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Samsung SMT - S7800 Freesat PVR 1080P


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Old 29-12-2011, 05:02
bramble
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Has anyone got any posetive feedback about this S7800.

My EPG is empty when looking 5 hours in advance, let alone 24hours!

It has missed recordings.

Sometimes slow to respond

Really had high hopes for this box, however not sure I can live with the glitches!

I keep scanning for software updates but I think Samsung has left us in the dark about this one!

I may return it and go for the Humax....
I have not had any problems with the SMT-S7800 as a freesat PVR. In fact, in my opinion, having used the Foxsat-HDR for a couple of years previously, I find the Samsung a much less idiosyncratic and more consumer-friendly PVR.

My disappointment is with its other functions. The iPlayer always seems to have lip sync errors, the ITV Player isn't supported and XVID playback is unreliable (although this doesn't exist anyway on the Humax).
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Old 29-12-2011, 22:06
Grafton
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I've only had a few minor issues with the SMT-S7800, but nothing that makes it particularly worse than any other STB I've used.

Just had the lost recordings issue, but these came back after a full power reset. This is after running the Samsung for about 3 months without physically powering it off.

I originally found iPlayer lip-sync to be slightly out (a tiny but annoying delay), but turning off the Dolby Digital/DTS option in the sound menu seemed to sort this out. To be honest though, I prefer the PS3 version of iPlayer but I don't think this is really the fault of Samsung.

Generally I would recommend the Samsung to someone looking for a Freesat unit.
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Old 29-12-2011, 23:57
Sonic-Rooster
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Empty library again today .... quick reset brought it all back AGAIN ...ho-hum !
Just gotta trawl through timed recording now to add them back in manually
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Old 30-12-2011, 10:37
finbaar
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I have not had any problems with the SMT-S7800 as a freesat PVR. In fact, in my opinion, having used the Foxsat-HDR for a couple of years previously, I find the Samsung a much less idiosyncratic and more consumer-friendly PVR.

My disappointment is with its other functions. The iPlayer always seems to have lip sync errors, the ITV Player isn't supported and XVID playback is unreliable (although this doesn't exist anyway on the Humax).
Just ordered one of these boxes for my sister now she has cancelled Sky. She only needs the PVR functionality so I am hoping it proves reliable. Amazon are knocking them out for £156.73 delivered as open box returns. As the equivalent Hummy is £199 as a grade A refurb it seems a bargain.

What is the remote like on the S7800 as I had to get a multi remote for my Foxsat?
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Old 30-12-2011, 10:43
mutant_matt
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In case Samsung are reading this (I guess I should email them directly also), I have been watching this thread with interest for a whilse because my parents are about to go Freesat, and I was hoping the Samsung was going to be the answer to the, IMO, poor Humax.

However, it looks to me like the aging Humax is still the best of a bad bunch, and I couldn't recommend with hand on heart, this product, yet, to anybody (and especially to those who are going to call me for technical support! ).

They have a few weeks (or a couple of months, knowing them getting round to actually getting the dish and cable install done), so I still hold out hope for a firware upgrade from Samsung to solve the final, IMO, virtually show-stopping bugs.

COME ON Samsung, sort it out! (or they will end up with a Samsung TV, but with Humax PVR)

<fingers crossed>

Matt.
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Old 30-12-2011, 11:24
bsw
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Amazon are knocking them out for £156.73 delivered as open box returns.
Doesn't that and the problems listed in the above posts tell you something ?

If the price you quote for a Grade A Hummy is correct they must have put the price up recently. I bought 1 on 13 Nov. for £169 delivered and it's perfect.

You should also consider the Echostar although they are more expensive. I'm trialling 1 at the moment and it's pretty good, apart from the horrible little remote. It's easy to set up and has very clear messages for recording conflicts etc.

I also had the Samsung for a while - didn't like it but can't remember why. Sold it on ebay for very good money.
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Old 30-12-2011, 12:56
youddiph
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Doesn't that and the problems listed in the above posts tell you something ?

