Say hi if you're still using Magic TV 3600!

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DutchBoy

6 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2675143 15-Mar-2021 20:43

Thank you for your response. I did have a look for another power brick, but found the 4.16A ones a little difficult to locate.

I have since acquired another MTV 3600 from Trademe, and this came with a 12V 2A (presume after-market) power adapter. I've plugged it into mine and it's away. The adapter after 30 minutes of running is barely warm.
Anyone care to comment if this unit will be good enough to run the MTV long term or should I hunt down another more powerful power brick?

I've asked the seller how they acquired the power adapter too - incase they can shed some light on it.

Their unit was an MTV-3600 with a small fan at the back (presume earlier version of the same unit - looks identical on the inside other than the fan).

The one I have doesn't have a fan, just some vents at the back. Can't say mine ever got warm enough to need a fan.

Thanks.

OldPete

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2675231 16-Mar-2021 08:24

Quite a drop in power - but if it works and doesn't get hot it may be fine. You'd save a couple of watts if you've replaced the HDD with a 2.5".

You can get 4A supplies online for $20 or so - e.g. Amazon.com (just search 12v 4 amp power supply) - just have to make sure you have the right plug.

theoldfarter

235 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 21

ID Verified

#2675583 16-Mar-2021 16:34

Still have mine. Haven't used it for 3.5 years, apart from turning it on to see if it still goes every now and then.

It does. It can still record and playback.

JeffWright

7 posts

Wannabe Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#2684416 31-Mar-2021 00:28

OldPete:

Quite a drop in power - but if it works and doesn't get hot it may be fine. You'd save a couple of watts if you've replaced the HDD with a 2.5".

You can get 4A supplies online for $20 or so - e.g. Amazon.com (just search 12v 4 amp power supply) - just have to make sure you have the right plug.

I seem to remember that my MTV3600 (with its original HDD) drew about 25W from the mains. That's only about 2.1A at 12V so a competent 2.5A supply should be fine. Heat x time is the power supply's enemy (primarily due to their electrolytic capacitors). If it is running cool I'd say "job done".

If you're worried, you can improve the odds by buying a well known brand name like Meanwell (no commercial ties to me).

gpf

35 posts

Geek

#2772551 5-Sep-2021 16:26

We have one surviving MTV 3700TD, after the original 3600TD died and recently the tuner stopped working on a 3700TD in another room.

We record a range of 15-20 series per week across all channels and playback has been faultless for years, even between units across the network via Ethernet-over-Power units. We don't watch anything live, instead recording a raft of programs that I set to auto-delete after 30 days or when the disk is full.

I LOVE the 6 second rewind and 1 minute fast forward that 2lostkiwis (Ian) kindly added for me to get around the ridiculous 10 minute skips that Freeview enforce upon Magic TV.

Sadly the unit is starting to cause problems and I am about to embark on searching for a replacement 😩

Can anyone please offer advice on a suitable replacement with the following needs at the top of my list:

1. Quick and easy fast-forwarding and skipping back. This is my number one requirement. I detest having to fast forward at like 8x, 16x etc, which is so hard to time the point where the ads finish. It's all about skipping those pesky ads!! With my modified firmware I only have to press the Fwd-Skip 4 times (4 minutes) and then (sometimes) once Back to go back 6 seconds. It's a luxury I do not want to give up 🙏.

2. Ability for overlapping programs to still record some minutes before and after the recordings in case they are running early or late. I've heard the Panasonic recorder cuts the first recording when the second recording on the same channel begins. You will know MTV keeps both the overflow at the end of the first recording as well as at the beginning of the second recording. There's no reason why Panasonic can't do this and just seems lazy to me.

3. Easy to use interface for good WAF. I'm yet to see an interface as clear and simple as the MTV system. It's a delight to navigate around. The last Panasonic UI I've seen (5 years ago admittedly) was old and clunky looking.

I've read very mixed reviews of the Dish A2 and the Panasonic HDD recorders. Can MTV owners that changed to either of those, please give me your opinion of whether you think they will satisfy my needs based on 1-4 above?

