With Sandy Heath's DSO fast approaching, does anyone know if an OTA upgrade is due for the T810 boxes to v5.7?

I've looked around the net and can't find anything.

Currently mine is on v5.4 which from other posts I believe means there will be problems post DSO - or have I misunderstood?

Someone should have 5.7 to send you. I should, but I've put it somewhere safe and cant find it

parthena

parthena, did you really forget a certain website too?

v5.7 can be downloaded from http://www.vestelpvr.futaura.co.uk/T810.php - I doubt there will be an OAD, as it has already been broadcast many times, but I could be wrong. Most likely you will need v5.7 - do you really have v5.4, or did you mean v5.3? (if you do have v5.4, I'm not sure if that contains the fix already).

I've got a bad toof, Futaura, and am addled with painkillers and very tired. Inexcusable nevertheless

OK thanks for the advice.

The box is set to auto software update, so I'd have expected it to pick up an OTA upgrade. Does anyone know when Sandy Heath broadcast the OTA upgrade?

Hmmm... December 2009 is the last record of a v5.7 OAD that I can find - I don't remember if it was repeated last year at all. BTW, OADs are normally nationwide and not transmitter specific. Your box will normally check at 3am every day for updates.

Fair enough - just seems strange my box hasn't picked up the upgrade.

Have just ordered myself a USB > RS232 cable (as the laptop doesn't have RS232). For anyone else looking for one of these, I recommend e-Bay - Maplin are looking very expensive for these.

I wish you luck - some of these adaptors do not simulate RS232 properly and the upgrade process doesn't complete . Hopefully you'll get a "good" one.

Just to update on this - haven't got round to upgrading the firmware so the box is still on v5.3, but it's retuned OK this morning on the new BBC mux.......(with the old MUX D appearing in the 800s).

And the EPG seems to populate far more quickly than before.....

So now I'm confused as I'd expected problems to start after last night's change. Any ideas?

Hi


Although it's jolly sensible to have v5.7 firmware on a Vestel T810 (e.g. Digihome PVR80) after a region's DSO, not every TV mast necessitates its installation. As you've found, Sandy Heath is a mast which doesn't. According to Digital UK's "Installer Newsletters", the 8K-related fix made in the upgrade from v5.6 firmware is to allow "negative offset RF channels" in combination with 8K mode. That's to say, v5.6 is compatible with 8K mode muxes if they don't have negative offsets!

According to Digital UK's "Trade View" for Sandy Heath, happily for you, the post-switchover Mux PSB1 doesn't have a negative offset - so that's why your v5.3 firmware is OK. The table also shows no plans to introduce negative offsets to transmissions from Sandy Heath!

It seems for now there's no urgency for you to get the v5.7 loaded - unless you intend to move into another mast's coverage area! Tell any estate agents you register with as a homebuyer, that only properties served by a TV mast without negative offsets are of interest!

As a fellow Sandy Heath user, I've been anxious about the effects of the impending DSO on my PVR80 (with v5.7 firmware). Following retuning, I'm cheered by it being alright for live reception on the post-DSO "Mux PSB1". But I won't give it a "fitness note" until I've "pushed it closer to the edge".

AFAIK, the T810 suffers from the "tuning memory size" issue, no matter which firmware, whether on 2K or 8K signals. As a matter of routine, I use the technique below to work-around it. N.B. Between the two stages of DSO (i.e. now), follow the "yet to switchover" instructions but in Step 6, don't Manual Channel Scan the last group, "Group 3".


Regards

Hi


If you think it's quick on post-DSO "Mux PSB1" with v5.3 firmware, you should see the dynamism of v5.7 !!!

IIRC, faster EPG population (for the latter half of the forthcoming days) was a key upgrade between v5.3 and v5.6.

Regards

As a matter of interest what magnitude of EPG population time are we you talking about here? As I understand the situation the broadcasters transmit the EPG data in a carousel manner with a complete cycle repetition period of about 5 minutes. So EPG population from scratch must at least take as long as this . On my Vestel T816 and later Vestel PVRs I have used the EPG is generally fully populated in one cycle of the carousel. Other PVRs I have used take considerably longer. Humax SD PVRs typically used to take about 8 minutes (approx 2 cycles) on original software and on the latest software much longer, maybe about an hour or so.

I've never used a Vestel T810 so have no experience of it but I do recall that installing the "un-official" dual record software does introduce EPG Population issues.

Colin

With my T810 (v5.3) it wasn't a question of time - the EPG never fully populated. Sometimes you'd get certain channels/times populated, check back later and it was blank, but some of the ones that were blank before were then populated. It was fine when I first got it and for a few months actually, but this was one of the reasons I returned my T810 to Argos just before the guarantee ran out with no fix in sight. Sounds like this was probably fixed in the end though.

Hi


(Missing link).

Regards