MagicTV 3600.. my quick impression report (updated)

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118 posts

Master Geek

#507006 15-Aug-2011 20:47

evanh:
Yeah, I may have given a slightly over-reaching idea, it only works when on the same station. Two consecutive recordings on differing stations can't coincide with a third station recording. So, it's similar to the Panasonic in this situation.

I understood exactly what you meant. There are a few times that I want to record 2 consecutive programs on the same channel (eg both on TV1), AND also record 2 consecutive programs on a different channel (eg those 2 on TV3) ALL at the same time.

The Magic TV does that perfectly with 4 different programs to view.

The Panasonic will do it as 4 programs, with a 1 minute break in the middle, OR I can set it up to record the two consecutive programs on one channel as a single recording, and have a second single recording for the other two consecutive programs on the different channel.

I am now waiting for next weekend when I will have enough time to swap out the Magic TV HDD.

bfginger

1271 posts

Uber Geek

#507106 16-Aug-2011 08:18

Ringo, the 850 is the pre-Freeview model isn't it? I'd be surprised if Freeview certification allowed such a design deficiency. On page 49 I wrote a warning about retrieving concurrent recordings' files from the MagicTV.

Be careful when chosing a HDD. Many that are whisper quiet while idle are quite noisy during file access.

2lostkiwis: ... This would mean that an upgrade file could be created, based on the latest v3.15 firmware that would enable fixed skip forward (1 minute) and skip backwards (8 seconds) times. Also it could enable by default the telnet server. All this without opening the cover of the unit.

Potentially having FTP access would be great but I would find those skip times intolerable with how slow and clumsy it is to rw/fw long stretches on the 3600. It would be great if the upgrade patch also let us select 5m back / 4m fowards :)

RingoTB

118 posts

Master Geek

#507484 16-Aug-2011 18:17

bfginger: Ringo, the 850 is the pre-Freeview model isn't it? I'd be surprised if Freeview certification allowed such a design deficiency. On page 49 I wrote a warning about retrieving concurrent recordings' files from the MagicTV.

Be careful when chosing a HDD. Many that are whisper quiet while idle are quite noisy during file access.

Yes the 850 is before the Freeview 880. I read in both the 880 and the newer BWT700 manuals that both have a 1 minute break between consecutive timer recordings (exactly the same wording as is in my 850 manual).

I do not know about the 880, but the 850 can copy HD recording onto a Blu-Ray, which I can then import and edit on my PC. I'm pretty sure Freeview specs do not allow HD content to be copied elsewhere.

Thanks for pointing out the info on page 49. I had read it, but had forgotten about both the file naming conventions and the split recordings.

I'll compare the HDD noise when I trial the Seagate 5900RPM drive this weekend. If all goes well, I am planning on just copying the entire contents of the old 500GB HDD (all data on all partitions) across and hopefully I will have all my recordings and program data intact.

2lostkiwis

67 posts

Master Geek

#507542 16-Aug-2011 20:23

bfginger: FTP access would be great but I would find those skip times intolerable with how slow and clumsy it is to rw/fw long stretches on the 3600. It would be great if the upgrade patch also let us select 5m back / 4m fowards :)

I picked those times because I believe they are the default settings from the Hong Kong unit. Mostly I watch a program start to finish - rarely do I ever need to go to a certain point in a recording.

Most ad breaks are around 4 minutes, but some are less. The way I use it, is right when the ads start I press the jump forward button 4 times quickly. If I missed the start it only takes one or at most two presses of the skip backwards button. You might argue that the rewind button would be suitable for the small jump back... but I find the jumping back much much more responsive than the rewind. I avoid fas forward and rewind at all costs.

Still it doesn't have to be fixed times, I could create other firmware with different skip times hard coded. It would be too hard at this stage to make it user configurable. The question would be, what would be a reasonable set of times that would cover most peoples tastes.

I will release what I have done shortly. I am just waiting to hear back from two other testers.

Cheers,
Ian.

p.s. there is only a telnet server, there is no ftp server only a client. So you have to telnet in to transfer programs off to a ftp server - it's not for the faint hearted. Still we could compile our own ftp server and get that running - we would have to watch memory usage though. Watching TV mine reports this: Mem: 56020K used, 2964K free, 0K shrd, 20K buff, 25820K cached. So I think we have some available for an ftp server.

Nutts

65 posts

Master Geek

#507594 16-Aug-2011 21:47

2lostkiwis: I have been watching your developments with great interest wishing I could offer some help here but you are way ahead of my league. It was quite a dilemma when choosing a hard disk recorder to know if having the EPG was worth the loss of functionality or give away the EPG and have the functions like add jump and being able to take HD recordings off the recorder and but one that was not Freeview certified. Like many others I am using an older firmware to get the 4 min add jump and am hopefully looking forward to your final version. The fact that we will be able to use it on future firmware releases is fantastic.
Like you I believe the 1 minute forwd and 6 sec back is the most useful.
I have found that the Magic remote buttons that are learning buttons can learn more that one function. I don't use the Input button as an input button so it is a spare button for me. I have managed to get it to learn "jump forward and then jump back" as one push of the one button. So if I push input it does both commands one after the other. With some messing about you can get 3 or even 4 commands one after the other but it takes a few tries to get it to learn that many. It would give lots of options for those who wanted to use it if the standard jump forward was 1 minute as is the Hong Kong firmware.
Thanks for your efforts. I shudder to think how many hours have been spent.....

