New Freeview HD hardware: eXtra Terrestrial Freeview HD tuner

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39 posts

Geek

#165048 17-Sep-2008 11:33

I'll install the latest firmware tonight and will certainly report back here if its an old problem. As far as I was aware I had the latest firmware update which Spong sent to me and I installed only last week. If firmware is released on a weekly basis could we expect 52 updates a year? I'm hopeful these issue's will be fixed now anyhow. If so... you won't hear from me again. I hope other new customers with the ET out of the box know where to find firmware updates and know they need a USB flash drive to update and fix any future bugs.

Lets be honest. The firmware is not tested sufficently before it is released. If it was we would not be seing all these updates. I would suspect that the software house that provides the firmware is supporting several different flavours of the box. And as such the testing is always the area that is left wanting. Being a test engineer myself, I see this all the time. Bad code reflects on the testing department. Reselers screaming for a fix to keep ther few custmers they have from returning the units.

Buy a Vantage 6000 HD and spot the difference. PVR built in and xvid play back out of the box as soon as you plug in a usb drive.

Dave

BadMac

69 posts

Master Geek

#165051 17-Sep-2008 11:38

BazNZ:
Garglo: Just and OBSERVATION. DONT D O N T D O N T
post a problem unless you have FIRST downloaded the latest Firmware update from the
http://www.satlinknz.co.nz/extra_terrestrial.html
web site. We are going around in circles here with old problems.
When setting audio selection - also do it on the remote. The main menu has a bug where it doesnt keep the setting.

I'll install the latest firmware tonight and will certainly report back here if its an old problem. As far as I was aware I had the latest firmware update which Spong sent to me and I installed only last week. If firmware is released on a weekly basis could we expect 52 updates a year? I'm hopeful these issue's will be fixed now anyhow. If so... you won't hear from me again. I hope other new customers with the ET out of the box know where to find firmware updates and know they need a USB flash drive to update and fix any future bugs.

The firmware Spong had was not the V1.4 (public) release which is on the web site (its the one I refer to as V1.4 (Beta) in my posts). It did fix the remote and things but not Audio. The "official" V1.4 does address the audio (and my Pixelation issue). Definately upgrade it.

Jaxson

8172 posts

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Trusted

#165054 17-Sep-2008 11:44

Plus 2/3's again retail price and no EPG. Includes a hard drive for that price Coolvibe?

BadMac, please add
info banner shows random aspect ratios on some/all channels?
Slow to change channels when resolution set to AUTO, -may be my TV adjusting though.

As you can see though, the list is pretty small. Frustrating as it wouldn't take much to clean a lot of these up. I know a lot of us have previously put these mainly simple issues forward to satlink. The audio dropout honestly seems to be the last remaining major issue.

Spong

1016 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 341

Trusted

#165061 17-Sep-2008 12:15

The vers 1.04 firmware I offered a few people around father's day was always clearly stated as pre-release, and I mentioned the public release around 12th Sept in this thread. Unfortunately the suppliers of this firmware haven't bothered to increase the reported version numbers (it's still 1.04) but you can tell by the reported firmware date - currently 12th September. I think it's a good thing that this product is as well supported as it is. I'm not involved in the importing or development at all, except in giving feedback to peter, and of course I'm selling them also. I upgrade all units to the latest firmware before despatching too. As the developers are in China, its difficult for them to test fully for our NZ system, but i take my hat off to their efforts. Other boxes haven't had as much support in my experience, and I'd say the Vantage unit with PVR capability I tested up until last week had it's fair share of issues too. The firmware hasn't been upgraded since July, it doesn't have a proper EPG and the manual is completely unacceptable. It's too expensive in my opinion, and reminds me of the clunky interfaces you get with old Philips DVD recorders. If/when the ET gets USB record capability, the Vantage will need a major price adjustment for it to survive.

Tivo upgrades to operate with the new OzTivo EPG, support and service. Over 400 performed here so far. See: www.hillcrest.net.nz

ventolin

110 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 4

#165095 17-Sep-2008 14:44

The vantage hasn't needed a firmware upgrade because it works perfectly fine.

Even if your chinese engineers manage to get PVR functionality on the ET box what good is an EPG as it doesn't support 1 touch recording anyway so you're still going to have to use some sort of timer or reservation function for the PVR to be useful.

And believe me if the engineers working on the ET box were going to get PVR functionality working they would have put that before alot of the other problems that you folk are describing here because it would increase their sales hugely so obviously they either don't want to do it or more than likely can't do it.

BadMac

69 posts

Master Geek

#165123 17-Sep-2008 17:31

ventolin: The vantage hasn't needed a firmware upgrade because it works perfectly fine.

Even if your chinese engineers manage to get PVR functionality on the ET box what good is an EPG as it doesn't support 1 touch recording anyway so you're still going to have to use some sort of timer or reservation function for the PVR to be useful.

And believe me if the engineers working on the ET box were going to get PVR functionality working they would have put that before alot of the other problems that you folk are describing here because it would increase their sales hugely so obviously they either don't want to do it or more than likely can't do it.

Why do you waste your time posting in this thread. Go and be happy with your choice, i'm sure its all you want it to be. In fact why not start a thread about it and post how great it is there, others who have the box would then be able to discuss it in a caring way.

In fact since you seem to know so much maybe you could help here, can you put your vantage box alongside your inferior ET box and check the sound drop out problems. Report back here if the vantage has sound but ET loses it. Thanks.

