I went to ASDA and mine cost £149.99 and had v 7.21 installed.And what a good machine it is.

I've had this from time to time. Phillips blamed it on signal strength.

Hi


This was a problem reported on the very first firmware version well over a year ago, and it's still there today, what a surprise.

Usually pausing and restarting playback will bring it back in-sync.

Regards

Phil

Bought one of these yesterday to replace my ageing TUTV Thomson and i am pretty nonplussed about it to be honest. Here are my moans and groans, i hope some of you can put me right and tell me its down to me not having the right setting or something.

I put the v7.21 firmware on it and it seems ok in operation but the menu structure is rubbish and frustrating, it also missed the first recording i set it to, shameless on Channel 4 HD.

The up and down buttons do just that until you use now and next (or info as they call it) and all of a sudden they are reversed, pressing down moves you towards the higher channels. It is also annoying that if you use info to move channel or the quick channel select using the ok button the banners dont go off on there own, they require an extra press.

Its annoying that i cant set fatovision by default, having a 4:3 programe shown in the correct ratio might be great for the purests but its a pain in the arse for me and having to manualy switch the ratio everytime is a bind.

There are other irritations and ill probably get used to them i guess, at least the picture quality is bang on the money.

I have to admit its grown on me massively at £150 its a bargain really.

After reading all the adverse comments about this machine was inclined to give it a miss others seemed to love it, a bit of a marmite machine then, Never having had a freeview PVR before I cannot compare it with others of its kind . the only thing that is similar is that my Sky HD.

There are two things that I really like

1) the fact there is a proper EPG for radio which means I can record my programmes from Radio4extra while I am asleep suprised that no one has mentioned this. I really resent the fact that sky have never seen fit to impliment this on their boxes

2)I also like the fault that the Philips box outputs 4:3 as 4:3 my sky box/TV combination seems to find this combination impossible to cope with either everything is widescreen or fatovision(if 4:3 originally)

Niggles a couple I can't switch between radio and TV directly by punching in a number I have to go through the extra button punch involved by pressing Radio on the remote WHY?

Otherwise very pleased with machine but do make sure software is 7.21

2) When setting up a recording why the please wait booking in progress message surely a button push and its done seems very slow to react.

Otherwise very pleased

i was watching Torchwood last night which i had recorded from BBC1 HD and the video was jerky and terrible to watch, although pausing the recording and pressing play again cured it till the next time. I'm not sure i can put up with that ill be honest if its a common thing.

This is on 7.21.

My box has not done that since the software upgrade.

Have you rebooted since installing 7.21?

I powered up from new installed 7.21 and then formatted the HDD, do you reckon i should do a full reset as well?

Right i have done a factory reset and disc format so lets see what happens

If you had any recordings in your library or planned recordings you will have erased them. Re-enter any planned recordings.

After doing the factory reset it didnt clear the HDD but i formatted it anyway just to be safe, however it is stil doing it and very annoying it is too.

My only hope is that it is because the unit is in our bedroom on an indoor aerial and as we are still pre DSO the power is still down. DSO starts next week here so fingers crossed. That said all the signal and quality indicators show green bars and live TV is flawless. Ill record someting off Mux1 cos thats broadcasting at 10kw at the minute and ill see if that makes any difference.

They do this. It is suggested that leaving the box powered down - unplugged - overnight will "clear buffers" andcure the problem. I have tried it, and although it is early days the stuttering has stopped.

Please complain to customer services, so they can get their act together with a new software update.

i will dont worry but i bought this PVR knowing it was a heap of junk previously, thing is its sexy innit LOL One thing i aint doing is unplugging it every night, not being one to scream the sale of goods act but blimey charlie thats not on.

On the Thomson you could stop stuttering of live TV by disabling the pause, rewind feature, maybe Philips/Pace should give us the option of doing just this cos it might stop it on recordings.

TBF changing mux should clear any buffers though.

Some of our muxes go from 4kw to 174kw over the next couple of weeks, fingers crossed.

recording off a 10kw mux was flawless so presumably its poor signal that causes it. I am guessing this was known before hand but i couldnt be bothered going all the way back though the thread.

Yes, poor signal has been identified as a possible cause of this problem, and there is evidence to back it up. I have two boxes, one upstairs in a cinema room, and one downstairs in the lounge, The upstairs one has brown coax cable coming straight from the distribution box in the loft, while the downstairs one is run from a wall socket also fed from the distribution box, but a long way away and with cable of uncertain quality.

It is the downstairs box that gives us trouble. I have been advised to get a better aerial lead, wall to machine, and I have ordered a posh one from Amazon. When it comes I may renew or overhaul the wall outlet to ensure the best possible signal.

Bad news: we had our switchover and it didn't cure it! Worse news: my humax SD box has never suffered in any way from stutter or failed recordings. Conclusion is that the Philips is very sensitive to poor signals.

Even worse news, your indoor aerial setup may never do the trick. Install a proper one!

I have a log 40 on the roof for my main set up this box is only in my bedroom. When Emley Moor went to normal pre-DSO power last week (it was on low(er) power for engineering) it was ok.

However stage 1 DSO last night and what a pain in the arse the box is when it comes to retuning, why on earth there isn't a delete channels option is way beyond me, the software was designed by a gibbon. It auto updated the channels over night but anything that was on Mux1 and is now on BBCA didnt work so it meant a reset and then of course you have to wait for the EPG to populate and then put all your recordings in.

The box has also frozen and rebooted a number of times when attempting to enter the library

its been ok for a few days but last night it went mental, it was showing the HD indicator while tuned to Quest and it wouldnt turn over, the reording indicator was on but it appeared locked solid.

After pulling the plug and going in to the menus i could see it was recording 2 programs but now all what it had recorded was unwhatchable (understandardable seeing as i had pulled the power) but the box needed another 3 or 4 power cycles to get it right and to remove the damaged recordings.

Philips if you are are reading you really should make it so you cant watch a mux thats being recorded if 2 recordings are being made as the box just goes mental.

v7.21 OAD is being repeated this Friday 23 from 10 am to Sunday 25 Midnight

HDT8520/05 v7.21 repeated OAD Fri 23 Sep 10am -Sun 25 Sep Midnight

From the talk over on AVForums it looks like this is to be the last software version for this box.

Pity really.

Philips should be ashamed of themselves if thats true, although its got many good things going for it now its still a buggy beasty.

Even TUTV are still still supporting the Thomson DTI 6300 and that came out when god was a lad.

i think mine is going back, even after DSO with signal strengths at about 75% and rock solid green and the signal quality indicators just filling the bar mine still stutters.

I emailed Philip's and all they said was do a factory reset as this cures it so i replied saying the 3 it had already had didn't cure anything.

last night mine went to record a film and it used up both tuners to record the same thing, the box locked up and i needed to pull the plug.

May i suggest you all carry on email philips with your problems, i have been emails constantly over the last week with problems and issues which they have requested i report.