Thanks for the work 2lostkiwis. I would be grateful if you were also able to make a 4min skip like you did earlier for 3.17 as I don't want the 7s/1m skip.
I think 4min forwards, 4m30s back may be a more efficient combination but without trying it I'm only speculating.
I have just recently encountered this missing recorded data problem and have read most of this forum which seems to involve updating firmware as a solution. I'm running 3.17NZ still and am happy with it. I went to Settings/Recording Setup/Advanced Options/Check and Repair HDD. This seems to have fixed the problem. Although I haven't done extensive testing yet, all seems to be working normally again in my Recorded Programmes listing.
I get this issue on both my units running 3.17 and 3.18 (and 3.21 too, I downgraded).
At power up you can see the signal through the hdmi. Once its booted up it goes off. Sometimes it just turns off randomly. Fiddling with the connector/cable at the back of the unit gets it working again.
On both units, the AV cable always works fine. I don't think its the hdmi cable as I purchased decent ones from computer dynamics but it is possible that both cables are faulty.
More likely, the connector has a bad joint with the motherboard for a pin that the magic box is using to detect if its connected to the TV. If it is not, it turns off the hdmi signal. This is my current working theory.
Bitfiddler: I get this issue on both my units running 3.17 and 3.18 (and 3.21 too, I downgraded).
At power up you can see the signal through the hdmi. Once its booted up it goes off. Sometimes it just turns off randomly. Fiddling with the connector/cable at the back of the unit gets it working again.
On both units, the AV cable always works fine. I don't think its the hdmi cable as I purchased decent ones from computer dynamics but it is possible that both cables are faulty.
More likely, the connector has a bad joint with the motherboard for a pin that the magic box is using to detect if its connected to the TV. If it is not, it turns off the hdmi signal. This is my current working theory.
Any comments anyone ?
Has this been ongoing or has it become worse?
The hardware is very standard and conservatively engineered. Unless you are supporting the whole MagicTV on its HDMI connector you probably won't have the same hardware flaw on 2 units or on 2 HDMI cables.
I initially got sporadic HDMI negotiation problems (mostly on start-up - with a reasonably modern Sony TV) but I never have a problem with component video. Fiddling with the HDMI connector would sometimes fix it but occasionally I would have to start turning boxes (TV or MagicTV) off and on again.
Bitfiddler: I get this issue on both my units running 3.17 and 3.18 (and 3.21 too, I downgraded).
At power up you can see the signal through the hdmi. Once its booted up it goes off. Sometimes it just turns off randomly. Fiddling with the connector/cable at the back of the unit gets it working again.
On both units, the AV cable always works fine. I don't think its the hdmi cable as I purchased decent ones from computer dynamics but it is possible that both cables are faulty.
More likely, the connector has a bad joint with the motherboard for a pin that the magic box is using to detect if its connected to the TV. If it is not, it turns off the hdmi signal. This is my current working theory.
Any comments anyone ?
Has this been ongoing or has it become worse?
The hardware is very standard and conservatively engineered. Unless you are supporting the whole MagicTV on its HDMI connector you probably won't have the same hardware flaw on 2 units or on 2 HDMI cables.
I initially got sporadic HDMI negotiation problems (mostly on start-up - with a reasonably modern Sony TV) but I never have a problem with component video. Fiddling with the HDMI connector would sometimes fix it but occasionally I would have to start turning boxes (TV or MagicTV) off and on again.
wklie: HDD spinning during standby is a side effect of the reboot fix in firmware 3.21 and 6.08 beta and beta2.
If one can live with the reboot issue, firmware 3.20 should not cause the HDD to spin during standby.
Wklie - Are you saying that the HDD spinning during standby is necessary for the fix to the reboot issue or just an unforeseen issue which will be fixed with another version?
In my experience, none of the versions 3.20, 3.21 6.08 beta or beta2 seem particularly stable - needing to be manually restarted to avoid very sluggish responses and other issues. After running for a week using 3.20 and 3.21 I had a issue with recording both TV3 and Prime at the same time - Prime show appeared to be ok, but TV3 show was very pixelated and sound distorted. I'll try again this week with rebooting before the recording.
Thinking back to v3.18 - the only issue used to be the rebooting - otherwise it seemed stable. Since the change to the EPG has occurred, it obviously needs that fix too. Would it be possible to give us a updated version of 3.18 with the EPG fix? I think this may be what you are suggesting above with 3.20, but there are stability issues with this.
I think a lot of users are getting frustrated with getting new firmware versions with 'fixes' but only to find there are new issues. As others have pointed out, the 3600 is an old unit, but it went through the Freeview NZ certification process - which should have guaranteed the unit reliably performs to a very high standard, both when it was first released and after any subsequent firmware improvements. Though I'm sure we would all like to have the latest features, for a start, I'd just like it to work reliably!
I compare our issues with the 3600 and my experience with an even older (2008 - 2009) Panasonic DMR-XW350GZ unit which, though not as sophisticated in features/disk size, etc as the 3600, has performed very well over the time I have had it - It just works, does not need to be restarted, has always recorded perfectly. It also had an issue with the new EPG (showing garbage characters for the program names) but a new firmware version was released OTA and it's all fine. Prior to the Digital Switch Over, 20 year old VCR's still worked too.
I release the broadcast and recording technologies are totally different but would we have put up a VCR having such fundamental issues?
Magic tv is not a tinpot company so should have the resources to support their products - they continue to release new products to the Hong Kong market (Magic HK).
Wklie - thanks for your efforts so far and hope you can continue to improve the product.
