-HD500 which has always worked pretty well... until the last few weeks.
It no longer holds its tunings. If it goes into deep standby then when it's powered up again whole swathes of the channels are gone and replaced by a single channel (which varies). It also loses any timers which have been set.
Presumably this has been triggered by the recent digital switchover & switch-off. Will it settle down? The signal strength is good, and the box says there are no software updates to download.
Any suggestions?
When you say "there are no software updates to download"? Is that because you're checking the menu for updates over the air?
It sounds like you have old software. Check the version number of the software against the latest version available on our web-site. If your version is older, do an upgrade from a USB stick and that will almost certainly solve the problem.
.. if your software IS up to date, let me know and I'll have another think!
Yeah, I was just checking for on-air upgrades... According to your site my software is so old it needs to be upgraded twice via USB. (It's still on V1.1.A1100.D173.F95).
Does the box respond to the remote? i.e. does it flash the red LED when you press a key on the remote? Can you put the box into standby with the remote?
Tim
It seems now to have sorted itself without further intervention from me. The box was indeed responding to the remote whilst the TV was unresponsive. The clicking/blue screen problem was an extreme, repeating version of something that has been happening for a while - there would be a click and the TV picture would freeze, only to return after a few of seconds, similar to the caching which happens when watching TV on a PC with low bandwidth internet connection. However this would only occur occasionally, say every 5 minutes at its worse.
OK - downloaded my two software upgrades. Got the first one ready to go on a USB drive - it's the only file on there & I haven't renamed it. Plugged in, Service Menu -> USB Software Upgrade.... Nothing - it says there's no upgrade?
So it's not recognizing my flash drive. Is there any reason my using a Mac should be an issue here? Struggling to think what the problem could be. Will try again tomorrow I guess with a brand new drive.
OK - downloaded my two software upgrades. Got the first one ready to go on a USB drive - it's the only file on there & I haven't renamed it. Plugged in, Service Menu -> USB Software Upgrade.... Nothing - it says there's no upgrade?
So it's not recognizing my flash drive. Is there any reason my using a Mac should be an issue here? Struggling to think what the problem could be. Will try again tomorrow I guess with a brand new drive.
Can your MAC format the flash drive in FAT32? I know it's a "Windows" setting. The flash drive needs to be formatted in FAT32.
It seems now to have sorted itself without further intervention from me. The box was indeed responding to the remote whilst the TV was unresponsive. The clicking/blue screen problem was an extreme, repeating version of something that has been happening for a while - there would be a click and the TV picture would freeze, only to return after a few of seconds, similar to the caching which happens when watching TV on a PC with low bandwidth internet connection. However this would only occur occasionally, say every 5 minutes at its worse.
If the box was responding to the remote .. and in particular if you were able to put the box into and out of standby then it is likely the problem isn't (or wasn't) with the box. Most likely candidates are the HDMI cable and the TV's HDMI input port.
If it happens again perhaps try a different HDMI cable and/or a different HDMI input on the TV?
I'm sorry to hear that you've been seeing problems. Hopefully they will settle down a bit now the switch-over is complete.
There is an upcoming release on the 3rd of May and we've done quite a lot of work on releiability for that release (as well as the head-line new feature) so that also may improve the situation.
Hard to comment on the sensitivity of the TV as signal sensitivity can be affected by a number of things including where your particular signal is in the spectrum, etc. It may be that the TV doesn't have an HD tuner? .. or of course it may just have a more sensitve tuner for your particular signal circumstances.
Tim
Thanks for responding, always appreciated!
It does seems like things are back to normal now that all the switchovers have completed. I haven't noticed any particular problems since then but whether due to the switchover itself or yet another box-Reset, who knows...
The channels that went missing Without the booster were:
And we are in Welwyn Garden City, Herts, and I seem to remember the box said it was a "London" transmitter. Don't know if that means anything?
The telly does indeed Not have an HD receiver, but anyhow, now things are working much better so very happy
All these resets and re-tunes Does again highlight my favourite new feature wish. I wish that the box remembered the channels sorting and hiding settings between resets and re-tunes. It is a Major hassle to sort them out after each time since the sorting feature in combination with a remote is So primitive. When are you releasing an iOS Remote App
Of course, this is aggravated by the apparently completely random channel assignment used by Freeview, which presumably is not your fault
It does seems like things are back to normal now that all the switchovers have completed. I haven't noticed any particular problems since then but whether due to the switchover itself or yet another box-Reset, who knows...
The channels that went missing Without the booster were:
And we are in Welwyn Garden City, Herts, and I seem to remember the box said it was a "London" transmitter. Don't know if that means anything?
The telly does indeed Not have an HD receiver, but anyhow, now things are working much better so very happy
All these resets and re-tunes Does again highlight my favourite new feature wish. I wish that the box remembered the channels sorting and hiding settings between resets and re-tunes. It is a Major hassle to sort them out after each time since the sorting feature in combination with a remote is So primitive. When are you releasing an iOS Remote App
Of course, this is aggravated by the apparently completely random channel assignment used by Freeview, which presumably is not your fault
Cheers!
Hi
Good news that things are back to normal. Your feature wish is well under development. It won't make the 3rd May release but should be in the following one.
I think Freeview are currently considering the channel list. I seem to remember something about it on our Facebook page .. check it out, I think you are allowed to comment.
Comments
Many thanks for this, Tim.
Here, here!
Now I've upgraded my DTR-HV250 to V2.0.A2225.D369, I will await the equivalent of the HD Update of 3rd May for an audio navigation option on the SD PVR with pleasure.
