I'm not sure if anyone has mentioned this before, so apologise if it has.
The other day I recorded Reign of Fire. I'm fairly sure that the synopsis was correct at the time but when I came to watch it the synopsis refered to a completey different film!!!
I have noticed this once before, before the recent update and the above since the update
The Amstrad box is doing exactly the same as the one I gor rid of today.A reboot should allow you to delete.However,one other problem introduced by the new software,and not exclusive to Amstrad,is the tendency for a perfect recording to suddenly become FAILED after a reboot.Beware!!!
I've had Sky+ for nearly two weeks and I've only had one failed recording. This was because the picture froze and I switched the box off at the mains. Other than that all recordings have played back perfectly.
The thing I have noticed though is the picture quality. It looks good enough if you don't have another setup for comparison. But, when I check the picture on the box upstairs it definitely looks crisper. Both boxes are set to output rgb and they both have quality scart leads connected. The upstairs tv is 50hz and the downstairs one is 100hz.
Is it possible that because the dish is outputting two feeds, the signal is diluted, as it is when you use a scart splitter? I would have thought that if the signal was affected, you would see it on both sets.
Any ideas anyone?
Got Sky+ yesterday (Amstrad box). Was just recording and watching WWE Raw on Sky Sports 1 and it just went into Standby mode and the recording stopped. I couldn't get it out of standby so I powered off and waited then powered back on. Still couldn't get it out of standby mode. I then left it and went downstairs to get the phone to call sky. When I got back upstairs the record light was on, I pressed standby on the remote and Sky came on and was recording.
I got my Amstrad box today - All of a sudden the remote control won't operate the unit unless it is 2 - 3mm away from the IR sensor. Tried some brand new Duracells and nothing! - It has only been on for about 11hrs :-(
Also had to reboot it twice since the engineer left.
Also the box is quite warm and even on standby you can hear the disc spinning. Did Sky release a update to allow the disc to spin down in standby? If so How do I get it.
Sounds like Amstrad boxes have their own set of annoying problems.It can certainly do without the latest software which,in most cases will simply introduce FAILED recordings with annoying regularity.
100hz is the same as plasma in that a good quality input gives good results and a poor quality input like Sky Digital(often operating at less than half the bitrate of a dvd)will give crap results.
100hz is a needless gimmick for most,and unless you spend most of your viewing with dvd's you will certainly notice faults on the picture
I found an interesting bug.....
I've only had my box for a couple of days, and I noticed today that if I pause live tv in the room with the sky+ box in, and then try and "unpause" in a different room (with a tvlink eye) the box reboots.
My 3 day old Amstrad box has started to lockup, basically the picture freezes for a few seconds then carries on. Obviously this could be a sky problem and not be box related. Happned tonight during the England game and also during Knights Tale.
I've had Sky+ for nearly two weeks and I've only had one failed recording. This was because the picture froze and I switched the box off at the mains. Other than that all recordings have played back perfectly.
The thing I have noticed though is the picture quality. It looks good enough if you don't have another setup for comparison. But, when I check the picture on the box upstairs it definitely looks crisper. Both boxes are set to output rgb and they both have quality scart leads connected. The upstairs tv is 50hz and the downstairs one is 100hz.
Is it possible that because the dish is outputting two feeds, the signal is diluted, as it is when you use a scart splitter? I would have thought that if the signal was affected, you would see it on both sets.
Any ideas anyone?
I heard once that 100Hz TV's don't work well with any type of digital TV, including Sky and Freeview.
I have had a DRX180 since around March and was suffering a number if niggles including picture freeze (with sound continuing), picture and sound freeze (this only seemed to occur when controlling the Sky+ box via the remote eye in the upstairs bedroom), loss of signal (when both signal levels indicated strong signal) and the dialback would occasionally stop. I might not have explained some of these accurately but some should ring familiar, in all cases a reboot resolved the problem.
I had tried at one time to have Sky replace the box but they only ever had Pace so I held out hoping that the problems would be resolved with software updates.
Having been away on holiday for the best part of the last 6 weeks I was watching the telly the other night and thought to myself I have not seen a single problem with my Amstrad Sky+, "is it me? let me check the s/w version"... so I did and it had changed and I thought maybe.. just maybe the s/w has fixed my problems....
