1478 replies to this topic

[wklie]

bobster05, on 21 May 2012 - 01:38 PM, said:

I really do need to do a factory reset on mine though to see if it gets rid of this random hi pitched sound problem, just the idea of having to redo the timers is a little off putting.

If you still experience the high pitched sound problem, please change the video resolution to 1080i 50Hz, then connect the Magic TV to your Panasonic plasma by component video cable and the white/red audio cable, both should have been included in the Magic TV package.  Then switch the Panasonic input to the component input.  This way we can see whether the analog audio behaves the same or not.

Edited by wklie, 21 May 2012 - 05:41 PM.

[Austin]

Tassie Devil, on 21 May 2012 - 02:23 PM, said:

Question to those favouring the FREEVIEW firmware:

That alternative is to use the 4000 firmware and to set the recording to repeat weekly (or whatever) and then pad it out an extra 30 minutes (or more) finish time.

Note: I currently use both Windows Media Centre and MythTV and my mum uses the Magic 4000. She tried the 3700 firmware because of the series recording functionality, but soon got tired of the slow and buggy guide. So I've switched her to the 4000 firmware.

The feature I'd really like is keyword recording rather than series recording. If series recording was reliable, that would be better than nothing.

Here's an example - say I want to record the Formula One. It is always on at different days/times depending on which country they are in. As it stands with the Magic 4000, I would have to check the guide every week to find out when it's on and then set it to record manually. I would prefer to be able to set a keyword string ( e.g. "Formula One" ) and it will record any shows that contain that string in the title. I might get a few extra shows that I'm not interested in, but I'd rather that than missing out on what I want. Another advantage to this is that when a season is over, I don't need to keep track of when it's starting again - it will just record automatically. This method also deals with last minute changes to programming.

Keyword recording is easy to do with Windows Media Centre or MythTV (and IceTV I believe). Even series recording in WMC works pretty well, although I'm not sure how it determines the series - I think it uses the Program Title rather than the series information from the OTA guide.

Another example - my mum has a Magic 4000, and she wanted to set it up to record every episode of Heartbeat. It's scheduling is something like once on Monday, twice on Thursday and once on Saturday (at various times). I had to set each one up as a different (separate) recording, and set them each to record once each week. As soon as the channel changes the scheduling (as they did last week just for one week I think), it will have to be changed again. That defeats the purpose of having it record at the same time every week/day - you're stuck with having to check that every episode is set to record anyway. I've now shown her how to do a search on the internet to find out when each episode is on and then go through the guide and check that they are all set to record. The only shows that it might work OK with are those that almost never change - like news at 6pm.

She doesn't care about the various skip options. I've shown her how to do it but she still prefers to use fast forward/rewind (maybe because she came from Foxtel which didn't have it). I'll continue to try to educate her on that!

I still think the UI is very good and easy to navigate - if it had the keyword record feature it would be awesome.

Anyway, that's my thoughts :-)

PS If it had the keyword record feature, I would probably buy 2 to replace my existing WMC and MythTV boxes

Edited by Austin, 21 May 2012 - 05:41 PM.

[underdog]

Austin, on 21 May 2012 - 05:14 PM, said:

The feature I'd really like is keyword recording rather than series recording. If series recording was reliable, that would be better than nothing.
...
PS If it had the keyword record feature, I would probably buy 2 to replace my existing WMC and MythTV boxes

Agreed. This is the primary issue that's stopping me from ditching my WMC box and changing to the Magic. The WMC implementation of series record has worked really well for me for the past 6 years - occasionally tripping up when a network changes the title of the show to something like 'Series Premiere - [show title here]' or 'Double Episode - [show title here]'. We don't get the newspaper or any printed TV guide at our place and don't watch ads, so we have no idea when a show time is going to change or when one of our favourite shows is coming back on the air.

Save us, Magic

[q6supvr]

Hi,
Just been watching Live Tv on my new Magic-I noticed a small logo with teh words "Instant rewind". can't find any info in the handbook, does it mean anything significant?

[bobster05]

q6supvr, on 23 May 2012 - 07:40 PM, said:

Hi,
Just been watching Live Tv on my new Magic-I noticed a small logo with teh words "Instant rewind". can't find any info in the handbook, does it mean anything significant?

