MagicTV 3600.. my quick impression report (updated)

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

1 | ... | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | ... | 92

152 posts

Master Geek

#345569 26-Jun-2010 17:39

Mac2008: ... but I am looking forward to more firmware updates from Magic when they are released.

Amen to that. :)

Wise

Send money globally for less with Wise - one free transfer up to NZ$900 (affiliate link).

alitom

26 posts

Geek

#347077 1-Jul-2010 19:19

Aha - I see Mac2008 bet me to the punch!

I emailed Pixel Magic again to see what the holdup was after my last email about this on Jun 7th - they hadn't let me know that they'd got these details already.

As far as the Hong Kong and NZ firmwares go, they're based on different versions of the Sigma source code:

...SMP8634_2.8.0.0_facsprod.mips.nodts.bin (HK)
...SMP8634_2.8.5.0_facsprod.mips.nodts.bin (NZ)

I haven't been able to do much to help 2lostkiwis' efforts - there's nothing which a simple hack using a hex editor would fix (which means it's beyond my abilities).

Still no sign of this on their site(?)

Tom

Mac2008: Here is the GPL from MagicTV, I believe it will be available on their website very soon.

Open source software used by Magic TV

Applicable to all variants of MTV3000, MTV3100, MTV3500, MTV3600, MTV5000
for Hong Kong and New Zealand

Linux 2.6.22.19
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/
Patched

Linux 2.4.30
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.4/
Patched

uClibc 0.9.27
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/old-licenses/lgpl-2.0.html
http://www.uclibc.org/download.html
Patched

busybox-1.00
http://www.busybox.net/license.html
http://www.busybox.net/downloads
Patched

libcurl-7.17.1 or 7.19.5
http://curl.haxx.se/docs/copyright.html
http://curl.haxx.se/download.html

e2fsprogs-1.41.4
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
http://e2fsprogs.sourceforge.net/
Patched

expat-2.0.0
http://www.jclark.com/xml/copying.txt
http://sourceforge.net/projects/expat/
Patched

freetype-2.1.4
http://www.freetype.org/FTL.TXT
http://www.freetype.org/

jfsutils-1.1.12
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
http://jfs.sourceforge.net/source.html

libjpeg 6b
http://src.chromium.org/viewvc/chrome/trunk/src/third_party/libjpeg/README?revision=369
http://sourceforge.net/projects/libjpeg/files/

sfdisk 3.07
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
ftp://ftp.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/util-linux-ng/
Patched

squashfs 3.4
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
http://sourceforge.net/projects/squashfs/files/

udev-104
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/utils/kernel/hotplug/

wireless_tools.29
http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-2.0.html
http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Jean_Tourrilhes/Linux/Tools.html

zlib-1.2.1
http://www.gzip.org/zlib/zlib_license.html

http://zlib.net/

Mac2008

121 posts

Master Geek

#347374 2-Jul-2010 17:37

Yep the pdf of the source code is at http://www.magictv.co.nz/support.html

cb1

333 posts

Ultimate Geek

#347620 4-Jul-2010 09:37

Has anybody tried using a USB wireless network adapter in the Magic TV box?

I temporarily tried a lan cable into the network connection on the back, but if it could handle wirelss that would be better.

Py99ajh

19 posts

Geek

#351640 14-Jul-2010 22:33

Heh, has anyone suffered problems with recordings skipping segments of time? It seems to be getting worse and worse. Tried resetting, checking for hard drive problems. All apparently fine ? Getting really annoying. It seems to skip segments of 10/15mins at a time quite randomly on diff channels. Sometimes the time progress bar skips with it, sometimes it just carries on normally even though the picture is actually 10mins+ ahead.

Any help or ideas would be really good. Thanks

Py99ajh

19 posts

Geek

#351641 14-Jul-2010 22:34

terryr

33 posts

Geek

#351716 15-Jul-2010 09:03

That sounds very simialr to my problem. I outlined here in detailed a few pages back in this thread. But essentially my recording were jumping at the 1hr mark (on the dot) when played back. As I had set a global 2 minute advance and 3 minute overrun it generally meant that I'd be approx 3-5 minutes from the end of the programme and it would jump. You've no idea how annoying that can be to miss the crunchline in each programme it occurred on. At least 50% of the recordings were like this, even 2hr ones which still jumped at the 1hr mark. The jump was on the order of 6-8 minutes.

I've got it in more repair. Just asked the other day how it was going and there'd been a mixup so it never got sent away, so have to wait longer now. But they mentioned that most of the problems have stemmed from the audio and video being out of sync. They were sending them away, but now advise customers they need to hit a reote button to resync it. The second issue they apparently have is that the remote loses it's memory and the buttons that you can programme to operate other devices fails. They have to be re-learnt.

So the tarnish has somewhat faded I expect with this device. I would have expected that all these issues would have been fixed in the Hong Kong version by now. Maybe our model is more different that I thought and that means the firmware is basically being tested live on us.

Py99ajh

19 posts

Geek

#351726 15-Jul-2010 09:27

Heh cheers. Yeah I read your bit on the thread. I don't think my skipping is as predictable as yours. It happens very randomly. Can be a 30min program or a 1hr program at odd times.

What button did they advise to resync the audio?? I'm new to nz ... Did you take the box back to the shop where purchased or do magic tv have a helpline number for returns/repairs?

I'm thinking I might have to bite the bullet and do something about it. Still can't believe this box is so buggy and feature poor when my old topfield pvr in the uk worked so perfectly and was just so much better over 5yrs ago!!!

