MagicTV 3600.. my quick impression report (updated)

Forums › Freeview (DVB-T/DVB-S) › MagicTV 3600.. my quick impression report (updated)

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152 posts

Master Geek

#455114 4-Apr-2011 13:48

casewindow: ... Are there any downsides to Coaxial vs Optical for digital out?

Nope. What made you think there might be?

Also - is it worth updating to 3.15?

Yep. Lots of little fixes. The FF/RW issue is still jumpy as hell but they've added a little kick into the rewind so it doesn't sometimes go forward. Now it goes backwards even faster, sometimes annoyingly so. But that's better than going the wrong way at least.

theoldfarter

235 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 21

ID Verified

#455130 4-Apr-2011 14:57

I have bought one for $599 from Harvey Norman, even though I can't receive terrestrial digital yet.
I live in the Wairarapa & am told that test signals/transmission will commence in June this year.

I find myself in the position of having a new toy & can't do a thing with it. A bit foreign to me, is that situation.

Got a good deal, that is why I bought it now, instead of waiting. Now I just have to wait.. wait... wait...

bfginger

1330 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 191

#461476 21-Apr-2011 22:45

The remote control only needs two batteries to power it so don't buy 4 nimh AAA rechargeables as it can run on just 2.

The 3.15 firmware hasn't fixed the false Channel Service Not Available errors and the hard drive is still turning on while in standby mode. It might stop the odd locking up problem but I'd have to run it for a while to tell.

bfginger

1330 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 191

#463232 28-Apr-2011 08:54

No such luck as it locked up at the start of a scheduled recording. I've noticed this has only happened while watching TV3. This firmware is still buggy.

If the Panasonic BW880 is anywhere near typical Panasonic quality I cannot think of any good reason to buy a Magic TV now.

The unit's hard drive, a Hitachi Cinemastar, was secured with 4 screws with 2 not being opposite each other. I added another screw and the unit is now quieter.

Can anybody suggest a CD/USB key bootable Linux distro with support for JFS to access and playback recordings?

Annie73

1 post

Wannabe Geek

#463480 28-Apr-2011 19:03

Hi,

We have had our magic box for about 18 months I think, we love it! it hasn't missed a beat, until this week, we are having problems, when watching recorded programmes, it freezes then goes ahead a couple of mins, when you rewind the programme is still all there, but jumps ahead all the time. Also timer seems to be way way out, you can be watching a program normally but the timer is going up in 5 or 10 second increments?.

We have never installed any of the upgrades, so thinking we might try those???

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
Annette

SCUBADOO

206 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 65

#463489 28-Apr-2011 19:46

Hi Annette

We use mtv3600_3_14NZ.zip from a previous post (a few pages back).

You WILL like the 10 minutes forward - 6 minutes backward feature.
Skips adverts almost perfectly (most of the time).

WELL WORTH THE UPDATE!!!

Neville

Geekzone

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Lurch

1061 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 71

#463513 28-Apr-2011 21:29

Bought for $500 in 2009, still going strong no lockups or false warnings :-)

Bob123

27 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#468921 13-May-2011 21:31

Hi bfinger , I have had a 3600 for a few moths now and run the 3.15 firmware , I havn't had any lockups, if the firmware doesn't fix your lockups then you may have a faulty box

bfginger

1330 posts

Uber Geek
+1 received by user: 191

#474921 27-May-2011 19:27

Be careful when copying recordings off the hard drive that you've got the whole recording.

The Magic TV can behave strangely in how it stores recordings. Often recordings are spread across more than one file. To give an example, I set two programmes to record one after the other on the same station. Instead of recording to one file it started recording to a second file once the second recording started, making the first recording item reference both files. If you do a token edit to remove a few seconds of the begining or end of a recording it should create a new file with the whole recording in it.

The recordings are stored in the naming format YYMMDDhhmmss_channelnumber.filepart_editrevision.ts with a corresponding .tv file on the other partition containing metadata.

beetee

5 posts

Wannabe Geek

#476139 31-May-2011 11:09

Sorry if I am missing something, but several post in this forum mention the 10 minute forward and 6 minute back skip function.

My box only skips 10 forwards and 10 backwards - it would be great to change it....

Is there a way to access/change the skip times?

I am running firmware 3.15NZ.

Thanks

SCUBADOO

206 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 65

#476150 31-May-2011 11:37

beetee

If you go back in this thread to around http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=83&topicid=43120&page_no=39 details can be found.

I have used v3.13b6 without any issues here for the last 6 months or so.

Well worth it.

Get it here:

http://www.magictv.com/downloads/mtv3600_3_13NZbet6.zip

Dyson

Shop now for Dyson appliances (affiliate link).

Chis

99 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 17

ID Verified

#479090 8-Jun-2011 20:11

Any recommendations on the best signal strength to aim for?

I have to replace my old bow-tie type antenna that's taken a battering from the wind. It looked like this when new:

Here's one of the antennas I could go for, this one's a Matchmaster/Lincrad 02MM-804 that has the extra elements (with black bar). The alternative is missing that pair of bars to leave just pairs of loop and single bar. I have line of sight to Kaukau which is 8km away and I'm up high, so the lesser one could be fine depending whether the MagticTV is better with plenty of signal.

Bob123

27 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#479098 8-Jun-2011 20:56

Hi there, my personel thoughts are to do an antenna chap with a meter that does DTT , if you levels are really good - which assuming that you have good line of site to the Tx - they should be - a small corrdectly placed antenna may be fine - the one you have shown looks great

Chis

99 posts

Master Geek
+1 received by user: 17

ID Verified

#479464 9-Jun-2011 19:55

Agree, but the key question was really whether the MagicTV works best with a lot of signal or too much signal upsets it, and I'd be better erring on less.

Bob123

27 posts

Geek
+1 received by user: 1

#479487 9-Jun-2011 21:02

You are always est to collect the best signal quaility / level and then attenuate, rather than collecting a poor signal and have issues , too low and you are in trouble too high and you can simple add an attenuator

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