MagicTV 3600.. my quick impression report (updated)

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81 posts

Master Geek

#328068 8-May-2010 22:20

yeah all good thanks you have to make sure you only have one firmware on your usb stick ...hahaha have now upgraded so all good there .

Cheers

MyHeritage

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trevor

15 posts

Geek

#328371 10-May-2010 08:49

On my Sony Bavia TV you can set the volume "offest" for all the devices plugged in try that. The five things I've got plugged in (well it is geek zone) all play at very different volumes. Some have the offest turned right up others right down so that they are all about the same when I switch between them.

You will notice that jut plain TV channels are also not all exactly the same C4 seem louder than the rest.

YMMV

Chis

98 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

#328547 10-May-2010 15:45

@MagicTV: Here are the suggestions restated so that the suggestions are clear, plus a new section on browser access that others have briefly requested in the past.

Thanks to others for adding weight and thought to the Fast Forwarding enhancements.

1. Improve the behaviour of the FF button. Suggest removing the number of options - such as just having 2x, 8x, 32x. Once 32x is reached, further presses of FF stay at 32x

2. Improve the screen updates, especially when at 32x, so easier to see where up to.

3. Whenever Play or Pause is pressed when at speed greater than 2x, to take into account people's reaction time, set the start position as the current position less a period of time related to the speed. Eg. After going 2x there's almost no reaction lag, when going 32x there could be a 32 sec lag (set start time=current time - speed*FFReactionLag). Most important: It's very hard to see what level of reaction lag is desirable without trying it out. Please provide the FFReactionLag configurable in settings.

4. Enable the Jump Forward and Jump Back buttons time period to be configurable in settings and specified in units of seconds (with value range s at least

New Suggestion: Browser Access
5. Enable browser access to the MagicTV to perform basic settings:
a. View Recorded Programs and enable sorting, renaming, deleting, modification of auto-delete settings.
b. View To Do List and enable modification
c. View EPG and allow recording of episode or series.
d. Enable search of portions of program name in Recorded Programs, To Do list and/or EPG. Ie. Search for a particular program with part of it's name, then schedule to record it.
e. Enable "wish list" recording: Enable parts of program names to be specified and altered. If a program appears in EPG matching each portion of name, record as specified. Used when you want to record somethingthat's yet to be in EPG (in advance of 8 day period, or to list movies that you want to record whenever they turn up)

mentalinc

2742 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#328566 10-May-2010 16:08

New Suggestion: Browser Access
5. Enable browser access to the MagicTV to perform basic settings:
a. View Recorded Programs and enable sorting, renaming, deleting, modification of auto-delete settings.
b. View To Do List and enable modification
c. View EPG and allow recording of episode or series.
d. Enable search of portions of program name in Recorded Programs, To Do list and/or EPG. Ie. Search for a particular program with part of it's name, then schedule to record it.
e. Enable "wish list" recording: Enable parts of program names to be specified and altered. If a program appears in EPG matching each portion of name, record as specified. Used when you want to record somethingthat's yet to be in EPG (in advance of 8 day period, or to list movies that you want to record whenever they turn up)

This would be the biggest seller as you can then have people accessing their Magic from anywhere in the world to record their programs while they are away using the interest and port forwarding (needs to be secure obviously).

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Quic: https://account.quic.nz/refer/473833 R473833EQKIBX

TonB

12 posts

Geek

#328582 10-May-2010 16:27

"1. Improve the behaviour of the FF button. Suggest removing the number of options - such as just having 2x, 8x, 32x. Once 32x is reached, further presses of FF stay at 32x

2. Improve the screen updates, especially when at 32x, so easier to see where up to.

3. Whenever Play or Pause is pressed when at speed greater than 2x, to take into account people's reaction time, set the start position as the current position less a period of time related to the speed. Eg. After going 2x there's almost no reaction lag, when going 32x there could be a 32 sec lag (set start time=current time - speed*FFReactionLag). Most important: It's very hard to see what level of reaction lag is desirable without trying it out. Please provide the FFReactionLag configurable in settings."

I don't necessarily agree with the above. I use the 4x and 8x mostly so would hate to see the 4x removed. I find that at 8x the box already seems to cater for reaction times and backpedals to the start of the sequence I want to watch. Besides people's reaction times vary so what would work for one wouldn't work for everyone and I guess making it user settable would be quite complex.

However I do agree about improving the screen updating while using FF. At anything faster than 4x the screen scrolling is very uneven and even appears to stop at times until it suddenly decides to catch up. Fixing that would be a big improvement.

wiredr

203 posts

Master Geek

#328623 10-May-2010 17:31

alittle while ago i did some tests on the ff & fr on tv3 hd prog and a tv one hd prog and a sd on prime

my method of testing was to time a 10 min segment ie tv3 hd prog, 10min x 60 = 360 sec/ 32x = 11.25' actual time was 13's or 27x's ff

on 8x the tv3 prog was 8x

on tv one the results were similar however a prog on prime had no change either forward or back at any selected speed .

i also checked the same data on mysky and the requested ff speed was acurate except on tv3 hd which was 50x's

this would suggest that the frame buffer ( if there is one ) is unable to keep up and so pauses or jerky images appear . these large jumps in images are what makes ending the ff @ 32x's so unpredictable .
imo this is a hardware fault not software .

any one else got any thouhgts ?

