It was only through reading this forum, that I was aware of the changes to BBC HD transmission. Having been silly enough to follow an " impartial " recommendation to buy the Grundig HD recorder, I was quite surprised and somewhat relieved when an Initial Install, supplied two working BBC HD channels again. However, the box no longer switches to these channels cleanly. i.e. box switches to BBC HD or BBC 1 HD, both sound and vision are unstable for a couple of seconds, go off for a second or so, and then settles down. Not a great problem if you are watching, just another little annoyance to complete the box characteristics.
But, if you try to record BBC HD now........ "Recording has failed due to no signal " I can still record ITV1 HD. Never found anything on CH4 HD that I wanted to record.

Whoopee. Thanks BBC. I now have an SD recorder, an HD receiver, a very expensive spare 500Gbit HDD, or a light weight door stop. You take your pick.

The Samsung appears to be a dud. Do I risk buying a Foxsat ??????????

The pro's at the BBC made a change without realising the consequence e.g. no picture on thousands of set top boxes....

A freesat scan will fix the issue.

Automan.

Well I knew the change was taking place, because I saw it here. I did a Freesat scan testerday morning, and got the channels back. The point is, that the box no longer switches back to these two channels cleanly. The kerfuffle that takes place on switching to BBC hd, takes long enough for the recorder side of the business to decide that there is no signal.

Might be worth doing a Factory/Default setting, or whatever Grundig call it in their menus (I don't have one), to see if it fixes it.

Out of interest, why do you view the potential purchase of a Humax as a risk?

Hi savvy. I had a dish installed when I became aware of the intoduction of Freesat. I had intended to buy a Foxsat HD recorder as soon as the service started. But you will recall that the recorders were not available then. Being impatient to enjoy HD, I bought a Humax HD receiver, and initially there were problems with lip sync, the box was somewhat slow and one or two other things. So later, mainly as the result of reading comments on this forum, when recorders appeared, I "stupidly" bought a Grundig HDR. This box has since earned the reputation that it deserves, but it still cost me around £200. I do not think it was the retailers fault, and think that it has done and to some extent still does, what it was designed to do. It just does not do it very reliably. Now it won't record BBC hd at all. Harvard appear to not wish to correct any of it's problems. Indeed they charge you just to make them aware. No justification in my mind to return under the sale of goods act.

I do see comments here still, concerning the Foxsat, including bad ones. As a pensioner, paying out £250 is always a risk.

Also a pensioner

How about this one

http://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/product...76&cat=Factory

If it's any help had a Foxsat-hdr since launch (Nov 2008). No problems at all (lots of niggles at first but nothing that stops the box working as a pvr). Sure it can be a bit slow to respond to remote control at times but us oldies have lots of patience

Not a pensioner, but still careful with his money

The HDR has worked perfectly as a PVR for me for more than a couple of years.

I think most of the comments you will see will relate to perceived UI issues, which are sometimes subjective anyway, and you quickly get used to.

I wouldn't be without it, it completely changed the way we view TV, and we utterly rely on its Accurate Recording & Series Link facilities.

Just my 2p worth.

BTW, I still think it might be worth a shot at a factory reset on your Grundig - nothing to lose apart from recording schedules, and custom settings?

Hi Graham. Yes thanks for the suggestion. I was aware of grade A, and the smaller HDD. With 500 Gb hdd being generally cheaper than their smaller brothers now, wonder when the price will change.
Hopefully, sooner rather than later, most of the things that I do record will be HD. So prefer the 500 version. Also, when they are competitive, I prefer to shop locally. Easier to deal with when things go wrong. Both John Lewis and Curry's compete on price at the moment. But still lots of niggles on here about Foxsat. And when I use the Humax HD receiver, it does seem incredibly slow to start up. Maybe a small price to pay. Still thinking.

Hi savvy. There is not a factory reset as far as I am aware. Just an initial instal, which starts you off from scratch. Already done that of course. ITV1 HD still works ok. ( Nearly said perfectly there, but there is nothing perfect about this box !! ))
So it seems totally S2 related.

Likewise.

Shame the BBC are getting like Samsung and don't bother to do any tests before they make a change.

Automan.

What test should they do -??
firstly compliance with the relevant DVB and Platform specs -
this seems to have been done as the vast majority of TV/STB work (and one platform at least would have tested it!)
that is what interoperability specs are all about.


