Aldi - Technosonic PVR £99.99 - Freeview

Lorian

I'm going to be busy for the next few weeks so won't have much time for the PVR101 blog. So I've sent my views on the update,and outstanding issues to Key.

I've limited my comments to what I think are the most significant issues. If you have something not listed that is of a major concern then you'll need to contact them directly.

Here is what I said :

Lorian wrote:

Just a quick note about the 1.5 software release for the PVR101.

First of all, I wanted to say thanks, for me at least the new version is an improvement.

I have had quite a few emails over the weekend from people about various aspects of the upgrade, and new bugs. I thought I'd better share these with you as I'm not getting much time at the moment to update the PVR101 blog.

With regard to installing the upgrade:

1. Some people press "OK" when the upgrade is found, so they cancel the installation rather than continue, and remain at 1.1
2. The upgrades seem to work more reliably if done after a reboot.
3. After the upgrade several people have not been able to view/record certain channels. doing a "first time installation" invariably resolves this.
4. It does not seem possible for a box running 1.0 to upgrade to 1.5. Having tried and tried and the upgrade always aborts at some stage.

About the version 1.5 software. I don't know when technosonic are planning on a future release, but perhaps you could forward on a few new/outstanding issues that have been found. I have limited the list here to what I consider to be the 4 with the most impact:

1. New issue of conflicting remote control functions with lots of TV's, including, but no limited to brands: Goodmans, Toshiba, Philips, Wharfdale. Mostly clashes with "basic functions" like volume, but again not limited to this. These didn't occur in version 1.1
2. Occasional incidents of obtaining a picture with sound for a few seconds then a black screen for a few seconds, looping until the box is rebooted. I guess this is related to the previous "no signal" issue.
3. When the hard disk gets full during a recording the system continually reboots itself (until the active timer is deleted) and corrupts the hard disk so all recordings are lost, requiring a re-format to recover disk space.
4. Widescreen signalling is not working properly. Most reported on BBC sports channels. I guess this might be an issue with the BBC broadcasts.

There are other issues, and they can see those in my blog,

Update: Key have responded to say they will continue to collect information about issues for a few days and then forward them on to technotrend.

Lorian

Anyone know the answer to this?

email_question wrote:

Does anyone know how to edit the recorded programme name ie "Premier - The Piano" I just want to delete "Premier" without typing "The Piano" over the top of it all.

Zaphod_Beblebrocks

Don't know if anyone else has had this but since the update my box locks up when I try to play a recording needing a reboot before it will play

zabig_3

i got a no signal today with the update. any one else had this?

creddish

zabig wrote:

i got a no signal today with the update. any one else had this?

From my reading of this thread and the threads on Digital Spy and AV Forums
I beleive that between 5 and 10 users have reported No Signal incidents.

Colin

malc_d

The only problem I have experienced so far since 1.5v is that when watching terrestrial tv, with PVR on standby, for no apparent reason it tells the TV to switch to the digi box input, through the scart input I presume, but because it is on standby the screen is blank/black. I then have to select the terrestrial channel again and all is fine - except it is rather annoying. Perhaps I'll leave the PVR 'ON' and see what happens. Anyone had this?

Lorian

malc_d wrote:

The only problem I have experienced so far since 1.5v is that when watching terrestrial tv, with PVR on standby, for no apparent reason it tells the TV to switch to the digi box input, through the scart input I presume, but because it is on standby the screen is blank/black. I then have to select the terrestrial channel again and all is fine - except it is rather annoying. Perhaps I'll leave the PVR 'ON' and see what happens. Anyone had this?

Yes, it switches on every 3 or 4 hours, we believe to check it's internal clock. You can always cut the SCART select pin on the cable from the PVR to the TV, but you would always need to manually select the PVR using the TV remote from then on.

creddish

Lorian wrote:

Yes, it switches on every 3 or 4 hours, we believe to check it's internal clock. You can always cut the SCART select pin on the cable from the PVR to the TV, but you would always need to manually select the PVR using the TV remote from then on.

This behaviour was present before the 1.5 update I believe, although I have not experienced it myself. In recent months I would not have seen this anyway because I leave the PVR switched on permanently to avoid possible. loss of recordings due to lock-ups in standby. Is this a common problem?

Lorian, have you (or others) done sufficient testing to confirm that the lock-up in standby bug has been cured?

Colin

Lorian

creddish wrote:

Lorian, have you (or others) done sufficient testing to confirm that the lock-up in standby bug has been cured?

AFAIK no one else is specifically testing it, but mine has been on standby most nights since last Friday and not hung yet. I think before it would have hung several times, if not every night.

LesD

Have been away for a couple of weeks and returned to find a very pleased son saying it's working fine now! And, touch wood, it still is - for the simple things we need like live TV and scheduled recordings.

EPG seems to have a full schedule loaded, recordings all are what they should be and NOT A SINGLE 'NO SIGNAL' despite all our efforts at random channel switching!!!

Sure there are the odd lip-sync worries and very infrequent picture 'stuttering'. But this machine is now doing what we bought it for. FANTASTIC!

Many thanks to Lorian for co-ordinating the issues.

Anyone noticed if Aldi have any still on the shelves? Might even go for another!