jon1 Posted July 26, 2011 Posted July 26, 2011 (edited) Interesting. Earlier in the week Crazy Stu was asking in the $300 price range for the Magic. Junglejungle have put the pressure on re prices.The mind boggles at the profits HN & others must have made on PVRs if units like the Magic can be sold for $299 & a profit is still made. Unless of course Magic are about to fold and go out of business so are dumping all stock. Even if this is the case, it is worth buying at that price. John JungleJumble and Crazystu seem to be the same outlet: at least, they share the same contact address. Not that there is anything wrong with that.... Regards, Jon1 Edited July 26, 2011 by jon1
mwd Posted July 27, 2011 Posted July 27, 2011 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 From what I gather both the 4000 and 3700 are identical hardware + freeview stickers. The only difference being the software installed.
Tassie Devil Posted July 27, 2011 Author Posted July 27, 2011 From what I gather both the 4000 and 3700 are identical hardware + freeview stickers. The only difference being the software installed. You could well be correct. The scenario might be the 3700 was manufactured, failed to sell well, so they merely changed the firmware away from freeview and called it a 4000. However there are a couple of mysteries around all this. 1. Why didn't they put 4000 stickers both on the box and on the unit itself? 2. Why did they initially promote the 4000 as having a FF of up to 64X but then backtracked to the freeware spec of 30X? Just spoke to Alex at Junglejumble about all this and he shares the above view of what happened. He said they sold maybe one 3700 in 3 months when the price was in the $500 range but they are now moving rather well. But he wonders, as I do, if the 4000 ever existed - a Magic with full 4000 firmware & no "Freeview" logo on the front. Anyone seen or own one? And the other big question is whether there will ever be any 4000 firmware upgrade to these hybrid units. Not that this bothers me as it functions satisfactorily enough already. And "upgrades" can often solve one set of problems and create new ones in the process . Sigh, been there, experienced that. John
mwd Posted July 27, 2011 Posted July 27, 2011 The boxes shown on Crazy Stu's site show non freeview stickered version but his states 64X in the advert but the MagicTV website shows 30X for the 4000 LINK to magictv Mtv4000pvr I suspect there was an error in the original specs put into advertising. I am not worried personally 30x is fast enough for me and if you use the 9 minute jump can skip through a recording pretty quick. I also like the way the channel list shows the current programme beside the channel name. My deleted channels have not come back again yet wonder if it happens if you power down instead of just going into standby.
Tassie Devil Posted July 27, 2011 Author Posted July 27, 2011 The boxes shown on Crazy Stu's site show non freeview stickered version but his states 64X in the advert but the MagicTV website shows 30X for the 4000 LINK to magictv Mtv4000pvrI suspect there was an error in the original specs put into advertising. I am not worried personally 30x is fast enough for me and if you use the 9 minute jump can skip through a recording pretty quick. I also like the way the channel list shows the current programme beside the channel name. My deleted channels have not come back again yet wonder if it happens if you power down instead of just going into standby. Similarly not worried - just curious about the history of this unit. BTW you can also jump forward or back very quickly with the left & right navigator buttons. This unit has more jumping options than that big red kangaroo John
tassaj Posted July 27, 2011 Posted July 27, 2011 My deleted channels have not come back again yet wonder if it happens if you power down instead of just going into standby. I will try to delete unwanted channels again, see what happens and let you know. For anyone interested, my Harmony 525 loaded the remote codes from the net and these seem to work fine.
prl Posted July 27, 2011 Posted July 27, 2011 ...I am not worried personally 30x is fast enough for me and if you use the 9 minute jump can skip through a recording pretty quick. ... Nine minute skip? I thought the Freeview minimum skip was 600 sec (10 min).
