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Techika T835 firmware |
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#26 |
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Another semi-interesting fact is that there are at least 2 different versions of the T835 main board, denoted by 16MB835N-3 and 16MB835N-4 printed on the bottom-right of the board. There are some obvious changes in component layout, and the former has a relatively huge heatsink stuck on top of the STM5100 chip, whilst the latter instead has a tiny round washer-like thing stuck on it. Also, the latter is probably the version where SCART pin 8 doesn't go high when coming out of standby to record, which interrupts what you're viewing on another source if you have an older spec board (it was nice to see that the Hitachi boxes that I've got working don't have this annoying feature).
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That's a shame - the T835 should be much more reliable than the T825 for recording, since the software is much improved. Tuner performance is also much better. Colin |
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#27 |
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I had a look at the photos I took of the inside of my T835 and can confirm that I have the 16MB835N-3 PCB with the large heat-sink. I have noticed a few occasions when my Humax has been taken over by the signal on it's SCART input. I had assumed it was due to the TUTV PVR which I have in the daisy chain between the T835 and the Humax and has caused this previously. I'll take more notice next time and confirm which unit is generating the SCART switching signal.
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Disaster tonight I'm afraid. My Humax failed to record Downton Abbey so I was relying on my T835 as a back-up. Unfortunately the T835 suffered a HDD Initialisation failure some time between completing the recording of South Today at 18:25 and failing to record Strictly Come Dancing at 19:25. Had to resort to ITV Player for Downton Abbey. That is the first time in the two years that my strategy of using my Humax and a Vestel to back-up each other has let me down due to recording failures. So I'll be ringing Tesco tomorrow and putting one of my T825 units back into service.
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#28 |
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...Assuming there is no warranty seal, my advice would first be to check the HDD SATA and power cables are attached securely (both ends for the SATA cable) since these could possibly become loosened in transit. If it's not that then my guess would be a PSU issue or HDD failure, and it would help if you could hook the drive up to a PC and run Western Digital's Lifeguard diagnostics utility on it to see if it passes the short and extended tests. If it fails either test, then you'll know the HDD is knackered, and time to contact Tesco Outlet....
If I can track down another suitable PSU I may be able to check that out but, again, the current one seems fine as the display is bright and clear and the unit runs happily for hours, including recording/playback disk activity. My unit does appear to be brand new and in pristine condition, including the cable tie on the PSU etc. The unit booted into the first-time installation and the HDD was totally clean. So, I don't believe it had sufficient "miles on the clock" to cause wear-out failure of the HDD. However, it is possible that I am seeing an early "burn-in" hardware failure. I have now tried the old T816 trick of forcing a disk check by killing the power while recording, then restarting (which makes the unit display "hdd"). If I still get initialisation failures I will try a disk reformat. If that fails to produce reliable operation then it looks like it will be going back to Tesco.
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#29 |
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Thanks for that. I doubt that this is a "connection" problem as the SATA interface is a serial link and, as such, generally either works or doesn't. As a simple power-cycle restored normal operation, without any physical movement of the unit, this seems to me to be a software lock-up, rather than a hardware fault.
If I can track down another suitable PSU I may be able to check that out but, again, the current one seems fine as the display is bright and clear and the unit runs happily for hours, including recording/playback disk activity. My unit does appear to be brand new and in pristine condition, including the cable tie on the PSU etc. The unit booted into the first-time installation and the HDD was totally clean. So, I don't believe it had sufficient "miles on the clock" to cause wear-out failure of the HDD. However, it is possible that I am seeing an early "burn-in" hardware failure. |
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#30 |
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No real surprise I guess - since these Technika units have old software installed, it makes sense the hardware is older too. Not that this is a bad thing, apart from the SCART switching, since I think the heatsink is much better than the newer models. With the newer boards, the SCART also doesn't actually switch on until the box is fully booted when you switch it on from low power standby, so you don't even see the disk initialising message.
What I did discover today before replacing the T835 is that it does not maintain the RF feed-through when in Low Power Standby mode. My T825 LPHDMI units do maintain the RF in this mode. Together with the single SCART that's another limitation of the T835 for my purposes. I spoke to Tesco's this morning and they are arranging to collect my T835 on Wednesday. They don't have any in stock ATM so could not offer a replacement. So I'm going for a refund unless they get any new stock before the refund is completed. Colin |
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#31 |
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...What I did discover today before replacing the T835 is that it does not maintain the RF feed-through when in Low Power Standby mode...
