v1.36 at the moment....

Cheers Tom

As suspected, the DTG schedule is now a showing repeat broadcast of T7650 v1.49 starting on the 21st December.

Does anybody know what a G signifies at the side of a recording in the library?

And, can the HD channels be moved to display at locations 1-4 in the programme guide rather than the standatd def channels?
Is it as simple as deleting the standard def ones from the guide and in doing so they are replaced by the HD ones?

Cheers Tom

The "G" icon means "Guidance", IIRC - normally the programme description will give further details to explain that. Unfortunately, channels cannot be moved.

Ah, that explains that

Do you know if there's a reason why BBC1 is the only channel to offer an HD alternative when selecting a programme to record from the schedule? If they all did it then it wouldn't be an issue to have SD channels listed first. Is it a software thing or more likely a broadcaster thing?

I must say that I'm rather impressed with the box so far. It does exactly what it says on the tin

Cheers Tom

You will find that you will get HD alternatives also on BBC2, BBC3 and BBC4, for any of those programmes that are shown on BBC HD. In the EPG, as you may have noticed, programmes with HD alternatives (that is real HD, and not upscaled SD) have a green background instead of blue. This information is provided in the EPG by the broadcaster, and presumably ITV and C4 are not providing that information.

I have now

So it looks like the usual then as regard the broadcasters go. Only the BBC seem to take things seriously. We've almost lost count of the number of times we've had missed starts and ends of programmes due to C4 and C5 not sending the signal correctly. I did think that ITV were ok but maybe not......

Cheers Tom

Does this box only timeshift SD channels? Tried it on an HD channel, it displayed the counter as if it was doing it but when I pressed play to resume it went straight back to live tv. Was ok on a SD channel though......

Cheers Tom

Yes, timeshifting works the same on SD and HD channels. How long were you tuned to that HD channel for, and how big is your timeshift buffer? (can't remember if the default is 30 or 120 minutes)

I am aware of an issue where timeshifting fails to work properly, but have not gotten around to pinpointing it yet, and I'm guessing Vestel do not know about it or it would be fixed by now. I think it is related to the timeshift buffer being split across several large on-disk files and/or when the timeshift buffer limit is reached.

Hi

The tv had been on the channel for at least an hour and the buffer is set to 30 mins ( default ).
I've just tried again with the channel only having been on for a few minutes and the timeshift worked fine.
I'm sure you know more about these things. I hope that info is of some small use to you

Cheers Tom

Yes, I suspected as much - good to get confirmation. I hadn't noticed the 10 minute buffer setting before, but this makes it easier to test the problem. Basically, the timeshift buffer is stored in files with maximum size of 512Mb. Once a new file is started it seems you can only rewind to the start of that file, whereas it should be keeping the previous buffers and rewind back into them too. I think there are some more complex scenerios going on too, but this will do for starters . The problem will be more noticable on HD channels because of the increased bandwidth used by those streams, and therefore the buffer files fill more quickly.

I have now passed this information on to Vestel and I would hope/guess this would be a relatively high priority, so there is a good chance this will be fixed soon.

Glad to have been of some help.

There is one other issue. Not sure if it's the box or our tv.
Our tv is 1080p but whenever I set the pvr to 1080p there's I get no signal to the tv. I have to set the pvr to 1080i to get things going.
As I say I've no idea if it's a pvr issue or the tv but you may know and if it's the box maybe it's another thing to mention to Vestel

Cheers Tom

What's the make and model number of the TV? 1080p works fine on my Sony TV and via the HDMI switch on my surround sound too. Have you tried a different HDMI cable?

This is the tv.
The only cable we've got is the one that came with the pvr.
What is the difference between 1080p and 1080i by the way?

Cheers Tom

Just a bit of an update on the timeshift issue.....

