Just got the upgrade. Funnily enough it's from Topfield Australia email address.

I've quickly loaded on my system, note I haven't had a chance to test the freezing BUT it kills the PIP function. If you press PIP your unit will give you a solid colour screen and lockup. Only a power off/on will rectify.

I'll test tonight and let you know if I get freezes.

Test scenario, Firmware 1.04.1A, ACM turned off on WDD drive.

If it works, then I'll have to decide between freeze and PIP but it still freezes I'm going back to 0A to get my PIP function back...... but perhaps I'm jumping the gun

I've zipped up the install instructions, upload application and Rom.

They can be found here. http://rapidshare.com/files/64763234/DS620....04.1A.zip.html

Hopefully we'll get a good firmware soon.......

Cheers.

Has anyone transfered files from this PVR to an apple laptop? I can get a pc from work but basically I use apples at home.

http://home.exetel.com.au/billscomputers/

What I've found so far is channel changes are faster (was already fast) some cosmetic changes (prettier icons) and you can now preview channels from the EPG screen.

Firmware 1.04.1A now posted on my page

What do you mean by preview?

I'm using the original firmware mine came with, the EPG screen shows the channel I'm looking at. i.e when I change to channel 10 in EPG it shows channel 10 in the window top left of the guide, is that what you mean?

It annoys the hooleys out of me, I'd much rather the window showed the channel I was originally watching.

If the most current version kills PIP, I don't think I'll upgrade.

On that topic, is it possible to extract the firmware from the PVR using the upgrade tool?

No; but you don't need to. The later models of these were sold with firmware revision 1.04.0A and we have access to that from download.

Hi all
the very first post listed this item as $499. On The DSE website it now shows as $199; is this the same item http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.storefro...n/product/G2083? (sorry but haven't read all 28 pages on this thread)

Yep, that's how it works for me after the firmware upgrade.

Previously it would stay locked showing the channel you had selected at the time you pressed the EPG button.

Hokay

Not good news

1.04.1A with ACM Turned off on WDD

Lockups and stuttering

Gone back to 1.04.0A so I can get my PIP ( not that I use it much , but if one of the kids hits PIP ....)

will keep hassling ..........

Cheers.

Doubledark, you have to realise that the 1st post happened a bloody long time ago, as far as this type of hardware is concerned and it IS the same one. Looks like the DSE admin ppl are finally showing the nouse that the Tandy are (although they should be the same ppl?) and can probably see that a lot more units are shifting through Tandy at the $199 price. It was nigh on impossible to get DSE to pricematch unless a nearby Tandy had some in stock. Hopefully, if the volume of these sold is high enough, Homecast may do more regular updates of the firmware & add more functionality to it...

Pity there isn't a HD version of this, although a higher capacity HDD (500Gb drive?) would be necessary.
I'd estimate that the 160Gb drive can record 50 - 60 hours of SD, and from memory a HD broadcast would fill it up after about 20 hours.

BTW, i read the whole thread before buying mine & the good points & the price made this a no brainer for me thanks to all the previous posters excellent troubleshooting (just make sure you get one with a Seagate HDD!!!!)

Big Red,
thanks for your reply; I'll look at one today. You mention the Seagate HDD-is it easy to confirm which drive the unit has (how?)


Thanks again


edit: just got one for $149-it had been returned to DSE. Still comes with 14 day trial and 12mth war. Now to get the kid's to set it up :-)

Drat... Oh well, it was worth a shot.
Having ACM off on my WD drive seems to have cured the audio stuttering, but unfortunately I'm still getting the lockups/freezing.
(It's still on 1.04.0A firmware)
Thanks for hassling

Everybody hassle , but be nice ..... "Great product but....."

Don't tell them that we're all in cohoots


Ring them on 1300 889 803

Hopefully some pressure/numbers might get things moving.....

Dear all - let me ask all the users of this PVR about another issue.

I took two back to DSE till I got a Seagate drive version. No problems with it till now. I did upgrade the software version to 1.04.0A with no visible changes.

More recently I am getting a horizontal split across my TV screen - it is really obvious when the credits roll on a movie or show - the bottom half is OK but the top half is really fuzzy. You can see it sometimes on any show with a fair bit of movement.

Has anyone else seen this? Is it a problem of the PVR or my digital connections?

Thanks

Lee

Cheers for that. I rang and spoke to an amiable tech who knew what he was talking about!
This is a completely different experience to my previous sequence of contact with both DSE and Topfield.

