MagicTV 3700TD - Opinions

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377 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 40

#518663 8-Sep-2011 16:18

the common thread there is usb powered drives. Seems odd though as it does say you can update via USB stick. Still i guess you can use a usb stick if you splice a usb extender cable with its own juice ?!?!

wklie

191 posts

Master Geek
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MagicTV

#518753 8-Sep-2011 20:13

nigelb999:
So a Western Digital 1TB HDD (without it's own power supply) won't work? Is that because it doesn't supply enough power through the USB?

And no recordings to a USB memory stick either? But presumably one can update the firmware from USB memory stick??

For 2.5" HDD without external power supply, "not supported" means some of them draw too much power so they will not work. Others may work.

For USB sticks, "not supported" means most of them are too slow to perform recording properly. It is not an issue of power.

Jimmy22

377 posts

Ultimate Geek
+1 received by user: 40

#518867 9-Sep-2011 08:55

oh well there goes my theory, thank you.. i live and learn :)

nigelb999

37 posts

Geek

#518877 9-Sep-2011 09:07

wklie:
For 2.5" HDD without external power supply, "not supported" means some of them draw too much power so they will not work. Others may work.

For USB sticks, "not supported" means most of them are too slow to perform recording properly. It is not an issue of power.

So I guess it's a matter of trial and error as far as non-external powered HDDs are concerned - some may work, some may not? And presumably, one can still update the firmware using USB sticks, just not record to it?

I'm getting my MagicTV 3700 from the courier today. So will see first hand what it's like.

fatjulio

90 posts

Master Geek

#518879 9-Sep-2011 09:08

nigelb999:
wklie:
For 2.5" HDD without external power supply, "not supported" means some of them draw too much power so they will not work. Others may work.

For USB sticks, "not supported" means most of them are too slow to perform recording properly. It is not an issue of power.

So I guess it's a matter of trial and error as far as non-external powered HDDs are concerned - some may work, some may not? And presumably, one can still update the firmware using USB sticks, just not record to it?

I'm getting my MagicTV 3700 from the courier today. So will see first hand what it's like.

One thing I'd really like to know is if they've fixed the Kordia mux video levels issue. Please let me know.

nigelb999

37 posts

Geek

#519289 10-Sep-2011 15:09

fatjulio:
One thing I'd really like to know is if they've fixed the Kordia mux video levels issue. Please let me know.

Not sure what you mean by Kordia mux video levels? Please explain and hopefully I can let you know as I received my 3700 unit last night.

Dell

Shop now for Dell laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

fatjulio

90 posts

Master Geek

#519294 10-Sep-2011 15:34

nigelb999:
fatjulio:
One thing I'd really like to know is if they've fixed the Kordia mux video levels issue. Please let me know.

Not sure what you mean by Kordia mux video levels? Please explain and hopefully I can let you know as I received my 3700 unit last night.

The Kordia mux has Prime, Maori TV, and other minor channels. On these channels the Magic 3600 makes the black and white compressed from where they should be. The visible result is black is dark grey instead of black, when compared to the other channels, eg TV1/2/3.

An easy way to check is set your TV to 4:3 picture size, so there are black bars on the sides, but do it with the TV controls, not the Magic. The background/border of the image inside (the actual TV channel) should have the same black as the bars created by the TV. Prime, for example, will have dark grey instead of black.

nigelb999

37 posts

Geek

#519300 10-Sep-2011 16:14

Well I received my 3700 unit last night, and set it up in time for the starting ceremony of the RWC 2011, so for anyone that's interested, here's my initial thoughts from the moment I unpacked it...

The product box is excellent - everything is well packaged inside.

The unit itself is well designed and well built, with a nice glossy black finish.

Comes with a good quality manual, including a handy quick start-up guide.

Nice looking remote control, but am really disappointed that it doesn't backlight, even in the dark, as the PixelMagic website says... "The easy-to-use button layout and automatic backlight provide intuitive control, even with the lights off!". Maybe I need to turn it on somehow!?! But the manual makes no mention of having to do this, nor does it state that the remote control has a backlight function. I was told by the retailer that it has backlight remote control, so I'm a bit confused about this and will be emailing them on Monday about this.

To me, the buttons on the remote control are a little awkward to use, the main buttons I need to push most of the time are at the very top of the remote which causes me to hold it further up than what feels natural to do.

Getting everything out of the box and all connected took me about 10 mins. Once connected, I just turned it on and it immediately prompted me for best viewing settings and automatically found all of the Freeview channels in 30 seconds. I was able to start recording literally seconds after it had finished the initial setup.

By default, it places a Recording symbol in the top-left hand side of the screen once every 10 or so seconds during recording - I was pleased to find the option to turn it off in the Options screen.

I've finally been able to make use of my 1080P capability on my HDTV. I selected the 1080P video setting (using an HDMI cable) and the picture quality is a noticeable improvement over watching the Freeview channels with the TV's own tuner. In fact, watching the RWC 2011 opening ceremony in High Def on TV1 was outstanding!

It is so good to play back recordings in their original native high definition quality!

I really like the 'series recording' feature. Just highlight a program in the TV Guide, press the Red button to record, and it prompts you whether or not you'd like to record the entire series. It obviously takes the information from the Freeview TV Guide and makes automatic adjustments to the TV scheduling if the program starts at alternative times.

Because it can do series recordings, one thing I think would be very useful, would be to highlight a TV program on the TV Guide and show a list of all the times (and program information) for that series. For instance, it would be great to show all the games of the RWC 2011, what channel and times and game information. But I don't think Freeview provides that information beyond 8 days, so I'm guessing it wouldn't know when the next series program is scheduled until it reaches within that date range.