If the price you quote for a Grade A Hummy is correct they must have put the price up recently. I bought 1 on 13 Nov. for £169 delivered and it's perfect.

You should also consider the Echostar although they are more expensive. I'm trialling 1 at the moment and it's pretty good, apart from the horrible little remote. It's easy to set up and has very clear messages for recording conflicts etc.

I also had the Samsung for a while - didn't like it but can't remember why. Sold it on ebay for very good money.
The echostar is now the same price if not cheaper than the Humax. With more features and newer tech, obvious choice! Roll on the Humax erotica lovers, Hummy is better... My Hummy loves me...
If they did why have they all but given up on the box!?
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Old 30-12-2011, 17:12
bsw
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The echostar is now the same price if not cheaper than the Humax.
Really? Where? I paid about £220 for mine few weeks ago.
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Old 30-12-2011, 17:35
grahamlthompson
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The echostar is now the same price if not cheaper than the Humax. With more features and newer tech, obvious choice! Roll on the Humax erotica lovers, Hummy is better... My Hummy loves me...
If they did why have they all but given up on the box!?
Apart from the slingbox feature what exactly does the Echostar offer over the Foxsat-hdr.

No usb archiving. Can you watch a third channel while recording two ? Can you stream a recording over a home network independent of what the main user is recording ? Can you effectively get unlimited archiving by using a USB archive drive ?
Can you record HD without encryption ?
Can you access multiple satellites using diseqc switching ?
Have you got BBCi player and ITV player ?
Can you put up with the odd look

I could go on
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Old 30-12-2011, 20:01
youddiph
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Really? Where? I paid about £220 for mine few weeks ago.
Google is a wonderful tool!

And no reply to the "how wonderful art thou Hummy..." comments.
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Old 31-12-2011, 12:39
bsw
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Google is a wonderful tool!

And no reply to the "how wonderful art thou Hummy..." comments.
So you really haven't got an answer then.

Or is it a fancy way of saying "actually I made that up".
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Old 31-12-2011, 12:59
grahamlthompson
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Google is a wonderful tool!

And no reply to the "how wonderful art thou Hummy..." comments.
That in itself is an answer .

Or are you saying my post was in any way incorrect
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Old 31-12-2011, 21:45
jingleman
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Hi,

I've just read through all 54 pages of this thread, though I'm not sure I will remember all the content by next year

I think special thanks should go to Automan for his many helpful posts, and his persistenceance with Samsung over the many issues & bugs. Also to Media bodkin, who will hopefully be able to give us more insight into forthcoming updates in 2012.

Happy New Year to all posters on Digital Spy
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Old 02-01-2012, 19:28
hairlessheart
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It could be duff or perhaps your satellite signal is not very strong?

The tuners on this box are not as sensitive as those on the Humax box.

When watching live tv if you press 'info' three times it will show the tuners

Tuner 1 I have 92% strength 70% quality
Tuner 2 68% 70%

Automan.
For the last couple of weeks, since it's been quite windy, I've been having terrible problems with reception. Even with the slightest wind, the picture goes blocky and the sound makes loud pops, or breaks up entirely. This makes watching tv a real struggle.

I'm looking at the tuner info screen just now and it's jumping up and down like crazy.
Tuner 1 has strength of between 80 and zero, with quality of between 90 and zero.
Tuner 2 has strength of between 90 and zero, with quality of between 70 and zero.
I'm not sure what BER[E-6] is, but it flicks between 0 and 20.

The dish is right next to my window and I can see that the LNB isn't loose. When not windy or rainy, the picture is excellent. I've tried swapping back to my SkyHD box when it's windy, to see if it's having the same problems, but it doesn't seem to be affected by this signal dropout in nearly the same way and doesn't have picture or sound breakup.

Is there anything I can do? I'm tearing my hair out.

