Hi all,

Just picked up a GOODMANS GFSDTR500HD 500GB freesat+ HD Digital TV Recorder in the last week or so, and have picked up on an annoying issue: whenever I'm recording one channel and watching another, the video goes to black for about a second every minute or so. Is this a known/frequent issue? Just wanted to gauge views before contacting Goodmans customer support.

Thanks.

I have a Grundig GUFSDTR500HD, which is more or less the same kit. I don't have this problem. What version of software do you have? Are you connected via HDMI? If you are, it may be worth unplugging and reinserting the HDMI lead at both ends - poor connections can give odd problems.

These Grundig/Goodmans/Bush units made by Harvard have a nice user interface, but are quite buggy and there's been no software updates for ages. There's no free phone/email support either. Only way I can rely on my box is by not giving it an overtaxing recording schedule (avoid back-to-back recordings, especially if both tuners are busy) and with a nightly power cycle via a time switch. Thank goodness I've got a DigitalStream freeview+ PVR which is fantastic and super reliable.

If you've bought this from a proper retailer/online, then honestly I'd tell you to take it back if possible, get your money back or swap it for a Foxsat HDR. Not saying that the HDR is perfect, but it's better than these and at least you'll get some community support on the forums.

I too have the Grundig GUFSDTR500HD I find that after watching bbciplayer I get the black screen thing as well. The only way I can rectify it is to pull the plug out the wall for a minute.

Noticed I was having problems getting the box to come out of power-saving standby when I got up some mornings, so I deactivated that and have had no more problems with the screen turning to black when recording, either. Weird, but there you are. Must say, I do like the user interface a lot.

I'd agree that the user interface is actually pretty good. It wouldn't take much effort from Harvard to sort out some of the remaining bugs in the software, which would actually make it a pretty decent box.

Haven't tried not using power saving standby. A previous poster suggested turning off the automatic software updates and this seemed to help reliability.

The only thing I haven't been able to figure out is how to do manual software updates. The instructions in my user guide don't appear to be correct.

I thought the only software updates have been OTA. I haven't seen any to download on the support website. It's a long time since there's been any updates, but I seem to remember the advice was to go to channel 999 and this seemed to kick-start the download.

I think the idea of the "Automatic" setting is that it continually checks for any available software updates being broadcast. This clearly causes some background load on the box and switching it off definitely seems to aid reliability.

do you guy's find these boxes very noisy, after returning my foxsat hdr due to not being happy with the picture quality i have been reading about these boxes and the picture quality is supposed to be better than the humax, but a lot of reviews say they are very noisy, what do you guys think. i would have mine sat in the open on the top shelf of my tv stand and be sat about 7 feet away, do you think it would be too noisy.

Hi! I bought one of these boxes at the weekend to replace the Sky+ box i was using. Everything seemed to be running great until i decided to watch one of the programs i had recorded. At times during the recording, the picture and sound would skip, something which didn't happen watching the channels live. I called the Tesco helpline this morning and the advisor thought it was a corrupt hard disk and said i should return it to the store and get another box.

Now i have the new box, its doing the exact same thing. i called the number on the yellow tape which is wrapped round the box and this time was told my signal wasnt strong enough to watch one channel and record another. At the time it made sense as i did watch and record the same program and the recording was perfect.

But after thinking about it, the recordings i had made whilst the box was in standby still had this problem. Just wondering if anyone else has had this problem. Just dont know what to do now.

if i was you i would send it back as soon as possible whilst its still in its return period. these boxes are notoriously unreliable and sound like a jumbo jet as well. there are only three on the market worth buying, but depends on your budget.

this is my choice in order preference-

echostar hds-600rs- this is what i have, it is fantastic but does have some recording problems that should be sorted in the next few days in the latest software release, but costs £299, but does have a slingbox built in. it is the best box in terms of ease of use and picture quality.

panasonic dmr-xs380- i had one of these, it was great i only returned it due to it vibrating as it was faulty, i was going to buy another one but in the end i decided the echostar was better. at the moment it is only £249 from play.com which is a cracking price as lots of places want £400 for it, it is also a dvd player/recorder.

humax foxsat hdr- i had one of these but didn't like the picture on it so i returned it, i couldn't get it back to the shop quick enough to tell the truth. but there are thousands of very happy users out there that love them so it must be pretty good, maybe it just didn't suit me. i thinks it costs about £230 new.

do some research to see what suits you best, there is loads of info on these here forums and at amazon and avforums.com.

if you cant afford either of the above boxes i would wait until you can as no other boxes are worth buying, but you could try the second hand market, there are always plenty of humax's on ebay.

