Did you buy the Grade A from Humax Direct or another supplier ? As they look quite a good buy , am I right in thinking your warranty is only 1 Year and RTB and not exchange like a new item ?

I got mine from Satbuyer and yes it has a 1 year warranty.

I see I have the "Service Centre" reply to my query...


EDIT:
One of their FAQ's is


So I would assume they had not noticed this issue and thus did not fix it?

Automan.

Yes, Looks like I,m heading for the Humax to. the Mrs would take a carving knife to mrpeepee if I failed to record Emmerdale

Satbuyer seem good price £180 including delivery, think I will buy from them also as I just can't risk the Samsung at the moment, it is a shame as this box could be great except for the software !

Not sure if this link will work but it is to the item relating to planned recordings that vanish...

http://skp.samsungcsportal.com/integ...=uk&seq=404146

Automan.

That seems to be a bit of an oxymoron , what is about the box that makes it great apart from the software ? Without a working firmware it's just a brick . As it stands at the moment there is no way to tell the quality of the hardware or it's reliability. Suspect this one is going the the way of Panasonics freeview twin tuner offering .

I remember arguing with posters who said that the Harvard twin tuner pvr was way better than the Foxsat-hdr including the fact that it booted up a bit quicker. Where are these posters now ?

I have checked twice and from what I can see it still stops record 20 seconds after the scheduled stop time.

With tonight's Doctor Who, the unit stopped recording but the banner information was still for episode 3 of Doctor Who.

Another small bug - If you set the banner to be on all the time the screen saver cuts in while you are watching a recording

Automan.

Hello again


My early morning quick test (just recordings stop time) :
Channel 4 - T4: Hollyoaks Omnibus - 8:50 - 11:20 stopped at 11:20

ITV1 - Sing if you can 10:25 - 11:30 stop at 11.28, so before the scheduling stop time, but recording end is not cut off.


This is not a bug, screensaver is to prevent plasma tv burn in. If it wouldn't turn on with this scenario, you would probably make your plasma tv permanently decorated with this beautiful service info banner

And last, but not least:
>Other than Youtube (which has been known to crash) and some limited network media playback features, The Samsung does nothing more than the Humax can.

I haven't observe youtube crash after the OTA. And I (actually my kids) use this feature quite often.
Limited network media playback? Well, I would say: I can watch avi and xvid movies from my computer on TV, and browse my pictures as well (with music playback in the background). And if wifi would work, it would be all I really need from that feature.
I haven't seen humax box in action, I've just read a few threads on this forum about it, before I actually bought the samsung. I've seen several bugs or lacks of features that samsung box already has implemented and working properly (like recording from buffer - samsung box can instantly put the buffered content to library - throwing to live at chasing playback etc. But the main thing is, that samsung plans to do software upgrades and make the box better, while humax doesn't (from what I've read).
I just cannot believe Samsung won't fix vanishing-single- recording-timers-after-deep-stanby-bug with the June software update. For me, that's the only thing that makes it not the reliable PVR.
What other features/improvements are planned for June, if they didn't fix that with May OTA? Only time will tell...

A matter of a opinion I guess.

For me, if 80% of the picture is still playing a live picture when the screen saver cuts in that is a bug (but of no real importance).


Mainly I was relating to the fact it can't play many file formats e.g. .ts files from USB

Also the UPNP only finds / plays the first 100 items - I call that limited (my Android phone can do better than that).

Samsung - Only 100 Soundtrack Artists
http://i336.photobucket.com/albums/n...5-09090104.jpg

My LG TV - All Soundtrack Artists up Z
http://i336.photobucket.com/albums/n...5-09090451.jpg

(Both looking at the same music source).

Also on the network all it sees are UPNP devices and thus will only play files supported by that format.

It will not see a samba share on a PC or NAS - Again, I call that limited.

Last night, as ever most of my single recordings have vanished - except those on 304 Movies4men

Anyway, tried to record the second showing of Atlantis but box just said "Clash, another showing on 12-05-11 02:40-03:40 BBC 1 NI

Northern Island! and I bet it will have Sign Language?

