New Freeview HD hardware: eXtra Terrestrial Freeview HD tuner

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12 posts

Geek

#217964 26-May-2009 12:07

Some recording problems may be to do with the speed of the memory in your drive. My first recordings were really bad, but I was using a pen drive I knew was not quick to transfer data to. I got much better (but not perfect) results using a different pen drive. Unfortunatly my quicker drive is only 512 Mb so I can only do short test recordings.

robjg63

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#218054 26-May-2009 16:22

Has anyone actually managed to play back the recorded files on a PC?
I have tried all sorts of things.
VLC is supposed to handle H264 ts files very well normally - it just says they are damaged.
Tried Handbrake/MediaInfo and TSconverter - They tell me what the file is but nothing will play it.

Anyone? Any success?

R

Nothing is impossible for the man who doesn't have to do it himself - A. H. Weiler

InspectorGadget

208 posts

Master Geek

#218095 26-May-2009 18:26

Jaxson: I installed freeviewshop PVR firmware.
I used a solid state USB thumbdrive though, not a physical hard drive.

Initial observations:

Recordings have serious pixellation/stutters/pauses/picture dropouts for me, which just aren't there in the live tv I'm watching.
Interface could do with some tidying up, and some colour coding to ease the use of the coloured buttons.
Record only works when you bring up the info bar.
Record and stop record buttons took for ever to work, like every 10th push got through.

I can't test the optical/dig coax out now unfortunately.

Yup. It has got to be a flash drive with a low transfer rate. I have two and the low spwc one stutters like you have experienced. The fast one runs as well as the box will allow.

Area51

12 posts

Geek

#218151 26-May-2009 21:40

Re the sound stuttering on TV3 with PVR release. As previously said, changing the audio from MPEG to Dolby Digital fixes the stuttering, but when I change channels and go back to TV3 the ET defaults back to MPEG and the sound stutters again. Even more annoying, when I'm watching TV3 with Dolby Digtal audio, the ET sometimes changes itself back to MPEG audio without me doing anything, and starts stuttering again.

However I think I?ve stumbled onto another fix for the sound stuttering on TV3.
1. Change the channel to TV1
2. Cycle the standby button on the front of the STB
3. Change the channel back to TV3 and the audio doesn?t stutter on MPEG anymore until the ET is rebooted.

Don?t ask me why but this sequence works for me, but I?d be interested to know if it works for others.

Jaxson

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#218306 27-May-2009 13:27

Area51: I think I?ve stumbled onto another fix for the sound stuttering on TV3.

Are you meaning stuttering on recordings out of normal rca audio/hdmi sockets, or are you talking about dropouts on the digital audio coax/optical outputs?

I'll try my setup with a faster usb drive. Don't want to format my full usb hdd just yet. Will look for a util that can report the speed of a usb drive?...

Of note is that the PS3 could not play the .ts file. Not sure if it's supposed to, but tried and it failed. Mind you, the PS3 is actually fairly rubbish at media files that are not perfect standard format. My $50 supermarked dvd player plays more tv show file video formats than the PS3.

bazzer

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#218307 27-May-2009 13:33

Jaxson: My $50 supermarked dvd player plays more tv show file video formats than the PS3.

OT: Really? My PS3 plays pretty much everything I throw at it. I haven't had a single fail lately. Do you have the latest firmware?

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Jaxson

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#218313 27-May-2009 13:43

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-lightweight-tools-to-check-the-speed-of-your-usb-flash-drive-windows/

Found this page, thought people might be interested. I'll test mine and report the results, which should be a value that's too low by the looks of it.

Yeah just lately Bazzer I've tried a few downloaded tv episodes I've missed and some little video files from my computer and only half have worked. On the whole great, but my cheaper DVD player will have a crack at them, where as the PS3 just says it's unsupported.

Area51

12 posts

Geek

#218315 27-May-2009 13:52

Hi Jaxson, the audio stuttering I get is thru HDMI direct to my TV and during normal viewing TV, not recordings. I would descibe it as more like a jumpy or unsmooth audio feed rather than a complete dropout. It might be a micro dropout.

Jaxson

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#218332 27-May-2009 14:46

Area51: Hi Jaxson, the audio stuttering I get is thru HDMI direct to my TV and during normal viewing TV, not recordings. I would descibe it as more like a jumpy or unsmooth audio feed rather than a complete dropout. It might be a micro dropout.

