1487 replies to this topic

[DM Dave]

But,but,but........I'm with you DrP.Wrecked this thread.There's still the Freeview one,but!

Seriously though,that is good news for purchasers.

[Tassie Devil]

DrP, on Jul 18 2011, 04:11 PM, said:

I am contacting the moderators to have you expelled from the forum!  

I'm not going to take that lying down Dr P.

I hereby challenge you to a dual at 20 paces with USB memory sticks.   

John

[Tassie Devil]

OK a few more notes on the Magic.

1. "Delete" merely moves it to a Trash can (something Tober27 pointed out some time ago) so something inadvertently moved there can be retrieved.
2. It appears to have a quirk with HDMI handshaking.  No problems with video BUT it the receiving item it not switched on first, there will be no audo unless it is kicked into life through the menu
3. The wireless donger was a minor challenge until it was realised that the alpha-numberic keys circulate - e.g. "2" goes a b c A B C  and "0" goes space 0.  This made entering in the wireless security key (they call it "PASSPHRASE") a bit challenging to intellectually impaired owners like me.

I'll go back to the original post and edit it with all these findings.

John

Edited by Tassie Devil, 19 July 2011 - 10:33 AM.

[mwd]

Well, waiting for mine to come so good information there TassieD. I also ordered the wireless dongle for the few dollars more but not really sure it is worth having. Not sure weather and news headlines likely to be used very often. Pity it will not stream over the network but then again cannot complain for the price.

[Tassie Devil]

mwd, on Jul 19 2011, 10:59 AM, said:

Well, waiting for mine to come so good information there TassieD. I also ordered the wireless dongle for the few dollars more but not really sure it is worth having. Not sure weather and news headlines likely to be used very often. Pity it will not stream over the network but then again cannot complain for the price.

I've put a note in about the donger + a couple more comments in the edited review on page 1.  I only connected up the donger myself this morning and it works ok for news although useless for weather here as only capital cities are covered.

John

[mwd]

My MagicTV PVR  arrived today in the post. Got to say impressed so far. Hooked up and running via HDMI and optical to AVR in all of 10 mins including channel scan. The menus are really user friendly and PQ with setting at 1080P is very crisp and sharp even on SD channels must have a very good scaler and deinterlacer built in. It puts the internal tuner of my Pioneer to shame. Will test the first recording with Tour de France highlights on SDS HD tonight.

Just need to reload my old Harmony 659 from the database to see how that goes will report later after I have had time to play around.

At first looks it has better controls and PQ than my old trusty Homecast 8000. Now I can record 4 channels at once as they give you an antenna jump lead included with the Magic.

Edit: only thing missing that I use quite often is Picture in Picture to keep track of 2 channels.

Clever bits I really like. You can assign favourite channels to the numeric keys on the remote eg. One to 1, Seven to 7, WIN to 9 etc etc.

On recordings it is really easy to jump around with the arrow keys and the numeric keys gives corresponding minute jumps 3 gives a 3 minute forward, 2 gives a 2 minute jump etc.

The Harmony seems to work just fine too I find that it is easier to use the Magic remote to go deeper into the menus and use the Harmony for basics that you use on a regular basis.

I can say the PQ is noticeably superior to my Homecast.

Also got the wireless dongle working but do not find it worth having unless you want news headlines and weather in the Capital Citys. The online EPG is not enabled on the 4000 firmware but at least you can skip and export files dead easy to USB without needing any additional software.

Edited by mwd, 21 July 2011 - 10:54 PM.

[pgdownload]

mwd, on Jul 21 2011, 05:30 PM, said:

Edit: only thing missing that I use quite often is Picture in Picture to keep track of 2 channels.

I've always thought this is a bit of an anachronism. There's no need to 'keep track' with a twin tuner PVR. Watch one show first. Then watch the other one. Or half watch one, the half watch the other then half watch the first etc.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

[mwd]

pgdownload, on Jul 21 2011, 09:26 PM, said:

I've always thought this is a bit of an anachronism. There's no need to 'keep track' with a twin tuner PVR. Watch one show first. Then watch the other one. Or half watch one, the half watch the other then half watch the first etc.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

Handy for live TV that don't require recording such as Today and Sunrise can swap channels when ad breaks or something a bit interesting comes on.
Also handy for the news when both channels running at the same time. Channel Surfers.