Tassie Devil Posted July 27, 2011 Author Posted July 27, 2011 (edited) Nine minute skip? I thought the Freeview minimum skip was 600 sec (10 min). Hit the "9" and it skips 9 minutes Hit the "2" and it skips 2 mins and so on. Or use the Navigator buttons to skip 5(?) mins at a time Neat eh? John PS: It is not a freeview PVR. Edited July 27, 2011 by Tassie Devil
mwd Posted July 27, 2011 Posted July 27, 2011 (edited) Nine minute skip? I thought the Freeview minimum skip was 600 sec (10 min). No PRL these boxes do not have Freeview software installed and the numeric keys on the remote skip the recording by the corresponding minutes. The arrow keys skip 5 minutes either way unless you have bookmarks then it skips to the bookmark. Edit: beaten by John but you get the idea. I am enjoying the features and PQ on this PVR especially the PQ set at 1080p/50 into a Pio Kuro. Edited July 27, 2011 by mwd
prl Posted July 27, 2011 Posted July 27, 2011 (edited) Ah, yes. Sorry. I'm not properly tracking which hardware/firmware combination is Freeview and which is not. Edited July 27, 2011 by prl
mwd Posted July 28, 2011 Posted July 28, 2011 (edited) I will try to delete unwanted channels again, see what happens and let you know. I think I have discovered this bug now I deleted the radio channels and then cycled through all the channels using the white up/down channel key and hey presto they came back with the NoSignal notification. What I found is if you use the Green OK key to get the channel list then everything is fine. anybody noticed the epg OSD info when you change channels is wrong unless you press the info button. Was watching the IOM TT on 'One' amazing HD PQ. Edit: Exporting files from the HDD to USB external hardrive is very easy to do you can either move or just copy across to your drive and it recognises NTFS formats O.K. I copied a one hour SD show 2.2Gb. The actual file is .TS and can be read by players such as KMPlayer or VLC and can be imported into VideoReDo or whatever software you like to remove sections and DVD editing. Edited July 29, 2011 by mwd
Tassie Devil Posted July 29, 2011 Author Posted July 29, 2011 Two big + for this PVR 1. It appears the tuner sensitivity is even a touch better than Topfield (the winner here up till now). I recorded the same program on both the Toppy 7100 & the Magic and there appeared to be more glitches in the Toppy - not really bad, but audio dropouts. 2. The labelling of files when setting timer by EPG appears a lot more reliable on the Magic than on other recorders here. Maybe this is a positive hangover from its original freeview status?? I'm guessing. And the flexibility in skipping is great. It makes ads a complete non issue. Maybe time to do a further edit on my original appraisal. John
gawaterman Posted July 29, 2011 Posted July 29, 2011 Now that a few more people have this unit can someone tell me what sort of files can be played from an external HDD
mwd Posted July 29, 2011 Posted July 29, 2011 (edited) Now that a few more people have this unit can someone tell me what sort of files can be played from an external HDD I don't have a camcorder so cannot verify but from the manual It will automatically search for folders named "AVCHD" or "Video" and find files with .m2t or .mts and .m2ts extensions. Unfortunately it will not play common media files DivX Xvid or even see .avi files. I reckon with a bit of playing around I could get it to see .TS files from another PVR but the Magic has a kind of header information file that would need to be edited. Basically it is a PVR that can playback camcorder files only extra to the TV recordings, Edited July 29, 2011 by mwd
tassaj Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 (edited) This machine just keeps getting better. Last night I was watching TV, got a bit bored and watched a program I had recorded earlier. When I finished I dropped back to live TV to find I was halfway through a show I wouldn't have minded watching. So, I rewound the timeshift and found the machine had continued to timeshift record live TV even while I was watching a recorded show. How cool is that ! I have no idea how long timeshift buffer is but it certainly was more than 30mins. Secondly, I love the fact I can put a 'delete after' marker on programmes. I record SBS news everynight and ideally would like it deleted within 24 hours but 7 days (seems to be the minimum) ensures I am not clogging up with out of date news. I know most of these functions are capable on other machines by the application of TAPs etc, but out of the box, this is excellent. The menu is so straitghforward, I am going to buy one for my 80yr old Mum who is still battling on with her SD Toppy. Cheers Edited July 30, 2011 by tassaj
gawaterman Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 Now that a few more people have this unit can someone tell me what sort of files can be played from an external HDD Phoned Alex at jumblejungle and he told me basically only videocam recordings can be read from an extn Hdd.
Tassie Devil Posted July 30, 2011 Author Posted July 30, 2011 This machine just keeps getting better. Last night I was watching TV, got a bit bored and watched a program I had recorded earlier. When I finished I dropped back to live TV to find I was halfway through a show I wouldn't have minded watching. So, I rewound the timeshift and found the machine had continued to timeshift record live TV even while I was watching a recorded show. How cool is that ! I have no idea how long timeshift buffer is but it certainly was more than 30mins. Secondly, I love the fact I can put a 'delete after' marker on programmes. I record SBS news everynight and ideally would like it deleted within 24 hours but 7 days (seems to be the minimum) ensures I am not clogging up with out of date news. I know most of these functions are capable on other machines by the application of TAPs etc, but out of the box, this is excellent. The menu is so straitghforward, I am going to buy one for my 80yr old Mum who is still battling on with her SD Toppy. Cheers Well done! And I've talked my 82 year old aunt into buying one. However I now discover she only has an ancient Sony CRT and suspect she has been surviving on rabbits ears for an aerial So I'm doing my best to persuade her to get a decent aerial + a 40" LCD TV but suspect this is an uphill battle as she does not like parting with her hard earned money. Sigh, bringing some people to face up to the benefits of new technology is as much a challenge as teaching them how to use it. Yes, I've promised to help my aunt with the Magic but it will be like pushing the proverbial runny stuff uphill with a rake if she is too mean to have a decent aerial installed. I guess we can connect a SD line to the old Sony via component but it will be a waste of effort without an aerial to feed it all! John
gawaterman Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 Well done!And I've talked my 82 year old aunt into buying one. However I now discover she only has an ancient Sony CRT and suspect she has been surviving on rabbits ears for an aerial So I'm doing my best to persuade her to get a decent aerial + a 40" LCD TV but suspect this is an uphill battle as she does not like parting with her hard earned money. Sigh, bringing some people to face up to the benefits of new technology is as much a challenge as teaching them how to use it. Yes, I've promised to help my aunt with the Magic but it will be like pushing the proverbial runny stuff uphill with a rake if she is too mean to have a decent aerial installed. I guess we can connect a SD line to the old Sony via component but it will be a waste of effort without an aerial to feed it all! John Well, when they turn off the analogue, and she can no longer watch TV, she might just have to part with that hard earned.