Early Days but to me it looks miles better so well done! Remember it was the apparent reliability that drove me to check the versions and not the other way around.
I am getting confused by these meesages , unless I have got 3 golden DRX-180 's in my house. I honestly dont see this are you sure it is 1-2 seconds. I just tried it right in front of my wife just to make sure I am not going nuts and it stops straight away with no pause at all ,maybe 150 milliseconds
If you get offered a Pace to replace an Amstrad-go for it.
100hz processing introduces more problems than it cures.Like plasma,100hz dislikes poor quality pictures,and in relation to what digital CAN offer SD is poor.Low bitrate channels on Sky and Freeview will be worsened on a 100hz set
100hz processing introduces more problems than it cures.Like plasma,100hz dislikes poor quality pictures,and in relation to what digital CAN offer SD is poor.Low bitrate channels on Sky and Freeview will be worsened on a 100hz set
And I never knew that! I thought 100hz was nothing to do with the actual image, just the screen itself? Does the image have to be altered to be displayed on a screen running at 100hz? Interesting...!
And for Alan Sugar, I've still got my Pen Pal so if no one else is going to compliment your company for their products, then I will... even if it likes to think my 0 is an O and my 2 is a Z
Did anything ever happen with the Pen Pal? Was there only one model made?
In general, I am much happier with my Amstrad unit that the Pace V2, but have noticed the following;
1. On dark screens, there are noticable darker / lighter vertical bands that are evenly spaced across the screen. Checked cabling and compared with Pace box and Amstrad DRX300 box. Neither of these showed the effect.
2. The box can sometimes run in very slow mode. I.e., when you go into "TV guide", "box office", "Services" or "Interactive" you can actually see the screen being built. You get the dark blue, light blue background, the the sky guide, tv guide icon, etc. across the top of the screen, then each option appears by first the number appearing then the option. It can take 2 or 3 seconds for the whole screen to appear.
3. While in Interactive applications, the box sometimes pauses for a few seconds then springs back to life.
4. Sometimes the box mis-interprets the remote control commands. I.e. Sometimes when I press "Pause", the box thinks I have pressed "Text" and sometimes when I press "Rewind" the box thinks I have pressed "Stop". Checked with 2 remote controls and a Sky Navigator.
Apart from that, I have had Sky+ recording without failures since getting the box so very happy. Hopefully BSkyB will ask Amstrad to produce the Sky+ 160 as well (for a much lower price) or the Hi Definition Sky+ 1000 !!
In general, I am much happier with my Amstrad unit that the Pace V2, but have noticed the following;
1. On dark screens, there are noticable darker / lighter vertical bands that are evenly spaced across the screen. Checked cabling and compared with Pace box and Amstrad DRX300 box. Neither of these showed the effect.
Sir Alan, I have read many posts regarding the above problem on Amstrad Sky+ boxes for a few months now in a couple of forums. Are your tech guys working on it? I haven't got Sky+ yet but hope to get it soon and I want to make sure that I'm making the right decision. The above problem does concern me.
Thanks.
I found an interesting bug.....
I've only had my box for a couple of days, and I noticed today that if I pause live tv in the room with the sky+ box in, and then try and "unpause" in a different room (with a tvlink eye) the box reboots.
If you unpause in the main room, all is well.
Mike
I have this problem too. I've put it down to the fact the box is set to 16:9 on the main TV and 4:3 on the screen with the 'eye'. It seems as though it can't manage to unpause the picture and reformat it for 4:3 at the sametime, so dies.
This normally involves unplugging and replugging (Then waiting an age) before the box useable again.
Pausing and unpausing on one set works fine. It's annoying when you do a live pause in the lounge, with the hope of watching the last bit in bed.
The Synopsis problem also occurs reguarly. It does appear to be random though.
I was experiencing high levels of failed recording. A planner rebuild fixed this - but the box hung whilst doing it.
One last fault - has anyone else noticed Sky Guide trying to be a TiVo? It's a unique feature... Totally random programs appear in my planner set to record. I have put this one down to being a Series Link problem and not related to the box - it must be someone at ITV (For example) setting the links incorrectly...
I have a totally unmodified DRX-180. It's been going for about 6 months now and it is the first Sky+ box I've ever had. On the whole it seems fairly reliable.