Anyway, I'm on the list for the latest firmware when it lands -- any day now, apparently.

As Zoonie says, give them a call. And do be nice, because new firmware is a better (read: cheaper) solution than a new HDD.

I'm using an earlier firmware 1.03.2A which by the sounds of the other firmware out there is the best of the lot! Occasional stuttering after ff/rw - it seems to be dependent on the channel that it was recorded from, but apart from that everything works. i.e. PIP, preview channel in EPG (not that I like it) & it never freezes (has seagate drive)

The stuttering is so minor I'm not worried about it.

My biggest gripe is that if I'm doing chase play and another prog starts recording, it jumps to the current time of the program I'm doing chase play on, again pretty minor.

What I would really like is to get hold of the source code, I know people who could probably fix it, depending on the language.

Yes fair enough.

I have found 1.04.0A to be very stable, in my DS6200PVR with a non ACM enabled WD 1600BB, no play back glitches at all so far and had the same result with the seagate CE drive was using for testing purposes. I guess its important to remind ourselves the gliche issue specific to the WD models only occurs during playback from the HDD, and then the drive needs to be more than 50% full.

I have noticed the tuners can be a little delicate, found it important to be more accurate with my boosters volume settings. Also noticed firmware revision 1.04.1A much faster when doing an Auto Scan, however as already mentioned this firmware over drives the tuners when asked to PIP, resulting in a complete lockup of the machine.

BTW I was confused with your reference to chase play since the DS6200PVR will not chase play, you can wind back into the timeshift buffer however. Chase play involves starting a recording and firing it up from the beginning while its still recording. Quite a lot of name brand PVRs won't chase play as defined including the Topfield 5000.

Much is the pity this is not the case with my unit.

The HDD only has about 4 hours recording on it :-(

It locks up during chaseplay and playing an already recorded program.

This is a great unit, and this appears to be the only issue. This is why I'm working so hard to get a resolution.

Well, if you bring up the status bar(?) the one at the bottom, whilst you are recording the program (not just timeshift), say 10 minutes into the recording, then hit the play button, the program goes back to the beginning of the recording and starts playing it, then you can ff,rw, pause etc. I do it all the time.

If it looks like chicken and tastes like chicken, I'm calling it a chicken

If you do catch up to present time by skipping the ads, chase play stops, so you can't just pause it, if you do you are pausing the live recording.. If you want to chase play again, you have to go right back to the beginning of the recording. (Caught me out before D'Oh) the trick is to go no further forward than a second or so behind present time. (Did that make any sense at all?)

Yes sorry you are correct, I certainly would call that chase play.

hey, i searched the forum but didn't find an answer (someone else asked this but there was no response)

why would I want to buy a Topfield Masterpiece ($799) when I can get this DSE one for $199?

So far I've come up with:
More outputs
The ability to save the timeshift buffer
ICEtv compatibility
Better USB ports (ie: they work)
Monday-Friday timer settings

But none of these are real issues for me... so what else could convince me to get the toppy?

You can get the Masterpiece for $499 at Topfield OZ (cheaper on ebay), and you can use TAPs, which are great.

If you buy a toppy you can tell people you own a toppy

If you are going to be watching digital TV, YCbCr)is that the right one?) outputs are essential unless your display unit has RGB Scart inputs in my opinion. A world of difference in quality between those types and s-video or composite.

I bought a converter, turns the scart RGB into 'component' YCbCr' for about $100 to round out the price to a shade over $300 for the lot. It's still a bargain at that price I reckon.

You can sort of save the timeshift buffer.. but it involves extracting it to the PC.

The USB is slow but it works, I've taken about 30 hours of programs off it and then burnt to dvd via laptop, I just set it to do it when we are not watching the box. When the PVR is switched on, the data transfer pauses, when switched off, it's just a click to resume.

Hmm.. I don't seem to be doing a good job at convincing you to get a topfield.

Having Taps would be one of the main reasons for me to get one. If I did, it would have to be the 6000 for the WLAN (the other main reason).

I can see that you've preempted my reply and bought one anyway, at a damn good price too! For people that wish to get one of these units in future, it is just a matter of sliding it out of the box before you buy and looking through the top grille. As reported earlier though you can turn off the acoustic management on the WD drives, but that involves a pulling the unit apart, putting it in a pc, ect.