Actually PIP is disabled on the Homecast when recording a channel.

Edited by mwd, 21 July 2011 - 10:56 PM.

[Tassie Devil]

mwd, on Jul 21 2011, 10:33 PM, said:

Handy for live TV that don't require recording such as Today and Sunrise can swap channels when ad breaks or something a bit interesting comes on.
Also handy for the news when both channels running at the same time. Channel Surfers.

And that is exactly the circumstance I use.  Start a recording to look at rather than the crappy ads being shown live.  Stop the recording as soon as the ads finish.  Not used much as most viewing is via recordings, but still nice to have.

We all have different habits & requirements.

John

Edited by Tassie Devil, 21 July 2011 - 10:51 PM.

[donhe7]

Zxdan, on Jul 18 2011, 10:57 AM, said:

Mwd, as a fellow Homecast owner, keen to hear your opinion on the Magic. Even though I use a Harmony to operate the Homecast, the multitude of button presses required to enter the recording list, switch on subtitles or delete a recording, is very annoying. I would have never bought the Homecast had I known how much button mashing is required with it.

Anybody else, what sort of cooling does the Magic have? Passive or fan? If fan, is it noisy & does it operate even when the unit is off?

A little OT, but don't blame the Homecast, blame the Harmony, the Homecast remote is one of the simplest to use remotes

donhe7

[prl]

donhe7, on Jul 21 2011, 11:01 PM, said:

A little OT, but don't blame the Homecast, blame the Harmony, the Homecast remote is one of the simplest to use remotes

donhe7

How does using the Harmony instead of the Homecast remote increase the number of button presses for a function?

[mwd]

prl, on Jul 21 2011, 11:30 PM, said:

How does using the Harmony instead of the Homecast remote increase the number of button presses for a function?

Probably depends on which model Harmony you have but I have always found the Harmony adequate with the Homecast but if you go past the second level of a function it is easier to use the original remote. I tend to use the original remote for anything out of the ordinary function wise. I expect the same with the Magic box too. I think the Magic remote is more intuitive than the Homecast on initial trial. I am still finding my way around the Magic box still got lots of menus to explore but it seems to work quite well on default settings.

[mwd]

Tassie Devil, on Jul 18 2011, 10:51 AM, said:

No fan and it is not noisy.  Yes it gets quite warm but nothing to worry about.  I've put quiet PC cooling fans on top of the Toppy and other PVR but will probably not bother doing likewise with the Magic.


And I am conscious of an extra shade of red on complexions sometimes. Haven't nailed down why or when this occurs yet as it is not always the case.  This colour is not apparent with the same program on either of the other two PVRs.  Not a big negative and nothing to get paranoid about but odd just the same.  All other colour is fine, just the complexions come out a bit ruddy at times.  Anyone else detected that?

John

The tuner does seem to have a red push I found by changing the HDMI colourspace from RGB to YcbCr it tamed it a bit suppose it depends on your screen.

Settings>Video>Advanced>HDMI

[dabbles]

New firmware released yesterday for the 3700, here's the info.  