It means that you can rewind the buffer for either as far as it is set in the settings i.e. 4hrs or to the point where the channel was changed. I used it tonight was watching a previously recorded program then went to live tv where there was a program halfway through that looked interesting so I rewound the program to the beginning.

[mwd]

q6supvr, on 23 May 2012 - 07:40 PM, said:

Hi,
Just been watching Live Tv on my new Magic-I noticed a small logo with teh words "Instant rewind". can't find any info in the handbook, does it mean anything significant?

Also if you find these on screen displays to be distracting which I do you can turn them off >Settings>Info Format>

[wklie]

Austin, on 21 May 2012 - 05:14 PM, said:

PS If it had the keyword record feature, I would probably buy 2 to replace my existing WMC and MythTV boxes

I'm not familiar with them.  How to enter the keyword?  Using a PC keyboard?  Can it be done using a remote control with number buttons only?  Or just pick the title of an existing programme - if that's the case can the keyword be modified afterwards?

With a keyword active, wouldn't it cause all reruns to be recorded?

Edited by wklie, 24 May 2012 - 01:04 PM.

[AndyM]

Is this PVR able to record the time-shift buffer? ie rewind live viewing and hit record to get the begining of buffer.

Also, is it possible to export recordings, via usb memory stick, to a computer (for editing, like I sometimes do with my homecast)?

TIA

[mwd]

AndyM, on 24 May 2012 - 01:45 PM, said:

Is this PVR able to record the time-shift buffer? ie rewind live viewing and hit record to get the begining of buffer.

Also, is it possible to export recordings, via usb memory stick, to a computer (for editing, like I sometimes do with my homecast)?

TIA

Answer yes to both questions. If you are part way through a programme and decide you want to record it and hit record then it records from the beginning of the programme as gathered from the EPG. This only works if you have not changed channels part way through as changing channels clears the timeshift buffer.

Exporting to USB is dead easy and you end up with various folders one being .ts which contains the transport stream. The t.s. file can be used by VideoReDo or any editing programme. You can also edit files directly in the Magic and cut out sections or ad breaks etc. This is also extremely easy to do I do it on movies I intend to keep for a period of time.

[AndyM]

mwd, on 24 May 2012 - 02:40 PM, said:

Answer yes to both questions. If you are part way through a programme and decide you want to record it and hit record then it records from the beginning of the programme as gathered from the EPG. This only works if you have not changed channels part way through as changing channels clears the timeshift buffer.

Exporting to USB is dead easy and you end up with various folders one being .ts which contains the transport stream. The t.s. file can be used by VideoReDo or any editing programme. You can also edit files directly in the Magic and cut out sections or ad breaks etc. This is also extremely easy to do I do it on movies I intend to keep for a period of time.

Thanks!

Wow, and you dont even have to rewind to record the buffer.  That was the biggest thing I missed going from my old toppy to the homecast.  The editing also sounds like an improvment as the only editing worth doing on the homecast is 'top and tailing'.

I sometimes convert shows to dvd for rellies, so exporting the ts files is important too.  The homecast may be on the way out, so I'll be keeping my eye out for this unit.

One more question, can you name timers?  ie so that it comes up in the file list as the name you give it and not the EPG name at the start time of recording?

Cheers!

[mattyd]

I purchased two of the "refurbished" units from ebay for the super low price of $430ish delivered. They were for all intents and purposes *brand new*. Super happy with them.

I gave one to my retired parents who have previously been using my old Strong PVR box (standard def only, and about 8 years old). They were able to set up the MagicTV PVR themselves and start using it and recording shows on their own. So this must mean that the unit is damn easy to use.

I found this website on hacking the MagicTV PVR.   http://2lostkiwis.co...dpress/mtv3600/
Whilst they have the 3600 model, I wonder how many similarities there are to our 3700/4000 models.

Specifically, I wonder if ours works on a linux operating system as well. If it does, and once we crack the password, then depending on how much 'capacity' there is on the CPU after normal operations are accounted for, we could almost install a DLNA server application on it to 'serve' our content to other tvs in the house. It would be even BETTER to turn it into a Plex server/client or even a MythTV box and set it up to delete the commercials from the shows.

I guess there would also be no reason why we couldn't make a hybrid firmware, allowing us to use the best features of the FreeView firmware along with the best skipping features of the 4000 firmware.

