dixitr Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 i have had a 920 for around 2 months. since last week it has started to display a strange behavious. all the daily schedules i eneter, they disappear the next day. till now, every monday i used to go through the guide from SMH, and program recordings for thw whole week, and never had an issue. then, last week, for the first time i put a weekly schedule for heroes. at the same time, i entered schedules for the whole upcoming week. next time, when i checked, all schedules other than the weekly was gone. i entered them again. next day when i checked, guess what, every schedule other than weekly were gone !! i AGAIN prgrammed the unit yesterday to (1) record grammy on c10 from 10.30pm, (2) record whose line it is ... on c9 from 11.45 & (3) ugly bety on sunday. today morning when i checked again, it had recorded only grammy & whos line it is - but rest of the programming for sunday is gone again ??? any suggestion. we are on sw mds-106d-206aL ? is there a newer firmware out there for 920 ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonymy01 Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 I am guessing you have suffered what many Toppie owners have also, a dodgy timestamp from one of your broadcasters. In the case of the Topfield, if a timestamp is set in the future sometime past when your timers are due to start, your PVR says "oops, that time has past, I will clear my one off timers now". With the Topfield, the weekly timers also get moved to this date. When the timestamp is normal, suddenly you have a whole bunch of weekly timers set to go off in the year 2020 or something :-). I wrote a tap to sort this out with the Topfield... shame the Mediastar doesn't support this! But... check that your reception is good, it may be possible that a glitch in the reception can "confuse" the interpretation of the broadcasted time, and this could cause the same problem. Does the mediastar have a "manual" time option? Normally if you have a few shonky broadcasters who can't send the proper timestamp, and/or you get poor reception, then this is normally the solution, that way you are relying on the CPU clock and not the broadcasters for your timestamp, which obviously for a PVR, is quite important! Regards Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CameronD Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 any suggestion. we are on sw mds-106d-206aL ? is there a newer firmware out there for 920 ?? Well, there is the new beta 1.4 which is looking good, although I have a few minor worries that it is not ready for open release yet. I've not heard of your problem. How is your clock set up? are you using the internal clock or the broadcast time? If the latter (I think it confusingly calls it "time-zone") then try to switch to the internal clock to see if that makes a difference. Do you have a schedule item to switch it to standby early in the AM? Is the pvr on when the erasure occurs? If so what channel? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dixitr Posted February 18, 2007 Author Share Posted February 18, 2007 yes, the time is set for auto. i will set the time to manual and then see what happens. the signal we are receiving is around 75-80%, so not very strong - but we do not get any freeze or stuttering. thanks a lot for info. i hope this solves the issue. as for TAP for toppies, yes - that feature was tempting, but my wallet spoke louder and i ended up buying mediastar. other than some issues listed on crusher's thread in thos forum, i have no complaints. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CameronD Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 the signal we are receiving is around 75-80%, so not very strong - but we do not get any freeze or stuttering. I think that is not too far from optimum. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sjn88 Posted February 18, 2007 Share Posted February 18, 2007 i have had a 920 for around 2 months. since last week it has started to display a strange behavious.all the daily schedules i eneter, they disappear the next day I have the Mediastar 820 and have experienced the exact same thing. Spoke to Opac about it but they could not offer any reason for it. At least I'm not the only one sjn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Refidim Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Unplug the box from the mains say 10 minuets should clear up these bugs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
temporary1 Posted February 19, 2007 Share Posted February 19, 2007 Unplug the box from the mains say 10 minuets should clear up these bugs.This is a good place to start. Would also factory reset and re-flash the firmware. If you are the testing type then try beta 1.4 (2084) , but might be better to stick to 206a for a while longer-it worked well for me.I havent seen this happen before, although there is an issue of things simply no being recorded from time to time which comes and goes.... On the time issue, it appears the MS takes about 10 seconds to *get* the time first off, so maybe there is some momentary glitch compensation in there, but that is 100% guess. 75-80% reception is what i get most of the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dixitr Posted February 20, 2007 Author Share Posted February 20, 2007 OK, so I changed the time to local zone (it appears to be manual time). did a factory reset. but back to square one. all programs entered yesterday have disappeared today. i have unplugged the unit from mains, and will leave it unplugged all day. hopefully this should fix it. BTW, how do I reflash the firmware ?? also, i have been thru mediastar website, and i can not find any link for firmware download. I also sent them an email, but i have not received any reply yet. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Refidim Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 OK, so I changed the time to local zone (it appears to be manual time). When in Time Zone you only get to set your State Eg NSW,VIC,QLD.... There's no manual settings did a factory reset. Factory reset takes you back to Time Zone anyway. but back to square one. all programs entered yesterday have disappeared today. Check you dates setting, did you change the Intervals, and or did you confirm (red) button. BTW, how do I reflash the firmware ??[/b] When you install new software. Email MS for the software. