Dirty dogs

It's usually the way with anything I buy, weeks after I get something it gets reduced

Not sure about the size of the hard drive but it's silent compared to the 3.5" of the Humax so I'm presuming it's 2.5?
After reading the previous post to mine I realised that if I set the box up for low power stand by the HDD does spin down.
My only gripe about that is the aerial loop through gets cut off. It's not a major issue but it would be nice if I could have the feed passed through to the tv....

Cheers Tom

I've always got an eye for a future upgrade so, futaura, do you know (or could you ask your contacts at Vestel) what is the maximum size HDD the T7650 will recognise? With my T816 and T825 units, whenever I empty/clear the existing HDD I replace it with the maximum size I can (320GB) so I'm just curious to know what the maximum HDD size the T7650 could cope with? Also, am I correct in thinking the T7650 can play stuff on a USB stick or an external HDD via the USB port? Can recordings be exported to an external HDD via the USB port as well or is it just a one way process? Also, do you know if HDDs from T825/T816/T810 machines if connected to the T7650 via an external USB adaptor will be recognised/accessible? What I'm wondering is if I can take the HDDs from my Vestel units where the PSU board has failed and access them via the T7650's USB port?

QUESTION - Is this my tipping point?

ANSWER - Yes Just ordered.

Though I note, Futaura, that you are a rounder-down rather than a rounder-up. I'd've said "£160".

Usually, so do I most of the time - guess it depends on my mood whether I choose to round up/down or specify the exact pence instead . I've already had a look at the Logik in-store - I keep forgetting to peek through the vents at the HDD though. Anyway, I hope my recommendation doesn't come back to bite.

I'll certainly ask about the supported HDD sizes, but can't promise an answer. Certainly, 500Gb works in addition to 320Gb and 1Tb.

Yes, video and mp3 files can be played and JPEG images viewed via USB, including memory sticks and external drives. These files can be copied to the internal HDD too. But, items from the recording library cannot be exported currently . Besides, last time I checked, all recordings (not just HD) on the T7650 were encrypted.

I don't think you will be able to access your old PVR drives directly via USB (I just now tried with the my T835 HDD and it did not appear to detect the drive, or at least wasn't able to read it). Probably only FAT formatted devices can be read via USB on the T7650, and not the ext2fs partitions on the PVR drives.

I meant to ask you, Futaura, how efficient it is at handling MKV via USB, old age got the better of me My Technika Smartbox has coped with all that I've tried on it, but the Humax has always failed.

I can keep the Smartbox just for MKV, but since I had a new TV the lipsync is miles out and there's no adjustment in it - and I presume if I adjust the TV to match the Smartbox it will be out for the Humax

I don't use the media player feature much, it must be said, but from the few MKV files that I do have (most are 720p), I've not noticed any problems. I was quite surprised by the variety of video files it could play from MKV, DivX, AVIs to video files downloaded on my PS3, and also even raw m2ts files (partly why I thought there may have been a chance that it could play files from a HDD from a old SD model) from PlayTV recordings.

That sounds good, thanks Futaura

Evening all

I've had the aerial looping from the new box to the old humax then to the tv. However I've also had a couple of HD c4 recordings go a bit blocky.....
I've changed the cabling so that now the only thing fed from the aerial is the new box and so far ( too early to tell really ) all has been well.
Ideally I'd like to leave the other box and tv connected, so......
Is there any on screen signal strength indicator that would give me an idea how much signal I'm losing when I have the other equipment on?
I've tried a signal booster but it was either broken or was a bad idea as I lost the signal altogether

Cheers Tom

Signal meter is on the manual channel scan screen and will show the signal of the mux the currently selected channel is on.

Cheers for that.

I'm on Winter hill and all bar the HD mux shows a very good signal. Only got medium on the HD one though

Cheers Tom

Just encountered the, HD playback without sound if live TV tuned to SD channel, issue.
Box was tuned to sky news and playback of a James May recording on either BBC1 HD or BBC HD was without sound. Changed the box to BBC1 HD and it played ok. However after discovering the issue and before changing channel, playback of something recorded on c4 HD was fine. Hope that is of some use.....

Cheers Tom

Yep, confirmed - BBC HD recordings will have no sound if you are tuned to BBC1 (SD) or Sky News. Haven't been able to spot any kind of pattern to this, but at least it is 100% reproducable, so I'm sure that this will be fixed soon enough.

I received my Logik yesterday. Setup straightforward; operation reassuringly smooth; GUI tolerable, colour-wise.

However

Lipsync miles out.

Setup:

LG Plasma TV connected to Onkyo HTX-22HDX via HDMI.

Humax and Logik PVRs connected to Onkyo via HDMI.

I've pretty-well sorted the lipsync problem with the Humax in its settings, there's audio delay. The TV has lipsync which I've switched on, same with the Onkyo. I've set the Logik's SPDIF delay to 400, which seems to be the max, but am not sure that it's doing anything.

I do think that the introduction of the Onkyo has taken me beyond my level of competence but I was managing quite well before the new TV, which had to be bought just before Christmas because my 2010 Panasonic plasma suddenly developed a picture fault. (I don't like this LG telly and if someone would hold my hand I'd send it back to Amazon and order a used Panny I've seen on there.)

