Update on today's experience of the freezing issue. I reported in post #168 that it was possible that all my previous occurrences of the freezing had resulted from my use of the Timers list. Today after rebooting from the Low Power standby state I purposely avoided entering the Timers list. However this has not prevented the freezing issue from developing and affecting a wide range of Remote commands.

Colin

Thanks for clarifying. So, no magic trigger has yet been found, any maybe there isn't one. Bizarrely enough, my box has been on for 14 hours now, and it is still behaving pretty well and not too much slowdown. However, about an hour ago it did start accessing the HDD every 40 seconds again and it will not stop (I have no idea what triggers this either). Going to have to stick in in LP standby overnight and try again tomorrow. Unfortunately, although all the tasks can be listed via serial, the cpu loading is not specified (I think I was getting mixed up with the T7300), so no useful information there.

Thanks furaura. Re my bug report #0304 I have now had chance to check this out with our T835 and can confirm that I had disabled the automatic updates when I went back to v3.4 as I now don't want a new version to be installed until I have approved this!

When I changed automatic updates to "enabled" then the original behaviour returned, in that the T835 waited for a couple of minutes after pressing the standby button before shutting down. Needless to say, having verified this, I quickly returned this setting to "disabled", where it will stay until I hear that a new version has been released that (a) does not cause a degradation in performance and (b) offers a significant functional advantage over v3.4. Note that adding extra visual junk like "trailer booking" does not, IMHO, count as an advantage!

I would have added a note to the bug report but find it is now closed. However, I do agree that no further action is needed on this, although I do remain puzzled as to the logic when the box looks for an update when shutting down, rather than starting up.

I have now succeeded in rolling back my box from 4.6 to 3.4 and everything is working normally again (I originally had 3.5 installed)

My thanks to Zill and MarkA for their comments about upgrading and of course to Futaura for making the download file available for downoad.

I note that against the download the description states "Fixes failures to record due to not waking up from low power standby and will no longer record repeats if you choose to delete the original recording before the repeat is aired". One of the main faults I have always found with this box is that deletion of say Coronation Street always results in a repeat recording the next day and other programmes throughout the week so it doesn't seem as if that change was very successful.

Unlike Zill I think I will leave my box on auto-update and see if anything else pops up since I now have everything to roll back if necessary.

Presumably you are talking about series timers? I do know that this was definitely fixed for most cases because I pestered Vestel for the fix and I tested it . It will still record repeats if the repeat has a different CRID to the original, and in that case there is no way for the software to tell that the repeat is actually a repeat, IYSWIM. Repeat episodes should have the same CRID as the original. I shall check on Coronation Street - it has been a while, but I think this was one of my test cases back when the issue was addressed. Any particular channels you've noticed this problem on?

On the previous version of the software (1.9 Tecso refurb) on my T835 I did get a significant number of failed recordings when in LP Standby. Regarding repeats I record all the evening soaps. We almost always watch the recordings later on the same evening and only on very rare occasions was one of the repeats recorded. I always believed when this happened there was some problem with the first recording the box and that is why the duplicate was recorded. This is a feature on the Vestels I've always been impressed with.

Colin

It is generally on series recordings although I can recall instances of it happening on single recordings which I could never understand. Certainly I had many repeats on series; Match of the day, Eastenders, Coro, Graham Norton, Shameless, Desperate Housewives, The Exit List, to name but a few and had established the practice of leaving deletions to a later day (it would have been nice to have had batch deletions).

I did try it out last night and the only one repeated until now was Coronation Street on ITV2 but only the second episode. Maybe 3.4 is working better than the previous 3.5 installed.

I will try it out this coming week and let you have feedback.

I used to leave deletions like you, but it is definitely much better in v3.4. Unfortunately, the T7300 software currently suffers from the same problem, and it is looking like T835 v4.6 may have regained this problem too. I set series links on all the soaps, and it turns out this is a good way to trigger the slowdown . Actually, I did this last night and it failed to record the first Coronation Street because the now/next info got stuck, as has been mentioned before. I'm convinced most, if not all, the problems are down to some changes in the timer/booking system which seems to be going haywire in v4.6. I think I've pretty much now seen all the symptoms described by others, and this is on a clean formatted factory reset box.

This could happen if Vestel are not using the latest version of software as a baseline for each upgrade but are, instead, using an earlier version. This would account for bugs that have been resolved in previous versions being reinstated with later releases.

It would be useful if you could persuade Vestel to release more information about each version, preferably publishing a full changelog so that we can all see what has been done. We all want this software to work as well as possible so the more eyes the better!

If Vestel are using an open-source Linux kernel as the basis for their products then surely they should appreciate the great benefits of open-sourcing more of their additional code.

I would just like to say how pleased I am to have joined the forum.
v4.6 update rendered my Hitachi HDR165 virtually useless. By following the links and instructions on here I have managed to install v3.4 and it now works better than ever. (It had been running v2.5)

gruntfuttoch: Welcome to the forums.

We are all indebted to futaura for producing a really useful website for Vestel (unofficial) support.

It would be good if Vestel also had better communication with their end-users but, until then, it looks like DIY!

Update of T835 4,6 freezing and slowdown issues.

I have had my T845 running for 3 days continuously (i.e. no setting to standby) with the Auto Power Down option disabled. Generally after this time there has been only a little slowdown. The only significant slowdown was the time to step through each day in the Guide (Blue and Yellow buttons).

