MagicTV 3600.. my quick impression report (updated)

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#1000811 7-Mar-2014 15:29

My Magic 3600TV, bought a couple of years ago, is now getting rather noisy when it's turned on. I'm guessing it's the fan that's making the noise as my old DVD player also makes similar noises and I have to add a bit of lubricant to its fan every few months to keep it running quietly.

Is opening the 3600 and lubricating the fan an easy job? Should I be looking at anything else?

Nutts

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#1000820 7-Mar-2014 15:38

The 3600 does not have a fan at all so it must be the hard drive making the noise as its the only moving part in the box.
They are easy to open up so have a look. Not much to see as its only got a display board, main board and the hard drive. That's it..
Hope your hard drive is not on the way out..

M

MurrayM

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#1000823 7-Mar-2014 15:41

Nutts: The 3600 does not have a fan at all so it must be the hard drive making the noise as its the only moving part in the box.
They are easy to open up so have a look. Not much to see as its only got a display board, main board and the hard drive. That's it..
Hope your hard drive is not on the way out..

M

Thanks for the bad news...

At least you saved me the time of unplugging it all just to find there's no fan!

JefWright

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#1000864 7-Mar-2014 16:10

New Seagate pipeline HDD is about $133
(I think that's the most recommended)
http://pricespy.co.nz/product.php?p=1309424

Jimmy22

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#1000868 7-Mar-2014 16:14

run it till it dies, mine has made noise for a year, i just make sure im up to date with recordings so i can still on-demand the stuff when it dies. hoping the demand increases and prices drop

MurrayM

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#1000903 7-Mar-2014 17:26

Jimmy22: run it till it dies, mine has made noise for a year, i just make sure im up to date with recordings so i can still on-demand the stuff when it dies. hoping the demand increases and prices drop

Yup, I'll be running it till it dies, the noise isn't too bad at the moment but it's noticeable. A good excuse to watch the old stuff I've recorded before it kicks the bucket!

I'm surprised that with the digital switch-over we haven't seen more Freeview recorders entering the market. I was hoping it would help push the prices down.

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evanh

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#1001184 8-Mar-2014 11:11

The shops are extremely lazy at pushing any recorders at all. I've never understood why there is no setups in the shops for people to get a feel for them. I've randomly hassled staff from various shops about it for several years now but generally just get stupid political-type excuses back. I've had one or two who engage their brains but not very often. You could almost say they don't like to say they have recorders. Maybe it's a an attitude of Sky does the job or something.

JefWright

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#1001309 8-Mar-2014 15:43

JefWright:
cb1: Any one else having the 'auto restart' problem again - power on the unit with the remote, shows the picture/sound briefly, then shows a screen that it's going to restart (with an OK, but doesn't give you the chance to press OK) and then powers off and restarts..

I wondered if it was more widespread than just me. I've seen it (in Auckland) a few times over the last week or two (perhaps not this last week; I haven't kept a record). I'm running patched 3.18 with 60/8 second skip intervals.

I don't think anything inside the 3600 (like the HDD) is deteriorating to cause this failure. I think this is the result of an inherent weakness that is stimulated by some outside influence. My 3600 goes for months between re-starts and it is our family's primary TV control so it's hammered daily.

Is anyone from Magic TC tech support listening to this forum? This problem has been recurring periodically over years now. It seems to me that leaving it unresolved is eating up the modest goodwill that separates this brand from many others. Clearly this is a flaw; other PVRs are not affected by TV signals causing spontaneous reboot every day just when they are turned on! Although this seems to be primarily an Auckland problem, I expect that is the bulk of the NZ market. For better or worse, we are getting very close to ditching our magic TV for something with another brand.

Ross55

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#1001373 8-Mar-2014 17:50

JefWright:
JefWright:
cb1: Any one else having the 'auto restart' problem again - power on the unit with the remote, shows the picture/sound briefly, then shows a screen that it's going to restart (with an OK, but doesn't give you the chance to press OK) and then powers off and restarts..

