Anyone with one can you tell me the dimensions of the unit in mm. Also can you post a picture of it in your setup as I want to gauge the aesthetics of it?
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I have recently purchased and installed a Magic TV box. It's great, BUT playback of recorded shows is stuttery and sometimes doesn't work at all. The signal is fine for watching TV, but the recordings, or the playback of the recordings don't work.
I have the most recent recent Firmware installed, and it occurs on both series record and single program record. Is this a known problem, or have I just struck a dud box which I should return to the retailer.
hi BenNZ, does the playback "stuttery" occur at the same position (rewind to the same position and "stuttery" again), or occur randomly? If the "stuttery" is repeatable at the same playback timestamp, then the recording may have error, most likely due to reception issue. Since your live TV is fine, please try to do a recording while watching live TV. If that recording is still "stuttery", then you may consider exchange the unit.
You may also try to check and repair the internal harddrive in Settings->Recording Setup->Advanced Options->Check and Repair System HDD. And remember to "standby" the unit, before remove the power supply.
Hi BenNZ, if the set has the ability under its settings to view a signal strength and quality meter, check this out re your reception. I have just gone through issues of reception quality myself and found my reception on channel 1 and 2 and 7 I think was poor, and this became apparent during recording, when I was watching these channels and recording at the same time, the box couldn't seem to cope with the double use of two receivers coupled with my poor signal strength, which was bottoming out at 1 out of 10 causing the picture and sound to break up. This was not on the recording, as I was recording Prime, but was on the channel I was viewing (channel 2). I imagine if I had been watching Prime (for which the signal strength was 4 out of 10, it would have been fine, but if recording channel 2 at the same time I would have got your problems on my recorded track. I have just had an aerial guy come to my house and he put up a new aerial and my signal strength on all channels has now jumped to a 10 out of 10 and all such problems have gone away. Phone around as some aerial companies will charge $60 to come and do a test, and if you get an aerial installed this is not an additional cost. My total install for the new aerial was $225 (inclusive of GST) if that is of any help to you.
Thanks for the responses. The signal strength was 80% with 100% signal quality. After doing the check and repair hard disk (no problems found) tried to vew recordings and the set froze completely. Tried a few more things but still no luck with recording. Bond and bond swapped the box, and the new box works fine, no live stutter and played back a recording fine. So far so good, looks like I just struck a box with a bad circuit or somesuch.
Has any one looked into what is involved if the HDD in the Magic TV 3600 fails. Can we just buy a replacement drive down the at your nearest PC shop, install it, format it and we are ready to go or does it have to go back to the supplier to be repaired.
Just wondering if the extended 5 year warranty would be sensible or not
Hi all, this is my first posting. I just had to register so i can tell you all of my experience with the MTV 3600. It's awesome! I've been using it now for about 6 weeks and it fits all my needs brilliantly. I won't say it's perfect as there are some misgivings as I'll explain later, but for what I need it was so great and easy to use that the wife and I got her mother onto it as well. She finds it difficult to learn new things, but this is so easy to use. the remote is easy to set up (especially the learning functions). Her VHS recorder has now been consigned to the bin.
I've had a Panasonic analogue HDD recorder and it's been a great device as well. of course with Freeview the number of channels I could record was a problem, I couldn't record some of the overlaps, having to resort to an old VHS recorder (heap of junk). The new Panasonic Freeview recorders were in my opinion much to overpriced, so couldn't wait to get my hands on the Magiv TV box.
Now to the misgivings, and they aren't major.
1. I found out that my antenna system wasn't up to scratch. The Sony LCD TV was getting a good Freeview signal 9it has it's own Freeview tuner), but once the Magic TV box was in the loop, the signal just wasn't up to the job. Recorded programs would often pixilate and were quite frankly unwatchable. A new antenna solved that and now i have a consistent 79-80% signal strength and 99-100% signal quality. Not sure if this is an issue with Magic TV box, or a freeview thing, but definitely a good antenna is needed.
2. Not being able to forward a set time length is something I miss. I can do it on the old Panasonic HDD recorder, 8 pushes of a button and all commericals have gone pass. But I believe that Freeview places this restriction on Freeview "Certified" boxes. All the same the fast forward does seem a bit of a hit an miss approach. The time it takes never seems to be consistent so I often overshoot and then have to back track. Sometimes I've noticed it will show the program just starting in the fast forward view, and then when I hit the play button it actually shows the last bit of the last commerical. this suggests it's trying to peview images from ahead of where it will actually play from. That's a fine idea, but overall it's not consistent.
On the positive side I have.