I have this problem too. I've put it down to the fact the box is set to 16:9 on the main TV and 4:3 on the screen with the 'eye'. It seems as though it can't manage to unpause the picture and reformat it for 4:3 at the sametime, so dies.
This normally involves unplugging and replugging (Then waiting an age) before the box useable again.
Pausing and unpausing on one set works fine. It's annoying when you do a live pause in the lounge, with the hope of watching the last bit in bed.
Mine was also set to 16:9 on the main tv and 4:3 on the eye, but if you make both tv's the same aspect it still happens.
At first I thought unplugging was the answer, but it does in fact restart all by itself after a couple of minutes.
On the whole though,I love the product. What a step up from a vcr!
Concerning who whote what in the firmware, you might be interested in a more complete, but entirly unofficial answer in my 29-04-2004 post in this thread;
Concerning who whote what in the firmware, you might be interested in a more complete, but entirly unofficial answer in my 29-04-2004 post in this thread;
Cheers for that Marvin, very interesting.
Makes you realize just how likely it is for bugs to creep in, and once in how difficult to get rid of.
Concerning who whote what in the firmware, you might be interested in a more complete, but entirly unofficial answer in my 29-04-2004 post in this thread;
In fact anyone with questions about the DRX-180 (especially Hard Drive questions, "is Sir Alan for real?" questions and general bugs) should read that discussion thread first, before posting here. Allow a couple of hours to read it all!
The reason is that the software and operating system in the box is designed to be used with 40gb drives and no larger. I am not a boff so I dont know why when you fit a larger drive it may not work. From what I have seen and heard the fitting of larger drives into boxes seems to look ok at first but I have heard that as time goes by some of them they go beely up.
So dont do it, as it will break your warranty
Sir Alan
Dear Sir Alan
Thank you for the opportunity to so actively put our issues to you directly. A less brave man would have shirked at the prospect.
It is very clear by the lack of responses to this thread that your boxes are perfoming admirably - quite a feat given the flakey nature of so many digital products around at the moment..
Before you think that this is an exercise in hero-worship, I should say that I am a V1 owner who would be gutted at using a V2 for the simple reason that (or so the general consensus goes) is that the V1 has a better picture quality. This for me is a prime consideration. Not having made a direct comparison myself, can other contributers please confirm if this is still true, given the recent firmware upgrades?
And, Alan. You cannot help not to have noticed how many views and contributions have been made in this forum on the issue of a larger HDD This is THE hot issue. Why not check with your boffs if is is safe to use a larger HDD? And ask them, if they're not safe, why not. And ask them if they can they be made safe? And, after the box is a year old, we don't actually care if the warranty is broken by their fitment - we just really want to use larger HDD's!
If you can somehow assure us that a larger drive is okay, fewer of us will be casting our V2's to the car-boot sales and buying those Thompson boxes promised to us with the larger drive.
Oh yes, and shortly I will really need an HDMI output......and in the meanwhile an SDI output would be handy.......
james payne , In case you hadnt noticed the purpose of the forum is to sort problems out amongst ourselves. If Sir Alan wants to take advantage of our usergroup to improve the box and at the same time sort a few problems for individuals then we all get something out of it. Automatically expecting him to act like a free helpline is a bit much.
Ralphy B, "Before you think that this is an exercise in hero-worship", lol, I think by now he'll know you are just buttering him up to ask a question he doesnt want to answer. AMSTRAD have their hands tied when it comes to altering the box in any way. Them or us. Sky lay down the law and AMSTRAD have to follow sky exactly, working round any fuzzy bits. Sony if you remeber are not currently making sky boxes dispite having produced arguably the best ordinary box - the Sony 760. Rumor has it this split happened more than a bit becuase of Sony's inclusion of a dolby prologic optical out which was not on the spec.
