Yes, me too: http://pvrbugs.futaura.co.uk/view.php?id=104 - Vestel have been made aware of this bug, although I don't know when it will be fixed .

Thanks, that's what I feared

A slightly better way is to quickly switch between FF and pause to let a few frames of slo-mo through. Reverse doesn't work so well, tends to stick.

OK we had a new aerial fitted and now have excellent signal for all channels on our Wharfedale 250DTR. The stuttering I have previously mentioned has all but disappeared now.

However, I've discovered a new (for me at least) odd behaviour: on some channels, when watching live, the sound just goes silent. Pressing "Info" makes the sound return and it stays as long as some sort of OSD is being displayed. If I press Info a couple more times so that the info display goes away...the sound goes away too! Recordings are unaffected. Timeshifting works fine, with sound.

I tried rebooting by pressing the power button for a few seconds, so that the machine restarted itself. That made no difference. I then physically pulled the plug and plugged it in again, and it worked fine for a few hours, but has just dropped the sound again. Again, I can make it come back by pressing info.

I've tried searching this forum but has anyone else had this kind of behaviour? I can just timeshift when I want to watch live, but it's a bit weird...

Never experienced or heard of this either. My T816 has performed flawlessly over the past few months, only experiencing the occasional live picture freeze after searching the EPG.

What version software are you on? I presume yours is the T816 and not the newer T825??

Tony

That type of behaviour was common on the dual record software on the Tevion PVRs which share the same Cabot middleware as the Vestel PVRs. Although on the Tevions the picture was lost as well as sound. I don't recall any mention of it occurring on the T816 though.

Colin

I'm calling it a flaw because it's evidently intentional behaviour, but it's very peculiar.

My disc is about 75% full, with about 12% more reserved for timers and the rest free, according to the red/yellow/green space bar, and I am occasionally getting disc full messages when I try to book a recording.

Sometimes it allows a partial entry for say half the programme, setting a 'time' type entry and a modified end time, stating that the recording will be allowed to continue until the disc is full, and this it does despite the modified end time. It does mean though that AR can't be used in this instance. Other times it doesn't allow the entry at all, yet there is plainly at least 12% free for the programme to fit. You need to delete a timer before it will allow another to be set.

Some of my timers are daily and weekly repeats, and a quick calculation shows that these are being factored into the timer reservation count for the disc, accounting for the no room message, but are not included in the yellow part of the space bar.

The bottom line is that it won't allow any more timers to be set if it thinks there is no more room to record them all for the week ahead.

It certainly is annoying, and related to http://pvrbugs.futaura.co.uk/view.php?id=54 if not the same problem. It is near impossible to set a few daily and/or weekly timers because it includes them all when calculating how much room is left for new timers. Not only that, but the weekly and daily calculations are wrong anyway.

Some may argue it was a bug, but the T810 software never did tend to allow for daily and weekly recordings when warning you when there wasn't enough room left for new timers. But, if like me you tend to have a number of hour-long weekly timers set, and watch/delete those recordings within a day or so of them recording, the disk is never going to fill up anyway. It's impossible to do this on the T816 because it pre-allocates too much space - so much so that I'm forced to set them via the EPG each week rather than define repeating timers like I did on the T810.

Yes that's it. I should have read your bug page before posting. Same problem on the Thomson DHD4000 but for that there is a workround.

The Vestels seem to have the same bug as the Daewoo where there is a wrap round effect in the generation of repeat timers which produces hidden duplicates.

So in your example given for a weekly 1hr timer you get an instance for the first day, one for the same day next week, then a duplicate of the first one again (might be the last actually, not sure). This would give you 3 hrs allocation. A similar situation for the daily repeat occurs resulting in 8 instances plus one duplicate of the first, allocating 9 times the space. This doesn't quite tally with your daily example which would imply a factor of 10 which I can't account for, unless the end of the week is also duplicated. I've assumed repeat timers are explicitly generated in the list but in effect hidden from view.

The allocation is irrelevent on the Daewoo as you just get a warning symbol, it doesn't prevent you adding more timers. But repeat timers are still of limited use due to the duplication, so like you I mostly have to set one-shot timers from the guide.

Things may have changed slightly since I made that initial report - the example was in reference to v1.9. If so, I wouldn't have bothered ammending things until Vestel at least made some attempt to fix this behaviour. Anyway, glad to hear I'm not the only person annoyed by this .

I think the only remaining hope that we have of getting updated software is via Sharp, assuming their T816 software builds are accepted by more generic T816 clones, whether they are happy to email out software updates and whether they have any updated software that is newer than that shipped with their PVR. A long shot perhaps???

The following extract from the Sharp manual for their TU-R160HA T816 with Series Record etc are not encouraging in that respect, compared with some of the other brands e.g. Akura who specifically include detailed instructions on software upgrading through the RS232 port:-

"8. SOFTWARE UPGRADE THROUGH RS232
The RS232 socket is for use by qualified Sharp engineers to install software updates and is not
intended for every day use.
NOTE: This unit cannot be controlled or connected to an RS-232C command system."