I bought one of these units last December. Have same prob w WD HDD. I just rang the 1300 #, waited almost 1/2 hour, but got onto a David who was aware of prob and like One-zero-one am now on waiting list for latest f/w. Should be this week.

I have a DS6200PVR and a Topfield 5000. Both USBs are reliable but the DS6200PVR is twice as fast.

DS6200pvr using xDrive and set to 128 bit rate - file size = 1.66gb Time = 15.05 minutes

Toppy using Altair and Tap fast copy 1.2 x6 - file size = 1.60gb Time = 28.13 minutes

No one seems to have commented on this and to be honest I don't have much to offer. Pretty sure that it's a one-off problem though or someone else would have been complaining. I assume it doesn't happen when you're not using the PVR as a signal source - that is, watching a DVD of whatever.

Really does sound like a signal reception problem or even interference. Does it vary or sometimes go away? Is it the same on all channels?

Don't mind me. Blond moment.

It varies in that the "line" (really a sort of split in the image) can be at different points in the screen whenever I turn the unit on. But it is always there and seems to be getting worse. I am not keen to send it back on warranty - I would really miss the unit and who knows if it would be fixed! As I said, for relative still images you don't even notice it, only with a fair bit of movement on screen.

It is not the TV - only when using the PVR.

Grandad

It's starting to sound like a sick PVR. I guess you could settle that by carting it off to someone else's place, plugging it into their antenna & TV etc and see what happens. If you get the same effect then it can only be the PVR...
You could also call service folks (DPG) to find out about service turnaround times and what they think might be going on. No point doing this until you're absolutely sure the PVR is to blame of course.
Good luck.

Hi 'techo'

I download DivX video and copy to flash drive then stick the flash drive into my El Cheapo $35- Tevion (Aldi) DVD player

I also record TV shows on my computers tuner card (digital) copy the show to the flash drive and play it thru the Tevion DVD player without any recoding required

Is it possible to do this with the DS6200PVR and/or the Topfield 5000

'Knox'

Not with the DS6200.

Don't know about the Topfield.

No to both

Hey Guys,

Latest firmware has arrived!!


Just got this email


DS6200 Firmware

Topfield Support <support@topfield-australia.com.au> to support
show details 12:37 pm (5 minutes ago)

Hi Guys,



Attached is the latest DS6200 firmware – version 1042A.



- Fixes freezing during playback (WD HDD)

- Fixes freezing/shaking during time-shift (WD HDD)

- Fixes PIP lockup introduced in 1041A


You can download the Upgrade software here:

http://www.homecast.co.kr/eng/service/down...um=21&cn=19


With the upgrade software versions 2.24 and later you can use a USB-to-Serial cable/adaptor but I have not tried one of these. But you still need a Null-Modem Serial cable (sometimes called a Cross-Over Serial cable or Cross-Over RS232 cable).



Jaycar have Null-Modem Serial cables for $9.95 – part number WC7513
HOW TO UPGRADE THE FIRMWARE



To do the firmware upgrade you only need to connect the power cord and a null-modem serial cable to the PVR. There is no need for it to be connected to a TV (but it will display progress info if it is connected to a TV while doing the upgrade).



1. Turn off PC and PVR (turn PVR off via the switch on the back of the box).

2. Attach a null-modem serial cable from computer to PVR (preferably use COM1 on the PC – if it has more than one COM port).

3. Start the firmware upgrade software on the PC.

4. Ensure that the COM port setting is correct. It will need to be COM1 or COM2 for the upgrade software. If you had to connect the serial cable to COM2 you will need to close COM1 and open COM2 in the upgrade software. To change the COM port in the upgrade software you may need to click PORT CLOSE first, then change the COM port.

5. Click on BROWSE and find the firmware upgrade file you downloaded – you will need to change the ‘File Type’ in the browse window to .sgn

6. Click START.

7. Turn the PVR on using the power switch on the back of the PVR. If everything is fine, the software should now indicate the update is taking place, and the PVR will show a rising number on the display. If the PVR just turns on as normal then the selected COM port or the cable type are not correct.

8. When it finishes, the PVR will reboot and then the software should state that it is finished (this may take a minute or two after PVR reaches 100 percent)

9. Turn off the PVR and disconnect the cables.


Cheers

Tech Support

I don't suppose you could upload the file somewhere so that others can use it too?

