MagicTV 3600.. my quick impression report (updated)

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375 posts

Ultimate Geek

#650723 4-Jul-2012 15:54

There are various problems that can cause HDD bad sectors:

Improper shutdown of Windows;
Defects of the hard disk, including general surface wear, pollution of the air inside the unit, or the head touching the surface of the disk;
Other poor quality or aging hardware, including a bad processor fan, dodgy data cables, an overheated hard drive;
Malware.

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latimers

54 posts

Master Geek

#650738 4-Jul-2012 16:17

Thanks for that, but what I was really wondering about is whether the reformatting will have flagged the bad sectors so they don't get used again.

Jimmy22

375 posts

Ultimate Geek

#650743 4-Jul-2012 16:27

lets say it does mark bad sectors but the cause of the problem is still there, you will then get further bad sectors on top of the ones already marked as bad and then have the same issue on another sector a short while later. i can see what you are saying but i was thinking outside the symptom to the cause. Sorry to hear you have an issue at all though.

latimers

54 posts

Master Geek

#650752 4-Jul-2012 16:47

Yes, I see what you mean.

Are there any not-too-technical instructions available anywhere for replacing the HDD, i.e. what type of HDD does it need and is it just a case of opening the box, swapping the HDDs and formatting the new one?

theoldfarter

203 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

#650759 4-Jul-2012 16:59

Jimmy22: no that is a physical issue , eg "like" rusting . good excuse to drop in a 1.0 GB hdd and upgrade to 10sec FFD patch ..

What is this "10sec FFD patch"?

Jimmy22

375 posts

Ultimate Geek

#650762 4-Jul-2012 17:15

there is a guide to the exact brand of drive and roughly what to do in this thread if i remember correctly, wty is void but its a small cost now wty is over anyhow. from what i remember you replace out with the drive sepcified and it asks to format much like it does with an external drive. some one correct me if my memory is flawed :) , else you do the recovery procedurce , something like boot up while holding play on the remote and it does a deep reformat instead of a copy over the top ?! that is on the last page of the manual too i think. the FFd 10sec was a home bake patch so you can avoid the stipid 10min fast forward freeview issue that compliant providers must follow. because the mtv3600 is so choppy at fast forward a good skip interval is very very helpful. that is also in this thread somewhere. The guys who sorted it out are frikin legends.

latimers

54 posts

Master Geek

#650813 4-Jul-2012 18:14

Yes, I thought I remembered the subject was covered in this thread somewhere but I was hoping not to have to troll through 73 pages looking for it. Looks like I'll have to.

bfginger

1231 posts

Uber Geek

#650825 4-Jul-2012 18:38

Have you tried the 3.18 firmware? Nine weeks later and they haven't released its release notes or listed it on their download page.

I've had the box freeze up a number of times but much less often since I installed the 3.17 firmware. I'm sure that firmware revision still isn't perfect but I think the unit can be vulnerable to overheating too. If you have it in a warm room, an enclosed space or the heatsink inside just isn't seated very well that might do it. If it's out of warranty try unscrewing the top part of case and place it upside down on the top of the unit so there's airflow from the sides and see if the crashing stops.

Anyone had any experience with the Panasonic DMR-XW390GZK?

The Panasonic DMR-BWT700GZ only costs another $97.

The guys who sorted it out are frikin legends.

I hope 2lostkiwis can make the 4min skip work on the 3.18 firmware. An FTP server or http uploading would be great too so we could upload video clip files to the ./1/video/ directory for playback on the MTV Camcorder Gadget.

theoldfarter

203 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

#650846 4-Jul-2012 19:11

I have just emailed Dish asking them to post the v3 18NZ zip file on their download page & also, to post the release notes for it.

I'm with you, hoping that 2lostkiwis can make the 4min skip work on the 3.18 firmware.

I am waiting for delivery of a new Panasonic Plasma TH-P50ST50Z, a big jump up from my 5 year old 720p Panasonic TH-42PV700AZ. Hope the 3600 will shine through the new one.

Here is a review for it: http://www.avforums.com/review/Panasonic-ST50-TX-P50ST50B-P42ST50B-P55ST50B-P65ST50B-50-Inch-3D-Plasma-TV.html

Anyone have this model?

theoldfarter

203 posts

Master Geek

ID Verified

#650860 4-Jul-2012 19:57

latimers: Yes, I thought I remembered the subject was covered in this thread somewhere but I was hoping not to have to troll through 73 pages looking for it. Looks like I'll have to.