If we open our boxes we lose warrenty and Sir Alan cannot play any part in helping. Having used V1 PACE's in the past and moved onto a PACE V2 I'm a perfect case in point. Ive swapped the HD, wrecked the warrenty by this simple act and am suffering from thermal faults on hot days which PACE V2's are notorios for. 2 types incidentally, the tuners going dead and also if it gets really hot loss of audio resulting from a complete audio system shutdown. The annoying thing is this almost certainly isnt my fault, its just bad thermal management in PACE's second stab and common in unmodified boxes. But I'll live with it, wire the fan perminantly on and sit it out. If AMSTRADs were available over the counter I would have bought one as replacement, depending on a technical requirement I'm not willing to discuss. If the Thompson satisfies it and uses a nice chipset (I dont like NEC, I cant play with it and fiddling with boxes to find out how they work is half the fun for me) I will certainly fork out the 400 quid.
Comments
The other day I recorded Reign of Fire. I'm fairly sure that the synopsis was correct at the time but when I came to watch it the synopsis refered to a completey different film!!!
I have noticed this once before, before the recent update and the above since the update
The thing I have noticed though is the picture quality. It looks good enough if you don't have another setup for comparison. But, when I check the picture on the box upstairs it definitely looks crisper. Both boxes are set to output rgb and they both have quality scart leads connected. The upstairs tv is 50hz and the downstairs one is 100hz.
Is it possible that because the dish is outputting two feeds, the signal is diluted, as it is when you use a scart splitter? I would have thought that if the signal was affected, you would see it on both sets.
Any ideas anyone?
Dave
Also had to reboot it twice since the engineer left.
Also the box is quite warm and even on standby you can hear the disc spinning. Did Sky release a update to allow the disc to spin down in standby? If so How do I get it.
Leave it 24-36 hours and it should update to the latest amstrad version automatically.
This will have the disc spin-down feature.
Mine did.
100hz is the same as plasma in that a good quality input gives good results and a poor quality input like Sky Digital(often operating at less than half the bitrate of a dvd)will give crap results.
100hz is a needless gimmick for most,and unless you spend most of your viewing with dvd's you will certainly notice faults on the picture
I've only had my box for a couple of days, and I noticed today that if I pause live tv in the room with the sky+ box in, and then try and "unpause" in a different room (with a tvlink eye) the box reboots.
If you unpause in the main room, all is well.
Mike
Dave
I have had a DRX180 since around March and was suffering a number if niggles including picture freeze (with sound continuing), picture and sound freeze (this only seemed to occur when controlling the Sky+ box via the remote eye in the upstairs bedroom), loss of signal (when both signal levels indicated strong signal) and the dialback would occasionally stop. I might not have explained some of these accurately but some should ring familiar, in all cases a reboot resolved the problem.
I had tried at one time to have Sky replace the box but they only ever had Pace so I held out hoping that the problems would be resolved with software updates.
Having been away on holiday for the best part of the last 6 weeks I was watching the telly the other night and thought to myself I have not seen a single problem with my Amstrad Sky+, "is it me? let me check the s/w version"... so I did and it had changed and I thought maybe.. just maybe the s/w has fixed my problems....
Early Days but to me it looks miles better so well done! Remember it was the apparent reliability that drove me to check the versions and not the other way around.
I'll let you know if any of the gremlins return.
Paul
On a slightly different topic if I select the EPG then select say "news and documentary's" that can take sometime to populate.
100hz processing introduces more problems than it cures.Like plasma,100hz dislikes poor quality pictures,and in relation to what digital CAN offer SD is poor.Low bitrate channels on Sky and Freeview will be worsened on a 100hz set
As per every other digibox out there... including mine and the so called Speed Demon, the Panasonic TU-DSB30...
And I never knew that! I thought 100hz was nothing to do with the actual image, just the screen itself? Does the image have to be altered to be displayed on a screen running at 100hz? Interesting...!
And for Alan Sugar, I've still got my Pen Pal so if no one else is going to compliment your company for their products, then I will... even if it likes to think my 0 is an O and my 2 is a Z
Did anything ever happen with the Pen Pal? Was there only one model made?
1. On dark screens, there are noticable darker / lighter vertical bands that are evenly spaced across the screen. Checked cabling and compared with Pace box and Amstrad DRX300 box. Neither of these showed the effect.
2. The box can sometimes run in very slow mode. I.e., when you go into "TV guide", "box office", "Services" or "Interactive" you can actually see the screen being built. You get the dark blue, light blue background, the the sky guide, tv guide icon, etc. across the top of the screen, then each option appears by first the number appearing then the option. It can take 2 or 3 seconds for the whole screen to appear.