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ventolin

110 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 4

#165136 17-Sep-2008 18:08

Ah so Spong is allowed to claim the box has faults where it doesn't and we aren't allowed to defend it? Haha good one, oh well you get what you pay for I guess.

And I can confirm that nether the Vantage or Zinwell are expiriencing audio drops, hope this helps you.

BazNZ

258 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 6

#165139 17-Sep-2008 18:23

Installed the latest Firmware tonight...
1. Audio dropout is still there but not frequently. IMPROVED BUT NOT FIXED.

2 TV Central has now gone and have no reception. WHAT HAPPENED HERE?
Did I read somewhere this has the wrong MHZ frequency or something on the ET?

Cheers
BazNZ

ArchPrime

30 posts

Geek

#165143 17-Sep-2008 18:36

Not wanting to knock anybody's choice of one box vs another, but I have connected my PC (with Hauppage T500 TDVB card) to same aerial that my ET (1.4 firmware) used, and found that while I get the audio drop outs and pixelation others are noticing from ET, I don't seem to get them on my PC - There may be some suble issues with connectors on ET vs PC, but otherwise it seems to me that the difference lies in the hardware & software rather than anything to do with reception.

To be fair, it would be very easy to draw a false conclusion from watching one then the other rather than both at once, because tranmission interference etc might occur intermittently and so affect quality to different extents during sequential tests.

I wonder if it is possible to hook up two boxes from different manufacturers simultaneously to same aerial without introducing other issues? That would hopefully identify any differences that do exist conclusively

pete9321

105 posts

Master Geek
Inactive user

#165154 17-Sep-2008 19:13

There is NO audio dropout on this unit...with new 12th sept software....

We have 4 units on trial around auckland, and one in our office...FINE.....

suggest dropout is caused by interference...bad signal levels, etc....

Or old software../
END OF STORY !

This is the BESt DTT box on the market....

Any problems Contact us, Satlink....and we will stand by our product....
Can demonstrate unit working with NO audio dropout.....

BazNZ

258 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 6

#165176 17-Sep-2008 20:41

pete9321: There is NO audio dropout on this unit...with new 12th sept software....

We have 4 units on trial around auckland, and one in our office...FINE.....

suggest dropout is caused by interference...bad signal levels, etc....

Or old software../

END OF STORY !

This is the BESt DTT box on the market....

Any problems Contact us, Satlink....and we will stand by our product....

Can demonstrate unit working with NO audio dropout.....

and....2. TV Central has now gone and I have no reception. WHAT HAPPENED HERE?
I had it before this latest firmware update? Now I don't.... any reasons for this?

New World

Shop on-line at New World now for your groceries (affiliate link).

BazNZ

258 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 6

#165184 17-Sep-2008 20:57

Buster: We've had some remote control issues so loaded the new software V1.04 (Sep 12 2008) via USB. We're in Hamilton and don't get tvCentral any more.

Seems there is a mistake there. TvCentral should be UHF 40/622. The software has it as UHF 40(626MHz) ???

Is this correct?

Spyware

3818 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 1366

Lifetime subscriber

#165199 17-Sep-2008 21:49

As I have previously stated, UHF channel 40 (622 to 630 MHz) is the analog frequency for TVCentral and has nothing whatsoever to do with reception of this channel via DVB-T. Its digital existence is on the Kordia mux, channel 50. DVB-T receivers display the centre frequency so channel 40 would be 626 MHz, but as stated TVCentral DVB-T is not even on channel 40.

Spark Max Fibre using Mikrotik CCR1009-8G-1S-1S+, CRS125-24G-1S, Unifi UAP, U6-Pro, UAP-AC-M-Pro, Apple TV 4K (2022), Apple TV 4K (2017), iPad Air 1st gen, iPad Air 4th gen, iPhone 13, SkyNZ3151 (the white box). If it doesn't move then it's data cabled.

bazzer

3438 posts

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+1 received by user: 267

Trusted

#165317 18-Sep-2008 12:43

pete9321: There is NO audio dropout on this unit...with new 12th sept software....
We have 4 units on trial around auckland, and one in our office...FINE.....
suggest dropout is caused by interference...bad signal levels, etc....
Or old software../
END OF STORY !
This is the BESt DTT box on the market....
Any problems Contact us, Satlink....and we will stand by our product....
Can demonstrate unit working with NO audio dropout.....

I have the latest software and I'm still getting dropouts over coax. I don't get any dropouts over HDMI (havent tested stereo RCA output) so that's why it seems weird that it would be something else. It also may not occur on the Dolby stream (maybe not on 1, 2, 3 at all, I havent taken the time to test thoroughly).

What receiver do you have your working box running in to? Im sure my signal is good because just down the hill from Pine Hill transmitter. Of course aerial/cables may be dodgy but video and HDMI audio is OK so that's strange.

Jaxson

8172 posts

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+1 received by user: 1332

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#165332 18-Sep-2008 13:14

Hi Baz,

You might be onto something here. Given that the freeview channels come of 3 different streams, maybe the audio tracks on some of the streams have gaps. Testing on another stream would not uncover the dropouts.

What channels are you using to test the dropouts? Mate at work has upgraded software but is sure he gets dropouts on C4. I have not done an extended test but after the new software all seems well for me.

We still need someone to do a proper test with a different brand of box to confirm that if dropouts are experienced on one channel with an ET box with latest firmware, that these are or are not repeated on a zinwell etc. Needs to be same aerial / station etc. I returned my Zinwell when I got my ET boxes so am unable to perform this easily.

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