Mac2008

121 posts

Master Geek

#352313 16-Jul-2010 13:20

Py99ajh: Do magic tv have a helpline number for returns/repairs?

You can contact MagicTV via www.magictv.co.nz

terryr

33 posts

Geek

#352320 16-Jul-2010 13:36

I don't recall which buttons they mentioned to re-sync the audio. I sent box back thru retail store I got it at. I rang them yesterday for an update and it appears they've replaced the mainboard in the box. I should get it back early next week. So we'll see if something else can go wrong. If I can I'll ask about the re-sync buttons when picking it up.

I think we have to assume (for the present) that as the hardware is essentially the same as the Hong Kong version that it's just the firmware/software that's causing all these glitches. Most of the changes would likely be as a result of the Freeview certification requiring restrictions on the devices (no copying off onto external drives, no skip options).

bfginger

1244 posts

Uber Geek

#353197 19-Jul-2010 01:18

Py99ajh: Heh, has anyone suffered problems with recordings skipping segments of time? It seems to be getting worse and worse. Tried resetting, checking for hard drive problems. All apparently fine ? Getting really annoying. It seems to skip segments of 10/15mins at a time quite randomly on diff channels. Sometimes the time progress bar skips with it, sometimes it just carries on normally even though the picture is actually 10mins+ ahead.

You're not the only ones having the jumping ahead problem
http://nzdtv.com/forum/showthread.php?t=2066

Have you tried going back to the old firmware to see if that makes a difference? The old firmware is still on the Magic TV website, just replace the 12 in the link with 09 or 11.

I'm assuming it is possible to go back to older firmware versions.

RingoTB

118 posts

Master Geek

#353206 19-Jul-2010 07:34

bfginger: Have you tried going back to the old firmware to see if that makes a difference? The old firmware is still on the Magic TV website, just replace the 12 in the link with 09 or 11.

I'm assuming it is possible to go back to older firmware versions.

Yes you can go back to the old firmware. I had a couple of weird glitches with the audio, and going back to an old firmware, and then reloading the latest firmware fixed my problems.

Also, I have saved each of the firmwares as they have been released. If anyone needs/wants a different firmware and cannot get it anywhere else, then PM me.

cb1

333 posts

Ultimate Geek

#353601 19-Jul-2010 20:37

Py99ajh: Heh, has anyone suffered problems with recordings skipping segments of time? It seems to be getting worse and worse. Tried resetting, checking for hard drive problems. All apparently fine ? Getting really annoying. It seems to skip segments of 10/15mins at a time quite randomly on diff channels. Sometimes the time progress bar skips with it, sometimes it just carries on normally even though the picture is actually 10mins+ ahead.

Any help or ideas would be really good. Thanks

I encountered this problem with recording ‘Good Morning’ (Mon-Fri 9-12). Using the EPG to set it up, with 1 min prior to and 10 min after the scheduled time. The recordings are made correctly, but when playing it back, somewhere around the 2h 58 min to 2h 59 min mark, the playback jumps from the Good Morning show to about 3 or 4 minutes into the 12:00 Midday news until the end at 12:10.

This was the only program I've had the issue with and it seems to have stopped happening now, for me

I found that you can watch programs while the recording is still in progress. Just play it back as you would any other recording. Couldn't find anything in the manual saying you can do this, but it seems to work fine.

lyonrouge

1993 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#354114 20-Jul-2010 18:54

magictv: Hi yellow15, thanks for using our product! I see that you connected Magic TV on the internet. Please try go to the Firmware update menu. It should find a new firmware on the network. The new firmware has some minor bug fix on series recording, as well as enable Dolby Digital bitstream pass-through through optical/coaxial audio and HDMI audio. Enjoy!

You can also update the Magic TV firmware by USB thumbdrive. Go to Magic TV website http://www.magictv.com/nz/support.html and download the firmware file. Unzip the firmware on a USB thumbdrive, then connect to Magic TV USB port. Go to the Firmware update page and it should see the firmware on USB.

Would I have to connect the device to the network directly to perform this update? It is critical for me to have HDMI audio. Is there any method of getting content off the device (TiVo have withdrawn this)?

Here's one from my wish list, HDMI 1.3 audio?

How are others finding the video artefacting? My inbuilt TV tuner is very bad.

evanh

152 posts

Master Geek

#365874 10-Aug-2010 14:43

lyonrouge:
magictv: ... You can also update the Magic TV firmware by USB thumbdrive. Go to Magic TV website http://www.magictv.com/nz/support.html and download the firmware file. Unzip the firmware on a USB thumbdrive, then connect to Magic TV USB port. Go to the Firmware update page and it should see the firmware on USB.

Would I have to connect the device to the network directly to perform this update? It is critical for me to have HDMI audio. Is there any method of getting content off the device (TiVo have withdrawn this)?

Here's one from my wish list, HDMI 1.3 audio?

How are others finding the video artefacting? My inbuilt TV tuner is very bad.

The USB method is not a direct connection, you have to use a computer and web browser to put the update on the USB storage device.

If you can use an Ethernet cable then I recommend doing so - plug the box in and choose update from the system menu and it's done.

Regarding picture quality, it's all down to signal reception. I purchased a new aerial for the job, one that mounts nicely on the backside of the old Sky dish the previous occupants used. You can monitor signal level in the system menu. I get between 70% and 78% mostly around 73%. Picture almost never breaks up.

1 | ... | 24 | 25 | 26 | 27 | 28 | 29 | 30 | 31 | 32 | 33 | 34 | ... | 92