The Freeview TV Guide takes about the same amount of time to load as does my TV, that is, 10 seconds after switching channels, and about 3 seconds after initial loading. However, it is considerably slower to navigate through each channel's listings than in comparison on my HD TV. It's a bit annoying especially when you want to go from TV1 through to Prime TV's listings - stepping through each channel is a good 2 or 3 second delay on each, but maybe there's a way to jump directly to the channel listing I want (I need to finish reading the manual!).

Also, when showing the current TV program's information banner (by pressing the Info key) I can't seem to find a way to navigate to the next TV program information (to see what's on next), or even another TV channel. Using the Left/Right/Up/Down keys doesn't change it, like it does on my HD TV. Instead, I have to cancel the info banner and load up the TV Guide instead. But maybe I'm missing something in the manual.

All in all, I am very pleased that I bought it. It's a quality device and has dramatically improved the recording capabilities on Freeview. Whereas I used to switch my TV to AV mode and turn on the DVD recorder separately, and then spend lots of time setting up new recordings etc. Now, it's an intuitive process, with the recording functionality fully integrated into Freeview. Now I just hit the Record button whenever I want, and it just starts recording. No more swapping video channels and guessing recording times etc. Simple - as it should be.

Please bare in mind, this is just my initial thoughts of the unit from setting it up and playing around with it after just having it for a day.

I will post more from any questions, and as I no doubt find more features.

nigelb999

37 posts

Geek

#519304 10-Sep-2011 16:24

fatjulio:
nigelb999:
fatjulio:
One thing I'd really like to know is if they've fixed the Kordia mux video levels issue. Please let me know.

Not sure what you mean by Kordia mux video levels? Please explain and hopefully I can let you know as I received my 3700 unit last night.

The Kordia mux has Prime, Maori TV, and other minor channels. On these channels the Magic 3600 makes the black and white compressed from where they should be. The visible result is black is dark grey instead of black, when compared to the other channels, eg TV1/2/3.

An easy way to check is set your TV to 4:3 picture size, so there are black bars on the sides, but do it with the TV controls, not the Magic. The background/border of the image inside (the actual TV channel) should have the same black as the bars created by the TV. Prime, for example, will have dark grey instead of black.

Sorry, but for some reason when I set my TV to 4:3 picture size, it shows these awful-looking grey bars on the sides, not black. (Just as well I always like to have it set to 16:9). So I can't comment. Interestingly enough I've not found a way of getting my TV to show black sides, but as it's a Panasonic Plasma HD TV maybe that's why? (because of the Plasma requirement?) If it was an LCD TV perhaps it would show black sides instead?

Nutts

65 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 8

#519324 10-Sep-2011 17:24

Hi, you can jump to any channel in the EPG tv guide buy simply keying the channel number.
For prime just push 10, or for tv1 just push 1. It will go straight to that channel. You don't have to step through them all. Well thats the case on the magic 3600 any way.

Cheers M

MurrayM

2502 posts

Uber Geek
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#519329 10-Sep-2011 17:39

nigelb999: looking remote control, but am really disappointed that it doesn't backlight, even in the dark, as the PixelMagic website says... "The easy-to-use button layout and automatic backlight provide intuitive control, even with the lights off!". Maybe I need to turn it on somehow!?! But the manual makes no mention of having to do this, nor does it state that the remote control has a backlight function. I was told by the retailer that it has backlight remote control, so I'm a bit confused about this and will be emailing them on Monday about this.

My 3600's remote has a backlight, which is very handy. However it only works when it's dark and you have to press a button on the remote to a activate the backlighting.

nigelb999: The Freeview TV Guide takes about the same amount of time to load as does my TV, that is, 10 seconds after switching channels, and about 3 seconds after initial loading. However, it is considerably slower to navigate through each channel's listings than in comparison on my HD TV. It's a bit annoying especially when you want to go from TV1 through to Prime TV's listings - stepping through each channel is a good 2 or 3 second delay on each, but maybe there's a way to jump directly to the channel listing I want (I need to finish reading the manual!).

On the 3600 you can key in a channel number when in the EPG and it will jump straight to that channel, no need to scroll through them all to get to the one you want.

Dell

Shop now for Dell laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

nigelb999

37 posts

Geek

#519355 10-Sep-2011 19:23

Nutts: Hi, you can jump to any channel in the EPG tv guide buy simply keying the channel number.
For prime just push 10, or for tv1 just push 1. It will go straight to that channel. You don't have to step through them all. Well thats the case on the magic 3600 any way.

Cheers M

Aaaahhh... perfect, that's a lot easier. Thanks for the tip.

nigelb999

37 posts

Geek

#519356 10-Sep-2011 19:25

MurrayM:
My 3600's remote has a backlight, which is very handy. However it only works when it's dark and you have to press a button on the remote to a activate the backlighting.

What button do you push to activate the backlighting?

fatjulio

90 posts

Master Geek

#519364 10-Sep-2011 19:49

An idea to check the black on Prime or Stratos, is flip between the Tv's internal tuner (I'm assuming it's Freeview too) and the Magic for the same channel.

MurrayM

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#519369 10-Sep-2011 19:57

nigelb999:
MurrayM:
My 3600's remote has a backlight, which is very handy. However it only works when it's dark and you have to press a button on the remote to a activate the backlighting.

What button do you push to activate the backlighting?

You can press any button and the backlighting comes on but then turns off after several seconds of non-use. What I was tr ing to say was that the backlighting isn't turned on all the time but only comes on when you go to use the remote.

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