donhe7 Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 like pushing the proverbial runny stuff uphill with a rake John And I thought it was "a pointed stick" ............. Ah well ........... donhe7
prl Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 Well, when they turn off the analogue, and she can no longer watch TV, she might just have to part with that hard earned. But in Tasmania, where Tassie Devil lives (and perhaps also his aunt), analog switchoff isn't until Jan-June 2013, so there isn't exactly much immediate pressure because of that.
Tassie Devil Posted July 30, 2011 Author Posted July 30, 2011 But in Tasmania, where Tassie Devil lives (and perhaps also his aunt), analog switchoff isn't until Jan-June 2013, so there isn't exactly much immediate pressure because of that. Oh dear, I told her a Porky when I said no analog after next year. Anything to move the old dear into action. Regardless I told her she had wasted her hard earned dollars on a Magic without an aerial. Maybe that rake would be more effective than a pointed stick so pointed stick it shall be! John
Tassie Devil Posted July 30, 2011 Author Posted July 30, 2011 Success!!!! My elderly (funny to use that terminology when I'm 75) aunt is getting a new 40" Sharp LCD & is getting a proper aerial installed. I'll go up in a week and set up the Magic for her. It will change her life. So instead of spending most of the day being entertained by her PC (and I get more XXX jokes from her than from anyone else) she can now really see what FTA has to offer. Change of Topic but related: I get rather irritated by people who proclaim that FTA TV is rubbish and there is nothing worth looking at. To me that smells of snobbishness, ignorance and laziness. There is heaps there BUT you have to take the time to sniff it out and set the recorder accordingly. If no good, no problem, just delete. If OK then with the brilliant array of skipping choices on the Magic, wasting time plowing through commercials becomes a thing of the past & programs can be fully enjoyed. Bottom line is that these latest PVRs have fundamentally changed our entertainment habits. Just a pity so few people either know about or appreciate what they can do. But then it is not in the interests of commercial TV to have too many people owning PVRs, or is it? Short sighted because quite a few people are abandoning their TV because of the ads. Rant over John
prl Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 ...Change of Topic but related: I get rather irritated by people who proclaim that FTA TV is rubbish and there is nothing worth looking at. To me that smells of snobbishness, ignorance and laziness. There is heaps there BUT you have to take the time to sniff it out and set the recorder accordingly. ... The problem is not so much that there's nothing good on, but more that essentially the same advertising (or government) revenue now needs to pay for three times as much content as it did before digital. Some of it is being made up for by repeating some truly ancient shows. Some by cheap-to-make "reality" shows. The latter scores for local content, too.
Paul55 Posted July 30, 2011 Posted July 30, 2011 I find myself agreeing with both previous points of view. Plenty of filler programs for sure, but I've found a few shows that probably wouldn't have seen the light of day if not for the extra channels. Add in the versatility of PVRs and it is easy to record and easily discover whether shows are to your liking. Plus the propensity of networks to put the ''best'' shows up against each other and TV life without a PVR is even more unappealing. I can't believe some of my friends (with reasonable disposable income) who don't see the value in having one. I share Peter's frustration with Australian reality/talent drivel - the bane of my viewing existence.
mwd Posted August 2, 2011 Posted August 2, 2011 (edited) This machine just keeps getting better. Last night I was watching TV, got a bit bored and watched a program I had recorded earlier. When I finished I dropped back to live TV to find I was halfway through a show I wouldn't have minded watching. So, I rewound the timeshift and found the machine had continued to timeshift record live TV even while I was watching a recorded show. How cool is that ! I have no idea how long timeshift buffer is but it certainly was more than 30mins. Secondly, I love the fact I can put a 'delete after' marker on programmes. I record SBS news everynight and ideally would like it deleted within 24 hours but 7 days (seems to be the minimum) ensures I am not clogging up with out of date news. Cheers Also if you are watching a programme on live TV and you think I would not mind recording this so you hit the record button half way through then the recording takes the timeshift buffer and adds it to the recording file from the beginning of the show. eg I hit the red record button just before the start of the Hungarian GP and got the pre race show approx 1 hour included in the recording. The editing is so simple on this machine makes it easy to remove or keep sections of the recordings. Edited August 2, 2011 by mwd
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