As my T835 was supplied with v2.5 software which I then upgraded to v3.4, I wonder if this is a "feature" of the earlier versions. It also may be that our two units are showing similar HDD initialisation problems if the HDD's are from a faulty batch, as Futaura suggested. The serial number of mine is 10066476, with what seems to be a date of 03/10. |
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#32 |
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Interesting. I know that my T835 does maintain the RF feed-through in LP mode as I still have my old T816 fed via the T835 coax feed.
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#33 |
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Are you sure about that? With the T835 in LP standby (no clock on front panel), the RF pass-through is normally disabled...
The T816 and DVD recorder work fine whether the T835 is "on" (with the display showing channel etc), normal standby (with the display showing clock) or in low-power standby (with the display unlit). The only time the RF pass-through fails is if I switch off the power to the T835. |
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#34 |
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Yep! My aerial coax goes straight to the T835 then the output from this goes to my T816, which in turn feeds a Freeview DVD recorder.
The T816 and DVD recorder work fine whether the T835 is "on" (with the display showing channel etc), normal standby (with the display showing clock) or in low-power standby (with the display unlit). The only time the RF pass-through fails is if I switch off the power to the T835. . I just checked with my ancient original T835 and a newer board, and the result was the same for both. The signal is passed through in low power standby, but attenuated a fair bit (so the signal meter says device attached to RF out). So, it depends how strong the incoming signal to the T835 is - after DSO it's probably ok (no DSO here yet, and still ok!). As you say, unplugging the T835 kills the passthrough dead. And when the T835 is on, there is virtually no signal loss on the passthrough.I'm confused as I was given the impression it was a hardware limitation when I reported that the passthrough in LP standby was not working in v0.7, yet I noticed that I thought it worked in v0.5 (the factory fresh version). Perhaps this was fixed in the software sometime after v0.7. I think there is some software control of this function available at least. Did you test the passthrough with v2.5? I don't think I dare downgrade to v0.7 to test my theory .
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#35 |
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...Did you test the passthrough with v2.5? I don't think I dare downgrade to v0.7 to test my theory
.![]() I have now got both PVRs and my DVD plumbed-in together so I have a choice of which to use. The intention was to keep this setup until we had watched all the recordings on the T816 but, until the T835 has proved itself, I think we will carry on recording on both for a while yet.
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#36 |
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Aha - you're right, sort of
. I just checked with my ancient original T835 and a newer board, and the result was the same for both. The signal is passed through in low power standby, but attenuated a fair bit (so the signal meter says device attached to RF out). So, it depends how strong the incoming signal to the T835 is - after DSO it's probably ok (no DSO here yet, and still ok!). As you say, unplugging the T835 kills the passthrough dead. And when the T835 is on, there is virtually no signal loss on the passthrough.Quote:
I'm confused as I was given the impression it was a hardware limitation when I reported that the passthrough in LP standby was not working in v0.7, yet I noticed that I thought it worked in v0.5 (the factory fresh version). Perhaps this was fixed in the software sometime after v0.7. I think there is some software control of this function available at least. Did you test the passthrough with v2.5? I don't think I dare downgrade to v0.7 to test my theory I hope my correction above removes your confusion and also explains the differences in what I and Zill have reported. Sorry about misleading you. .
Colin |
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#37 |
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What I did discover today before replacing the T835 is that it does not maintain the RF feed-through when in Low Power Standby mode. My T825 LPHDMI units do maintain the RF in this mode. Together with the single SCART that's another limitation of the T835 for my purposes.
Colin Quote:
Interesting. I know that my T835 does maintain the RF feed-through in LP mode as I still have my old T816 fed via the T835 coax feed.
As my T835 was supplied with v2.5 software which I then upgraded to v3.4, I wonder if this is a "feature" of the earlier versions. Quote:
It also may be that our two units are showing similar HDD initialisation problems if the HDD's are from a faulty batch, as Futaura suggested. The serial number of mine is 10066476, with what seems to be a date of 03/10. Colin |
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#38 |
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...The Serial number of my HDD is significantly different from yours. Mine is 13814482 with a date of 8 Feb. 2010. Odd that mine has a higher SN but an earlier date.
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#39 |
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My apologies but I didn't make it clear that I was quoting the serial number and date for the T835 itself, as printed on the box label. I haven't actually opened up the unit to examine the HDD (yet!).
