Warning: Stay away from Vodafone TBox

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dafman

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#177663 10-Aug-2015 21:39

Ok, it's free on contract, but our family have officially had a gutsful of our TBox.

Despite numerous re-boots, the system continually cuts off recording before the end of the TV programme. We have now given up recording on the TBox and go straight to TV on demand for watching TV.

My Sky may be expensive, but at least it works.

In the past, the TBox worked ok, but the last few months have been atrocious.

Be warned - until Vodafone can fix this, don't go near one of these boxes.

(end of rant, feel better now).

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#1362467 10-Aug-2015 22:05

That's not a new issue, it's been happening as long as I can remember.

I'm a geek, a gamer, a dad, a Quic user, and an IT Professional. I have a full rack home lab, size 15 feet, an epic beard and Asperger's. I'm a bit of a Cypherpunk, who believes information wants to be free and the Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. If you use my Quic signup you can also use the code R570394EKGIZ8 for free setup.

FlatButt

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#1362474 10-Aug-2015 22:13

I haven't used a T-Box since early 2012 (prior to the Vodafone deal) but imagine this would be the same - there is a setting you have to manually adjust to pad the recordings since NZ networks (especially FTA) run over quite a bit - the box by default stops recording as soon as the clock hits the scheduled end time. I set ours to 5 minutes when I moved into the flat (it will add 5 minutes to the start and end of each recording) so that it should catch all of any particular show.

Since it was ages ago, I can't remember exactly where you need to go. Hopefully someone else can help you with that.

johnr

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#1362536 11-Aug-2015 06:49

If you change the buffer timing you need to relink the shows again

phantomdb

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#1362575 11-Aug-2015 08:56

the T-Box needs its TIME AND DATE UPTATED, stop offering patches by changing the buffering timing.

i have the same issue, and have diagnosed it to time and date issue.
have the NOC team adjust NTP to re-sync more often and that should address it.

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NZCrusader

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#1362577 11-Aug-2015 09:02

TBox = bad.

Got it. :)

Thanks OP.

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dafman

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#1362595 11-Aug-2015 09:17

We have set the buffer to max, so not helping.

So, thinking some more, what are our options? Sky is not an option as would cost over $100 a month extra over current costs.

1. The TBox we are using is quite old - from Telstra days - if I ask Vodafone for a new box, could this help?
2. Is Vodafone TV a different product to the TBox, could I change to this? Or does TBox = Vodafone TV for cable consumers (I suspect the latter).

If I ditch Vodafone, what are my options:
Replace my Panasonic Blu Ray player with a Panasonic Blu Ray PVR? Are any other brand PVR's better?
Are there any media boxes with hard drives that are work well with Freeview? Not interested in DIY PC options as solution needs to be used by family, so needs to be as easy as pushing series record button on EPG.

Finally, why are Vodafone still promoting the TBox if it regularly fails to perform one of its most basic functions?

kharris

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#1362632 11-Aug-2015 09:47

dafman: We have set the buffer to max, so not helping.

So, thinking some more, what are our options? Sky is not an option as would cost over $100 a month extra over current costs.

1. The TBox we are using is quite old - from Telstra days - if I ask Vodafone for a new box, could this help?
2. Is Vodafone TV a different product to the TBox, could I change to this? Or does TBox = Vodafone TV for cable consumers (I suspect the latter).

If I ditch Vodafone, what are my options:
Replace my Panasonic Blu Ray player with a Panasonic Blu Ray PVR? Are any other brand PVR's better?
Are there any media boxes with hard drives that are work well with Freeview? Not interested in DIY PC options as solution needs to be used by family, so needs to be as easy as pushing series record button on EPG.

Finally, why are Vodafone still promoting the TBox if it regularly fails to perform one of its most basic functions?

Have you deleted and re-added the programs you are recording - including series links - since modifying the padding buffer. It uses the setting at the time you set up the recording so if you change it and don't set up recordings again it will make no difference. It's silly I know, but that's the way it's always worked.

