Mine is on version 5.0.300 which works well and I thought it was still the most up to date. What version is it offering you?

5.0.300 is still showing as the latest firmware on the Samsung website.

Yep, this is the version which I now have, it looks like the box updated itself overnight, software date is now 01-08

Cheers

David

Just purchased box after views on this thread, very informative.

Did an Automatic update from the menu & it loaded the latest software OTA, took a long time 20-30mins.

Anybody know the TV code for a Sharp LC 42DH77E , codes in the manual dont seem to work ?

My thoughts on this box so far.

I got my Samsung SMT-S7800 at Richer Sounds who price-matched Peter Tyson's £199 including an extra fiver off.

My initial jubilation at leaving Sky and our chronically dodgy Sky HD box (regular reboots required, often no signal lock on one input - improved by Satcure but never fixed) meant it has taken several weeks of living with this box before I can appraise it accurately.

I would say it's pretty good, but by no means great. I am happy with picture quality. The menus are quite attractive and nicely designed. I am running the latest firmware. I like the way it asks whether I want to record the HD version of a programme instead.

However, there is plenty that could be improved in my opinion. The very slow start-up time is the biggest issue, over 30 seconds to boot up is too long.

When recording I wish you could set a bit of a buffer on each side of start and finish times, I am finding programmes are getting clipped.

I don't like the split between Guide & Library, wish it was in the same place.

I find it hard to determine whether I'm already recording a programme.

Don't like the finicky red button way of getting to iPlayer.

Am getting occasional signal lock issues when changing channels.

Responsiveness: it is quite sluggish navigating the planner and going up and down channels. Have found the channel menu sometimes gets out of sync with the tuned channel.

I hope that some of these issues will get sorted with the next firmware upgrade.

It will however save you over £20.00 a year on your electric bill, possibly more compared to your old Sky HD box.

All these modern products I understand have to comply with a EU ruling on energy efficiency which leads to the slow start-up from sub 1 watt mode.

I guess if they spent more on the hardware a low power suspend mode, like windows on a PC could be implemented.

Automan.

The knowledge of the electricity saving does I suppose take some of the pain away ... but I would have thought it could be made faster than it is currently - if a smart engineer really put their mind to it.

I think these are some of worst remaining "features"... The Library / Recordings screen is just non-sensicle.

Has anyone else experienced lip sync issues recently...? I find Click on iPlayer is a good example for iPlayer content - every week... could be the BBC I suppose...

Have started trying to get rid of our DVDs into the loft and rip them to a hard drive network server (using samsung AllShare - so no excuses!)... Pretty simple UK DVD ripping, use several different apps for converting to DivX or Xvid, and all seem to have lip sync issues...

Plays find on WD TV Live box, and on windows...

The PC has multiple low power states:and is not subject to the same strict regulation as TV's and STB's. The current 1w regulation is targeted to be reduced to 0.5w so it is difficult to imagine how, without for example, expanding non volatile memory, that this could be achieved. It is possible to reduce the boot time, using higher interface and ram speeds but at a cost.

[quote=Nickloman;51861511]My thoughts on this box so far.


Am getting occasional signal lock issues when changing channels.

Hi Nickloman,

Can you explain more about the signal lock issues?

Thanks

Changing channels I often get the message "This channel cannot be received" (or similar wording). Moving up and down the channel list usually sorts it out. It didn't happen when I got the box but is frequent now. It's actually rather annoying. I will check the inputs.

My SMT-S7800 also exhibits lip synch problems with iPlayer HQ.

I have also tried playing XVID files via the ethernet connection. Disappointingly, even though they play fine on the PC and also using WDTV, they have significant lip synch problems on the SMT-S7800.

I've now reported this as a problem with Samsung using the Enquiry facility.

I have the lipsynch issue with iPlayer. It's one of the few remaining issues I have with the unit. I do NOT have the same issue with my Boxee box or with iPlayer on a computer.

--R

Thanks for that information. I have exactly the same problem only when changing channel like yourself. I have checked and changed the connections but it still happens. On a lot of the channels when they are showing I am getting 100% signal quality throughout and in some cases 100% quality. I have no idea whether this is a fault of the tuner when changing channel or my cabling? Any ideas anybody?

I used to get sound a millisecond behind vision but now I get sound a millisecond ahead of vision?

I got this when I had only one cable connected. There is a setting when you do a box reset to set it up on one cable, maybe you could try this and try one cable at a time to check for problems.

You can tell to the nearest millisecond?

Wow! I wish my hearing was as acute as that.

You've either got it or you ain't
Maybe I should'nt grumble too much then

Just looking at the specs for the newly released Samsung BD-DT7800M (note model number).

The box looks physically almost identical to the S7800 but obviously Freeview and not Freesat. The main differences are in the software as the features and abilities far outstrip the freesat version.

I was thinking maybe this could give us a clue as to what future software upgrades may give us. I know a few pages back someone said that they had seen beta versions of the software and that good things were coming before Christmas.

Maybe wishful thinking though.

Rob

Indeed, the hardware for the Freeview version looks just like the Freesat model even to 7800 in the name.

http://www.samsung.com/uk/consumer/t...il&tab=feature

Perhaps the Freesat model will have the same extra features after another software upgrade - perhaps even the 3D

Automan.

Does anyone else have a problem with signal quality on C4 HD?
The quality seems to vary between 40% and 90%, all other channels are around 90%. Sometimes it's so bad I get the "please check connection error" and have to go up and down the channels to get the picture again, and when I do get it signal quality is back at 90%.

This is the only channel this happens with.

I think we have the best freesat box on the market at the moment, and with software upgrade support from Samsung, it can only get better.

Here's hoping.. Just had a flick through the manual. It has a slightly different remote with buttons specific for the smart hub features, but I guess they're just short cuts.

Also has built in wifi which we don't have - but other than that I guess the rest is software. The freeview one supports loads more media types like MKV etc, and different frame rates etc., all clearly listed in the manual.

Still states no copy of broadcast recordings to USB are possible though.

Wifi will be available sometime in September for the S7800 according Samsung.

Indeed, with an optional USB Dongle.

Browsing the manual of the new Freeview box I note they have done away with the legacy scart connector.

Automan.