Secondly they would have tried it out on a number of STB on their own end to end test system .. but they cannot test every STB that is out there.. hence interoperability specs,

I cannot see what more on the testing side they could have done - except that you always know that you can never test enough!!

As already said it seems reasonable to assume that Sky and Freesat badged kit should conform to DVB-S2 standards.

Many are suprised that the Beeb did not make the shift years ago.

What is surprising though is the time scales in which the change was reported. In my humble opinion it should have been longer, at least manufacturers could have done some of their own testing. I am assuming that they were left in the dark as much as we mere mortals were. Pretty sure if Humax knew that there would have been a whiff of info from posters like Barry at MyHumax or IanD at JoinFreesat.

I had to do a factory reset on my Panasonic DMR-XS350 before I was able to see the BBC HD channels again, now also able to get C4-HD for the first time.

As DVB-S2 was part of the original Freesat specification I think it's reasonable to expect all Freesat HD boxes and televisions to work with this standard.

If they had tested with several brands of freesat and Sky boxes they may have found out that some, including the new flagship Samsung box require the user to perform a freesat scan to restore all channels rather than calling for an engineer to fix it.

Also, the BBC being in the news business could have advised users of the change in advance in many ways - not everyone reads a blog.

I'm sure some document does say all the boxes should support the format but does it mention changing the format of the stream while it is in use?

EDIT:
I guess the BBC forgot about Panasonic products?




Automan.

On another forum someone fixed their box by deleting the effected channels and then doing a scan.

I guess if the box thought the channel details were the same it would not update them?

Automan.

I'm surprised Graham hasn't pointed you at getting the cheaper box + a 1TB drive + a caddy. the total cost would be about the same as the 500GB version of the HDR.
Some folk would take the HDD out of the HDR & use 2 external caddies which allows easier upgrades later.
I caravan with the HDR & avoid extra boxes, to keep things tidy, & have replaced the original 330GB by an internal 2TB (=2000GB) & keep the old 330 in a caddy at home.
To do such a change you would need to open the HDR & might lose your warranty, if there are seals on the box.
There is a large old thread on this subject, if you are interested, someone will point it out.
Do not be put off by the techniques, I have only slightly advanced on my skills in using Mecano & I coped !

I did think about posting this but figured the complications of Hd recording encryption and having to use an EXT3 format for HD recordings of any significant length might have been one step too far

In fact I have my internal drive 1TB in an external caddy (connected by esata) and a 1TB usb archive drive also in a caddy (the hdr formatted it so the two can be swapped). Both drives are externally powered but their power is controlled by a relay switched by the internal drive 12V power rail.

I used to use the original 320GB drive as an archive as well but I have today formatted it as one EXT3 partition to use as a recording drive with a Fox T2 HD box I was lucky enough to win in the My Humax competition. Due to arive tommorow

A 1tb update is simpler and just involves replacing the drive.
It is important to choose a AV type drive with low power consuption.

I agree, 2TB involved reformatting the disc with Linux. Not everyone might fancy doing that, I trembled but won with help.

If I didn't have my caravanning in mind, I would have used no HDD in the HDR & had 330GB & 1TB external drives in caddies.
David

PS the internal 2TB has been used for several months & has given no problems.

Hi All
For those blamong BBC for not doing tests. Where is the bandwidth on 2D to run such tests $ky are still hogging the 2d bandwidth on 2D. They can move their channels to @A or 2B or EB1 but then Murdoch does not like public service television. He still charges for the Planet of the Apes shown on free TV!

It's down the STB manufactures to do the tests on STB's - DVB-S2 has been an established standard for a very long time. The BBC can't aford to wait to implement a 30% bandwith saving - Surprised it did not happens a long time ago.

Do their tests include switching transmission formats?

I assume the BBC at least confirmed with all the equipment manufacturers before they made this change and got confirmation that the switch would be harmless?

If so we can blame the STB makers, if not Aunty Beeb must take some blame even it is just for taking so long to make the change.

BTW, Does this mean we will actually now get 1920x1080 pixels rather than 1440?

Automan.

I do think the BBC made STB aware of the change.
Your BTW - No why should it?

p.s how may STB's do you have? or have had in the last month?

Oh - ST 'B's
Gosh. I thought I must have mis-read it!

I thought if the picture was made out of 1920 lines rather than 1440 the picture would be closer to HD?

I have the following STB's

1 x Samsung S7800
3 x Foxsat-HDR
1 x Technisat

Automan.