I've just had c4 hd on for just under an hour and the timeshift worked. I didn't pause though, just rewound for a minute or so at the end of the program.
Strange

Cheers Tom

I've just bought a Bush B1TBHDPVR second hand and I'm very impressed with it. I think I remembered reading a comment by futaura somewhere about them being very similar to T825s and I absolutely agree. Glad to have the Gemstar functionality back (I was really annoyed when I lost it in my T825s and T816 units when the updates happened.) A couple of comments and questions. In the library listing I thought the red background changing to black at the bottom with black writing was a video circuit fault but it appears Vestel intended that - weird!. Disk free space - my Media browser shows total capacity of 931 GBytes - is that correct? Also I've got just 2hrs 55 mins of SD recording on it at the moment and it shows 881 GBytes free. Unless there's something stealing/reserving HDD space surely just under 3hrs of SD recording can't take up 50GB!! Any thoughts? Also, I noticed that my T816/T825 handsets operate it in the main. Bit miffed there's only one Scart socket and no AUX mode (I operate my T825s and T816s in what I call flip flop pairs) which I won’t be able to do with this box but the luxury of 1TB - wow! I like the idea of the external power supply since I've got four T825s waiting for me to fix the PSUs. Anyone know where I can get a spare external PSU for my 1TB Bush to keep as a backup? Do Vestel or someone else sell them? Shame it hasn’t got wifi (I’ve got two Technica 8320HD units with built in wifi that connect wirelessly to my modem router.) Also, they have a network cable connection (RJ45 socket) on them. I wonder what happens if I connect a wifi enabled PVR to this Bush via a network RJ45 cable – anyone done that by any chance?

Yes, any 1Tb drive is in reality 931Gb (GiB) in size. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Binary_prefix for an explanation on this. It's basically that HDD manufacturers have always worked in units of 1000, whereas computers work in units of 1024.

The free space is a little harder to explain. First of all, there are two partitions on the drive - one for the library and another for internal files and files imported via the media browser. The latter is fixed at 64Gb, leaving you 867Gb for recordings. The free space shown in the media browser is actually the space free on both partitions. So, where does the 881Gb come from in your case? There will likely be some overhead and reservations made by the filesystem. Also the background timeshift files, which are constantly being recorded when the box is on, are only ever deleted when the box boots up (i.e. from low power standby or when plugging in). If you have low power mode off, that could explain it somewhat, and I would recommend leaving low power mode on for this reason until the next software version is released where this has already been fixed.

Vestel never supplied me with a PSU for my T7650 box, so I'm just using a PSU from a T835 and it works fine. The T835 PSUs have output rated at 12V/2A. Perhaps you could check the label on your PSU? I suspect it is the same, but wouldn't like to recommended that you go and buy one in case it's not (they're going for around a tenner on ebay).

Probably nothing much will happen if you connect an ethernet cable from the Bush to your Technika, but might be worth a try. I once tried connecting a Sony Blu-ray player to a Sony TV in this way (Sony TV has wifi), but the Blu-ray player saw no connection . Probably the best overall solution would be to buy a wireless bridge / access point, which can be bought for £20 or so, where you can connect multiple wired devices to it behind the TV to make them all wireless.

futaura, thanks for the response. One other thing - I note the 1.49 OAD is available now. Is it a smart move to download it?

Am I correct in thinking the aerial signal is not passed through when the Bush B1TBHDPVR is in standby? Is there some connection related to if LP mode is selected or not? I had the unit at the head of a chain of PVRs initially and when it was in standby the other (Vestel T816/T825) PVRs displayed the no signal message. At the moment it's now the last PVR to receive the aerial signal. Is this no aerial signal pass through normal? Also, is there any way to force it to be in some sort of AUX mode (like the T810/T816/T825 models?) I find that when it's in standby, every so often it wakes up (presumably to check the epg) and I have to be careful to be aware when this happens if I'm using one of my other Vestel PVRs in case I end up issuing the same command to my Bush unit as the Vestel PVR I'm using - this is especially a concern if I'm watching something on a different Vestel PVR then going on to delete it - i.e. I don't want to be accidentally entering library or timers lists on the Bush and inadvertently deleting entries. Any comments/ideas?

Unlike the T835 debacle earlier in the year, updating to v1.49 is advisable and actually highly recommended. Amongst other things, it fixes a long standing bug on the T7650 which appeared to randomly cause recordings to fail, and allows you to record two channels on the same mux and watch any other channel (or two channels on different muxes and watch any other channel on either of those two muxes). The update procedure takes around 20 minutes, by the way.

