[TelstraClear] T-Box issues continued

Forums › One New Zealand (including Vodafone, WxC, Farmside) › [TelstraClear] T-Box issues continued

1 | ... | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | ... | 112

233 posts

Master Geek

#516041 3-Sep-2011 09:12

Garfield69: Another feature I would like to see on my TBox has to do with the PAUSE banner.
When I am watching sports events, I often PAUSE to view the statistics or results on screen, but find the PAUSE banner almost always blocks viewing.
I would like a setting in the GENERAL menu that lets you select between having a the current full size PAUSE banner, or an small PAUSE icon in one of the screen corners.
Alternatively, the full size PAUSE banner could, after a 5 second period switch to a small icon positioned in a corner.
Cheers.

Good point.? I have found it gets in the way too.

MightyApe

You will find anything you want at MightyApe (affiliate link).

Fog

320 posts

Ultimate Geek

#516114 3-Sep-2011 13:09

I am still having momentary breaks in the picture and audio, which is becoming quite annoying, I can sometimes replay the portion lost, but this is unsatisfactory. Is anyone else experiencing this problem.? Also since the software update to V2.9.23 there is no difference to the response times, which are very slow compared to the old Digital Decoder, where the channel changes were almost instantanious. Anyone else have any thoughts on the matter.?? I am beginning to regret parting with the old digital decoder!!.
(I inadvertently posted this under a new topic so am re-posting on here there more appropriate).

Fog

320 posts

Ultimate Geek

#516119 3-Sep-2011 13:16

I am not having a good day. That should read: Is anyone else experiencing this problem.? Also since the update to version 2.9.23 there is no difference to the response times, which are very slow compared to the old digital decoder, where the channel changes were almost instantaneous, etc.

lanceanz

127 posts

Master Geek

#516130 3-Sep-2011 13:42

Fog: I am not having a good day. That should read: Is anyone else experiencing this problem.? Also since the update to version 2.9.23 there is no difference to the response times, which are very slow compared to the old digital decoder, where the channel changes were almost instantaneous, etc.

Yes, sure. If there have been any improvements to response they are minor. However Gary has posted that the performance improvements are still being tested. No doubt in my mind that the T-Box should never have been released with such appalling performance, but it was. Till the "performance update" happens (wonder if they'll wait till after the rugby before rolling out the update?), we just have to do everything button-press by button-press.

On the plus side - I think my T-Box has been up for 10 days now without freezing. This has never happened before and I was one of the early purchasers. I'm not doing my routine cycling of the power, just to see how long it will last. Only issue I've encountered was when I played all the way to the end of a recording. It appears to get stuck, but I was still able to return to the Planner and delete the recording. Maybe this issue has always existed. I usually don't play till the end because I've got 5 minutes padding enabled.

Fog

320 posts

Ultimate Geek

#516159 3-Sep-2011 14:52

Thanks for your comments lanceanz. I think if it was possible to go back to my old decoder, I would
seriously consider it. Guess we will have to stick with the t/box and hope things improve.

By the way, are you reading these posts ok.? Mine seem to be missing words on the right-hand side.?
That is why I repeated some of my post. Perhaps it is a problem at my end.

lanceanz

127 posts

Master Geek

#516164 3-Sep-2011 15:43

Fog: Thanks for your comments lanceanz. I think if it was possible to go back to my old decoder, I would
seriously consider it. Guess we will have to stick with the t/box and hope things improve.

By the way, are you reading these posts ok.? Mine seem to be missing words on the right-hand side.?
That is why I repeated some of my post. Perhaps it is a problem at my end.

I've felt the same way. I still wish I hadn't purchased the T-Box (or technically, rented it indefinitely with payment in advance). My Sony hard-disk recorder and the digital decoder worked well. The only negative was having to set timers on both, and the inability to record more than 1 programme at the same time. I made a formal complaint in April and got a very small amount of compensation (I've raised the compensation issue again, but TCL hasn't replied). TCL took a long time to release the T-Box, but they should've waited longer. They did ask for beta testers and I'd be amazed if those people didn't report the same obvious problems we've encountered.

The only reasons I didn't return my T-Box were that I knew it was mostly or totally a software issue, and I didn't want more hassle of waiting through 1/2 day windows for the tech to swap me over. Fortunately I'm also a patient person. Just as well as it took TCL far too long to get serious about getting the developers to do fixes (or maybe the development company just didn't have enough good developers).

I think everything I asked for back in April (and more) has been raised in this thread. There's probably no reason why the T-Box can't be made as good as a hard-disk recorder or VCR (manual recording reminders, decent pausing, smooth fast forward and reverse, and of course reasonable responsiveness). I understand the code is written in Java and it's possible that may limit performance, but fingers crossed the hardware is fast enough to not limit the speed of the software too much.

As for the cutting-off of text, that is happening to me too. The advertisement-bar on the right is moving across the posts without the text wrapping. I'm using Chrome 13.x and think the problem is new. Widening the window is a workaround. There's probably a thread about the issue in another forum.