My Z500HD went through a funny phase of doing this a few months ago; on one memorable occasion the recording of an hour-long programme continued until I noticed it was still going on the following day! It seemed to right itself after a reset, and it didn't happen again until last week, when it did it twice on two consecutive days. On both occasions, the recordings were on ITV2 + 1. Like you, I couldn't stop the recording by just pressing Stop; I had to go into the Library and delete the programme.
Anyway, hopefully it's just a blip. Everything else is working perfectly. I know the digital switchover has sent a few things haywire in my area (Crystal Palace transmitter) so maybe that's the culprit this time?
This really is a superb little black box.
Thanks.
Same here no amount of unplugging HDMI cable or switching in & out of standby restores picture have to wait for recording to stop,also happens when putting a recording into standby and turning TV off,my TV is a Samsung A786 appears to be a problem with handshaking maybe it could be improved?.
We will certainly try to improve it.
Tim
Does the box respond to the remote? i.e. does it flash the red LED when you press a key on the remote? Can you put the box into standby with the remote?
Tim
Is there any solution to this problem as it is rather difficult to watch the box? And what does handshaking mean?
Hi. We're not aware of any solution. This is of course partly because we weren't aware that there was a problem until yesterday. The more information we get about the problem the easier it will be to fix, so the information from pvrfanboi is appreciated. Is this 100% repeatable for you? i.e. does it happen every time you turn on the box while it is recording?
Incidentally, 'handshaking' is a term used to describe the exchange of information between two devices. In this case the box and the TV exchange information over HDMI as to the highest quality signal that both can support. If this went wrong you could potentially have a mis-match between the HDMI resoultion the TV expects and the resolution being output by the box .. which might result in a blank screen.
Tim
This happens every time the box is doing a recording unfortunately. It might be something to do with handshaking as I have my box connected via a HDMI splitter as I have a TV with only one HDMI ( aN old TV even I am aghast). I think it may be the hand shaking thing but as I am not technically aware I don't kbnow for definite.
We're working to see if we can repeat the problem in the office and I'll report back when I have some information,
In the mean-time though, if you're using a switch to allow you to connect several HDMI devices to your TV, why not use the box as the switch? .. as that might solve the problem?
Tim
I'll try that to see if it makes it easier. I did once but I thought it was interfering with getting a good signal from my antenna but maybe now that is has improved I'll try again.
It no longer holds its tunings. If it goes into deep standby then when it's powered up again whole swathes of the channels are gone and replaced by a single channel (which varies). It also loses any timers which have been set.
Presumably this has been triggered by the recent digital switchover & switch-off. Will it settle down? The signal strength is good, and the box says there are no software updates to download.
Any suggestions?
When you say "there are no software updates to download"? Is that because you're checking the menu for updates over the air?
It sounds like you have old software. Check the version number of the software against the latest version available on our web-site. If your version is older, do an upgrade from a USB stick and that will almost certainly solve the problem.
.. if your software IS up to date, let me know and I'll have another think!
Tim
I'll try that.
If you're so minded, treat yourself to a dongle or connect up to your modem via ethernet cable and you can get iPlayer functionality too.
It seems now to have sorted itself without further intervention from me. The box was indeed responding to the remote whilst the TV was unresponsive. The clicking/blue screen problem was an extreme, repeating version of something that has been happening for a while - there would be a click and the TV picture would freeze, only to return after a few of seconds, similar to the caching which happens when watching TV on a PC with low bandwidth internet connection. However this would only occur occasionally, say every 5 minutes at its worse.
So it's not recognizing my flash drive. Is there any reason my using a Mac should be an issue here? Struggling to think what the problem could be. Will try again tomorrow I guess with a brand new drive.
Can your MAC format the flash drive in FAT32? I know it's a "Windows" setting. The flash drive needs to be formatted in FAT32.
Chris.
Ah right. I'll try it formatted as FAT32.
Thanks Chris!
S
If the box was responding to the remote .. and in particular if you were able to put the box into and out of standby then it is likely the problem isn't (or wasn't) with the box. Most likely candidates are the HDMI cable and the TV's HDMI input port.
If it happens again perhaps try a different HDMI cable and/or a different HDMI input on the TV?
Tim
Thanks for responding, always appreciated!
It does seems like things are back to normal now that all the switchovers have completed. I haven't noticed any particular problems since then but whether due to the switchover itself or yet another box-Reset, who knows...
The channels that went missing Without the booster were:
ITV1
Channel 4
Channel 5
ITV 2
Channel 4+1
More 4
E4
ITV 1+1
And we are in Welwyn Garden City, Herts, and I seem to remember the box said it was a "London" transmitter. Don't know if that means anything?
The telly does indeed Not have an HD receiver, but anyhow, now things are working much better so very happy
All these resets and re-tunes Does again highlight my favourite new feature wish. I wish that the box remembered the channels sorting and hiding settings between resets and re-tunes. It is a Major hassle to sort them out after each time since the sorting feature in combination with a remote is So primitive. When are you releasing an iOS Remote App
Of course, this is aggravated by the apparently completely random channel assignment used by Freeview, which presumably is not your fault
Cheers!
Hi
Good news that things are back to normal. Your feature wish is well under development. It won't make the 3rd May release but should be in the following one.
I think Freeview are currently considering the channel list. I seem to remember something about it on our Facebook page .. check it out, I think you are allowed to comment.
Tim
I have an HDMI cable with an ethernet connection. I would like to use it in a bid to cut down on the number of cables overflowing behind my telly.
Is it compatible? When I disconnect the ethernet cable, and test the internet connection, it tells me to no cable is present.
Are there settings to enable it?
If not, is it likely to work in future updates?
many thanks. Great box by the way
p.s is export to an external drive a possibility in the future?