The processor used in the machine is a Sigma Designs SMP8655. Some quick research online provides this information about the chip: "Same as WDTV Live with respect to base features such as 1080p and so on". And from Wikipedia: "The Sigma Designs SMP8655 SoC inside the WD TV Live features a 500 MHz CPU, a 333 MHz coprocessor, a 333 MHz DSP, 512 MB of DRAM, and 256 MB of NAND flash memory".  It also apepars that the SMP8655 should have 2x gigabit ethernet channels.
Here is another link on the processor:  http://www.linuxford...ple-processors/

I am not much of a developer though. Whilst I have a computer science and programming degree, I haven't done any programming work in over 5 years.

I would really be interested in peoples' thoughts on the above.

Matt

[mwd]

AndyM, on 24 May 2012 - 03:19 PM, said:

Thanks!


One more question, can you name timers?  ie so that it comes up in the file list as the name you give it and not the EPG name at the start time of recording?

Cheers!

No you cannot the name comes from the EPG I find it to be pretty accurate though. You can rename the prog from the recorded list later if you want to.

I also have a Homecast HT8000 which has not been used since I got the Magic which says a lot. The Magic is better in nearly every way and runs cool. The user interface on the Magic is so good that even complete non techs can have it up and running in no time and the manual is better than most of the others.

[charlie_bird]

apologize in advance if this is a dumb question.. I was sure that you could change channels in the EPG guide screen simply by selecting the current timeslot on a different channel and pressing the 'ok' button. My unit doesn't do that, when I press ok it moves to the record screen (ie same behavior as pressing the record button). Can someone please confirm the correct behavior? thx

[bobster05]

charlie_bird, on 24 May 2012 - 05:49 PM, said:

apologize in advance if this is a dumb question.. I was sure that you could change channels in the EPG guide screen simply by selecting the current timeslot on a different channel and pressing the 'ok' button. My unit doesn't do that, when I press ok it moves to the record screen (ie same behavior as pressing the record button). Can someone please confirm the correct behavior? thx

I can change channels in the epg on the left but if I go to the current program on any channel it has the same effect as you mention above.

[bobster05]

wklie, on 21 May 2012 - 04:46 PM, said:

If you still experience the high pitched sound problem, please change the video resolution to 1080i 50Hz, then connect the Magic TV to your Panasonic plasma by component video cable and the white/red audio cable, both should have been included in the Magic TV package.  Then switch the Panasonic input to the component input.  This way we can see whether the analog audio behaves the same or not.

I haven't experienced the high pitched audio problem since doing the factory reset so fingers crossed it has sorted itself out.

[q6supvr]

Hi,
My set up includes an automatic HDMI switch [Jaycar AC-1691]. The MAGIC fails to drive it to switch sources-in fact it fails to drive either of the two I have. [The second one lives in the bedroom between the YESS PVR and TV, selects the PVR or DVD, both swirtches work OK there ] Anyone else have one of these between their MAGIC and TV? Are you having the problem?

[Tassie Devil]

q6supvr, on 25 May 2012 - 09:01 AM, said:

Hi,
My set up includes an automatic HDMI switch [Jaycar AC-1691]. The MAGIC fails to drive it to switch sources-in fact it fails to drive either of the two I have. [The second one lives in the bedroom between the YESS PVR and TV, selects the PVR or DVD, both swirtches work OK there ] Anyone else have one of these between their MAGIC and TV? Are you having the problem?

Blame the HDMI protection protocols.  The handshaking between items can pose problems and each unit with HDMI output has its own way of doing it.  I've no idea what MAGIC uses but it does take longer to settle in to the system here than other items.  So I'm afraid you will have to resort to manual switching.  Your problems could be the Jaycar unit sees an earlier HDMI config, say 1.3, whereas the MAGIC outputs 1,4 but I';m only speculating.

John

[wklie]

q6supvr, on 25 May 2012 - 09:01 AM, said:

My set up includes an automatic HDMI switch [Jaycar AC-1691]. The MAGIC fails to drive it to switch sources-in fact it fails to drive either of the two I have. [The second one lives in the bedroom between the YESS PVR and TV, selects the PVR or DVD, both swirtches work OK there ] Anyone else have one of these between their MAGIC and TV? Are you having the problem?

Please try toggling the HDMI Start up mode - Fast / Normal.  Also try rebooting the Magic TV - stand by the unit first, then power cycle using the rear power switch.

