Possibly a lame question but has anyone with a T816 based machine been able to upload firmware from a T810 on to it? Is it possible and would it work?

I'm wondering about the possibility of a T816 with the T810 twin-record firmware.......

Can I ask why you would want to do that?

I tried it once - it doesn't work (won't boot until reloading the T816 software).

Where do you get the T816 software from?

Because if it worked you would have the nice stable v1.0 twin record software without the slow/partial EPG as you have the extra RAM of the T816 model to make use of.

Shame that it looks like it won't work. Anyone else tried it with any success?

But isn't the T816 software as stable as the T810 software?

Nah, not at all. It is full of bugs and issues that many people find annoying and even make them take their T816 machine back to the retailer.

Agreed the T816 version is not as stable as the T810 was after it received several OAD updates. But I would not describe the T816 with Version 3.7 software as "full of bugs". There are niggles with the T816 but nothing as serious as the T825 currently has IMO.

Colin

Just a personal opinion. The T816s have got enough bugs with them to make me and many others not want one.

Now the T825s, there's a totally different can of worms! It seems that after the T810s Vestel dropped the ball and haven't managed to recover.

I've found T816 firmware to be very stable. The only problem I get is a warbling of the sound when I search the TV Guide, but that's it. I suppose it is a matter of personal preference, I would definitely recommend a T816 over a T810.

Don't you have a problem with the << ? Can you select a channel from the EPG?


That's a new one on me. It sounds as though you and I have different versions of T816 Mine's 3.7.

parthena

The warbling while searching has been mentioned a lot on the forums. Some people seem to get break-ups during recordings due to it and others complain of a freezing after using search. But touch wood I haven't had that, but I do have an excellent signal, so that may help.

I'm not sure what you mean by << is it a problem with fast re-wind? I have no issues there. Yes, I can select a channel from the EPG, by pressing OK when the highlight is on the programme I want to watch. Does this not work on yours?

I don't recall anything I would describe as "warbling" while using the Guide. Intermittent or complete sound loss is common. I have a T816 with Version 3.7 software.
It is Fast Rewind that parthena is referring too, we have discussed it previously. I'm surprised you don't have issues with this on your T816. What software version do you have? I find the Fast Rewind function almost un-usable. Often if I try to Fast Rewind to a specific point, the Time bar scrolls down as expected but when I press Play, playback resumes either at the original point or any random point between the point I scrolled back to and the original point. I have abandoned using Fast Rewind and I now Skip back 2 minutes and then Fast Forward to the point I'm looking for.

I have tried slowly increasing the Fast Rewind speed as suggested by parthena some time ago but that still does not work for me.

I think I read that the Fast Rewind issue had been carried forward to the T825 software versions also.

Is the Fast Rewind an issue, or not, for other Users?

Colin

Maybe my 'stuttering' is your 'warbling' - I associate warbling with dying DAB radio signal, that's why I said I hadn't experienced it. So we agree there.

I get freezing after using Search by Genre, not after Search by Name. Not a problem, I only tried Genre the once and don't miss it.

My T816 will not show the channel highlighted in EPG when OK is pressed, it reverts to the channel being watched before the EPG was called up. (It does work on my T810.)

The << causes lock-ups, you have to do it very slowly, waiting after the first << before continuing, and even though it doesn't lock up when you that, it doesn't continue playing from the point you ought to be at... if you see what I mean. Creddish has this too and may well be able to explain it better than I can, he often can

So what brand and software version do you have? Mine's Evesham T816, version 3.7.

parthena

Yes, I've had lockups on rewinding too, albeit rarely. Unless you've had a T810, rewinding probably seems ok. But, IIRC, on the T810 it used to be much smoother and when you rewound and pressed play it actually continued playing from that point. Whereas with the T816/T825 if you rewind only a little and press play, it often jumps right back to the point where you were before rewinding. And if not, it usually starts playing at a different point to what the display was showing during rewind.

My hunch is that the freezing problems are caused by resources not being freed after they are not needed anymore (i.e. memory leaks, eventually leading to no free ram). The EPG search induced freezes more specifically maybe being caused by the search function still running in the background unnecessarily or something. I'm currently trying some v4.7 T816 software (will shortly be reverting back to v3.7) and I tend to get freezes with that after using PIP too.

Hitachi T816 v3.7 (will check when at home but reasonably sure its 3.7). I haven't had any issues with rewind, but I never rewind faster than 8x as my reactions aren't quick enough for anything faster! Will try it at a higher speed and see what happens.

