Things are going nowhere fast regarding the "Service is not running" issue - previous theories of it being mux specific or signal level being too high have now gone out of the window. Latest theory is that it is related to timers in some way, and this could involve the recording library also since the two are linked. I'm still in the process of trying to prove this theory as the problem for me tends not to show up when I'm trying to reproduce it. It may seem random, but usually there is a solid reason behind these things even if the symptoms appear random.

As such, any help from anybody running v4.6 or v4.8 who can consistently reproduce the "Service is not running" problem could prove critical.

cant replicate it here sorry, wouldn't mind a copy of the latest, if you don't mind, thank you

I am running v4.8 and you might consider the following for why I appear to get the message "Services is not running".
With my situation I noticed that in the Menu>Set Up & Retune>Configuration>Auto Power Down...
When Auto power down is set to "ON" then after the system goes to standby automatically and you then power back out of standby then, often than not, I would get the "Services is not running" message.
When I have auto power down switched to OFF I have not had this message.The reason I know this is because I have 3 scart inputs on my TV each setup using a different freeview box and therefore I could often be watching on one of the other inputs when the T835 goes into Auto Power down so I am not noticeit shutting down at the time. It is when I try to wke it up is when the problem happens. I have now turned it to OFF and have not had a problem since. I hope this might be relevant to your problem.

finally got service not running.... set-up and retune - configuration - low power = YES, auto power down = OFF. put box into standby, wait a few seconds, bring box out of standby and message appears 'service not running'.

recordings library is empty, no timers are set

signal quality : very good. signal level : full

set low power back to NO, put into standby, bring box out of standby and message still appears 'service not running'

change channels and 'service not running' still appears

box becomes slow to respond, intermittent reception on all muxes 'service not running' then eventually still pictures with intermittent sound.

into standby unplug box.....wait..... plug back in... wait....out of standby and everything is ok again

hope this helps

Firmware version 5.2 is due to download. Do we know if this is stable with bugs fixed?

Unfortunately not. I saw this earlier today and am slightly confused because 5.3 was supposed to be a release candidate, which does fix a lot of the problems, but not all. I've never tried 5.2, so I'll try to find out some more - it could be a mistake on the DTG site though, as initially it was showing Hitachi T835 this morning, before it was replaced with the HDR model numbers.

I now have some details on v5.2... It is a build entirely based on v3.4 (not v4.x), but with TRD support and extended programme information on live tv (i.e. pressing info button twice brings up programme info like older boxes). So, this version should be a good upgrade for all as it won't contain all the many other changes since v3.5 which caused all the infamous problems with v4.6/v4.8 - switch on automatic updates if you disabled them. Those who tested v5.3 will need to downgrade to an earlier version in order to receive the OAD.

Sounds interesting! I understand that "TRD" is "Target Region Descriptor" so, presumably, this feature may help users receiving transmissions from more than one region.

While the restoration of the original "info button" functionality sounds appealing, do you know if the newer "Trailer Booking" (green button) feature will also be included in v5.2?

My (brief!) experience with this (v5.3) was not good as the damn thing kept appearing at inappropriate times, such as when looking at the EPG/Library or watching recordings IIRC. If it only appeared when watching TV "live" then I could probably live with it - but at any other time it is, IMHO, an irrelevant nuisance!

If Vestel are returning to "the good old days" does v5.2 bring with it the old "favourite" functionality so that it is not necessary to scroll through all the junk channels when using the EPG?

I'm running v4.8 and have got over this issue by deleting the unwanted channels from the menu permanently. I now only have to scroll through 20 or so channels rather than 100.
If I wanted a channel back again I could always rescan.
I appreciate this is not the most elegant solution but works for me.
Let's hope that this new release cures the problems of the dreadful v4.8

Indeed - it has always been my advice to delete all unwanted channels, as it does improve performance with all software versions old and new on the T835 (T825 too). The more channels there are, the quicker the unit slows down in relation to uptime (so particularly important for those who wish to avoid low power mode).

Zill, I hate to say it, but you personally may wish to avoid v5.2. I have just now installed it, and the first thing I checked was the CVBS setting . Unfortunately it is broken in v5.2, so presumably that bug came along with the TRD changes.

Based purely on the file size, I highly doubt v5.2 has green button support - haven't had a chance to test that yet. Certainly the green button should have only been visible whilst watching live tv and at no other time. With favourites enabled the EPG still shows all channels.