Fog

320 posts

Ultimate Geek

#516168 3-Sep-2011 15:59

Appreciate your further comments. You would need to be patient eh.? I also realiise that they are
software problems and should be fixeable. We will keep our fingers crossed that things will improve.
At least I have only had to reboot twice, since I have had the t/box, so I am not having as much
trouble as some on the forum.

BarTender

3530 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#516204 3-Sep-2011 18:17

I'm just loving this thread. To me it proves that customers are prepared to put up with all sorts of inconveniences and extremely poor end-user experience.. And still pay at least $60+ per month for the "service". Good on Gary for responding, but it doesn't look like there will be any resolution to the significant bugs any time soon.

Crazy.

Granted sky have run out of MySky HDi boxes... But still. My wife would have lynched me months ago if she had to put up with this.

and

lanceanz

127 posts

Master Geek

#516653 5-Sep-2011 08:26

Made 10 days without freezing, but not 11

Went into my lounge to draw the curtains to a crisp, clear Upper Hutt day. Noticed that my T-Box had a red power button and the red Recording light was on. A bad sign. Sure enough, it was unresponsive. Cycled the power on modem and T-Box and it's working again. Planner shows that it failed on Family Guy at 8pm Sunday, showing "Partly recorded". That was the only recording scheduled for all of Sunday.

Garfield69

126 posts

Master Geek

#516663 5-Sep-2011 08:53

lanceanz: Made 10 days without freezing, but not 11

Went into my lounge to draw the curtains to a crisp, clear Upper Hutt day. Noticed that my T-Box had a red power button and the red Recording light was on. A bad sign. Sure enough, it was unresponsive. Cycled the power on modem and T-Box and it's working again. Planner shows that it failed on Family Guy at 8pm Sunday, showing "Partly recorded". That was the only recording scheduled for all of Sunday.

I've noticed that the length between freezes my TBOX performs is related to the amount of activity I make it do.
For example, I have been following the US OPEN tennis since it began last week. I record about 14 hours of tennis a day and am viewing this with plenty of fast forwards, pauses and plays. On top of this I'm also recording on average about 2 or 3 other hourly events daily. I find that in this scenario, I will be lucky if my TBOX does not freeze soon after 2.5 days. Without the tennis workload, my TBOX can stay active for about a week. The symptoms are usually that during play the TBOX will freeze, presenting a black screen, and the status lights will usually show blue active, red recording, and green play lights. No responses to any remote commands. After waiting about 5 minutes I then perform a reboot.
I am really hoping the next "performance" update will fix this.

TwoSeven

1512 posts

Uber Geek

Subscriber

#516789 5-Sep-2011 13:03

Garfield69:
lanceanz: Made 10 days without freezing, but not 11

Went into my lounge to draw the curtains to a crisp, clear Upper Hutt day. Noticed that my T-Box had a red power button and the red Recording light was on. A bad sign. Sure enough, it was unresponsive. Cycled the power on modem and T-Box and it's working again. Planner shows that it failed on Family Guy at 8pm Sunday, showing "Partly recorded". That was the only recording scheduled for all of Sunday.

I've noticed that the length between freezes my TBOX performs is related to the amount of activity I make it do.

This appears to be a similar experience to me as well. I notice that the blue light on the front starts taking a while to respond or stops responding and is more likely to occur with more frequent usage.

Software Engineer
(the practice of real science, engineering and management)

pebbles

741 posts

Ultimate Geek

Trusted

#516804 5-Sep-2011 13:27

We got two in our household as soon as they offered free install (which was right at the beginning I think?) One has been pretty fantastic the whole time - only had the major issues everyone had and since then no problems. We have been using it for weeks and no freezes.

The other one though (Of course the one with my tv, not my parents) has had every issue in the book and then some. I gave up ringing telstra as they just didn't do anything.

I have to say the latest update has made me a little happpy though as they finally added new sorting features to the recorded programs list and put the currently recording items at the top. Just a shame it's taken so long to add such basic features.

Shadbolt

125 posts

Master Geek

#516972 5-Sep-2011 16:46

I've noticed that the length between freezes my TBOX performs is related to the amount of activity I make it do.

I agree. My T-Box is heftily used, and needs a reboot more than once a week. But a while ago, I went abroad for three weeks, and left the T-Box running, to record the series-linked programmes. It did every single one perfectly, and worked fine until I'd used it for about two days following my return.

Shadbolt

quickymart

11219 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#517163 5-Sep-2011 21:29

Does Telstra Clear offer a non-T-Box cable TV solution? Can you still get the older (analogue?) set top boxes, or are they history now?
I used to have one, and I tells ya, solid as a rock. None of this weekly rebooting carry-on needed either.

Jennydon

7 posts

Wannabe Geek

#517174 5-Sep-2011 21:47

Looking forward to the next update to fix these problems. The present sorting option is good, though... but is it possible include a way to lock a sort type as the default? eg. I like to sort alpabetically.

1 | ... | 16 | 17 | 18 | 19 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 23 | 24 | 25 | 26 | ... | 112