Last night I was telling my brother how happy I was to have a Vestel and was showing him the efficiency of the skip buttons. Stopped playing the recording, exited to live TV - lo! and behold! no picture, no sound, only the menus would show up Couldn't go into standby nor switch off at box so had to disconnect power, all was well after reconnecting.

v1.36, from memory. Where did you get the new software from, Tom? I'll have a dig around.

The SPDIF delay on the Logik only affects the optical output, so you'd need to connect that to your Onkyo via optical too, and then the delay might help you, although whether it will let you use an optical input whilst still outputting HDMI video I don't know (some amps can, some can't).

I'm not familiar with the HTX-22HDX, but does that have any lipsync delay settings? I know my Sony amp does, although I've never had to use it - my T7650 is connected to my Sony amp via HDMI at present with no lipsync trouble.

Presumably there is no lipsync issues when connecting the Logik direct to the TV via HDMI? Unfortunately, the T7650 is unable to output any 5.1 sound (via HDMI or optical) at present, so in theory you could leave the Logik directly connected to the TV via HDMI, and quality would not be affected assuming your TV's sound is fed back to the Onkyo (via optical or ARC).

You'd have to ask futura about that

Every now and again I've had a lipsync issue. Channel up then down again always sorts it out. I can't see any pattern to it though but possibly more on c4 HD than others. The only times I've noticed it is on HD channels but they're what we've been watching for the most part....

Cheers Tom

Thank you for replies, Tom and Futaura. I shall ponder the advice and have a fiddle around tomorrow.

I have a Republic of Ireland Saorview version of the T7650 chassis box. We have been testing it in overspill areas to check combined Saorview & Freeview compatability. The stickers are different and there is no USB port on the front.
http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showp...81&postcount=8

It would be interesting if the software/boxes from UK and ROI were interchangeable. The Irish box has UK and Ireland options. In the Ireland option it gives the Saorview logo on the EPG. It also has a language option of English or Gaeilge. Is this the same for the UK firmware? Does the manuafacturer have a page with firmware to download?

This may get complicated... . For definite it will be running different software build to the Freeview+ HD UK boxes - this will be confirmed by the software version ID string in the settings. However, I can already see by your photos that this is obviously the case - seems they've decided to remove red from the colour scheme (has been replaced with blue - seems a little strange seeing blue is a prominent colour anyway, and red makes headings and cursor highlights more obvious). For example: http://pvrbugs.futaura.co.uk/view.php?id=319 is what it looks like ok UK boxes. The UK software has no country selection options.

Also, it is possible that the kernel/CFE may be different on the Saorview boxes - i.e. the low level OS stuff that runs the software. You can normally get debug text over serial/RS232 via a SCART adaptor which would give more detail on how similar the boxes are. It is a possibility that if you were to try the UK software on a Saorview box, that it might break it, especially if the kernel/CFE is a different build.

Last, but by no means least, have you checking the circuit board to see if it really is a T7650? It might possibly be a T7660, which I don't have any clue about although it is probably pretty similar to the T7650.

It says T7660 on the base. I will post photos on the other site.

Well, at least I now know what the mysterious T7660 was - I suspected it was Saorview related as my non-retail T7650 happens to carry a Saorview branded front panel. Probably the mainboard is slightly different to the T7650 in this case, unless it really has a T7650 mainboard inside (the board name is printed towards the front of the unit on the right hand side - you might be able to read it with a torch shining through the ventilation holes on the case ). I note the manual states there are 256Mb and 512Mb DRAM versions of the box - this might account for the model number change. AFAIK, the T7650 is 512Mb only.

I saw your post about 'every time a recording is about to start, a message appears on screen "a recording is about to start, you will not be able to watch this channel, press OK to continue or cancel to cancel the recording"'. I've documented this at http://pvrbugs.futaura.co.uk/view.php?id=340 - it only happens when you are viewing a channel on the same mux as the channel to be recorded is on. It is clearly a bug, especially is it never happened until they made it possible to watch another channel live on the same mux whilst recording two other channels.

We only have one Mux at present in Republic of Ireland, where I have done most of my testing. Thanks a million for the feedback. I will add internal photos to the other thread.

Aha - that makes it an even bigger bug then . It's frustrating that bugs like this are not resolved earlier (I informed Vestel of the issue in October). I wonder who Vestel/Cabot had testing this in Ireland because it clearly wasn't tested thoroughly enough as obviously this should have been spotted before release.

Thanks for posting all those photos on the other thread. The T7660 mainboard is almost identical to the T7650 certainly in terms of layout, as suspected. The significant thing to note is the "4 chips" area that you highlight. On the T7650 U9T and U36T are occupied by Sony CXD2820R DVB-T2 demodulator chips, with U14T, U15T, X3T and X4T all vacant. The T7660 swaps the Sony chips for NEC D61541GB DVB-T chips (same chips as the older SD Vestel models use, such as the T835). Therefore, the T7660 Saorview boxes will not be able to be used to receive Freeview HD. This is obviously a pretty big difference, and it will no doubt mean the T7650 and T7660 use different kernel builds and therefore the software frontend will not be interchangeable either.

Are you 100% sure on this? Both Walker, and a hint in the user manual suggested this box has a DVB-T2 tuner, although no-one has actually confirmed this 100%