I'm with CB1 on this. The MTV3600 was sold as an end user consumer product. It is all very well to have multiple firmware versions, with fixes and new problems, and on this forum we understand some of the issues and the workarounds like regular power cycling, but what about the multitude of users who discovered that they were suddenly recording programs with no program name. Did they get an OTA update? Did they go back to Noel Leeming or Harvey Norman and just told their Freeview recorders were out of warranty? Does Freeview certification just mean that the device cannot copy recorded programs to other devices?
Bitfiddler: I get this issue on both my units running 3.17 and 3.18 (and 3.21 too, I downgraded).
At power up you can see the signal through the hdmi. Once its booted up it goes off. Sometimes it just turns off randomly. Fiddling with the connector/cable at the back of the unit gets it working again.
On both units, the AV cable always works fine. I don't think its the hdmi cable as I purchased decent ones from computer dynamics but it is possible that both cables are faulty.
More likely, the connector has a bad joint with the motherboard for a pin that the magic box is using to detect if its connected to the TV. If it is not, it turns off the hdmi signal. This is my current working theory.
Any comments anyone ?
Are you in Auckland? I don't expect it would be hard to pop the lid, pull out the PCB and reflow all of the solder joints on your HDMI connectors.
I had the same annoying issue. There is a fix however..Just go to www.magictv.co.nz Click support then downloads. You will find the latest firmware for the mtv-3600td You will need to do a factory reset before installing it.
I tried updating to 3.21NZ. I wish to retain the modified skip forward/reverse. However the update froze at 45% complete and wouldn't respond to any cancel requests. I had no option but to power cycle it. It now reports firmware as 3.21NZ but has nothing showing in the Recordings List, won't make any recordings and reports "0" record space available. Entering rescue mode shows it in the front panel display but it makes no progress from there.
PimpMyMagic: I tried updating to 3.21NZ. I wish to retain the modified skip forward/reverse. However the update froze at 45% complete and wouldn't respond to any cancel requests. I had no option but to power cycle it. It now reports firmware as 3.21NZ but has nothing showing in the Recordings List, won't make any recordings and reports "0" record space available. Entering rescue mode shows it in the front panel display but it makes no progress from there.
I'm at "Where to next?"
Go to the MagicTV website and download one of the official firmware version. Then do a Rescue Procedure (from firmware corruption) page 69 in the manual. Once that completes, you can try to update to a patched firmware.
NOTE: When doing the rescue procedure, you MUST have an official firmware version. Trying to do the rescue procedure with a hacked firmware will fail. It will hang with the message "Rescue" displayed but nothing else will happen. You can also find previous firmware versions here
Thanks for that advice Tony. Will 3.21 be accepted as an upgrade from 3.21NZ in rescue mode? I'm not keen to go to the 6.0x Beta range of versions. I'll give it a go tomorrow morning.
PimpMyMagic: I tried updating to 3.21NZ. I wish to retain the modified skip forward/reverse. However the update froze at 45% complete and wouldn't respond to any cancel requests. I had no option but to power cycle it. It now reports firmware as 3.21NZ but has nothing showing in the Recordings List, won't make any recordings and reports "0" record space available. Entering rescue mode shows it in the front panel display but it makes no progress from there.
I'm at "Where to next?"
RingoTB: Go to the MagicTV website and download one of the official firmware version. Then do a Rescue Procedure (from firmware corruption) page 69 in the manual. Once that completes, you can try to update to a patched firmware.
NOTE: When doing the rescue procedure, you MUST have an official firmware version. Trying to do the rescue procedure with a hacked firmware will fail. It will hang with the message "Rescue" displayed but nothing else will happen. You can also find previous firmware versions here
Nice clear instructions.
There will be an underlying reason for the upgrade to hang. I had exactly the same thing happen and within a week or two I replaced the HDD (after a whole lot of pain and troubleshooting) and (apart from a small memory leak that makes it slow and laggy and mess up recordings after a couple of weeks without re-booting) my 3600 is going well again. If you don't already have a HDD kicking around you might give some thought now about what disk to buy if you have any further trouble.
PimpMyMagic: Thanks for that advice Tony. Will 3.21 be accepted as an upgrade from 3.21NZ in rescue mode? I'm not keen to go to the 6.0x Beta range of versions. I'll give it a go tomorrow morning.
Yes. You can "upgrade" from any firmware version to any other firmware so it will accept "upgrading" from official 3.21 to hacked 3.21. It will report that you are running ver 3.21 and that the USB also has ver 3.21. You will know that the unit has official 3.21 and the USB drive has hacked 3.21. You can also "upgrade" from 3.21 back to any other earlier version.
JefWright: There will be an underlying reason for the upgrade to hang. I had exactly the same thing happen and within a week or two I replaced the HDD (after a whole lot of pain and troubleshooting) and (apart from a small memory leak that makes it slow and laggy and mess up recordings after a couple of weeks without re-booting) my 3600 is going well again. If you don't already have a HDD kicking around you might give some thought now about what disk to buy if you have any further trouble.
You can always remove the HDD, identify the manufacturer, and plug it into a PC. From there you should be able to go to the manufacturer's website and download their free HDD HDD Diagnostic Tools. Run that on the MagicTV HDD and it will tell you if there are any issues.
Be careful not to write to the drive. Once finished, you should be able to plug it back into the MagicTV and continue.
I have swapped out my MagicTV HDD and transferred the recorded programs across to the new drive a few times. The first couple of times I used a standard Seagate 7200RPM desktop computer HDD. I am currently running a Western Digital Purple 2TB Surveillance Hard Drive.
Some HDD issues won't show up with normal diagnostics. My HDD was running hot. Temperature would slowly build up over days until it stopped working. It got so hot that it was difficult to handle with bare hands. It worked fine when cooled again but didn't always have all the same data as before it stopped.
Also if you leave it till your HDD dies completely you are more likely to lose stuff stored on it. HDDs are relatively cheap these days.
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