Chis

98 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

#328655 10-May-2010 18:35

My suspicions were around insufficient frame buffer/rate or something similar in hardware, and if so, that only strengthens the need for simple, usable jump-forward function. Jumping 30s forward can nicely skip a bunch of 30sec ads, and should provide lower display load on any struggling hardware. Add a 10sec backward and you have a good interface.

Just a bit of a pity that in comparison the new Tivo can FF real fast (after few button presses) with plenty of image feedback (and gets the human lag pretty well right too). If MagicTV can get close to that usability we'd all be happy and MagicTV could come to dominate the Freeview PVR market.

trevor

15 posts

Geek

#328859 11-May-2010 11:59

Changing the jump forward and jump back times to something the user sets fixes the display problems because once you can do that you will never use FF or FR again.

My Philips DVR does this and setting it to jump forward 1 minute and back 10 seconds is all you need as 99% of all ad breaks in NZ are 4 minutes or slightly less. So as soon as the ads start four presses lets me jump the ads. If the programme has already started a quick 10 second jump back is normally all that is required. People did not belive me when I use to say "I never see ads" now having to FF through them doing mental arthimatic is a real pain, they are so distracting while I'm concentrating on the bar along the bottom of the screen :-)

Except Marori TV which has 5 ads per break I go through those at 4x for exactly the same reason others ahve stated beyound this speed it's too unpredictable.

BTW: I love the idea of a wildcard type programming. For reasons I don't undersatnd the Magic TV did not notice that TV2 have moved the night of the Big Bang Theory a programme we watch as a familey. Of course not live that's just silly when it's only a 20 minute show in a 35 minute slot :-)

Handle9

9638 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#328867 11-May-2010 12:12

The inability to change the jump forward / jump back times is a Freeview approval issue - the my Freeview HD spec means that this can't be adjusted. It's not a MagicTV issue it's a Freeview issue.

Tivo can because it's not Freeview approved and doesn't use the MHEG5 EPG. There're plenty of posts on this topic throughout forums.

wiredr

203 posts

Master Geek

#329104 11-May-2010 20:09

pi !!@Xd off

a new season of Sea Patrol started on Prime last nite and the magic tv failed to record

a series link was left in the to do list so the request was there.

is this a problem with the magic tv software ( ver 3.12 was supposed to fix this ) or is it a problem with the Mheg 5 software.

at this level of the game things like this shouldn't happen . but unfortunatly there is bugger all that can be done . under the cgi ( must be fit for the intended purpose ) raises a red flag but who is to blame .
who does one take to court . free view or magictv or the program owner ?

yellow15

134 posts

Master Geek

#329117 11-May-2010 20:26

wiredr: pi !!@Xd off

a new season of Sea Patrol started on Prime last nite and the magic tv failed to record

a series link was left in the to do list so the request was there.

is this a problem with the magic tv software ( ver 3.12 was supposed to fix this ) or is it a problem with the Mheg 5 software.

at this level of the game things like this shouldn't happen . but unfortunatly there is bugger all that can be done . under the cgi ( must be fit for the intended purpose ) raises a red flag but who is to blame .
who does one take to court . free view or magictv or the program owner ?

i guess "new season" is the keyword. From what i've noticed, each season of a TV show is treated as completely separate shows so your link won't work. You'll have to re-add it as a new request.

If this is the case, then this is a freeview thing, you can't blame MagicTV

wiredr

203 posts

Master Geek

#329133 11-May-2010 20:55

ok so how did the reruns of dr who start recording then . different day and diferent time and older season and a season i had not recorded b4 . a nother example is country calendar.
nah sorry dont believe you . i think the person or the company they work for that writes the epg is at fault .
freeview nz are not showing a very profesional image here .
firstly we are being told that we cant have add skip or jump forward . freeview requirement to get meheg 5
secondly the only compelling reason for using a freeview aproved stb is the " series link "
and they cant even get that right.
every other set top box pvr that uses eit epg works brilliantly except they dont sreies link except for the tivo and mysky who have their own custom epg .
the key issue here is the " WAF" wife acceptance factor . mysky has its faults but the one thing it does do is be very consistent . and easy to use .
miysky waf =8
magictv waf = 6 due to a large part to the faults with meheg 5 epg

yellow15

134 posts

Master Geek

#329137 11-May-2010 21:00

i don't really have anything to proof my assumption..

but for example, i was recording Friends.
everytime a new (old i mean LOL) season start showing, i have to re-add the new season.
and same happens for some other TV shows, they all have the same behaviour (or problems?)
The series link always work perfectly (for me) within the same season .. but when a new season starts, i just have to re-add it.

maybe someone who knows better can comment/confirm if this is correct?

shouston

25 posts

Geek

#329140 11-May-2010 21:10

Its the the title of the programme.
Ie "All New 2 and half men"
And 2 and half men

"All New big Bang..." and "Big Bang..."

I assume they are thekeywords Magic Tv is looking for.

wiredr

203 posts

Master Geek

#329142 11-May-2010 21:25

this is all speculation without the series information which is being withheld from us we can only make assumptions , but there are enough anomolies to ask questions ie,
1. master chef uk series linked
2. master chef au not series link started recording all on its own.

still doesnt alter my view that mheg 5 epg has a lower waf than the other epg's on offer

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