On my T816 box, software 2.4, (Onn from Asda), I've noticed the following...

1) If recording 2 programmes at the same time, one of the recordings fails to stop and records well past its end time. This has happened a few times.

2) If scheduling 2 recordings, one after another, on the same channnel, the first program doesn't stop recording, and then the 2nd tuner kicks in to start the 2nd recording. When in theory, they should follow each other on the same tuner! This has happened only 1 time so far!

3) When recording 2 programmes, (at the same time) sometimes you get a blank screen when trying to view one of the channels, and need to go into EPG to get the picture back.


4) If using the search function within the EPG, ie search for movies, sometimes when going back to the live channel, after a few minutes, the picture freezes. Channel change over usually resolves. However this can return later on, and quick use of the standby button resolves.


I suspect items 1 and 2 are down to Freeview Playback not being implemented properly, others minor bugs in the system...

1) Part of the Freeview Playback spec. If the accurate recording info is not sent or is not received correctly, it will over record the time by 3 hours by design. All Playback PVRs do this.

2) Considering the above, this strategy makes sense.

3) & 4) The renderer may need some tweaking, occasionally a programme will freeze, but switching stations fixes it (or EPG or standby or whatever takes your fancy). It seems to happen occasionally, even if the search is not used.

Ditto on the DTR80 (Argos)

it doesn't matter where you have it from as long as it is based on the 816 and firmware 2.4 it can/will happen!

Just a quick update. The only problem I'm having with the box now is the freezing picture after doing an EPG search.

Otherwise, it appears to be running okay.

Also, I've not had any recordings over running their time schedules at all now which is good.

FYI, I believe the picture freeze problem is fixed for v3.7 - at least, I've yet to see it happen in v3.7, despite my attempts to trigger it via the guide search (which triggered it without fail in v3.4).

Any one else noticed that the EPG for the radio stations is a few channels off? e.g. BBC7 is on 708 yet the EPG listings are on 710??

Is this a 'feature'

What is showing up on 708 on your box then? Here BBC 7 is on channel 708, and the same in the EPG too. 710 is BBC World Service. Perhaps you need to perform a rescan?

I'm getting BBC7 on 708 as it should be:

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z...909-120819.jpg

Yet the EPG shows the listings for the radio stations on the wrong channels, with BBC7 on 710, in fact all the radio stations are wrong in the EPG:

http://i189.photobucket.com/albums/z...909-120913.jpg

I only got this box on Friday and I've rescanned it twice but it made no difference. Setting a record event from the EPG on 710 actually records channel 708; so it seems to just be a problem with the EPGs channel numbering.

Aha - I see what you mean now. This could perhaps be a problem specific to your local transmitter, which needs fixing. The listings are fine here, but to rule out a software issue, somebody running v2.4 will need to confirm whether this problem shows up on their box too (I'm running v3.7, so maybe something was fixed there).

No problem here in Northern Ireland. I'm on version 2.4 and my epg is displaying properly. Most likely a local problem you are having.

Yep, this seems a certainty now. I just noticed that the listing for The Hits Radio is correct in the photo, so it looks like it's just the BBC radio stations that are all out of sync, in which case I guess this problem should be reported to the BBC, so the fault can be corrected on the transmitter in question. From what I've read elsewhere, these faults tend to be fixed very quickly once reported - not sure where you report them to though (maybe http://www.bbc.co.uk/reception/recep_feedback.shtml).

Well now I can add to the list of bugs - the terrible skipping on recordings longer than about half an hour.

After that, every five seconds it jumps , and playing back at half speed shows it has actually recorded that way.

I can see it being returned until such time as they can make something that actually works

Although you are not the first person to mention such problems, I personally have never experienced such unreliability and I regularly record 2 things at once, while watching either one of those current recordings timeslipped or another previous recording, which I believe is a good stress test .

Does the problem you mention even occur when recording just one programme with the box in standby? If you don't have any recordings that you want to keep, I would suggest reformatting the HDD (can be done via the config menus). This will of course wipe any recordings stored on the drive. Not sure if that will help or not, but it has been suggested in the past. You might just have a faulty unit.

I'm wondering if there are still transmission problems - I've lost BBC1/2/News24 ++ now, as well as ITV1/2/3 ++ which have been problematic for weeks. When I think I've got them back and record something, it turns out blocky and skippy.

parthena

Chugalug, I don't get any of these bugs.