I wondered if it was more widespread than just me. I've seen it (in Auckland) a few times over the last week or two (perhaps not this last week; I haven't kept a record). I'm running patched 3.18 with 60/8 second skip intervals.

I don't think anything inside the 3600 (like the HDD) is deteriorating to cause this failure. I think this is the result of an inherent weakness that is stimulated by some outside influence. My 3600 goes for months between re-starts and it is our family's primary TV control so it's hammered daily.

Is anyone from Magic TC tech support listening to this forum? This problem has been recurring periodically over years now. It seems to me that leaving it unresolved is eating up the modest goodwill that separates this brand from many others. Clearly this is a flaw; other PVRs are not affected by TV signals causing spontaneous reboot every day just when they are turned on! Although this seems to be primarily an Auckland problem, I expect that is the bulk of the NZ market. For better or worse, we are getting very close to ditching our magic TV for something with another brand.

I live in Christchurch and have exactly the same problem. PLUS I cannot reliably book CTV programs. I have had to resort to doing the timer recording routine, this is the only channel with that particular problem. 3.18nz patched.

Oh belatedly thanks to the person who lead me to 3.18nz patched, alas it didn't solve the CTV recording issue as in the words of the Toyota ad BUGGA!

Apsattv

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#1001411 8-Mar-2014 19:55

New season of FairGo just started..

Jimmy22

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#1001577 9-Mar-2014 10:03

well looks like my Hdd has now bit the dust .. possibly

my MTV3600TD stopped functioning last night, the box just displays Magic TV and sits there pretty much . I tried rescue procedure, it will enter the procedure but only displays Rescue on the front screen and wont go through to displaying the operating system option.

I suspect the Hdd but seems like i can hear it spin up at the least. any help or thoughts appreciated before i go spend on a potentially useless HDD .

looks like i found the limit of the machine

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RingoTB

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#1001594 9-Mar-2014 11:22

One thing to try first. Use the rescue procedure and flash the unit to a different firmware to whatever version you have running. Then try to restart it. If that works, then flash it back to your normal firmware. I've had to do that once to mine to get it to start. Using the rescue procedure with the same firmware I was running did not work.

cb1

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#1001770 9-Mar-2014 16:46

Jimmy22: well looks like my Hdd has now bit the dust .. possibly

my MTV3600TD stopped functioning last night, the box just displays Magic TV and sits there pretty much . I tried rescue procedure, it will enter the procedure but only displays Rescue on the front screen and wont go through to displaying the operating system option. I suspect the Hdd but seems like i can hear it spin up at the least. any help or thoughts appreciated before i go spend on a potentially useless HDD .

looks like i found the limit of the machine

I had this issue quite some time ago. I discovered that the rescue procedure wouldn't work with the 2lostkiwis patched versions but did with an official release. Also wouldn't work using a flash drive I had previously used for a normal firmware update, but would on a much older/smaller flash drive. Give those options a go. Mine's been ok since, with just the restarts issue.

Jimmy22

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#1001798 9-Mar-2014 17:58

Cheers guys ill report back on results :) its really cool to have your help and support.

Nutts

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#1001869 9-Mar-2014 20:11

This has been quite interesting as I was handed a 3600 a while ago that when powered up just came up with magic TV on the PVR display and nothing on the TV from any output.
I finally got it going again using the rescue procedure but it took 6 or 7 attempts. Looked like it was still loading but never finished. In the end using a cheep 4gig USB drive and an old original firmware I had success. Once it was working I was able to put 3.18 {modified) on and I understand from the owner it is still fine but does restart like all the others. This one is in Napier. After all the attempted reloads etc the recordings that were on the hard drive were still there and all played fine. I have no idea what caused the problem. But if the first recovery procedure does not work try another USB stick and another firmware version.

Good luck....

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