Kirk

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phantomdb

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#1362662 11-Aug-2015 10:45

Just unplug the box and wait 10 seconds then re plug in, If you can on the unit before you unplug check the current time as noted by the unit, this should be different to your computer or cellphone by a couple of minutes.

and after re-plugging in this should be accurate with the cellphone or laptop.

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kharris

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#1362691 11-Aug-2015 11:04

phantomdb: Just unplug the box and wait 10 seconds then re plug in, If you can on the unit before you unplug check the current time as noted by the unit, this should be different to your computer or cellphone by a couple of minutes.

and after re-plugging in this should be accurate with the cellphone or laptop.

The OP said they have the buffer set to max so the unit time being out by a couple of minutes wouldn't really matter.

Kirk

phantomdb

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#1362956 11-Aug-2015 16:09

kharris:
phantomdb: Just unplug the box and wait 10 seconds then re plug in, If you can on the unit before you unplug check the current time as noted by the unit, this should be different to your computer or cellphone by a couple of minutes.

and after re-plugging in this should be accurate with the cellphone or laptop.

The OP said they have the buffer set to max so the unit time being out by a couple of minutes wouldn't really matter.

If max buffer is 5minutes and the unit is 7 minutes out.................

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antoniosk

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#1362986 11-Aug-2015 16:47

phantomdb:
kharris:
phantomdb: Just unplug the box and wait 10 seconds then re plug in, If you can on the unit before you unplug check the current time as noted by the unit, this should be different to your computer or cellphone by a couple of minutes.

and after re-plugging in this should be accurate with the cellphone or laptop.

The OP said they have the buffer set to max so the unit time being out by a couple of minutes wouldn't really matter.

If max buffer is 5minutes and the unit is 7 minutes out.................

T-Box suffers from clock-drift... the longer you go without resetting it, the more the clock goes out.

We reset ours every night.

There you go - it is 2015 and shouldn't happen, but it does.

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shrub

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#1362988 11-Aug-2015 16:49

Funny that this issue still has not been fixed Vodafone has known about it for years and still have not fixed it. The TBOX is a pile of .... its main job is to record programs for play back later and it cant even get that right. Use MySky it just works.

kiwipawl

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#1362989 11-Aug-2015 16:50

I am also having these problems as well the audio dropping out all the time, green band lines runnig across the screen randomly and the really annoying issue of the recording finishing before the end of the program. As to going through and redoing all the series recording schedules, what a pain and it will only last untill the next time the clock runs slow.
Its got to the extent that if we want to see the end of a program we record the one after it just to make sure. If it wasn't for the price we would definatley go back to SKY.

Do you think this could be another alternative? Its a bit expensive and we would have to get a aerial fitted but if it is reliable hopefully it would be worth it.

http://www.dishtv.co.nz/Freeview-Digital-TV-Recorders/170-aerialBox-T2200-FreeviewPlus-Recorder/flypage_web2_lite.tpl.htm

Paul

kharris

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#1362993 11-Aug-2015 16:58

phantomdb:
kharris:
phantomdb: Just unplug the box and wait 10 seconds then re plug in, If you can on the unit before you unplug check the current time as noted by the unit, this should be different to your computer or cellphone by a couple of minutes.

and after re-plugging in this should be accurate with the cellphone or laptop.

The OP said they have the buffer set to max so the unit time being out by a couple of minutes wouldn't really matter.

If max buffer is 5minutes and the unit is 7 minutes out.................

But the max buffer is a lot longer than that isn't it, as you know, and the time difference you are talking about is nowhere near that.

I had a T-box up until a year ago and I never had issues with missing the end of a program. Once the buffer is set correctly and delete all your future recordings and set them again (a pain but a one time one) it seemed to work fine. If there is a time shift and you have to reset the box (which I never had to do) then you don't have to re-set-up your recordings as the buffer time to use is remembered from last time.

The only issue I had with the T-box was slow response times to the remote. I now have mySky (because it was in the place I moved to) and I've got to say there are some things about that that I dislike also.

Kirk

kiwipawl

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#1365388 13-Aug-2015 11:03

Last night my T-box stopped working for about 2-3 hours. All it had was a insufficient signal notification.

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