I presume your signal is good and the loop through on the aerial socket is ok? I'm on version 2.4, I presume you are?

The only issue I really get is one already discussed, ie doing a search within EPG causes machine to lock up on live broadcasts. Switching to standby on a regular basis when not using machine keeps this from occuring.

I've not had any corrupt recordings like yourself and the machine works very well. I often stress it with recording 2 channels at time, whilst watching another at the same time,etc.

I get the occasional slight stutter on recordings on the rare occasion but this could be interferance on the signal.

Otherwise, its the best box I've owned. (used to own the Tevion 1620, see those threads for its relability, which is still being addressed almost a year after release).

Tony


PS one of our cats loves sleeping on the box which must be an additional stress - it keeps them warm!!

Which makes it even more annoying for those of us who do, and - if you believe what you read on this and other forums - seems to be about 50% suffering from stuttering playback issues.

Is it really such a crap-shoot to get a working machine?

I'm on v2.4, is the v3.7 any better? Is it available anywhere or would updating be jumping out of the frying pa[i]n into the fire?

I'm going to try refitting the HDD up the 'right' way later and try and arrange things to get a better airflow through the machine and see how it goes for a while, but any more skips like the ones on yesterdays recordings and its going to have to go back as its completely unusable in that state.

Are those who have a stuttering problem using 80gig or 160gig drives?

I have a theory that most will have 80gig drives (though some may have 160gig, but other causes such as poor reception).

If this is so, it seems that the 80gig drives are not ideal for the box, but a cut-down compromise. The make of drive used for the 80gig drives is different, and it may be that these boxes will work with them but don't like them anywhere near as much as the WD160-BB drives.

This seems to be possible from reviewing the threads where this has come up.

Another theory is that these problems could be related to the environment the PVR is situated in - i.e. outside interference. For example, some TVs always send output from their tuner down SCART lead (into the video in input on the back of the PVR), and it is conceivable that this could be interfering. Usually, the worst this can cause is video interference - in my case, I had no issues using the same SCART lead and exactly the same setup with my T810 box, but with my test T816 box I found that there was a rolling "background image" of the TV's internal tuner on the PVR's video output - cutting a pin in my SCART adaptor resolved that particular issue. Just a little bit strange that it only happened on the T816 box, with the internals being very similar to the T810.

Just a theory, mind you . That said, if this really was a problem then the PVR should be more robust in filtering out or avoiding such interference.

I held back on the detail, but this is basically the same theory as mine. It appears that switching to an 80 pin IDE cable can solve this for some. Now, an 80 pin cable is just the same as a 40 pin cable, 40 connections. The other 40 are wires in between the data connections connected to ground. This helps avoid interference (so in a PC enables UDMA at 66 or 100 or, if you want to move out of standard for no gain at all, 133).

I suspect that the 80gig drive may not be handling the interference so well as the 160 gig one. The drive may even be generating some itself (less likely, faulty batch of drives would be the case if so). Remember, with DMA style transfers the drive does most of the work, and the tolerance to interference is going to be down to the drive not the T816 proper. Mind you, this is a lot of guessing. This theory comes with a lot of wiggle room.

FYI, my boxes are now exhibiting this same problem (Tacolnestone transmitter). I'm certain it is transmitter related. The BBC radio channels are saying a rescan will be necessary as of October 3rd since some channels are moving to a different mux. I suspect the BBC are already fiddling with some stuff, which has broken the EPG listings.

Same problem here. Rescan did not fix. I have seen this happen once before.

I don't think I mentioned earlier that my box is PVR160 (Digifusion FVRT100 is better but also has some problems). Still getting awful problems on ITV1/2/3, C4/E4 (UHF22?), BBC1/2/3/4 ++ are now so jerky and blocky as to be unwatchable a lot of the time - but not all the time

Sky3 isn't bad at all

My scaffolding has come down from most of the front of the building today but my TV is at the back but of course it may not have contributed...

parthena

Ok, I've turned the HDD over so its the 'right' way up and lifted the device up so its got an extra inch or so underneath for ventilation.

So far, no more stuttering, but then again its not been anything like as hot here as it was on Monday.

Time will tell.

Looks like I spoke too soon, as this mornings recording of Home & Away jumps for the entire recording, but with a pattern that's too regular to be just simple interference or low signal.

Its going back, as its crap.