Thanks
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Old 02-01-2012, 21:48
finbaar
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Doesn't that and the problems listed in the above posts tell you something ?

If the price you quote for a Grade A Hummy is correct they must have put the price up recently. I bought 1 on 13 Nov. for £169 delivered and it's perfect.

You should also consider the Echostar although they are more expensive. I'm trialling 1 at the moment and it's pretty good, apart from the horrible little remote. It's easy to set up and has very clear messages for recording conflicts etc.

I also had the Samsung for a while - didn't like it but can't remember why. Sold it on ebay for very good money.
And what do you think the Humax grade A is then? I have the Hummy myself and I am quite well aware of the its short comings. What you don't understand is I couldn't give a flying f e c k what YOUR or anyone else's opinion is because I know best.
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Old 03-01-2012, 11:17
bsw
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What you don't understand is I couldn't give a flying f e c k what YOUR or anyone else's opinion is because I know best.
And a Happy New Year to you too !
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Old 07-01-2012, 17:42
jingleman
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Recordings and timers keep disappearing from view. Eventually they come back, but by then some timers have passed their time slot so it hasn't had a chance to record.

Have read here and in other forums this happens quite frequently.

It has 2 satellite feeds, strong signal/quality on Astra and Eurobird, and has been reset to factory setting frequent times

It has the latest software, in fact unit was only manufactured in October.

Just wonder if anyone who has had problem has got any news from Samsung of a pending update to fix this issue ?
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Old 09-01-2012, 14:39
Simpfeld
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I just thought I 'd put this out here as I had to work a bit to find a DLNA server that works with this box.

As I have a Linux system I couldn't use Samsung's own software (and from what people say I'd perhaps not even want to with Windows). Also a number of these are cross platform so will work on Windows and Mac too.

Gnome Rygel - Didn't work. I see the files on the box but it just says "File not supported!" for all files I try. This was even with adding the Samsung TV workaround they have.

MediaTomb - Doesn't even show up on the SMT-S7800 as a device!

MiniDLNA - Doesn't show up either on the SMT-S7800 as a device!

These were all free and I had no luck with them so I moved on to some commercial ones.

TVMOBiLi (Linux, Mac, Windows) - I see all the files on the box. It only plays mp3 files (didn't try other audio file types) BUT it says "File not supported!" for all video or picture files. I'm still in contact with support and they are working with me to try and debug the issues. Very helpful support, but as yet not there.

Twonky (Linux, Mac, Windows) - This is working great! It allows the SMT-S7800 to play AVI videos (maybe other types haven't tried yet), mp3 audio files and display jpg pictures. This looks like the one to go for for a third party DLNA sever on this box just now.

Saying all this I still have to use a supported codec on files shared out via Twonky. For example it wouldn't play an AVI that was using codec's Cinepak and uncompressed PCM. Whereas a AVI using FFMpeg MPEG-4 and MPEG-1 Layer 3 plays fine.

Also very unhelpfully the box will not recognise the anamorphic flags on the video files. So widescreen files play 4:3. This seems to be an issue with lots of Samsung's if you google (someone has even hacked their TV firmware to fix this). Strange that the Samsung requires files use "square pixels" for display to devices that predominately will have rectangular pixels.

To workaround this I'm using mencoder to rescale things. For example taking track 1 off a DVD iso and reencoding a 16:9 (non-anamorphic) AVI:

Code:
mencoder -dvd-device ~/dvd.iso dvd://1 -vf scale=1024:576 -ovc lavc -oac mp3lame -lavcopts aspect=16/9 -o ~/Twonky/testop.avi
The above will also convert non-supported file types to formats that will display on the SMT-S7800 (obviously the filename will only be required if not a DVD iso i.e. filename instead of "-dvd-device ~/dvd.iso dvd://1").

If 4:3 source files you can leave out the " -vf scale=1024:576" and "aspect=16/9". Also you'll need a different scale size for HD video.