Cheers M.

bfginger

1271 posts

Uber Geek

#508189 17-Aug-2011 19:35

If there is that quantity of RAM available there may be enough for a micro-footprint http server too
http://www.acme.com/software/micro_httpd/
Web browser access would be easier for novices than FTP and it would be harder to do damage through a hypertext interface.

About the rt2870sta wifi driver that the MagicTV loads. This web page details USB Wifi dongles compatible with the Hong Kong MagicTV.
http://mtvlab.blogspot.com/2010/04/supported-usb-wifi-adaptor.html
You may want to use Google Translate.
The Hong Kong MagicTV has a Wifi interface in the Settings> System> Network section of the preferences. Either the NZ MagicTV is lacking that interface or it only becomes available if a wifi dongle is detected. If it is missing maybe support for wifi could be set up from the command line?
http://wiki.debian.org/rt2870sta
http://wiki.debian.org/WiFi/HowToUse
If Wifi cannot work with the 3600, how much system resources would be freed up by disabling the loading of the wifi driver?

The blog linked to also links to a couple of file navigation tools for the MagicTV but I am wary of running software from a blog.

2lostkiwis

67 posts

Master Geek

#508206 17-Aug-2011 20:23

Here's the firmware patch for interested people. Please heed the disclaimer - if you go ahead, you're trying this at your own risk. Having said that, 4 people have had success so far and no reported failures. Constructive feedback most welcome.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38226449/MTV3600v315NZpatchv11.zip

@bfginger thanks for the tip, I am now working on the next firmware including an HTTP server - the micro_httpd relies on inetd which the MTV doesn't have. Still I am sure I'll find one just as small.

Cheers,
Ian.

Sharesies

Trade NZ and US shares and funds with Sharesies (affiliate link).

ChrisNZL

309 posts

Ultimate Geek

#508209 17-Aug-2011 20:27

Thanks for posting this. I'm keen to try it, but I might wait for a few more success stories first.

Creator of Tallowmere. Working on Tallowmere 2.

fatjulio

90 posts

Master Geek

#508246 17-Aug-2011 21:38

Just downloaded and run the cmd. Very nice. I'm recording something, so it'll have to wait. I had a look at the cmd script, and there seems to be a small error. On the checksum check on the updated firmware, an error would call error 3, what looks like it should be error 3 is called error 2. (the last one)

Handle9

11404 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#508249 17-Aug-2011 21:40

2lostkiwis: Here's the firmware patch for interested people. Please heed the disclaimer - if you go ahead, you're trying this at your own risk. Having said that, 4 people have had success so far and no reported failures. Constructive feedback most welcome.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38226449/MTV3600v315NZpatchv11.zip

@bfginger thanks for the tip, I am now working on the next firmware including an HTTP server - the micro_httpd relies on inetd which the MTV doesn't have. Still I am sure I'll find one just as small.

Cheers,
Ian.

Working well for me so far.

Thanks for this!

LennonNZ

2459 posts

Uber Geek

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Trusted

#508268 17-Aug-2011 22:04

Do magicTV supply the source for the GPL based parts of the BOX? Does it come with an offer at all for this with the Box? I cannot find anything on their website regarding it.

fatjulio

90 posts

Master Geek

#508282 17-Aug-2011 22:36

Works great. Now I'll try and sus out using telnet.

2lostkiwis

67 posts

Master Geek

#508284 17-Aug-2011 22:44

LennonNZ: Do magicTV supply the source for the GPL based parts of the BOX? Does it come with an offer at all for this with the Box? I cannot find anything on their website regarding it.

I never found anything except the following link:
http://magictv.co.nz/downloads/MagicTV_Sourcecode.pdf

It mentions that most of the GPL stuff is patched and the patches are included in a separate archive file. I have never found this archive file, but I'd love to have it.

From my understanding they're violating the GPL in quite a few ways - getting them to comply might be hard, who's going to take them to court. I think the copyright holder has to be the one to initiate action.

Cheers,
Ian.

gpf

35 posts

Geek

#508291 17-Aug-2011 23:05

2lostkiwis: Here's the firmware patch for interested people. Please heed the disclaimer - if you go ahead, you're trying this at your own risk. Having said that, 4 people have had success so far and no reported failures. Constructive feedback most welcome.

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/38226449/MTV3600v315NZpatchv11.zip

Cheers,
Ian.

Just tried it. It downloaded the firmware automatically, patched it and then I installed it. Everything ran like clockwork and I now have a very fast ad-skip feature 1+1+1+1.

You're a bloody legend Ian!
Thanks so much for all your hard work, you deserve a medal

Gary

LennonNZ

2459 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#508294 17-Aug-2011 23:12

Getting them to Comply is a pretty simple task.. I learnt a lot when I was going after Zinwell but the time I started getting them to do anything the distributor in NZ had gone under and they where no longer sold in NZ.

As the MagicTV is a Current Receiver being sold in NZ by a current distributor it should be "easy"...

- They supply software on www.magictv.co.nz which is (In my own opinion) "pirated" as they don't follow the GPL Licence (as they don't supply an offer of the GPL or have anywhere to download the source for the GPL Licenced part of it from). I think I could get the website closed down within a day if needed.

NZ Law is easy is this respect.. Claim under 92C to their ISP/Hosting Provider if they don't remove the claimed infrigement the ISP/Hosting Provider is libel for the copyright infrigement as well :-)

The Problem is who can claim copyright... thats the easy part..

First of all.. I need proof it is running any GPL based software.. ie Linux kernel? busy box etc? anyone help?

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