I too think my warbling is your stuttering. I have noticed it seems to be less common than when I bought the box.

It does seem strange that the EPG doesn't work, I use the EPG to switch quite frequently. I wonder if the middleware is slightly different. Will check versions when I get home.

Hi Parthena, I did wonder if it was a question of terminology.
Ah! yes, I had forgotten than Genre search was the main culprit. I use Name search a lot but not Genre search. Some Users have suggested that setting the unit to standby immediately after using Genre search is an effective freeze reduction method.
The OK button on my Hitachi T816 on Version 3.7 switches to the highlighted programme. The highlighted programme has to be currently transmitted of course. If the highlighted programme is in the past then a banner comes up saying "A timer cannot be scheduled for a programme that has already ended". If the highlighted programme is in the future then the OK button sets a Reminder. What does the prompt at the bottom of the Guide screen on your unit say for the OK button? On mine if a current programme is highlighted then the prompt says "View" and if a future programme is highlighted then it says "Reminder".

I believe futaura has identified that there are several different issues of the 3.7 software each with slightly different functionality. I think from memory that the OK button functionality is one of the differences.
Ah! now you mention it I remember I have had a couple of instances of lock-up whilst using Fast Rewind. The lock-up is of the self correcting type which occasionally happens on the Vestels when it gets confused by too much rapid button pressing. In this situation the unit will self recover if you wait a while (up to about 30s is typical in my experience) at which point it will immediately execute any button presses that are in the queue.
It's at this point in you post that I have just realised that you were replying to prking and not myself. as your post immediately follows mine and you didn't "Quote" the post you are replying too. I think what I have said is still in context though.

Colin

Edit:- I see futaura has posted whilst I was typing and has confirmed some of my comments.

I'm using a Onn (Asda brand) with version 3.7, and do not experience the EPG wrong channel issue. However there are two versions of 3.7 to my knowledge. Look at the date/time of the software and compare those it may help.

One version of the 3.7 suffers from EPG channel selection issue and the other doesn't.

I've always been appalled at the over-quoting on Digital Spy, using up its precious resources unnecessarily, profligate members ... but I just got my come-uppance, cos I faffed around for so long with my post that you were able to slip in and allow me to confuse everyone


OFF TOPIC
I can't give attention to this now, have just borrowed a rather clunky laptop with a broken hinge and I'm trying to familiarise myself with it, never having had a laptop. I may be able to keep it for night-time use, seeing as how I'm returning the PocketSurfer2 which had poor display and gave me electric shocks

See y'all,

parthena

Indeed. I didn't realize, but my parent's Digihome DTR80 has a different 3.7 (less buggy) to the one which I received from Vestel. Here are my dates:

v3.7 2007-05-12 17:53:13 - Digihome DTR80
v3.7 2007-06-21 09:51:42 - unknown (upgraded from a file)

Seems the ONN has the May build and the Evesham as the June build. Anyway, since the differing software makes things confusing, I'm going to create a webpage detailing all known software versions, build dates and known differences. I'll post the URL soon, and then I'll be asking for you all to help fill in the blanks .

As promised here are the details for my Hitachi.

v3.7 (UK)
The "Who am I ?" string is: CBTICE310 CABECL310 MHGCAB241 DSMCAB441/009dF/Slipknot/T816UK004.dcf45

I tried re-winding at x32 and it started at the correct place. I did this twice, so its hardly a definitive result.

As promised here are the details for my Hitachi.

v3.7 (UK)
The "Who am I?" string is CBTICE310 CABECL310 MHGCAB241 DSMCAB441/009df/SlipknotT816UK004.dcf45

I tried rewinding at x32 and it starts at the right place, but I only testes it a few times so its not definitive.

I don't seem to have any problems with rewinding. There's a 1-2sec delay before anything happens, but it plays from the point you stop it at, within say 2 secs. The counter on the other hand does take time to catch up, so there's no point trying to follow that.

The "Who am I?" string for my Hitachi v3.7 is:

CBTICE310 CABECL310 MHGCAB241 DSMCAB241/0009df/SlipknotT816UK004.dcf45

Note the underlined differences, unless typos have crept in.

What's this "Who am I?" string and how do I access it?

And having got it what does it mean. The only bit I recognise from the examples posted is "T816", though I guessing "CAB" may mean Cabot.

Colin

Each Freeview receiver has a string identifying its type, software versions for bootloader, middleware, MHEG etc (for some makes there is a serial number). As far as I know the only easy way to see it is to use the BBCi status page.

It would be interesting to see the differences on a box which has the EPG and rewind problems.