Yes, you're right, the RF passthrough is not fully enabled in low power standby, which was the case with LP mode in all previous models too. If you have a good enough signal, a cheap passive Y-splitter before the PVR can help with this.

I'm not so sure the T7650 will actually respond to the remote when it wakes up (it does so every 60 minutes, if it doesn't have anything better to do like record something), so you should be safe other than pressing the power button on the remote which IIRC will make it come out of standby if you press it while it is booting up. There is no AUX mode - the only thing similar would be to switch off LP mode, I guess, but then the HDD will be running constantly in standby . As I think I may have said earlier, the T7300 used to wake up every 60 minutes too, but this was adjusted to behave similarly to the T835 (which wakes up every 18 hours, assuming no recordings are scheduled in that period). I'm hoping this will change with the T7650 too, but it may be being done for a good reason.

When it comes to multiple units, I have a T835, T7300 and T7650 alongside each other and have resorted to physically covering the front panels of the T835 and T7300, and uncovering them on the rare occasion that I need to use them.

Well it's time for a bit of an update now that we've had the box for a few weeks..........

So far we've not had and issues at all. My main worry was the possibility of failed recordings. I managed to get the 1.49 update installed early on ( missed the OTA though ) and so far the box hasn't put a foot wrong
The black on red issue in the library/schedule isn't as bad as i'd imagined but the only thing I'm a little concerned about is the hard drive seems to be spinning all the time. I believe that it'll be addressed with the next software update

All in all i'm very happy with the machine. Proof that you don't have to pay a fortune to get a quality HD freeview pvr.

Merry christmas to all...... Tom

Very pleased to hear that, Tom - pleased and relieved

Now if only we could get a couple of the sky HD channels on to freeview I'd happily dump sky completely
Sky 1, Atlantic and a couple of the documentary channels would do. Can't ever see that happening though
Oops, shouldn't really have said that, someone from sky might be reading this...................

Cheers Tom

Yes, you might be dreaming about Sky . Glad you're finding the box is working out ok. In the past I've been hesitant to recommend it mainly down to the seemingly random recording failures I'd been experiencing with my box. I wasn't sure if it was just mine, as I started testing it around 9 months ago and it was a pre-release unit, so thought it could have been hardware related and fixed with an updated mainboard. As it turns out, I tested a newer unit in the summer and after a while the same problem returned. Fortunately, after some extended testing with v1.47 and newer versions, I have yet to see the problem return and I'm pretty sure it has now been fixed in the software (problem was in v1.44, but was fixed in .45, .46 or .47). I used to mirror my timers on the T835 and T7300, but it has been so long I've had to resort to those as a backup because the T7650 is now so reliable. I just use the T7300 mainly for when I want to watch a HD programme that has 5.1 surround.

So, certainly for those familiar with previous generation Vestel PVRs, the T7650 models are now a worthy upgrade path IMHO. They do pretty much everything the previous generation did, but in a faster, better, more reliable way and with added features too, of course.

I note that Currys have further reduced the Logik L1HSTB12 to £159 which is really quite a bargain for a 1Tb Freeview+ HD box. It's really about time Argos reduced the price of their Bush branded models to compete. If a 320Gb model was available for £99, that really would be a no brainer. As good as the T835 units are, it would be good if they were discontinued if it meant the T7650 prices were dropped in line. My wish for 2013 . I think we need Tesco and/or Asda to start ordering their own T7650 variations to increase the competition.

Forgot to say... don't hold your breath about the HDD spinning all the time. I did note with a previous software update that the HDD spun down during active standby (i.e. when it wakes up 20 minutes before a scheduled recording), but with the later updates it seems to be on all the time again. Of course, when the unit is not in standby, the HDD will always be spinning because of the background timeshift buffer (unlike the previous SD models which didn't have that feature).

Out of interest, can you see through the air vents whether the drive is a 3.5" or smaller 2.5" drive. I'm fortunate that my latest box has 2.5" drive, albeit only 320Gb, but it is incredibly quiet in comparison to my other box which has a 3.5" drive. Barely even notice it waking up every 60 minutes. Note sure what type of drive production models have fitted though.