If none of this help, the switch is not supported.

[q6supvr]

mwd, on 17 May 2012 - 04:56 PM, said:

Congratulations join the club. No you cannot sort out the channel list to a more logical order that is a minor annoyance.

There is a workaround though go Settings>Channel Setup>Interactive Channel>On>One Touch Channel Select
You can assign a channel to the numeric keys on the remote ie. One to 1 Seven to 7 Win/Nine to 9 you get the idea.
Not really a big problem or just hit O.K. then choose a channel.

If you have not upgraded to firmware 5.08 I recommend doing so ASAP. I have not found any problems whatsoever I am loving the way the Magic works it is so simple.

Hi,
I've downloaded the 5.08 firmware but my machine fails to recognise that it is a Zip file, that is calls  Adobe which then reports that it can't open the file. Other Zip downloads work fine. Anyone have any suggestions? I note that in the handbook OTA upgrades are mentioned. Do they occur in Australia?
Thanks again fro the help in this.

[DrP]

I can download it using firefox and IE.  The web server is correctly identifying the file as a zip file and its named .zip too so its a bit strange that your PC tries to open it with acrobat reader.  You could try changing the file extension, which Windows likes to hide.  To rename it via explorer you have to get explorer to show the file extension first.  In XP / Win 7 open an explorer window, press and hold ALT, then press T then from the drop menu go to folder options, view and untick hide extension for known file types.  Make sure the downloaded file extension is .zip.

The other possibility is that your PC has opened the .zip file automatically and you are looking at the actual firmware file.  It has an extension of .upg.  If that's the case you can copy it to your USB stick as is.

Edited by DrP, 26 May 2012 - 10:22 AM.

[mwd]

I just unzipped the firmware to a USB stick (root directory) The file name is MTV4000_5_08AU.upg

If you have the WIFI Dongle then you can do the firmware update online. Also if you have automatic updates enabled then you might already have 5.08. >Settings>System>System Info.

[q6supvr]

DrP, on 26 May 2012 - 10:20 AM, said:

I can download it using firefox and IE.  The web server is correctly identifying the file as a zip file and its named .zip too so its a bit strange that your PC tries to open it with acrobat reader.  You could try changing the file extension, which Windows likes to hide.  To rename it via explorer you have to get explorer to show the file extension first.  In XP / Win 7 open an explorer window, press and hold ALT, then press T then from the drop menu go to folder options, view and untick hide extension for known file types.  Make sure the downloaded file extension is .zip.

The other possibility is that your PC has opened the .zip file automatically and you are looking at the actual firmware file.  It has an extension of .upg.  If that's the case you can copy it to your USB stick as is.

Hi,
Precisely what had happened, my ancient eyes failed to see the .upg extension!!
Thanks

[FynrDzynr]

mattyd, on 24 May 2012 - 03:24 PM, said:

Specifically, I wonder if ours works on a linux operating system as well. If it does, and once we crack the password, then depending on how much 'capacity' there is on the CPU after normal operations are accounted for, we could almost install a DLNA server application on it to 'serve' our content to other tvs in the house. It would be even BETTER to turn it into a Plex server/client or even a MythTV box and set it up to delete the commercials from the shows.

I guess there would also be no reason why we couldn't make a hybrid firmware, allowing us to use the best features of the FreeView firmware along with the best skipping features of the 4000 firmware.

>< big snip ><   I am not much of a developer though. Whilst I have a computer science and programming degree, I haven't done any programming work in over 5 years.

I would really be interested in peoples' thoughts on the above.

Ability to access it across the network would be a huge +
but no degrees here nor even amateur hacking experience . . . . .

[kiwigene]

Is there anyway to jump back more than the 5 mins (green arrow) when in timeshift mode? Given that I might have been timeshifting for hours and I want to go back to the start of a movie, how can I do that quickly?

[wklie]

kiwigene, on 01 June 2012 - 03:47 PM, said:

Is there anyway to jump back more than the 5 mins (green arrow) when in timeshift mode? Given that I might have been timeshifting for hours and I want to go back to the start of a movie, how can I do that quickly?

Rewind then press a number button.

To go back to the start of a movie in timeshift, if you the movie has not ended yet, you might consider pressing R to record the movie (which includes the part already in the timeshift buffer), then play it as a recorded programme.