This morning my box is dead. I've forgotten the Vestel model number but it's one of the dual tuner/single record type, purchased 28/10/06 (so I should have bought the 5 year warranty!)

I noticed a problem last night when the front display was showing gibberish, so I power cycled it and it was OK again. But now it is completely dead.

So, the symptoms suggest that it isn't the disk that died, but can I do anything useful with it to get to the recordings?

I've extracted it from the box, will my PC read it?

If I bought a new Vestel (and was prepared to sacrifice the warranty) would that read it? Is a new Vestel as easy to break into as this one was?

Anyone got an old (working) Vestel they don't need

TIA

tim

From what you've said, it is almost certainly a capacitor on the PSU board that has failed (front panel showing gibberish is a giveaway). The power cycle was probably the final blow, perhaps literally, for the failing capacitor. If you can spot the one that has failed (usually domed/bulging at the top, if not physically exploded), and you are handy with a soldering iron or know somebody who is, fitting a new capacitor is straightforward. See http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showthread.php?t=1309563 for technical details.

The current T835 models use SATA drives, and not IDE drives like your T810 model. So, not interchangeable. Maybe with an adaptor, but the T835 models are much smaller and the packaging of the HDD is pretty tight, so I doubt your IDE drive would physically fit inside. Not worth the hassle IMHO.

The drive uses the ext2 filesystem, and it is possible to read everything using a PC using the appropriate software. People have successfully copied stuff off their old HDD onto a new one in the past. However, this is a reasonably technical process, and IMHO I think it would be easier to replace the capacitor .

I think you'll find plenty of old Vestel PVRs on ebay - certainly some Hitachi T825 models which do take IDE HDDs still, although I don't remember if you can simply swap a HDD out of a T810 into a T825.

I would put the hard drive safely to one side, and get those capacitors replaced on the power supply board. It's very cheap and pretty easy to do, and you'll get your PVR up and running again.

As futaura says, you can transfer from the HD to your PC, but it is very fiddly.

I've had to do the capacitor-replacement on 2 Vestel machines here, and both are now in constant use, working as good as new.

Thanks guys.

I didn't have any choice about the power cycle, it was refusing to come out of standby without it.

Looks like I am stuck (unless I can find a working Vestel of the same type somewhere).

There is one pot on the power supply board which is (very) slightly raised, but no obvious signs (on any of the boards) of components having failed. Even if this is the fault, I can't solder to save my life.

My PC confirms that the disk is fine, but refuses to understand the formatting.

I think that this whole "feature" of freeview sucks. How can digital recording be better that analogue if a single component failure causes you to lose 100s of hours of archived material, with no possibility of a backup?

tim

Don't give up by formatting that drive (HDD). Follow stylo's advice, or ask someone else to do the replacement cap/soldering for you. It really is an easy job to do, and will restore your box to full working order. You'll then be able to see all your recordings again.

Chris.

BTW, I wasn't attempting to blame you for that - it was just a big clue in concluding that a capacitor has most likely failed. It had already failed before you power cycled - it's just that the power cycle finished it off.

From the thread that I quoted, it seems the 1000uF/16V capacitor on the PSU board marked with C9 on the PCB is a common failure. Is that the one that looks slightly out of shape? Feel free to post some photos of the PSU board if you want and we can perhaps give you some advice. It really would be pretty simple to fix, and if you don't know anybody personally, it may be worth getting a quote from a local electronics repair shop (if you can pinpoint the dodgy capacitor yourself, so much the better).

PVRs are not designed to archive recordings - hard drives do not last forever, and if that breaks, you lose everything. At least your hard drive is still fine - 5 years is probably a better than average lifetime. You could always have archived things using a DVD recorder should you wish to keep things. Would you really prefer going back to VHS?

It's a standard IDE disk. ext2, files showed on my computer but I'm not sure how to extract recordings using a pc. It's certainly fiddly.

It's not a good idea to muck about with an smps supply. Dangeous. however, exactly the same power board is used in the t810/ 816/ 825s.

You can also put your existing disk into any of the above Vestels, and it will work.

I had assumed that I could use some of the designs between mine and the current one. However none of them are available to buy new any more [1] , so (if I go that route) I'm going to have to seek out a second hand one. Thanks for the clarification.

tim

[1] e.g. Argos discounted all of its old stock before the new version came in at a much higher price, (for no useful feature improvement at all) and was out of stock well before Christmas

Yep, that's the one. I'll see if I can find someone to change it for me.

I know PVRs aren't any use for Archiving. But that's all the more reason why they SHOULD, as a matter of design, have a way that material can be extracted from the box to be archived (on a mass storage device) [1]. I don't think that in this era of cheap mass storage it is good enough for the industry to say "if you want to archive something you have to put up with storing it, one or two programs per DVD".

tim


[1] Even if it's only stored in a way that can be played back by the same brand of PVR.

FYI, the capacitor itself costs no more than 50p. That's one of the reasons why we are so keen for you to get your box fixed - it's not as if the parts are going to cost a fortune.

I do agree with your point about archiving - I actually sold my DVD recorder the other week since I've burnt less than a handful of DVDs on it in two years. It is certainly a relative inconvenience copying stuff off a PVR onto DVD. Some Vestel T825 models did have a USB port which I think recordings could be copied from, but I'm not sure, and there are other PVRs where recordings can be exported via USB. USB is quite slow though. The bigger problem these days, more so with Freeview+ HD, is copy protection where manufacturers are being to not allow you to copy certain programmes, which can put manufacturers off putting in the necessary hardware to allowing recordings to be copied off at all .