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dixitr Posted February 20, 2007 Author Share Posted February 20, 2007 Check you dates setting, did you change the Intervals, and or did you confirm (red) button. When you install new software. Email MS for the software. yes, i did confirm with red button, and they were showing listed under the schdules sub-menu. one thing i did do - however, is i put the unit to standby right from the schedules submenu, ie i did not exit out of menu and then standby. as for email, i did email them on the email address listed on www.mediastar.com.au but i have not received any reply yet. I hope they do not take too long to reply i shall power up it again tonight, reset, and report back tomorrow as to how it went. thanks a lot for your help in this difficult time. once you get used to have a pvr around, it is very hard to live without it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snicholas Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 yes, i did confirm with red button, and they were showing listed under the schdules sub-menu. one thing i did do - however, is i put the unit to standby right from the schedules submenu, ie i did not exit out of menu and then standby. I take it from your message that the problem is solved then? Exiting the schedules menu actually updates the 920 chipset. I did fall for this mistake myself at the start. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dixitr Posted February 20, 2007 Author Share Posted February 20, 2007 I take it from your message that the problem is solved then? Exiting the schedules menu actually updates the 920 chipset. I did fall for this mistake myself at the start. no, the issue is still there. i have left the unit powered off from mains for today. when i go back in the eve, i shall restart it, reset factory setting, put schedules again, exit out of menus completely, and then put it in standby. do you think i should wait some time after exiting the menus to put it in standby ?? also, does any body know whether the scheules are backed up on HDD also (in case of power failure) or are they kept in the memory of the unit only ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CameronD Posted February 20, 2007 Share Posted February 20, 2007 ... i shall restart it, reset factory setting, put schedules again, exit out of menus completely, and then put it in standby. Don't do any more factory resets - you should have done enough by now. Make sure the time setting is back to local following the reset. do you think i should wait some time after exiting the menus to put it in standby ?? Only the length of time it says "updating". But waiting a bit longer would not hurt.also, does any body know whether the scheules are backed up on HDD also (in case of power failure) or are they kept in the memory of the unit only ?? they are stored in non-volatile memory, not the HDD. So they survive a blackout, or being carried across town. They also survive a change of HDD. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dixitr Posted February 20, 2007 Author Share Posted February 20, 2007 OK, looks like after leaving off the power for the day has done the trick. programs entered yesterday are still showing up on the schedules menu today. I have left the time also to local zone (ie manual). But I am bit worried about comments that 920 needs to be cold power cycled every fortnight to monthly intervals to keep it running. Is this due to some poor electronic components (build up of static etc), or software ???? Does Arion also suffers the same glitch. How does digi fare in this regard ?? And, I have STILL not heard from OPAC re firmware Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Refidim Posted February 21, 2007 Share Posted February 21, 2007 And, I have STILL not heard from OPAC re firmware Most have had fast response. Maybe your firewall is configured to reject attachments or send them to the junk box. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Refidim Posted February 21, 2007 Share Posted February 21, 2007 But I am bit worried about comments that 920 needs to be cold power cycled every fortnight to monthly intervals to keep it running. If I leave my PC on for months the PC tends to run slower and some times hangs up all together. A reboot always puts it back in to shape. It's only if the PVR develops some issues, a flick of the rocker switch is no big deal and doesn't effect any your configurations and settings. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
snicholas Posted February 21, 2007 Share Posted February 21, 2007 But I am bit worried about comments that 920 needs to be cold power cycled every fortnight to monthly intervals to keep it running.Is this due to some poor electronic components (build up of static etc), or software ???? Does Arion also suffers the same glitch. How does digi fare in this regard ?? I've run my 920 for five months straight without powering on/off. Probably had the odd blackout in that time as well but never a need to cold-boot except for recently updating the Beta firmware. And, I have STILL not heard from OPAC re firmware Might sound abit old-fashion, but you could call them......... Tel: 02 9618 5777 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
temporary1 Posted February 21, 2007 Share Posted February 21, 2007 OK, looks like after leaving off the power for the day has done the trick.But I am bit worried about comments that 920 needs to be cold power cycled every fortnight to monthly intervals to keep it running. Glad you got it sorted. Like any computer it is subject to "things that cannot be explained". Likewise I mostly keep my unit on and the occasional power out gives a cold reboot. But recently I had weird behaviour after a particularly long period between power outs (maybe 4 or 5 weeks-crap power here) and a power cycle fixed it... So in my experience, I could either wait for the next crash or power it down on the 1st of the month. Dont know if that will help, but it makes me feel empowered There are several cases where a power down is *required*. A firmware update, factory reset, and a change to the instant replay buffer length, there might be others ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dixitr Posted February 21, 2007 Author Share Posted February 21, 2007 Might sound abit old-fashion, but you could call them......... Tel: 02 9618 5777 thanks for this tip. gave them a call - was given an alternate email address. emailed to that one & got reply within 15 mins with new file. so, all seems to be well now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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