1. I like the idea that although you can build in a an "default extension" to the recording length both at start and end, it will still commence playback from the "real" program start time. Just so it's not confusing an example wold be, I set an advance of 2 minutes and an overrun of 5 minutes. So if the program starts at 4pm and goes to 5pm, it really starts recording from 3:58 and stops at 5:05. Then on playback it starts 2 minutes in, at the assigned 4pm position, brilliant!
2. I have it connected upstairs but want to view recorded programs downstairs. i have a Dick Smith AV sender receiver unit (2.4GHz) and I can get a great signal downstairs on the other TV and the remote signal is passed back to the IR device in front of the Magic TV box so my requests are transmitted to it. It's flawless.
3. Ability to record series is so easy. I had actually set the box to record the last week or so of the Masterchief Australia. I knew the last (final) day was set for a different time slot. And the box also knew, it didn't miss it. It was also able to get all other episodes in spite of differing start times throughout that week. My only question here is that once the series finished it would seem that the "job to record" was still in the system. It didn't remove that job, so a bit of tidy up there may be warranted.
So all in all, 1 very happy customer, keep up the good work Magic TV!
The JC Matthew box also has the issue of leaving listings in the recording list of programmes for which the series has ended. These are identified in a different colour as unknown programmes, since they are no longer being broadcast. So the same cleanup required here. I've now been using the JC Matthew box for a week (since ditching the Homecast), and find it acceptable. It doesn't appear to have the nice ability to change the default extensions, and does not start playing at the exact point a programme starts, but rather starts at the point it started recording. It also does not appear to have signal strength and quality indicators, so luck I'd already upgraded my aerial following all the issues I had with the Homecast box. Still the JC Matthew box is a good box none the less.
New firmware 3.09NZ is available on our website http://www.magictv.com/nz/support.html under "Downloads" tag. If the Magic TV has internet connection, user can also do a online firmware update.
The new firmware adds the "Edit and Copy" option. If the program has "edit mark" added, the function will physically reduce a program file size and permanently remove unwanted video section. Please check the firmware release note for more detail.
There is also some minor bug fix too. All users are advised to update to the new firmware.
I purchased the MagicTV yesterday and while generally impressed by the unit my reception is basically unwatchable (apart from tv 1 and 2). My previous Freeview reception through my ET box was great as is the analogue signal direct through the TV. Even Prime gets a really great analogue signal. Why is it so poor through the MagicTV?
The signal strength is around 75 for tv 1 and 2 and flicks between 68-73 for the rest which are basically unwatchable. The signal quality for all is 100.
I did have issues installing it as it initially told me "no channel found" until I switched it off and on again and it then found the channels. I did a second automatic search for channels and it found them all again but it didn't improve the picture.
Any ideas? Is it worth moving the aerial on the roof or do I need to call an aerial guy?
As I wrote on my findings (30 Nov), the antenna definitely needs to be good. From memory my original antenna had a similar strength to the numbers you have and it too got far too much pixelation, resulting in unwatchable recordings. Presently I have a new antenna just for this box and the Sony (freeview) LCD TV. I am considering cutting the cable and putting in a splitter box (so the other TV can get the same signla) but am unsure of what it will do to the signal strength. Maybe someone can enlighten us to what sort of reduction splitter boxes do to the signal. I suspect the issue is that with 2 tuners in the Magic TV box, and if you also have a TV on the end of the loop, that's 3 devices to split the signal across, without even considering a splitter box in before the Magic Box.
I also had the same problem, using the Homecast receiver, and found my signal to be crap for digitial, and had to replace my aerial. This worked a treat and signal went from 10-20% to 90-100%. I also was getting very good analogue signal prior to changing the aerial but digital it seems needs a really good signal. The manufacturers and retailers should be advising people that they may need an aerial upgrade. My aerial upgrade cost $220 including GST which included the aerial and the time of the service guy to come out and install it.
magictv: About Freeview approval, we were told in New Zealand market, people will only buy Freeview approved product. And store will only sell Freeview approved product. To officially market and sell a OTA PVR, we must have Freeview approval. We have no other choice.
About EPG presentation, for the OTA system, the 8 days EPG and "series" recording function is only available with a Freeview approved system, aka MHEG5 format. The satellite system may be different.
Hi magictv. Based on the feedback here you are off to a good start with the 3600 and seem quite responsive to queries and quick with firmware upgrades. I would buy a non-freeview approved unit from you. The ability to skip ads easily, to watch HD content through component cables and to use your EPG, are all things that might be possible without Freeview certification. Once you have established yourself as a leading Freeview approved product, would you consider offering an unapproved version of the 3600? Thanks Gavin
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