Freeview HD PVR - Digital Stream DHR8205U

Well - over the weekend recording was missed for River Cottage (Channel4) and Paul Merton (Five) recorded OK but would only play back the first 2 minutes before returning to the start and playing again, and again and again ........

I have seen another person with these issues on another forum (missed recordings and some recordings which continually restart)- definitely report the issue to MIT and see if they have a firmware release to fix it. Otherwise, return it to John Lewis for a replacement as something is definitely wrong with the unit - the majority don't get these issues.

Have emailed MIT tonight. I'll see what they say. If they don't have a solution, I'll get a replacement from JL. Just pleased I bought it from them not Ebay

Well, things appear to be better following Freeview Switchover. AFAICR there have ben no missed recordings or other issues. I'll monitor things and see if it continues to hang together.

Good stuff - hopefully all will be well from now on. I've not had any issues either now for quite a while so looks like the broadcasters are behaving themselves at the moment too - hopefully some sort of change freeze is in place for the Xmas period!!

I updated to firmware version 4.13.r8637 on Monday night. Since doing the update everything seems to work OK apart from being able to rename the 'Favourite lists' for some unknown reason it will no longer save this change. Does anyone else have this problem or know if its a known glitch with this version of firmware ?

Have been running 4.13.r8637 for a while now. Have to say I've not tried renaming the Favourite lists before (I only have the one), but have just tried it and it seems to work okay for me. Has survived a basic power off and on from standby and also a full power off and on (i.e. using the switch on the back). When does it lose the rename for yourself?

I was on holiday last week and have just caught up with the main owner's thread on "otherforums.com" and don't remember seeing this being reported by anyone else (but admit I skim read a lot of it!).

Another update due soon which is said to finally include the ability to access BBC iPlayer from the red button and also be able to stream videos, pictures etc. from a DLNA enabled server.

Unfortunately I can't update the main review any more because of the change in editing policy on this forum meaning I can't cover the latest updates in this post - I'm working on a way round this which I'll link from here shortly.

Nice work Prof thank you

New software release - 29/02/2012.

Indeed, link. (NB - there are two updates, one is for people who use the TV or standard stereo for sound (i.e. no surround sound) and this is labelled PCM. The DD labelled update is for people who connect via optical or HDMI into an AV receiver to get 5.1 Dolby Digital sound. You only need to download and apply the one which is correct for your circumstance above, not both of them).

I've not had a chance to properly play and note down new things, but can confirm iPlayer should be coming 6th March when BBC switch it on. Also, list of improvement listed here:

-       New Features

n  iPlayer now supports H.264 HD stream

n  Design change for Play progress bar (less obtrusive design)

n  Design change for Yes/No selection dialog

n  USB launch package support (allows DLNA streaming)

-       Bug Fixes

n  Fixes for Series Booking not working for CH5 & 5* programmes

n  Fixes for TUTV initialization not working

n  Fixes for 112 channel no audio – IP streaming service

n  Audio/Video lip sync adjustment for delayed ITV HD channel

n  Fixes for rare case of “micom update” display

n  Fixes for MHEG iPlayer field test issue

n  Increased the character area for PIN failure message

n  Audio drop for BBC HD no patch version

n  Fixes for channel up/down crashes when popup is displayed

Thanks for keeping us updated.

Thanks Prof and other contributors are great thread

Prof, I understand that the 'Folders' option is now enabled, to allow series recordings to be placed into the same folder. Trouble is, I can't work out how to make it work !!

Could you please explain to me, in simple terms, how this works ?

Thanks

Sure. Assuming you're on the latest firmware, you should find the option by pressing Menu > Preferences > Miscellaneous and then set the Series Folder Creation to On.

I've not used it personally as I prefer recordings to be in the root folder in the order they're created and I then move them around from there, but give it a go and see what you think.