Thanks again guys for all your most useful help. I "Rescued" to standard 3.21 firmware without any problems and all my recorded programmes and series bookings were restored - even partial playbacks resume points. Then upgraded firmware to ver 3.21 nz patched which seems to be all OK. I hope it will fix my original missing recording data problem. I have a test recording scheduled to go soon - and then shall enjoy watching The Cricket with about a half hour delay so I can skip those pesky ads and drinks breaks. I'm so relieved. The only minor setback was losing my HDMI connection after the restart following the upgrade. This is something that happens from time to time after starting up from standby. As I only have 1 HDMI input on my aging Sony Grand Wega, I use an outboard 3 input HDMI switch which is a bit temperamental over negotiating connection, though I never have problems with the other input devices (a TiVo and an A C Ryan media player). A simple unplug and replug to force a re-negotiate soon fixes this though. I do have several spare 1Tb and 2Tb HDDs lying about, although I think they are all the new 4k lump format type. I believe these are rather dodgy to use on the 3600.
Please excuse this off topic post . Hey PimpMyMagic, I also have an A C Ryan Media Player. It is the Playon!HD PV73100, the original version. Put a 2TB HDD in it and plays everything I throw at it! When it dies, I will get the latest version. :)
I have the Playon HD2 which has a swapable Sata drive socket. Slip the cover plate off and drop in a drive. I started with a 1TB but then changed it for a 2TB. It's only happy if you let it format the drive itself as it seems to store the database for the recordings in a hidden file or partition. I tried to partition it on my pc but it wouldn't wear that, though it mounts and you can read/write to it from windows (7 home) OK. Just ignore Windows wanting to fix "errors" on it when you mount it. With the NAS enabled it happily sees my Windows home network and will read/write between it and any of my pc's on the network. And yes, it does seem to have all the necessary codecs to play any format I've encoutered. It'll also stream/play any file from my pc's network to my telly. I also use a Logitech wireless keyboard with it. I have an HD2 mini in the bedroom which will also play anything on my network, including all the files on my Main Player. Very Happy.
Restarting the Magic TV before updating the firmware should reduce the chances of a lock up during the process.
I haven't had any crashes or reboots with the 3.21 firmware. The only issue is it occasionally runs slowly but that's better than locking up. The slowness either goes away or the MTV can be restarted from the menu to fix it. The hard drive spinning up during standby was something that often happened with my MTV in the past but seldom happens now.
HDMI gave me the same problems as you're having with it. If you don't want to use HDMI, use component video and not composite AV as the quality will be much better http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Component_video
Most hard drives will be too noisy or run too hot to put in an enclosed PVR without a fan so the choice of model matters. Head parking may be a problem too and most drives do that. The Seagate ST2000VM003 still looks like the most suitable model unless someone has a better idea http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=1309424
What you need with 4k sector hard drives is to have them formatted correctly so they don't under perform.
I wouldn't consider using composite video these days. It's analogue and only works works with SD video. I'd also avoid component as it is also analogue. Why convert a digital signal to analogue and then back to digital in your display device? Also as far as I've read any freeview compliant device is only permitted to output component video in Standard Definition. I also prefer the cabling simplicity of HDMI. My understanding is also that you have to get your partition sizes and placements organised so that they fall on the 4k physical sector boundaries, otherwise you get errors. This takes some knowledge with Linux partitioning software.
Was on v3.21 modified and have noticed that the HDD spinning even though the unit is turned off. Turned on and then turned it off again. The HDD spun down and stopped. A few seconds later, it spun up again even though the unit is turned off. I have loaded on v3.20 modified & will observe what happens.
It just seems that the firmware rewrite from v3.20 tov 3.21, to fix one issue, broke another setting, that was fine previously. Can not the 'broken' bit in v3.21 be fixed?
Interesting observation. I've just had a look at my 3600 and after turning it on from standby I could hear a flurry of drive activity. After a while I turned it off again I heard more drive activity as it wrote data back to the HDD and then appeared to go quiet in standby mode, though I wasn't absolutely certain as it sits an top of a TiVo which is constantly writing a buffer of the two currently selected channels. Added to this is the noise from a 2TB Seagate running in my HD2 media player right alongside this stack. Listening tests done at less than .5m from this equipment.
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I have the same problem with 3.21 modified. Others have reported the 3600 being very slow to respond to remote control commands after a few days without being switched off at the back and then on again. Like others have suggested I have plugged it into a timer that switches the power to the 3600 off and a couple of minutes later back on again 3 times a week. That seems to be stopping the hard drive from spinning when in standby and also the sluggishness responding to the remote. Problem averted.
Of course when the timer switch's the power back on the 3600 powers up and doesn't go back to stand by. So I have set up a 2 minute timer recording a few minutes after the timer turns the power on and the 3600 goes into stand by automaticly when the 2 minute recording finishes. To get rid of the 2 minute recordings on the hard drive I have gone in to the to do list and set the default folder to one I don't use and set the keep program for one week. Am hoping after a week they will automatically delete. Takes a bit of setting up but now its all automatic. Just have to remember to change the time on the timer on Sunday due to the end of daylight savings.
I think the hard drive spinning up in standby in 3.21 is a new bug and not related to past problems. The old problem was the hard drive would turn back on after a few seconds as would the empty/full LED light. But with the new bug that LED doesn't come on and the hard drive powers up immediately after powering down.
I thought I saw wklie imply that continuous HDD was how they had overcome the reboot on return from standby problem. I've gone looking for this post since but can't find it.
I'm pretty sure one of the recent updates attended to the advanced format drive issues so any 2 TB drive should be OK now. I hope that's right because I'm about to test that with a new WD NAS drive that I just bought.
If I could get just one thing fixed about my 3600 it would be the memory leak. I don't care if that's by more effective housekeeping to tidy up or even if it just provided a way to automatically hard-shutdown in order to reset the memory consumption. It makes me want to cry when I see the hoops that Nutts has jumped through to work around this slow-down-and-die problem.
Nutts: Like others have suggested I have plugged it into a timer that switches the power to the 3600 off and a couple of minutes later back on again 3 times a week.
Of course when the timer switch's the power back on the 3600 powers up and doesn't go back to stand by. So I have set up a 2 minute timer recording a few minutes after the timer turns the power on and the 3600 goes into stand by automaticly when the 2 minute recording finishes. To get rid of the 2 minute recordings on the hard drive I have gone in to the to do list and set the default folder to one I don't use and set the keep program for one week. Am hoping after a week they will automatically delete.
You do not need to have the 2 minute recording. Go into the Main Menu, Settings, System, Advanced Settings, Timer Standby. From here you can program the MagicTV to go into standby 5 minutes after your power timer has shutdown and turned back on the MagicTV. This is what I have done and it will save you having to delete all the 2 minute recordings.
Nutts: Just have to remember to change the time on the timer on Sunday due to the end of daylight savings.
Thanks RingoTB. I will delete the timer recording and set up the five minute standby as you suggest. That is much easier. Probably won't have to bother with changing the time on the timer for day light savings as it won't matter if its turning the power off and on at 5 am or 6 or there abouts. Have to admit that we have been putting up with issues for some time now with the 3600, the very poor ff being the biggest frustration (thanks to 2lostkiwis in helping dramatically in overcoming this) so it's very close to time that it will end up in the rubbish. You couldn't sell it to anyone in good conscious will the current failings. I see Panasonic equivalents are only $400 now. Very temping.
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