Aldi - Technosonic PVR £99.99 - Freeview

creddish

jackson3 wrote:

Spoke to soon......No signal box re-appeared......
I'm still prepared to hang on to the box. I find it very good whilst
its working and am putting my faith in a manufactures upgrade/
swap out.
Software version same as everbody else - V.1.0(UK)D

Peter

Thanks for the update. I can't say I'm surprised. I think we are still waiting for some one to get one that works fully.

Colin

kcegginton

dr_nick_uk: Yes, I'd noticed the dates too - the golf shots on p14 come from this year but the EPG one on p18/19 come from 2004 but can we be sure that they are screen-grabs from prototypes of the PVR101 or are they from a completely different machine? Could they be faked even? Obviously the tv images are genuine BBC but could they have been extracted from a recorded transport stream sent to China on a hard-drive (or some other way).

Clive

pedrobedro

I bought one last Friday and it worked for a day then gave the "no signal" error. I switched it off and back on by the switch on the rear and it was fine for another day then the timer and everything froze and it wouldn't respond to the remote so it was rebooted again. I rang the registrations number in error and she told me she would contact the help line and they would get back to me. They rang me back and have offered me a swap out when they get new stock which seemss a good idea as when it works it is the ideal solution for me.

Lorian

I posted a poll to collect some info on peoples problems with the PVR101.

I just realised I forgot to add an option for "it hangs in standby" but I don't seem to be able to amend the poll.

abomb1969

Mine does the same as the last listing.

kcegginton

I've been thinking a little about these 'Lost & Found' programmes in the recordings list. It strikes me that this list is held and updated in memory and then must get dropped into a buffer to be written to the hard-drive. In the 'old days' you would have to dismount a floppy disc before ejecting it and even today 'usb mass storage devices' have to be 'stopped' before being removed.

Sometimes that buffer gets written and other times it doesn't, in which case the changes get lost and deleted programmes 're-appear'.

There must be an operation that forces the buffer to get written (obviously this should be every time there is a change but this isn't happening) otherwise we would get an empty list every time we powered-up from cold. So what is it?

Someone has said that everything is fine as long as the machine remains powered up, this seems to be true for my machine, no funny re-appearing acts (although some new recordings have failed to appear in the list). I haven't yet tested whether simply putting the machine in stand-by will lose the buffer or whether some other operation (setting the timer?) will force the buffer to written so that the machine can be turned-off completely but I will try some things out when I get chance.

If anyone has noticed a pattern here, please let us know - I for one would like to switch my machine off occasionally.

I hope, of course, that all this is a waste of time and that by the end of the week we will have a proper solution but I'm not holding my breath.

Clive.

Lorian

DTG have just updated their OTA upgrade information page!

Thu to Fri 29/12/05 31/12/05
TechnoTrend PVR 101, GHDD 1782 DVBT & IDPVR801B v1.1 Provisional

PVR101 is now named in the update

The IDPVR801B is a bush PVR, GHDD 1782 is a Goodmans PVR presumably all based on the same firmware, which I guess is written by technotrend.

http://www.dtg.org.uk/retailer/download_schedule.pl

solomonp

Dr_ Nick_uk

Interesting you picked up on lack of screening that might be the causer of the 'loss of signal'. I had not had this problem. My faults were the usual lack of ITV sound and deleted programs reappearing. I also have had, after leaving the box on for many hours on a channel, a loss line sync and the only way to recover is to reboot.
BUT last night the unit was on and showing a channel and I was playing with a 446MHz tranceiver and when I pressed transmit, the picture pixelated and then showed the 'loss of signal' message, that I had never seen before. Leaving it for a few minutes, the picture was restored. Could this support your interference theorey?
PAS

LesD

I'm now getting the No Signal problem quite often - not limited to any particular channels. However, if I leave it, the programme kicks-in after a few seconds (15-20 say).

The 'disappearing recordings' problem has not returned. Things now seem to stay deleted too. And that even after we had a full-scale power cut yesterday for an hour or so.

I really do like the kit and am finding the functionality quite intuitive. As an old 'un, I need it to be!

I'd be interested to hear from any techies if you consider the lack of cooling in the box may be causing any of the problems. Ours sits on top of the TV.

Lorian

kcegginton wrote:

dr_nick_uk: Yes, I'd noticed the dates too - the golf shots on p14 come from this year but the EPG one on p18/19 come from 2004 but can we be sure that they are screen-grabs from prototypes of the PVR101 or are they from a completely different machine? Could they be faked even? Obviously the tv images are genuine BBC but could they have been extracted from a recorded transport stream sent to China on a hard-drive (or some other way). Clive

I believe the basic firmware/EPG (without the PVR functionality) has been around for some time, in various STBs, so I guess they just re-used parts of the manual (no need to re-invent the wheel). Technotrend who I believe are the writers of the software are a German company.

and if by any chance there is anyone from Key/Techno* reading this, any chance of an option in v1.1 or v1.2 to turn off or reduce the brightness of the RED LED in standby?