Is there anything else out there I should consider? How about the Vodafone TV system? I'm not averse to cloud storage and the limited time-to-view is not ideal, if it ticks my needs above. Do they easily jump across the ads if recorded shows and can they easily jump back a few seconds without having to faff around with 2x, 4x etc?

I'm really not looking forward to replacing the Magic box but it's not going to last forever. I've got it on a nightly off/on timer, like others, to refresh the memory but sometimes the recordings stop halfway through playback for no reason and that's getting more frequent.

Thanks for any suggestions you may have!
Gary

fe31nz

1294 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 423

#2772636 6-Sep-2021 00:45

If you want something that will skip properly, it can not be anything that is officially registered as a Freeview device. To get Freeview approval, it has to be hard to skip over the ad breaks.

If you have an older PC that you are not using, if it has 4-8 Gibytes of RAM, you can repurpose it as a Linux MythTV box and get a top of the line TV recording and playback box. You will need to add one or more DVB-T or DVB-T2 tuners and a remote control. You can add hard drives as needed, but initially you would want at least a 1-2 Tbyte drive for recordings.

In MythTV, the skipping is configurable, and the mode I use is to skip forwards or backwards by 30 seconds per right or left arrow key, but if I change from forwards to backwards without doing something else first (play or stop or the back button to exit skip mode) it changes the skip to 10 seconds, allowing fine control of where to start playing again. So I skip forwards 7-9 times until I see programme again, then backwards until I see an ad again, then let it run. It will be less than 10 s of ad before the programme starts, and I do not miss any programme. And the skipping is extremely responsive, so all that can be done in a very short time once you are used to it. You can also key in a number of minutes followed by the arrow key to skip that number of minutes.

MythTV has all sorts of wonderful features that I would never want to live without, such as remembering everything you have ever recorded so it can avoid recording repeats. But getting it set up initially can be a bit of a pain. There is good help available on the mailing lists, including an NZ one, and I am happy to help new users.

I also have my MythTV box set up with DVB-S2 tuners and a card reader so that it can record Sky for me as well - it is a much better option than paying Sky for one of their recording capable boxes.

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gpf

35 posts

Geek

#2772645 6-Sep-2021 08:43

fe31nz:

If you want something that will skip properly, it can not be anything that is officially registered as a Freeview device. To get Freeview approval, it has to be hard to skip over the ad breaks.

If you have an older PC that you are not using, if it has 4-8 Gibytes of RAM, you can repurpose it as a Linux MythTV box and get a top of the line TV recording and playback box. You will need to add one or more DVB-T or DVB-T2 tuners and a remote control. You can add hard drives as needed, but initially you would want at least a 1-2 Tbyte drive for recordings.

In MythTV, ......

Thanks very much for your MythTV suggestion. I like the idea but I'm past tinkering with endless command-lines in Linux to get something working. If I was 10 years younger and had a PC laying around, things might be different. I have reservations about the WAF also, without many hours of fine-tuning. I might be wrong there but browsing some MythTV help pages it looks rather daunting. That aside, I don't have any old PCs laying around, so an ex-lease or new base unit with the dual or quad tuner, IR adaptor is likely to set me back $700-1000+ I'm guessing.

So I'm looking for an out-of-the-box experience - which as you point out, rules out quick forward-skipping due to Freeview's restrictions.

Do you or anyone have experience with the Vodafone TV (Gen2?) and hands-on experience of its fast-forward capabilities? Is it easy enough to skip past 4-minute ad breaks? And on the Panasonic HDD range?

Thanks
Gary

OldPete

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2772654 6-Sep-2021 08:59

Yes, MythTV looks like a promising candidate, but agree gpf: the time and effort would be fairly significant (ditto the 10 years younger...! maybe I could get my geek son to build it, but he doesn't see the outside enough as it is...) And I shudder when I recall spending MANY hours trying to get Windows to work as a PVR, but gave that up....

Separately: on my 3600 the skip fwd (2lostkiwis) has all of a sudden stopped. Just doesn't do anything. not the remote as I have the original and a Harmony. Reluctant to reset and reload the thing... Any thoughts?

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