Has the slow down issue been fixed along with the delayed remote control commands?

Well, not fixed per se - more avoided. Since v5.2 has reverted to the older code of v3.4 as a baseline, none of the 100 or so changes (which contributed to the issues in v4.6/v4.8) since then are present in v5.2. So, regarding performance and reliability, v5.2 should be exactly the same as v3.4.

I just installed 5.2. I started the download manually at 10.03 and the process took 27min to complete. You need to be patience if observing the download as the progress stops moving for several minutes several times during the process giving the impression of a lock-up.

Colin

Many thanks for the info futaura. I think I will stick with v3.4 for the time being.

I don't know what is happening at Vestel but, with the introduction of many new bugs that break previously working functionality, they really do seem to have lost the plot now!

So far so good with this firmware update. No more delayed remote response!!

As always, thank you for all your helpful information Futaura

I have no previous experience of 3.4 (I bought a refurbished T835 from Tesco with 1.9 and a replacement for that with 2.1?). I get the impression that navigation of the EPG and particularly setting daily Series Record events takes significantly longer (between 15 and 30 seconds delay) than I recall 1.9 and my T825 software took. I performed a First Time Installation after downloading 5.2 so started with a clean sheet.

Colin

Duplicate post deleted.

I tried to upgrade from 3.5 to 5.2 this afternoon but although it started searching for updates, the progress bar on searching just got stuck on the first little progress block filled in, and had got no further after an hour. I tried again and it stuck there again. Is there any way I can get round this?

I tried what you suggested on the other thread, Futaura, enabling automatic updates, and I set low power mode on and turned it off for the night. But this morning, I still have version 3.5. I did another manual check for updates, and it just stuck at the first block of the progress bar again. I don't want to try a rescan for channels (as you suggested on the other thread) because of the risk of getting channels from the wrong transmitter and having to set up all my timers again. But I have all the channels and it was on BBC1 when I did the manual search for updates, so surely it should have found the update there anyway?

Yes, as long as you have a good signal on the PSB1 mux (which BBC1 is on), then it should upgrade - it doesn't matter which channel you are tuned to. Not sure why the progress bar would be getting stuck for an hour, although it is normal for it to get stuck for a few minutes when it hits the mux with the engineering broadcasts.

Maybe it is an issue particular to v3.5 only - it should have updated to v4.6 and v4.8 too if you had automatic updates on. Unfortunately, I don't have the v3.5 software file, otherwise I'd try putting that on a box to see if it would update to v5.2 here.

I don't usually have it set to low power mode, which would be why it didn't get the previous software upgrade, plus when I read about those upgrades causing problems, I disabled automatic updating. But as I said, I did enable it last night and set low power mode (and it had definitely gone into low power mode by this morning but no update). Thanks for the reply.

If the clock on the front panel doesn't go off instantly when you switch it off to low power standby, then that indicates it is checking for updates at that point. If you have automatic updates off, the clock goes of straight away. This behaviour varies - older versions used to only check at 3am every night, but I think v3.5 may check when you put it into LP standby. So, might be worth switching it off and on a few times (wait until the clock has gone off until switching it back on) rather than the manual update function via the menus. Obviously, if it is making a recording at the time, it isn't going to check for updates until that recording has been completed.

I hadn't noticed the update until I saw the new thread on here.

* Info button functionality like my old Digihome box
* Problem with bits of MHEG being semi-transparent when they shouldn't - gone
* No "book me" prompts - I can live with that.
* Paging in the Guide and Channel List using - PR + still the wrong way round IMHO

All other stuff looking good at the moment. I've switched off auto searching for firmware now, unless this version becomes a pig to use I won't be wanting an update

Another wee thing, I always have my Recording Library sorted by Newest First, but on recent versions it always came up sorted alphabetically during the "Loading library" stage, then it went to my chosen sort order, this has been fixed/reverted - Just a little thing, but evidence of careless programming

Edit: Just did a first time installation and the Choose Region screen has appeared - although there's no need for it because it didn't log any channels from another region - although it did detect weak multiplexes.

Of course, that's debatable - I know it is flipped around many times since the T810 days. To further complicate matters, the new remotes for the HD models have a vertical P+/- button rather than two separate ones placed horizontally on the SD models. I guess the right way is the way you first experienced .


Hmmm... hadn't noticed that - it was not an issue in v5.3, so presumably this got fixed on the other codebase too. However, funnily enough, I see this problem on my T7650 and it's a bit irritating.