The main issue continued to be the freezing issue. This made the box very unpleasant to use. One notable example was when I used the FF button to do a bit of movement after Skipping an advert. On pressing the Play button to continue watching playback the display continued in FF until it reached the end of the recording several minutes later.

Colin

This was something that happened with me on some occasions when I was running 3.5 so it doesn't seem to relate to only 4.6

My box went into major slowdown again last night similar to one I described before - first slowdown and then totally unusable e.g no service etc

The box had been on for many hours and I had been in the library scrolling up and down, playing a program , plus 2 programmes were being recorded.

I think I did confuse the box a bit by going into guide trying to find something to watch forgetting that there were already 2 programmes being recorded.

Rather than doing a re-scan I went to bed and can confirm that after a sleep the box is ok in the morning.

However there was a program recorded after the slowdown and although it appears in the library , on playback there is sound but no picture and it does not seem to be whole program - skips to 58 mins quickly. Have not yet checked earlier program.

I hope Vestel can recreate and therefore fix problem.

another smaller glitch is that a one -off recording ( either timer or instant record) seems to stay in timer list with a blank entry (no date/time) after it has been recorded.

I haven't seen this problem with v3.4 so maybe it was "new in 3.5"!

How do you downgrade from 4.6 to 3,4? (Sorry if it been covered) sister has the same box and is having huge problems

The problems with v4.6 have been covered in this thread - see post #82 onwards.

To downgrade to v3.4 follow the instructions in this link:
http://www.vestelpvr.futaura.co.uk/downloads/getfile.php?model=T835&version=3.4&link=t835_nohdmi_noci_nobrowser_lpm_novhf_seg_6x_cabinet_v34_serial.bin

Just realised it's going to be a no go as it's a hitachi and doesn't seem to have the connector at the back of the box (unless you use the scart) if it's not that then she's totally snookered.

It's this:

http://www.hitachidigitalmedia.com/d...s/hdr255-3.jpg

A SCART->RS232 adaptor cable is required, which needs to be made since I'm not aware of anywhere they can be bought. I'm hoping Vestel will fix this problems and release another update, because it is unreasonable to expect everybody to downgrade their boxes, let alone solder up a cable.

Yes, you use the scart connector and the connections required are shown in the link I gave earlier. Click on the diagram entitled SCART->RS232 pinout diagram.

If you don't wish to make up your own cable then the Scart to Serial RS232 cable - PVR Programming lead - 1.2m on ebay looks like it should be suitable.

I'm getting a little ahead of myself here, but should I be in the position of looking for people who'd like to test a new software version that fixes the problems introduced in v4.6, are there any volunteers here who have the necessary cable and hardware to change the software on their box? Zill?

I have no news yet, but just getting prepared should the need arise, so any fix can be released asap. I will of course test any fixes myself before involving others to try to minimize the inconvenience of possible rescans, FTIs, wiping timers, etc, etc.

After using 3.4 for the last week this occurred last night when watching the news at 6 on BBC1. I was 10 minutes in when I used fast forward and the timer bar at the bottom locked at 10m:35s and I was unable to regain control until after the recording had run to the end.

I’ve now run 3.4 over the last week and tested for repeat recordings. Generally I have found that not many repeats have taken place altough there has been some inconsistencies.

Monday when I deleted Coronation St it started up again on ITV+1. Eastenders repeat was picked up at 10pm on BBC3.
Tuesday the box had stopped recording and I restarted it at 8pm and it picked up missed recordings. Only one repeated next morning i.e. Emmerdale on ITV2 presumably because there was a shortened version on ITV+1 after the restart which I had deleted.
Wednesday Emmerdale repeated on ITV2 at 01:19
Thursday nothing repeated
Friday Emmerdale repeated ITV2 01:29
Saturday Only Million Pound Drop started again on 4+1 when I deleted it.
Sunday nothing repeated
Monday 2nd Episode of Coronation Street repeated at 03:11

That is certainly better than my previous experiences and I asked my sister in Northumberland to check hers which still has 3.6 and she had no repeats. Strangely the OAD didn’t happen in her area which has not yet had DSO and she has disabled updates just in case.



I am quite happy to volunteer if the need arises

How do you reckon the PVR will cope with having 3 programs scheduled to record with overlapping times.

Not possible you say. Well when they were scheduled (series link) they were not overlapping but now 2 channels have moved their programs 30 minutes later.

i.e - 2 progs set for 8-9pm and one for 9-10pm, now the 2 8pm proga have shifted to 8:30pm.

To be on the safe side I'll probably delete the 9pm and pick it up on repeat later in the week.

I'm going to miss analogue - I've occasionally watched a third prog on analogue whilst recording 2 on digital.

Does the timer list and EPG show the change to 8:30? In my experience, the software does not pick up these changes, but it will wake up at 7:40 in order to start recording at 8:00, but it will actually hang around and record both those programmes at 8:30 in full. Obviously the 9-10pm programme will just get the latter half recorded, and if you're lucky it may automatically schedule the repeat too/instead.

The big problem to look out for is when programmes move forward in the EPG - e.g. the series timer initially picked up the programme at 10pm, but the broadcaster moved it to 9pm a few days later. If in low power standby, it will wake up at the original scheduled time possibly completely missing it or starting it late - however, if you are using the box at the time or in standard standby, it will detect the earlier start signal (which it can't do while in low power standby).