Version 4.42AU
Support Magic TV Remote Control app (free iPhone app) on iPhone, iPod Touch,
and iPad (iOS 3.1.2 or newer). Or on Android phones and tablets (Android 2.1 and
up).
- please get the Magic TV Remote Control app on Apple App Store, or at
http://itunes.apple....ote/id429349002
- please get the Magic TV Remote Control app on Android Market, or at
http://market.androi...com.pms.mtvctrl
- when Magic TV is connected on the same home network (using wired LAN, or
USB wi-fi) with iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad, or an Android device, Magic TV
Remote Control app will find the Magic TV and display a Remote Control
interface for user to control the Magic TV.
- Magic TV Remote Control app can control multiple Magic TV connected on the
same network.
Added Slow Motion and Fast Forward playback with Audio
- when the image is paused during timeshift/instant rewind or file playback, press
">>" key will switch between ¾x, ½x, ¼x and 1/8x Slow Motion playback
modes. Please press "play" key to resume normal playback.
- added 1.5x Fast Forward mode, and plays audio during ¾x and ½x Slow
Motion, and 1.5x and 2x Fast Forward.
- user can disable audio playback during Slow Motion and Fast Forward in
Settings->Playback Setup->Fast/Slow Forward Audio->On/Off
Fix a Incorrect recording problem on SBS channel.
Version 4.41AU
First release of MTV3700TD firmware
Firmware upgrade procedure is explained in MTV3700TD Owner’s Guide section 9.2
“Firmware Update”.

[Tassie Devil]

dabbles, on Jul 23 2011, 12:37 PM, said:

New firmware released yesterday for the 3700, here's the info.  

Version 4.42AU
Support Magic TV Remote Control app (free iPhone app) on iPhone, iPod Touch,
and iPad (iOS 3.1.2 or newer). Or on Android phones and tablets (Android 2.1 and
up).
- please get the Magic TV Remote Control app on Apple App Store, or at
http://itunes.apple....ote/id429349002
- please get the Magic TV Remote Control app on Android Market, or at
http://market.androi...com.pms.mtvctrl
- when Magic TV is connected on the same home network (using wired LAN, or
USB wi-fi) with iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad, or an Android device, Magic TV
Remote Control app will find the Magic TV and display a Remote Control
interface for user to control the Magic TV.
- Magic TV Remote Control app can control multiple Magic TV connected on the
same network.
Added Slow Motion and Fast Forward playback with Audio
- when the image is paused during timeshift/instant rewind or file playback, press
">>" key will switch between ¾x, ½x, ¼x and 1/8x Slow Motion playback
modes. Please press "play" key to resume normal playback.
- added 1.5x Fast Forward mode, and plays audio during ¾x and ½x Slow
Motion, and 1.5x and 2x Fast Forward.
- user can disable audio playback during Slow Motion and Fast Forward in
Settings->Playback Setup->Fast/Slow Forward Audio->On/Off
Fix a Incorrect recording problem on SBS channel.
Version 4.41AU
First release of MTV3700TD firmware
Firmware upgrade procedure is explained in MTV3700TD Owner’s Guide section 9.2
“Firmware Update”.

Interesting and thanks for the info.  I'm guessing that installation of that would "convert" our units to Freeview, something rather unappealing.  If I interpret correctly that firmware is mainly of benefit to those wishing to use other devices as a remote.  I've had no problem with recording SBS.  Anyone know what that problem is?

John

[mwd]

Don't think I will be downloading it the Freeview restrictions will cripple a very capable PVR.

I have had a couple of days playing and now tweaked the menus to my liking. The tuner is very good but is not flattering to poor broadcasts but good broadcasts and HD are tremendous.
The manual comes in handy because every menu has user changeable features so that you can fine tune the interface to suit your own preferences.

The timer recordings have both before and after padding applied and the actual amounts of minutes can be adjusted or turned off.  Great Feature.

Love the ad skipping feature using the numeric keypad to skip minutes. 2 gives 2 minutes which is perfect for the Tour de France on SBS HD. Saves staying up until 2.00 AM each night.

PS My Harmony 659 works well with the Magic I used the 3700TD model from the database and everything including ad skips works fine so happy with that.
Still need to keep the Magic remote handy though for more complicated operations.

Found one minor bug in the software when you change channel the onscreen info panel does not show the current programme information it seems to show the previous show. When you press the info key it updates the onscreen information.
The EPG information is the normal version not the tricked up Freeview type which is shown in the manual.

Actual box runs quite cool probably because there is no mains transformer inside it runs on 12V from a laptop like power brick.

[Tassie Devil]

mwd, on Jul 23 2011, 02:13 PM, said:

Don't think I will be downloading it the Freeview restrictions will cripple a very capable PVR.