Colin |
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#40 |
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Ah! that puts a different interpretation on my report that my T835 does not pass through RF in Low Power Standby mode. I was observing the effect on the an analogue tuner TV in the kitchen which is fed from the RF output from the T835. This signal is also connected by a passive splitter splitter array feeding two other AV devices in the dining room all in parallel so degrading the signal to all three. The TV in the kitchen did show a badly degraded picture with the T835 in LP Mode which I assumed (I now realise incorrectly) was picking up from another weak source. Obviously I was seeing an attenuated signal from the T835. I assume the T835 pass-through amplifier is powered off in LP Mode resulting in the lower output level. I hope my correction above removes your confusion and also explains the differences in what I and Zill have reported. Sorry about misleading you.
. As Zill says, unplugging the T835 from the mains kills the passthrough completely, so I guess there must be some form of amplication in LP standby. I shocked myself getting a usable signal from the passthrough, since in the past (with v0.7 at least) I got no signal, so I split the signal beforehand (passively split 5 times, atm - I have a lot of stuff to test ).
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#41 |
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Well, my T835 was regularly producing a HDD initialisation error on startup from LP mode, despite forcing a "disk check" and later reformatting the disk. I have now opened the unit up and established the following data:
T835 bar code label: GRTB32943111624 WD HDD S/N: 13696407 11 Feb 2010 T835 main board: 16MB835N-3 I have a spare SATA HDD from an old PC so I have now replaced the WD2500AVVS-63L280 with a Samsung SP2004C (200GB/7200rpm/8M). I formatted the "new" HDD in the T835 and also did a "first-time installation" for good measure! Initial test results look promising - no failure to initialise so far! However, it is early days yet so I will keep testing the unit while using my trusty old T816 for recordings I really want.
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#42 |
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I have a spare SATA HDD from an old PC so I have now replaced the WD2500AVVS-63L280 with a Samsung SP2004C (200GB/7200rpm/8M). I formatted the "new" HDD in the T835 and also did a "first-time installation" for good measure!
Initial test results look promising - no failure to initialise so far! However, it is early days yet so I will keep testing the unit while using my trusty old T816 for recordings I really want. ![]() |
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#43 |
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Perhaps try running the short and extended Lifeguard tests on the AV-GP drive to see if it throws up any errors, although it sounds more like a startup problem, but maybe the SMART data will show that...
![]() If the Samsung disk does prove to be reliable in the T835 then I will just scrap the WD disk - I wouldn't trust a suspect drive again even if I had run a "repair" utility on it. |
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#44 |
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My T835 is still firing up OK after several LP standby periods.
However, I set up a week's worth of BBC News at One this morning using series-link record. The HDD spun-up OK at 1300 but then stopped again after around a minute - No entry in Library but today's entry disappeared from Timer list as if the recording had been completed. While watching the rest of the news "live" a "freeze" occurred, which I reset by changing channel and back. I guess the failure to record was probably due to a similar freeze just after the program started.As we are now post-DSO in this area and had a rock-solid signal both before and after DSO, I wonder if others have had "freezing" problems with the T835 and, if so, found a workaround to minimise this (i.e. could it be related to series-link recording etc.)? I did sometimes get similar freezing problems with my old T816 after using the "search" facility and had to reboot afterwards to clear this - could the T835 have inherited the same problem? (I did do a "search" this morning as part of my testing!) A further question is regarding the order of programs in the Timer list. The T816 displays programs in time order, with the next one due to be recorded at the top of the list. My T835 doesn't appear to do this but seems to put programs in a rather strange order, more or less (but not quite!) in the order they were entered, but then moving the series link programs in to the top of the list after rebooting from LP mode. With a long list, this makes it more difficult to keep track of what has been setup etc. Have other users got the same sort order in Timers or is there something I can do to change this? |
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#45 |
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My T835 is still firing up OK after several LP standby periods.
However, I set up a week's worth of BBC News at One this morning using series-link record. The HDD spun-up OK at 1300 but then stopped again after around a minute - No entry in Library but today's entry disappeared from Timer list as if the recording had been completed. While watching the rest of the news "live" a "freeze" occurred, which I reset by changing channel and back. I guess the failure to record was probably due to a similar freeze just after the program started.As we are now post-DSO in this area and had a rock-solid signal both before and after DSO, I wonder if others have had "freezing" problems with the T835 and, if so, found a workaround to minimise this (i.e. could it be related to series-link recording etc.)? I did sometimes get similar freezing problems with my old T816 after using the "search" facility and had to reboot afterwards to clear this - could the T835 have inherited the same problem? (I did do a "search" this morning as part of my testing!) A further question is regarding the order of programs in the Timer list. The T816 displays programs in time order, with the next one due to be recorded at the top of the list. My T835 doesn't appear to do this but seems to put programs in a rather strange order, more or less (but not quite!) in the order they were entered, but then moving the series link programs in to the top of the list after rebooting from LP mode. With a long list, this makes it more difficult to keep track of what has been setup etc. Have other users got the same sort order in Timers or is there something I can do to change this? . I am aware of possible freezing problems on the T835 - see http://pvrbugs.futaura.co.uk/view.php?id=161, but am not sure of the trigger - that said, it's probably only happened to me a handful of times.