I wonder if the Sharp T816 with Series Record is suffering from the same problems as the T825 versions? There seems to be virtually no reports from users. I supect their relative high prices until recently have discouraged buyers.

Colin

I almost bought one, they're offering 20% off current price (when I put the item in my basket it said "20% off your next order", so I emptied basket, registered, re-basketed item and 20% was applied), but in the end I couldn't risk that there might be no fixes - so I'll be wailing in the Humax forum this week (Tuesday, hopefully!).

parthena

Hard to say - I suspect the T825 software is merely built upon the latest T816 software, and T816 development has ceased completely. That said, those T825 issues could have been added since the T816 Group 2 builds, which is entirely possible I think (still don't understand how so many bugs were added to T816 software compared to the T810 twin record software) . Whatever, I'd expect Sharp would have more of a vested interest in ensuring their product works, pestering Vestel for fixes, and not wanting product returns, unlike Argos, Tesco, Asda, et al, who frankly don't really care about how well the PVR works, as long as it switches on and half works .

Has this been confirmed? If so then my Vestel T816 is going back in favour of a company that seem to care about maintaining existing products on the marketplace.

Rob

Not in so many words, no. But reading between the lines it is most likely the case. For example, software development stopped on the T810 once they started work on the T816... The T825 has been in development for a few months and has hit retail now, so if the past is anything to go by they will be concentrating on the T825 until the next evolution is designed.

That said, the most frustrating thing is that the T816 has not received any OTA updates, unlike the T810 did, with v3.7 being the most recent version factory installed, yet there are more recent software versions available (v4.7 being the latest of the Group 1 software or v6.7 for the Group 2 series link software). Given the problems the T825 folk are having with their series link software, the update for the T816 might not be so desirable, but I for one would like to give v4.7 a shot at least, since it may well fix some of the issues that have been reported. I would say there is still a chance that these updates may surface, although I have no idea how much of an improvement they may be over v3.7.

I had the Grundig GUSTB250IV which I bought from Makro which had Version 4.7. with manufacture date 09/07. I had hoped that it would have solved some of the bugs in 3.7 and also hoped that it may have Series Record although this was not a strong expectation as the box did not even have the Freeview Playback logo on it. However in the week that I kept it it exhibited the same bugs as 3.7 including freezing sound and picture, loss of sound in the menu's and dodgy RW. The features appeared to be exactly the same a 3.7 except for one annoying change. The Play options in the Library had the archive facility removed (not that this concerned me) but the Play from start option displayed one of the screens from the previous archive facility which contained the programme title and recording data. This screen was displayed for about 5s before playback started which I found frustrating and pointless IMO. I returned it a week later and got the Hitachi 160GB from Argos for £84.99 saving £32.50 on the deal. The Grundig did have a 250 GB HD but in my mind that did not justify the annoying feature change and additional cost. I have for some time believed that to get additional features on the Vestels will mean buying a new box so I thought it wise to minimise cost until a significantly proven better PVR becomes available.

Colin

So in six months time, for example if no OTA downloads have been made would it be possible to obtain the latest FP(G2) software direct from Vestel and serial cable it on to the T816?

Maybe. I was sent v6.7, apparently, but found it to be the European version (doesn't work well in the UK) after rebooting, so quickly reverted back to the UK v3.7 build. That said, the Sharp boxes do have a UK v6.7 software, and I personally think there is perhaps more chance of getting Sharp to e-mail the software, but I haven't tried yet - really we'd need to know which versions were shipped with the boxes - i.e. if v6.3 for example, then there would be a better chance of obtaining v6.7 from them (if all their PVRs were shipped with v6.7, then they're unlikely to send v6.7 via e-mail, obviously).

The extract from the Sharp Manual which I posted in #171 above suggests that Sharp believe their T816 cannot be upgraded via the RS232 at least by anyone other than "qualified Sharp engineers". Whether than it is true or not I don't know.

The only post I recall from the owner of a Sharp TUR160HA said it had Version 6.7 installed when purchased in Nov 2006 so would have been the earliest batch of the Sharp PVRs with Series Record etc.

Colin

I think this problem has upgraded itself to a major bug now. I've been getting recordings which have not stopped recording until well past the end time, the last one nearly 3 hours where it should have been 30 mins.

What seems to be happening is that bookings deemed as not fitting the available drive space are indeed being recorded but without a defined end time, not even ending at the scheduled end. Recordings do seem to end though before the disc is full but I'm not sure why, because it certainly isn't lack of drive space. I would have to check but I think it might simply be the start of the next recording.

A long story....but I had a sharp on v6.7 (£100 from empire direct) I gave it to the outlaws in France and due to compatibility issues I decided to try and change the software....

I can confirm that the upgrade via RS232 procdure is the same as all the other T816's.


So ....my inlaws now have a Sharp, with a lower level of firmware than a new box that still has the time -1 hour out for France......