I have had a couple of days playing and now tweaked the menus to my liking. The tuner is very good but is not flattering to poor broadcasts but good broadcasts and HD are tremendous.
The manual comes in handy because every menu has user changeable features so that you can fine tune the interface to suit your own preferences.

The timer recordings have both before and after padding applied and the actual amounts of minutes can be adjusted or turned off.  Great Feature.

Love the ad skipping feature using the numeric keypad to skip minutes. 2 gives 2 minutes which is perfect for the Tour de France on SBS HD. Saves staying up until 2.00 AM each night.

PS My Harmony 659 works well with the Magic I used the 3700TD model from the database and everything including ad skips works fine so happy with that.
Still need to keep the Magic remote handy though for more complicated operations.

Found one minor bug in the software when you change channel the onscreen info panel does not show the current programme information it seems to show the previous show. When you press the info key it updates the onscreen information.
The EPG information is the normal version not the tricked up Freeview type which is shown in the manual.

Actual box runs quite cool probably because there is no mains transformer inside it runs on 12V from a laptop like power brick.

Thanks for the update.  Have you figured out the best way to use the file folders?  I would like to delete some and change the name of others  but haven't twigged on how to do that yet.  It also seems file names can appear twice but I haven't played around enough with it to be sure about that.  So far the EPG is recording program names pretty accurately - better than the UltaPlus satellite PVR I'm also using.

Bottom line is it is a very capable PVR BUT has the big drawback you have to read the owners guide - something to avoid as it means the PVR is more intelligent than the owner and I hate admitting that!

John

[mwd]

Not used the folders yet I have only recorded the late night Tour and then deleted afterwards.
I will also have to read the manual on that part of things. I am not sure but think you can move recordings you want to archive into respective folders sport etc. so they are easy to find later. It does seem much simpler than a Topfield to transfer recordings via USB to a harddrive or stick though.

As you stated in your review it will take a good bit of time to to fill up a 1Tb drive.

When I get some time I may see if it will playback a Topfield or Homecast file via a USB hardrive. I think it may if you rename a toppy file from .rec to .ts

I have a pile of archived stuff on my Homecast to still watch but am short of spare HDMI connections to run both boxes together.

[tassaj]

Hey Guys,

Based on your respective inputs and my frustration on waiting for Topfield to sort out their damned firmware on the HD PVRs (plenty on that on other forums), I took the plunge and bought a Magic this week. Experience much the same as described by others, shipping took 2 days to Canberra. Neat looking little unit and although I was a bit sceptical about the external power pack, I agree with others that this probably results in the machine running much cooler.

I have just finished playing with it for the past couple of hours and there are a couple of minor annoyances that others may have worked out how to get around.

1 I cannot find a way to edit the channel list, either sequence or channel name. I am pretty anal and like to have the same sequence on all my devices and the Magic scans / saves channels in numerical order, which results in WIN not adjacent to GEM and GO for example. Also cannot edit any of the channel the names. The menu suggests a favourites list but I haven't worked out how to create one.

2 Related to 1, I have deleted the multiple channel appearances (Prime shows a couple of times) and radio feeds but the damn things keep popping back into the channel list. Anybody else having this issue or how to permanently delete from the list. Once again using a favourites list would resolve this.

Neither of these are show stoppers for me, really happy with picture quality and EPG interface and the price $$$. I now have this installed with my trusty Topfield Masterpiece 5000 SD so now I can record up to 4 different streams simultaneously and watch a fifth. A single unamplified antenna feed is feeding the Magic, then the Topfield and then the Panasonic Viera. So far no issues with signal strength.

Great find and thanks to all for alerting us.

Cheers

[mwd]

I have not found a way to rename channels but don't find that necessary here in Regional Queensland as all channel names are relevant ie. "Ten Cairns"

To remove channels Settings>Channel Setup>Channel List  You see a list of channels with green tick ones you don't need highlight with cursor press OK and you can remove it.

One Touch Channel Select allows you to assign favourite channels to the numeric keyboard on the remote. I set One to 1, Seven Cairns to 7, Win Cairns to 9 etc etc.  Quite nice.