Hope this helps someone out there.
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Old 09-01-2012, 16:50
stripeytiger510
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Hi Simpfeld,
Interesting read re your DLNA experiences. I have not delved into soft DLNA servers at all; what is the Samsung Windows Software that you refer to ?

For me, I have a Netgear ReadyNAS box, where all my media is stored. This has a built-in DLNA feature, which I have enabled, and this allows me to view all the content directly on my Sony TV or Blu-Ray player via my home network. This works fine with the Sony devices.

However, the Samsung box does not see the ReadyNAS at all ! (It would be so useful if it did). I checked for DLNA compliance - and I could find no mention of the term "DLNA" at all in any of the specs or documentation, so I assumed from this that it is not DLNA-compliant, and that's the reason it does not see my ReadyNAS.

Are you saying that the S7800 is in fact a DLNA client ?
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Old 09-01-2012, 17:02
bramble
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I used the SMT-S7800 with the Windows Media Player client. The DLNA worked OK, but I gave up because of the limited XVID codec support and the jerky playback.
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Old 09-01-2012, 19:14
Simpfeld
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Interesting read re your DLNA experiences. I have not delved into soft DLNA servers at all; what is the Samsung Windows Software that you refer to ?
I was thinking about Samsung's AllShare software. I presume this works with this STB.

http://www.samsung.com/uk/support/us...tware/ASPS/JSP

If not, I can't see the point of the Network Media option on the box at all.

Hi Simpfeld,
However, the Samsung box does not see the ReadyNAS at all ! (It would be so useful if it did). I checked for DLNA compliance - and I could find no mention of the term "DLNA" at all in any of the specs or documentation, so I assumed from this that it is not DLNA-compliant, and that's the reason it does not see my ReadyNAS.

Are you saying that the S7800 is in fact a DLNA client ?
From my limited knowledge, I think the answer is strictly no. It's probably more correct to say it's a UPnP media client (or what do they say UPnP MediaRenderer) .

Or maybe the answer is "very kind of". It kind of does DLNA but doesn't support the full range of standards/formats required to gain certification. So sort of acts like a DLNA box but no guarantees of working with a certified DLNA. Only probably Samsung's own stuff.

If Samsung and their ilk could include half the format playback options of VLC in their devices life would be a lot simpler.

The software above claims to be DLNA, kind of strange if it works, given that the device strictly isn't DLNA.

I'm sure other people will know more here and correct my terminology.
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Old 10-01-2012, 10:07
nickdenker
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From my experience an older version (beta I think) of Samsung AllShare worked ok (although not perfectly - sometimes hung) - the final version however didn't show any files on the SMT-7800

Best bet from windows does seem to be Windows Media Player - but yes formats need to be spot on. I haven't yet found a transcoding media server for windows that works.

As far as jerky goes - it just needs to be dead on 25fps for the box to like it. And even then there is usually lip sync issues - although Samsung do have a file that exhibits this issue - but still waiting back for any fixes (also for iPlayer lip sync, I guess related)

I use mencoder as a matter of course for every file even if in the right codec - just makes it stable, sometimes things will play and then die half way. Mencoder also allows you to get a 23.97 fps or 24fps file and speed it up to 25fps giving jerk free albeit slightly faster playback - something we're used to on UK telly anyhow when films are shown.

Aspect ratio - never tried to fix but looks like an answer posted above although again shouldn't be needed and samsung have an appropriate file clip.

Nick
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Old 10-01-2012, 17:59
Mr_Rob
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Come on Sammy,help out your supporters - or should we wait for apple to bring out a stb?
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Old 11-01-2012, 00:43
kbupton65
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Come on Sammy,help out your supporters - or should we wait for apple to bring out a stb?
Amen to that! What is the best email address to use to have a good moan at them as well?
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Old 11-01-2012, 09:56
Mr_Rob
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Amen to that! What is the best email address to use to have a good moan at them as well?
may be useful to send them a link to this?
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