Other forums I am a member of, have the ability to search a thread. That does not seem to be an option on this forum, or am I mistaken?

Whom do I contact to request this option or would I be wasting my time?

wklie

191 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

MagicTV

#650876 4-Jul-2012 20:19

latimers: Thanks for that, but what I was really wondering about is whether the reformatting will have flagged the bad sectors so they don't get used again.

Magic TV format does not mark bad sectors.

I don't think modern Windows format does that either, unless you perform a disk scan.

If you would like to confirm whether your HDD has bad sector or not, you may plug the HDD into a PC then run the HDD manufacturer diagnostics (download from web site of the HDD brand you have). This should not wipe your recordings unless you invoked the wrong function.

Found this thread about replacing Magic TV HDD using google:
http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=83&topicid=62095
Stay away from WD Green series.

LUMIN Network Music Player, Magic TV New Zealand and Australia firmware lead

PimpMyMagic

267 posts

Ultimate Geek

#651324 5-Jul-2012 14:33

The Magic runs on Linux.

Do you know if data partitions are formatted using a system that windows can read?

I suspect it'll use one of the "ext" formats, common on other Linux PVR's.

wklie

191 posts

Master Geek

Trusted

MagicTV

#651342 5-Jul-2012 14:49

PimpMyMagic:
Do you know if data partitions are formatted using a system that windows can read?

I suspect it'll use one of the "ext" formats, common on other Linux PVR's.

MTV3600TD: first partition is ext3 400MB, second partition is JFS for the remaining space
MTV3700TD: first partition is ext3 400MB, second partition is ext3 or the remaining space

USB HDD formatted by any Magic TV is ext2 as a single partition that takes up the whole HDD. However, an NTFS formatted USB HDD can be plugged into MTV3700TD for recording and exporting video.

Windows support for ext2/ext3 can be added using ext2fsd

evanh

152 posts

Master Geek

#651626 6-Jul-2012 02:54

Here's one of 2lostkiwis's moments of discovery. The first patch followed soon after.

My comparison of original 500 GB drive with equivalents.

latimers: ... I would get up in the morning and the unit would still show "REC" on the front, would only become responsive after recycling the power and a programme that had been scheduled for recording the previous evening would only be partly recorded. ...

I too had much frustration with this problem in early days. It has faded for some unknown reason but has never completely gone away. It has happen once this year and maybe three times last year.

I replaced the HDD, for a bigger disc, in mid Dec 2010 and by mid Jan 2011 the MTV had frozen up a couple more times. And the original HDD has subsequently worked fine in my PC. Funnily, since Feb 2011 things have gone pretty well though.

latimers

54 posts

Master Geek

#651650 6-Jul-2012 08:18

Thanks very much for the feedback guys.

I've been exchanging messages with Magic tech support in Hamilton.

I wrote:
"From the very short time it takes to reformat the HDD as part of the Rescue process, I would guess that it?s more like the PC Quick Format, i.e. all it does is to delete the FAT (or equivalent) and doesn?t actually process the whole HDD.

The Check and Repair process takes longer, depending on how much recorded content there is on the HDD. It appears to be more like the PC chkdsk /f command, which checks the occupied sectors and repairs any that have problems.

Is there a ?deep format? that can be run as part of the Rescue process, that actually checks each sector and flags the bad ones so they don?t get used again?"

The reply was:
"I understand what you are saying but please don't confuse the MTV3600 unit with the same principle as a windows PC.
The MagicTv unit run a lynux System which use a different format than a windows PS and handle the HDD differently."

I also asked what could be causing the freezing other than a faulty HDD and the answer was:
"Freezing can be caused by a number of things and most of the time it is signal related due to corruption of the signal and then also corrupting the recordings on the HDD.
On the rare occasion the HDD does fault."

So my quandary is, do I:
1. Stick with the Magic box and hope the "format" has solved the problem (which it won't have if the real cause is signal corruption or if the HDD is faulty and the format didn't actually repair it).
2 Put a new HDD in the Magic box. (evanh's experience indicates that might not solve the freeze up problem - giving credence to the signal corruption theory.)
3. Give up on the Magic box and buy a Panasonic (and hope that the Panasonic handles dodgy signals better than the Magic or I'll have the same problems again).

(FYI one "solution" I tried a while ago was to buy a PlayTV to go with my PS3 as a "backup" PVR. Big mistake! The PlayTV EPG doesn't get fully populated because Mediaworks and Sky refuse to provide the programme information to Sony. Also the unit is not capable of recording and playing back at the same time. Starting playback actually corrupts the background recording.)

Bob.

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