I think the only T825 PVRs which had working USB ports were the Wharfedale LP/HDMI models. There has been reports of users successfully extracting .ts files from the PVR HDD using a USB memory stick but I have never succeeded in doing it. Not that I have tried very hard as any rare archiving I want to do I use a DVD/HDD Recorder.

Colin

I have a digihome pvr works fine and I love the epg and being able to toggle between two channels would like to upgrade to a hd pvr with the same epg and toggle any recommendations would be appreciated.

As everyone has mentioned, the capacitor is very cheap. You might also need the diode as well. I was lucky I did not.

Find someone who can solder, but really it is not that hard, even I managed it. .

If you still balk at doing it and paying someone to do it, then boards can be purchased. The link for those is in the thread link that futaura gave, but they are quite expensive when you think how much you paid for the PVR.

You could try this for a cheap way of getting a board.

I took the power board out of my spare unit whilst I got the parts to fix the blown one.

Thanks guys.

I know that i should bite the bullet and try and repair it. I just know how clumsy I am at this

I also scoured the net looking for suppliers of new boards, and found the one mentioned, but at 40 pounds, that is too much!

I went to the local second hand shop, but with no luck

I also looked at ebay, though as a virgin ebayer it might takle some time for me to win one.

Is this the right type Vestel?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Alba-160GB-Har...item3f08e81608

Though they seem to all have sold, so why is it still listed? (annoyingly there were still some left when I started this thread!)

But this guy's having a laugh with his postage

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/80GB-FREEVIEW-...item3a65ebe18b

I could collect it for less!

Perhaps I should just see compete and see what I win!

tim

Is this a Vestel?

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Dual-DVPR801-4...item2c5c8c84c1

It looks exactly right, but it's not in the list at:
http://www.vestelpvr.futaura.co.uk/allmodels.php

Ok, in order of the 3 links that you posted:

Maplin - these could be anything! Maplin bought a load of broken/returned boxes where the working parts had been stripped out and put together to make a working box. These could be a T810, T816 or T825 model - the model number on the sticker on the underside of the box may not match the hardware inside.

Alba ALDTR160 - this will be a T825 or T845R model. The latter will be no good to you as it needs a SATA drive.

Dual DVPR801 - looks like an early T810 model (the exact model number might not be correct, maybe on my website too, because Asda yoyo'd between the Dual and Durabrand names a lot). However, the remote control looks different (even compared to the box in the background!) and it's strange they say 40Gb when the model indicates 80Gb (AFAIK, there were never any 40Gb models).

The trouble is that the secondhand prices tend to hold up relatively well for working machines, and when you can get a "refurbished" T835 unit for £50 or so, it makes those overpriced older models look silly. However, I think you will find that secondhand boxes from private sellers will be cheaper and perhaps better looked after than the "refurbished" items from sellers that sell lots of these.

"ext2" was the disk format that used to be standard for the Linux OS. Even though it's been superseded by ext3 and ext4, I'd assume most modern versions of Linux can still read it.

Perhaps you can get a "live" (bootable) Linux CD or DVD that lets you use Linux on your computer without having to install it on the hard drive. Then you can copy the files from the DVR hard drive onto your computer's main hard drive?

The alternative might be to get some drivers that add ext2 support to Windows, and copy them over that way.

If this sounds over your head, then please disregard it, it's just a suggestion.

(Note to other forum users; what *file* format are the files stored by this DVR? Standard MPEG?)

This doesn't work. Better to use drivers for Windows. There are various threads on DigitalSpy and AVForums covering extracting recordings from Vestel PVR hard disks including this current thread:

http://www.avforums.com/forums/pvrs-...ngs-my-pc.html


The recordings are stored as multiple .trp files (i.e. MPEG 2 transport stream).

tim123,

you should bear in mind that any s/h replacement you buy will probably have the same inherent problem, a failing capacitor.
You could drop on a s/h working model which looks immaculate, but if it's been in use over the years there's a big chance you could be in the same boat a few months down the line.

You've been bold enough to get inside your pvr to remove the hard drive (many people wouldn't dream of 'opening up' there gear!), so surely you could remove the power board, order the bits you need (for pence, not pounds), and take the stuff to a local repair shop for soldering, if you don't feel up to the job yourself?.

The dismantling to get at / remove the board is actually the biggest job. Swapping out a capacitor-or-two on the removed board will take literally minutes for anyone useful with a soldering iron.

Guys,

Thanks for the further comment.

I chatted about my problem with the guy in the 2nd hand shop hoping that he would offer to help, but all he did was offer to sell me the required components.

I bid on the Dual, but someone swiped it from me at the last moment. Though there were prepared to pay more than I decided was sensible.

I'm aware that buying a 2nd hand card wont necessarily last much longer. But I need (well want) to get at what's on the disk, so anything beyond that is a bonus.

tim

tim, check your PMs.

Digihome products suck,i had a tv set that failed,a video/dvd combi that stopped working,all within the 12 month warranty,poorly made.

Digihome is just a brand name. The Digihome PVRs are made by Vestel and identical Vestel PVRs are sold under a variety of brand names such as Sharp, Hitachi, Wharfedale and many others. So to comment on Digihome products in general is meaningless.

Colin

Currently, Maplin sell a USB disk cradle for about £25, it will read the IDE disk out of the digihome.

To read the ext3 filesystem you'll need a linux filesystem reader, for your Windows PC, there's several free software packages.

Could you supply a link to the correct product, please? I've Googled but am confused by the results

parthena - and another