Hi there,

How did you get on with ordering with Peter Tyson. Any problems to note?

I read you ordered it from there and I had seen it advertised at the lowest price I had seen on the web. I'd never heard of them before, but would you reccommend them?

Regards,

Alan.

Hi Alan,
I didnt have any trouble. They are based in Cumbria near the Lake District. Had no problems with my order. Placed it yesterday (mon) before 1pm and had it delivered today (tues). I paid on credit card so I was covered if anything dodgey had gone off, but nothing has and based on this one purchase I could recommend them.

The other option is Richer Sounds. Theres is at £219 but they should match Peter Tyson. I rang them over the weekend and they said they would match the price of £199.90 but my nearest store was 30 miles away, so it was easier to have peter tyson send it Free next day delivery.

Cheers
Ash

Something I have spotted. Its not a fault with the machine, more of a design issue. The search in the guide restricts you to searching on a particular day. Not really any good for me because the whole reason I am searching is because I dont know when the programme is on. lol.

Just got one of these today and started updating over the air, then reading the manual I noticed you can download a firmware update from the Samsung website, stick it on a usb and then specify to update from usb.

So I tried it but I just keep getting a message saying "no image found on usb", I've tried formatting the usb drive with fat, fat32 and even ext3 (as the software inside the box is apparently based on linux) but just keep getting the same error message.

The instructions say to place the .img file in the root of the drive which I did but, as I said, no joy.

Has anyone else managed to update through the usb and if so, how did you weave this magic?

Also, has anyone managed to get the remote matched to their TV?

It says you just hold down the TV button for 5 seconds until the led blinks and then start pressing the up button until your tv turns off (like the sky remote tv control) but I don't see any led blinking, is it supposed to be the tv button's led that blinks? (How are you supposed to see that when your finger is on top of it )

Well managed to update through the satellite but it takes about 15-20 minutes, so if you buy one just leave it updating.

God knows why they don't just update it through the internet since it's got an internet connection.

It's a known problem on a bad batch of remotes, I had this issue. Ring Samsung and they will send out a new remote.

Worth double checking that the over the air update has taken you to the latest version, which is on the web. When I bought mine last week and did the same thing, it upgraded me to an older version than the latest, which had been released almost two weeks before. In terms of updating via USB, I just formatted a pendrive with FAT32 and stuck the image file in the root, then selected USB in the upgrade menu.

Hmm how big was your thumb drive? Mine was a 4GB one but the box just didn't want to know.

Thanks Martzin, think I'll give them a call then

1GB, I think.

Have just updated mine to 005.000.0300 and it was indeed the first time I have attempted this sort of thing. Showing as correct software version in the product information menu.
I just cannot believe how quick it updated compared to the software update on the day I installed the box.

I totally agree about the incredible difference in update time - mine was between 30 & 45 minutes, when updating automatically, over the air. Hideous!

It must have been approx' three minutes in total!

What improvements will I see with the new software?

Has anyone had a chance to do any more experimentation on what video files can be played via the media section? I'm particularly interested in Hi-Def stuff in 720p and 1080p. Can anyone also recommend media server software for the Mac, to allow media playback over network?

Thanks

Doug

Has anybody had problems in losing some or all of their recordings temporarily from the hard drive .
Since installing this latest update I have had this problem .
The recordings now come and go. just me or what?

I can't upgrade from USB either. It says 'checking image ...' then software upgrade failed. Nothing is found if you search via satellite. My version is 003.000.0273

I think someone else reported that issue and the fix was to make a note of all your planned recordings and run the reset to defaults option - pin 0000.

Recordings are not deleted but you then need to set your recordings again and delete channels you don't want in the guide.

Automan.

Solved my own problem. It is due to the usb drive. I was trying to use an 8gb stick. I have since used a 2gb drive and it worked ok.

Had no problems from a 4Gb FAT32 formatted USB stick in the front socket.

File from Samsung website just copied to root directory of USB stick.

Do you only have a single LNB feed?
The over air version needs custom settings to download over the air from the first release (fix in the later versions).
Document with instructions is on the Samsung website on the software download page.

Automan.

Updated fine with a 2gb Usb stick. So obviously it doesnt like 8gb drives. But i did manage to play videos off the 8gb drive and it did find the update image, just couldnt install. My guess would be that it has issues writing to the 8gb. I assume it expands the img file on the usb stick first.

Didnt know about custom settings for over the air update. I just used auto. And on the manual option i left everything as it was.

Any how, its sorted now.

Can't help on the Mac front - but with Windows, I've found converting to either DivX or Xvid inside an AVI container works quite reliably. I use FormatFactory and seems to work well using default "high quality and size" AVI - and can optionally change to DivX codec (its default is Xvid)

It is a fussy media player - and I've found (though not tried recently since updates) that anything that is not 25 FPS can get jerky or have sound breaks, or lip sync issues.

24FPS movie rate content is best speeded up to 25FPS rather than converted as the conversion will either be jerky or blurry. I use a custom script on Mencoder to do that.

My experience of other media players is they work much better in this respect - such as a boxee which will change the display refresh rate. I have never seen this happen on the Samsung.

On Media server front - again Windows - something to watch out for - if the media server hides the extension (i.e. .avi) - the Samsung box WONT show it... Most media servers in windows, free or paid, hide the extension. Windows media player seems ok, as does the media server that comes with Pure wifi radios, albeit for pictures and music only.

Bigash,

Many thanks for the reply. I was just waiting for my Sky signal to be cut off which finally happened last night, so have now ordered one of these from Peter Tyson.

I'll now be able to add my 2 pence worth of feedback on the box, although up to a week ago I had been set to buy the Humax Foxsat HDR but changed my mind based on the improvements of this box.

Regards,

Alan.

Thanks for that Automan. Samsung have given me the same information, I have just finished the complete reset and I can now see all recordings. Thanks again.

All part of the service

From the screen dump below you can see episode naming is still "random".

http://i336.photobucket.com/albums/n...7-13180044.jpg

Not a big deal but it should be either one format or the other

Automan.

Loving the Samsung, apart from the clock, which never shows the right time apart from when the unit has just been switched off. Is this a known fault?