Sounds like poor signal quality.

That really shouldn't happen. Audio is fine on mine, only exception being the clear dropouts on some channels via coax/optical output.

Jaxson

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#218345 27-May-2009 15:13

CrystalDiskMark 2.2 gave me back these results for my 2gb usb pen drive:
(all values in MB/s)
I did 5 tests using the 100mb file size

-------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 2.2 (C) 2007-2008 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
--------------------------------------------------

Sequential Read : 12.421 MB/s
Sequential Write : 3.223 MB/s
Random Read 512KB : 12.376 MB/s
Random Write 512KB : 1.140 MB/s
Random Read 4KB : 4.499 MB/s
Random Write 4KB : 0.014 MB/s

Test Size : 100 MB
Date : 2009/05/27 15:13:06

The results seem very low on the writing speed. I have another drive here at work, I'll test this now and then take it home to test recording results if it seems faster.

Jaxson

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#218356 27-May-2009 15:56

Wow, just cleared and did a speed test on this Apacer pen drive. Still a cheapish model but these are the results:

--------------------------------------------------
CrystalDiskMark 2.2 (C) 2007-2008 hiyohiyo
Crystal Dew World : http://crystalmark.info/
--------------------------------------------------

   Sequential Read :   25.859 MB/s
Sequential Write :    6.329 MB/s
Random Read 512KB :   25.908 MB/s
Random Write 512KB :    1.657 MB/s
   Random Read 4KB :    6.578 MB/s
Random Write 4KB :    0.015 MB/s

Test Size : 100 MB
Date : 2009/05/27 15:55:27

So roughly twice the transfer speed. I'll try this out tonight and report back.

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Area51

12 posts

Geek

#218392 27-May-2009 17:48

Jaxson:
Area51: Hi Jaxson, the audio stuttering I get is thru HDMI direct to my TV and during normal TV viewing, not recordings. I would descibe it as more like a jumpy or unsmooth audio feed rather than a complete dropout. It might be a micro dropout.
Sounds like poor signal quality.

That really shouldn't happen. Audio is fine on mine, only exception being the clear dropouts on some channels via coax/optical output.

I don't know, it didn't happen till I upgraded the firmware to the PVR release. If it is signal, strange I can make it go away by changing to Dolby Digital, or changing channel from TV3 to TV1 cycling the standby button and changing back to TV3 again.

It's very annoying the PVR release makes normal viewing (or listening to be precise) worse for me.

Jaxson

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#218411 27-May-2009 19:00

Ok, I'll look out for it.
I watched final of house on TV3 last night via hdmi and had no problems.

Also, Tonight I tried the faster usb thumb drive and it recorded perfectly so it must have been a speed issue. I'm now using the drive with the faster specs listed in my post above.

InspectorGadget

208 posts

Master Geek

#218437 27-May-2009 20:49

Hi Lads

I've emailed Peter with the following issues

1)    Stuttering audio on TV3. This seems to be especially prevalent when USB HDDs are connected.
2)    The SPDIF audio dropouts are still there and are as bad as before.
3)    Wandering Clock. This has the potential to disrupt PVR recordings.
4)    Some recordings, especially on Channel 1 only capture the top LH 2/3rds of the screen.
5)    When recording and watching at the same time, the audio slowly drifts out of sync on the channel being watched. It isn’t noticeable at first, but by the end of a 1 hour programme, the audio is delayed by almost ½ a second.
6)    When first tuning the unit, the signal strength is displayed in %, but then it never does this again in any other field.
7)    Unable to roll back to previous software versions.

his email address is peter@satlinknz.co.nz if any of you want to report your own problems. The more pressure the better I think.

Gadget

wiredr

203 posts

Master Geek

#218444 27-May-2009 21:21

recorded files are .ts i have played on dvbviewer with no problems .w7 media center should play them as well. vlc will play but for some reason the video wont process tv3 content properly.
i first tried recording with an oldish external hard drive ide type and the et ran like a dog.
hooked up a mediagate 500gb box and vala perfect.
there was one strange thing though, a recording of Bones played back with no audio but the same file played on dvbviewer fine .

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