Channels dropped completely

Shaddax

26-02-2007

I am on my 2nd PVR in the last 5 weeks, the current one is the ASDA Dual 80Gb PVR. Last night ALL channels disappeared, automatic rescan did not pull them back in but a 1st time installation did the trick. This was the reason why I got rid of the 1st PVR.
If this was signal related I would expect that rescanning would not work. I wondered if the box could recover itself if the signal is temporarily lost so today I took out the aerial for a few minutes and then reconnected it. The box recovered immediately.
Any suggestions before this unit heads back to Asda?

futaura

26-02-2007

Originally Posted by Shaddax:
“I am on my 2nd PVR in the last 5 weeks, the current one is the ASDA Dual 80Gb PVR. Last night ALL channels disappeared, automatic rescan did not pull them back in but a 1st time installation did the trick. This was the reason why I got rid of the 1st PVR.
If this was signal related I would expect that rescanning would not work. I wondered if the box could recover itself if the signal is temporarily lost so today I took out the aerial for a few minutes and then reconnected it. The box recovered immediately.
Any suggestions before this unit heads back to Asda?”

Does you channel list completely disappear (i.e. nothing listed on the channel list screen - OK button on the remote)? Or are the channel names still there, and you can change to the channels, but you just get a blank/black screen? Finally, which version of the software are you using? If using a version before v4.9, then that may be the problem.

Shaddax

27-02-2007

Originally Posted by futaura:
“Does you channel list completely disappear (i.e. nothing listed on the channel list screen - OK button on the remote)? Or are the channel names still there, and you can change to the channels, but you just get a blank/black screen? Finally, which version of the software are you using? If using a version before v4.9, then that may be the problem.”

Thanks for your reply Futaura. The channel names were still there in the list but the screen was blank.
I am using V1.0 (UK) [twin record] firmware.
When the channels failed I was watching Top Gear whilst I recorded it (tendency to fall asleep) on Digihome. When program finished it was in Library but would only show a blank screen on playback. Then all channels went as I mentioned.

futaura

27-02-2007

Originally Posted by Shaddax:
“Thanks for your reply Futaura. The channel names were still there in the list but the screen was blank.
I am using V1.0 (UK) [twin record] firmware.
When the channels failed I was watching Top Gear whilst I recorded it (tendency to fall asleep) on Digihome. When program finished it was in Library but would only show a blank screen on playback. Then all channels went as I mentioned.”

Unless Asda happen to have a bad batch of PVRs, I would tend to think it is more likely to be a software glitch. The V1.0 twin record software is old, beta (alpha?) and is not an official release anyway, and requires more than 32Mb RAM (AFAIK, all the current generation Vestel boxes are fitted with 32Mb) for proper operation. The problem you describe sounds exactly the same as happened in earlier single record releases (V3.9 and earlier), which was fixed in the latest updates. How many days/weeks (from the time it was plugged in) does it take for this to occur? You'll probably find that a box reboot will fix the problem, rather than have to reinstall, which you can do by holding the power button on the front of the box for 5 seconds. I've found that the V1.0 twin record software sometimes gets itself into a mess, requiring a reboot.

I would suggest you revert to the single record software if you need reliability - if the problem still occurs with V4.9 or V5.3 then the box may be faulty, unless your signal quality is not very good.