I've got a Grundig GUFSDTR500HD, which is essentially the same box. If you can get a refund, then do. There's a number of software bugs and there's been no interest or updates from the manufacturer (Harvard) for about a year. The recent changes to the BBC HD broadcast also seem to cause problems scheduling recording. If the box has to switch to a HD channel from SD, it takes a few seconds to stabilise and this is (yet another) reason that the box will fail to record with an unexpected internal error.

The prior poster has given some suggestions for better alternatives. I have no experience of these, just the Grundig. However, I subsequently bought a DigitalSteam freeview box which we now use for most of our recording as you just can't rely on the Grundig.

Get rid of it while you can....!!

Cheers
MarkA

To be fair, i've used this box for about a year now with no real serious issues. Til BBC HD changed and now I have problems recording on those channels.. I wonder if there's a fix on the way or not? I got it from costco so i have a five year guarentee. i might be tempted by the echostar though if there is no fix or workaround forthcoming.

Goodmans GFSDTR320HD

i am also unable to record bbc hd channels and when you use the iplayer the screen goes black every so often

Cheers for the replies! Ended up taking it back and got a refund. Only other freesat box they had was a standard grundig box. Gonna leave it for a bit and save for the humax 500Gb.

I wouldnt get that either, that's two years old now and due to be replaced soon. Check out the echostar that's just come out. I might get that if BBC dont sort their dodgy signal out soon.

the Humax is actually over 2.5 years old now, it looks very dated compared to some newer boxes. it was good when it first came out but things have moved on now, come on Humax get your act together.

The Goodmans/Grundig site only has an 0870 contact number on the site so I had a look at the German Grundig site and found the following customer service contact email address.

Maybe if all us Goodmans/Grundig Freesat+ box owners could send a few emails we'll get them to give us another bug/new features update.

technik@grundig.com

http://www.grundig.de/en/contact.html

What do people thing of that idea?

Are we Grundig/Goodmans owners missing out on red button and other new fangled freesat features?

Great idea. Email sent. Anything that might help get a few bug fixes is welcome!

Cheers
MarkA

No surprise, got an email back sying they don't support the UK boxes. However, they helpfully provided the UK contact details:

Grundig UK
Bush House
The Waterfront
Elstree Road
Elstree
Herts
WD6 3BS

Tel: ++44(0)20 8238 7670
Fax: ++44(0)20 8238 7632

e-mail: grundiguk@albaplc.co.uk
Web: www.grundig-uk.co.uk


Have now emailed this address.........!!

Cheers
MarkA

That's brilliant!

I shall be emailing and maybe even sending a letter about the lack of updates to fix these boxes, boxes that are still on sale on the high street for £200+.

Selling a HD box that can't record BBC HD programming on schedule and goes blank except for menus on ITV HD should be illegal!

Thanks MarkA.

My Email to them

My box Goodmans GFSDTR320HD

Hi,
Can you help ?
Ever since the BBC changed BBC HD + ONE HD frequency, we are no longer able to set a pre record for BBC HD and BBC ONE HD. We get the error NO SIGNAL.

I have tried a reinstall but no luck, some forums report the problem lies with the boxes software taking so long to process the signal when changing channels causing the box to think there is NO SIGNAL being received.

This is the only reply I've received so far..

The email I sent was pretty much the same as the one paulosjonesos08 sent in the previous post.

Has anyone else had any joy?

yep same reply i got

yep i got the same

It seems Tesco are now selling the #Goodmans/Grundig boxes re-badged as their Technika brand.

Maybe an email to Tesco. (although they have re-badged non-PVR boxes)

EDIT.

I sent an email to Tesco as they are still selling the Goodmans GFSDTR320HD. Maybe a big company like Tesco can put a bit of pressure on Harvard for an update, as Tesco are still selling the boxes in their stores.

I used this page.

http://www.tesco.com/help/contact/contactus4.asp