3. While in Interactive applications, the box sometimes pauses for a few seconds then springs back to life.
4. Sometimes the box mis-interprets the remote control commands. I.e. Sometimes when I press "Pause", the box thinks I have pressed "Text" and sometimes when I press "Rewind" the box thinks I have pressed "Stop". Checked with 2 remote controls and a Sky Navigator.
Apart from that, I have had Sky+ recording without failures since getting the box so very happy. Hopefully BSkyB will ask Amstrad to produce the Sky+ 160 as well (for a much lower price) or the Hi Definition Sky+ 1000 !!
No problems spotted with latest firmware.
Phil
Sir Alan, I have read many posts regarding the above problem on Amstrad Sky+ boxes for a few months now in a couple of forums. Are your tech guys working on it? I haven't got Sky+ yet but hope to get it soon and I want to make sure that I'm making the right decision. The above problem does concern me.
Thanks.
I have this problem too. I've put it down to the fact the box is set to 16:9 on the main TV and 4:3 on the screen with the 'eye'. It seems as though it can't manage to unpause the picture and reformat it for 4:3 at the sametime, so dies.
This normally involves unplugging and replugging (Then waiting an age) before the box useable again.
Pausing and unpausing on one set works fine. It's annoying when you do a live pause in the lounge, with the hope of watching the last bit in bed.
The Synopsis problem also occurs reguarly. It does appear to be random though.
I was experiencing high levels of failed recording. A planner rebuild fixed this - but the box hung whilst doing it.
One last fault - has anyone else noticed Sky Guide trying to be a TiVo? It's a unique feature... Totally random programs appear in my planner set to record. I have put this one down to being a Series Link problem and not related to the box - it must be someone at ITV (For example) setting the links incorrectly...
I have a totally unmodified DRX-180. It's been going for about 6 months now and it is the first Sky+ box I've ever had. On the whole it seems fairly reliable.
Mine was also set to 16:9 on the main tv and 4:3 on the eye, but if you make both tv's the same aspect it still happens.
At first I thought unplugging was the answer, but it does in fact restart all by itself after a couple of minutes.
On the whole though,I love the product. What a step up from a vcr!
Mike
Concerning who whote what in the firmware, you might be interested in a more complete, but entirly unofficial answer in my 29-04-2004 post in this thread;
http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/showthread.php?t=114932
Page 17 on my computer.
It has more than a little wild speculation and leans more toward PACE than AMSTRAD boxes, but you'll get the gist.
10 days have passed and not a peep eh.......
...........I wonder if the other Sir Alan Sugar could take a time out and possibly answer the queries
Regards James
Cheers for that Marvin, very interesting.
Makes you realize just how likely it is for bugs to creep in, and once in how difficult to get rid of.
Regards
Mark
Ralphy B, "Before you think that this is an exercise in hero-worship", lol, I think by now he'll know you are just buttering him up to ask a question he doesnt want to answer. AMSTRAD have their hands tied when it comes to altering the box in any way. Them or us. Sky lay down the law and AMSTRAD have to follow sky exactly, working round any fuzzy bits. Sony if you remeber are not currently making sky boxes dispite having produced arguably the best ordinary box - the Sony 760. Rumor has it this split happened more than a bit becuase of Sony's inclusion of a dolby prologic optical out which was not on the spec.
If we open our boxes we lose warrenty and Sir Alan cannot play any part in helping. Having used V1 PACE's in the past and moved onto a PACE V2 I'm a perfect case in point. Ive swapped the HD, wrecked the warrenty by this simple act and am suffering from thermal faults on hot days which PACE V2's are notorios for. 2 types incidentally, the tuners going dead and also if it gets really hot loss of audio resulting from a complete audio system shutdown. The annoying thing is this almost certainly isnt my fault, its just bad thermal management in PACE's second stab and common in unmodified boxes. But I'll live with it, wire the fan perminantly on and sit it out. If AMSTRADs were available over the counter I would have bought one as replacement, depending on a technical requirement I'm not willing to discuss. If the Thompson satisfies it and uses a nice chipset (I dont like NEC, I cant play with it and fiddling with boxes to find out how they work is half the fun for me) I will certainly fork out the 400 quid.
If you want HDMI or SDI, write to sky!