Tricky to tell as from the library of planned recording no program information is available and thus you have to work your way through the guide to the correct date, time and channel.

When such a recording clash occurs it should offer to record the alternate or delete one of the other clashing recordings.

Automan.

But, surely, it's doing what a screen-saver should do. Preventing possible screen burn.

Since people don't usually watch TV with 20% of the picture obliterated the chances are that they've left the room and are not watching anyway.

Better than the brain dead behaviour of the Humax which will turn of the screen saver if a static picture is on the screen (which is fair enough but the picture is frequently not of particularly high contrast), but leave the very high contrast guide, media list, etc. sitting there indefinitely burning CRT or plasma displays.

Gave them a call this morning...
Seven minutes to get to the correct person, several minutes talking to her relating to the vanishing recording issue and then I got cut-off

No mention that they were even looking into the issue let alone working on a fix

Automan.

They have updated my call status.


So it looks like it is not going to be fixed as they think it is just my box causing the issue.

Automan.

I've been told the same when I asked if there was any way of the remote doing a volume punch through to the TV.

Was told it was fixed and must be my box, book it into a service centre.

Also new queries SINCE the update and all my other queries have all been fixed. Some before they even happened.

Anyone been getting lip sync issues with iPlayer since the update?? I also think that my lip sync / sound break up issues are from 24FPS content. 25 fps or 50i content on media player seems ok.

Just got a Samsung sales email...


If only

EDIT: I have asked Curry's for a refund.

Automan.

I've recently noticed some audio functionality that I had not spotted previously.

My wife noticed that the Mute button on the remote successfully muted the audio - I'd rather assumed that the mute and volume buttons on the remote would control the "TV" side of the remote and not the STB, but I was incorrect.

I had previously noted that the volume buttons didn't work. I expected this, as I have the digital audio output set to fixed, so that I can send a surround bitstream to my surround decoder via the dedicated digital audio output. If the digital output is set to variable, the audio is downmixed to stereo, as you might expect, because if the bitstream transfer is not bit-accurate (eg if there is a volume control in the way), it won't decode and you'll just get noise - and a loud noise at that - so this is very sensible.

I have the STB connected to the TV via HDMI, and of course the audio on the HDMI link is "digital" too. As I suspected, therefore, if the digital audio output is set to variable, then the volume control on the STB remote controls the volume sent via any of the available digital outputs, both S/PDIF and HDMI.

There appear to be two additional documents on the Samsung site as follows:
[LIST][*]Guide for Single LNB Dish Users; and[*]Upgrade Software Release Notes[/LIST]

This would be the sensible option... It is a real pain it controlling the STB output level. Should be able to control TV (or even better for some, and Amp's volume)

As I have an "old" remote that doesn't control third-party TV sets, can someone with a working one tell me what functions on the TV can be controlled from the STB remote? Power on/off obviously, but can you control volume too (eg by pressing or holding the "TV" button)? If so then @nickdecker's question may be answered.

There are penalties for controlling the volume of a digital output. As you reduce the volume, the effective word length of the signal is reduced and thus potentially its quality. Ideally you want the STB to output 0dBFS and never change (this also ensures bitstreams can be decoded externally). If the remote controls the volume of a third-party device, you can leave the STB digital out set to fixed, which is exactly what you want.

With my one's remote

In STB Mode the mute key mutes the Samsung audio out.

In TV mode the mute key mutes the TV audio.

Automan.

That's it? You can't control TV volume?

With the remote in TV mode you can control you TV's volume level (assuming your TV is setup/known to the remote).

Also if you turn Settings / Sound / Digital volume control to On, you can vary the audio output level from the box.

But this will also disable dolby digital sound.

Automan.

Thanks! I'd already discovered the STB audio control functionality (and its drawbacks), see above.

Still waiting for my replacement remote to arrive…

Sorry, I misunderstood your description of the remote as being old

I myself use a Logitech Harmony One remote which overcomes all such issues.

Automan.

Just received my replacement remote from Samsung, and it correctly controls my LG TV. Excellent.