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#46 |
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This is just how the timer list is on the T835 (and the T816 v6.7, T825, T845R too plus probably the T836 for that matter)...
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...I am aware of possible freezing problems on the T835 - see http://pvrbugs.futaura.co.uk/view.php?id=161, but am not sure of the trigger - that said, it's probably only happened to me a handful of times.
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#47 |
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Doh! Why, oh why, do software developers insist on "improving" things that worked well previously?
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It is good to know that this is already recorded on your bug tracker, which is obviously a very valuable resource for Vestel. Do they actually refer to this to incorporate bugfixes into updates and/or new software?
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#48 |
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My T835 is still firing up OK after several LP standby periods.
However, I set up a week's worth of BBC News at One this morning using series-link record. The HDD spun-up OK at 1300 but then stopped again after around a minute - No entry in Library but today's entry disappeared from Timer list as if the recording had been completed. While watching the rest of the news "live" a "freeze" occurred, which I reset by changing channel and back. I guess the failure to record was probably due to a similar freeze just after the program started...No recurrence of my original HDD initialisation problems and so it looks like the WD HDD was the culprit. It now looks like I will be sticking with the T835 for a while...
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#49 |
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I've acquired one of the Technika T835 320GB from the Tesco Outlet on eBay. Great value at £43. Looked good as new in the box. Came with v2.6 software, so made up a lead and upgraded to 3.4. All seems well so far. Only problem I had was making up the lead. Didn't realise the diagram on Futaura's website showed the rear of the SCART but the front of the 9 pin! So first attempt didn't work. Will give it some hammer over the next couple of weeks and make sure it all works fine.
The T835 is intended as a secondary box to supplement our DigitalStream which we use for most of our recordings. But £43 for a twin tuner PVR with 320Gb, accurate record, series link etc is fantastic value. Cheers MarkA |
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#50 |
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I've bought another T835 from Tesco's to replace the one I returned last week. The "new" one is a 320GB version and has software version 1.9. It's physically in very good condition but is obviously not new as it has two recordings on it dated Aug 2010 which I assume were made by the previous owner.
Things did not start well when I first powered it on. It booted to the First Time Installation menu and I performed an Automatic Channel Scan. All MUXs appeared to tune satisfactorily and when the Scan completed the unit displayed a "live" BBC1 Channel as indicated by the Info banner, However there was no sound or vision. Display of A//V was possible as I was able to playback the existing recordings in the Library. Setting in and out of standby had no effect. Looking at the Manual Tune screen displayed zero signal level for all channels. Doing a power-cycle restored normal operation. Doing several Low Power Standby re-boots and power-cycles since has not produced the original condition. Any thoughts on what caused the initial issue? Not done much yet except set up a full schedule of Series Record events equal to the total I have on my other currently connected PVRs comprising 76 events in total. Immediately after completing the setting it took 24s to access the Timers list which is not dissimilar to what I got on my T825 with a similar number of Timer events. Having completed nine recordings this evening with the unit powered on since about 3.0pm I accessed the Timers list just now (00.05 am). It took approx 1m 30s before the Timers screen was displayed! From what I remember that was longer than on my T825 under similar conditions. I've just (at 00.15am) accessed the Timers list a second time and it took approx 2m this time. Accessing the Guide is taking about 4s and stepping through the days in the Guide 5s per day. So for me I'm not getting any improvement in response time compared with my T825, A third access of the Timers list again took 2m. Colin Edit: At 00:45am I've just completed a Low Power Standby cycle and immediately accessed the Timers list which took 5s. Response on the EPG is also restored to optimum. |
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. I just checked with my ancient original T835 and a newer board, and the result was the same for both. The signal is passed through in low power standby, but attenuated a fair bit (so the signal meter says device attached to RF out). So, it depends how strong the incoming signal to the T835 is - after DSO it's probably ok (no DSO here yet, and still ok!). As you say, unplugging the T835 kills the passthrough dead. And when the T835 is on, there is virtually no signal loss on the passthrough.
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