Rapidshare works for me

Does anyone else find it amusing that the support for the DSE PVR is telling people to buy a cable from Jaycar?

You can download it directly from the weblink in JTM's post. I did it myself yesterday (I managed to pick up a second one of these units for $189 because it was a "change of mind" return) and followed the instructions in the post, and it worked perfectly.

I don't know if this has been reported before, but DSE are now also selling these units for $199 (limited stock).

The link seems to be for the upgrade software which I already have not the actual firmware file.

To be honest I found Rapidshare a bit pesky.
You out there Techo? Noticed you have the previous two versions on your site. Happy to email the firmware through if need be.

Sorry guys, nowhere else to host it so here's the Rapidshare link

http://rapidshare.com/files/67731839/24100...-1042A.sgn.html

I had the beta of this but never got a chance to upload. Beta was a fair bit smaller in size though so probably a good thing.

Have loaded onto the system last night and so far so good.......

After all this though I think I'll put a 250GB drive in anyway....... :-)

Only shortcomings I've got with the unit are:

1. Only 10 timers
2. Can't prename recordings.


Other than that it's a great unit for the price ( $179 !! ) :-)

Shanks!

Can you buy this PVR anymore? Local DS told me they have sold out and are not getting anymore. They were listed as one of the stores to stock this PVR on the DS online store.

Submariner, have you tried a Tandy store? That's where most people on this thread seem to have got it from... Just try to get one with a Seagate drive rather than a WD one.

This product has been discontinued ( at last according to DSE rep down here ), so you'll have to find one in stock and you won't be able to order one in. Many of the in stock units seem to be reburb units however.

Don't forget the last firmware upgrade posted above is supposed to fix the freeze/stutter problem with the WDD drives. If that's the case ( and so far on mine looks might it has ), then the drive type isn't as important .

Unfortunately, with the opening of two local DSE stores, the two local Tandy stores closed down, not long after. I think the closest Tandy store, is now on the southern border of Queensland. Quite a drive from where I live in NE NSW.

Thanks for the info. Do you think it is discontinued at just DSE or does this mean, no longer in production, so no stock at Tandy or any where else?

Oops! There was a firmware file that came with the upgrade software, but it wasn't the new one.
Thanks for pointing out the error; I had happily "upgraded" to an old firmware. Now sorted.

The Homecast rep for Australian market was in the country recently. Hopefully a deal was done and a new distributor comes on board soon.

The Dick has stock in the following stores as of 4am today (some have 2 or less units);

NSW/ACT:- Armidale DSE, Ashfield DSE, Auburn Powerhouse, Ballina DSE, Bankstown PowerHouse, Bankstown Square DSE, Bateau Bay DSE, Batemans Bay DSE, Bathurst DSE, Baulkham Hills DSE, Belconnen DSE, Bondi Junction DSE, Bowral DSE, Broadway DSE, Brookvale DSE, Burwood DSE, Campbelltown DSE, Campbelltown Mall DSE, Carlingford DSE, Carnes Hill DSE, Castle Hill DSE, Chullora Showroom DSE, Civic DSE, Coffs Harbour DSE, Dubbo DSE, Eastgardens DSE, Erina PowerHouse, Fairfield DSE, Forster DSE, Fyshwick DSE, Glendale DSE, Gore Hill DSE, Gosford DSE, Griffith DSE, Gungahlin DSE, Hornsby DSE, Hurstville DSE, Liverpool DSE, Macarthur Square Powerhouse, Macquarie Centre PowerHouse, Maitland DSE, Mt Druitt DSE, Muswellbrook DSE, Narellan DSE, Neutral Bay DSE, Newcastle DSE, North Parramatta PowerHouse, North Sydney DSE, Nowra DSE, Orange DSE, Parramatta Westfield DSE, Penrith PowerHouse, Penrith Westfield DSE, Pitt St DSE, Queanbeyan DSE, Rhodes DSE, Rockdale DSE, Roselands DSE, St Ives DSE, Tamworth DSE, Tuggerah DSE, Tuggeranong DSE, Wagga Wagga DSE, Warringah Mall PowerHouse, Windsor DSE, Winston Hills DSE, Woden PowerHouse, Wollongong DSE, York & Barrack DSE, York Street DSE

Look at http://www.dse.com.au/cgi-bin/dse.storefro...duct/View/G2083

Maybe ask your local store to have one sent from another location?

DPG (the former Topfield disttibutor) are now the Homecast distributors