I see what you mean about not being able to group channels on the list but it is fairly easy to press OK and scroll through the list to the channel you require.

One of the things I don't like is the recording notification is just a tiny symbol on the front display I might have missed it but I don't think it gives you a notification on the TV that a recording is starting I will check tonight. (EDIT: Oh yes it does ) no problem,.

With regard to the Folders for stored recordings I found that you can enable or disable them individually as there is a big list to start with. I have disabled the majority of them I don't need.

Edited by mwd, 23 July 2011 - 06:33 PM.

[tassaj]

mwd, on Jul 23 2011, 05:26 PM, said:

To remove channels Settings>Channel Setup>Channel List  You see a list of channels with green tick ones you don't need highlight with cursor press OK and you can remove it.

Thanks mwd,

I have tried the method suggest several times but the channels still appear in the list (although strangely enough, those that I have deleted then say "insufficient signal strength" when selected with the channel selector, yet all other channels ar fine). I have repeatedly deleted the extra channels not wanted and they just boomerang back. Its not a huge issue but it would be good to get rid of at least the SBS and ABC Dig radio channels.

being able to skip forward 'x' minutes depending of which number you press on the remote (i.e. press 1 = 1 min. press 2 = 2 min, etc.) is a great feature !



Ok just reread all the post and note that Tober27 posted on Jul13 the same issue with deleted channels reappearing :

"What bothered my most is that after setting up my favourite channels, removing duplicates and audio stations, they seem to reappear later, and I don't know why"

Perhaps this is just a bug with the FW?

Edited by tassaj, 24 July 2011 - 01:34 PM.

[mwd]

Very strange because I removed 2 channels that were duplicated and they have not come back into my Channel List (yet).

Firmware installed is MTV4000TD 5.00AU

Recorded stacks of stuff over the weekend and really like the ad skipping and ease of controls with recorded programmes.
Still get sound at FF 2x

Edited by mwd, 25 July 2011 - 02:37 PM.

[mrdenn1s]

What does the networking allow you to do?

Can you stream recordings over your network?

[mwd]

mrdenn1s, on Jul 25 2011, 03:15 PM, said:

What does the networking allow you to do?

Can you stream recordings over your network?

The networking is not very useful really you cannot stream files. It receives weather forecasts (Capital Cities only) and news headlines which you can read on the screen. There was supposed to be an online EPG but I don't think it exists as the box uses the normal embedded EPG that the broadcasters put out.
Also you are supposed to be able to download Firmware revisions when they become available via the internet.  I have not looked into it but am sure you could upgrade the Firmware via a USB device anyhow.

Just save yourself $30.00 and don't bother ordering the wireless dongle you will not miss it IMHO.

[Tassie Devil]

mwd, on Jul 25 2011, 04:26 PM, said:

The networking is not very useful really you cannot stream files. It receives weather forecasts (Capital Cities only) and news headlines which you can read on the screen. There was supposed to be an online EPG but I don't think it exists as the box uses the normal embedded EPG that the broadcasters put out.
Also you are supposed to be able to download Firmware revisions when they become available via the internet.  I have not looked into it but am sure you could upgrade the Firmware via a USB device anyhow.

Just save yourself $30.00 and don't bother ordering the wireless dongle you will not miss it IMHO.

Fully agree.  I purchased the cheap dongle being offered here some time ago but it is a non useful toy.

We have a confusing situation with these "Freeview" 4000's as they do have some (non crippling) freeview firmware inside.  It would be simple (and fatal) to upgrade the 3700 firmware.  Which raises the question about whether or not these hybrid units will accept 4000 upgrades.  This is something I haven't pursued and am unsure if I care anyway as the Magic does pretty much everything I want.  The only "bug" I would like to see exterminated is its inability to handshake with the video processor for audio via HDMI if it powers on first - happens if the system is turned on when the Magic (still hate the name) has been on due to the timer firing.  

John

Edited by Tassie Devil, 25 July 2011 - 04:41 PM.