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Thomson DHD4000 software update 1.7.7 on 2004/12/16-17
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Overnight last night, 2004-12-17, the Thomson DHD4000 had a software update broadcast that took it from 0.31.0 to to version 1.7.7.
There's a 24 page mail in the messages section of the menu that I'll reproduce here for those that don't have a DHD4000 so that they know what's new too.
-- Thomson mail ---
1. You now have a full 14 program guide
2. Pressing the GUIDE button twice now displays a full screen program guide. Press GUIDE again to return to the one with the preview window.
3. You can now record subtitles with recordings. Turn this feature on by pressing Menu, 5, 2, option 1. NOTE: recordings made with subtitles cannot be compressed
4. The DVR now supports instant recording. When watching a program, if you press and hold the REC key for more than 2 seconds, the DVR will automatically start recording the program you are viewing. The DVR will also save any of the program that you watched before you pressed the REC key (if it is stored in the record buffer, up to a maximum of 30 mins).
5. You can now program a "Recording guard time" which provides an automatic overlap at the beginning and end of a selected program. Press Menu, 5,3, item 7 and choose a guard time from 0, 1,3 or 5 minutes. NOTE: you can still extend program times manually in the record list.
6. You now have the ability to make Daily & Weekly recordings. After selecting a program to record and pressing RED, before you press GREEN, move the cursor RIGHT one space to the new column, now press DOWN to choose D for Daily recording or W for Weekly.
7. You can now use trick modes on a program that is currently being recorded. i.e. No matter how long the program is, you can rewind or skip back to the beginning and watch the recording while the DVR continues to record.
8. Your DVR now saves the last point you watch a program to, so that if you have to stop viewing, to return to the point where you left off, simply highlight the recording in the usual way and press PLAY. The OK selection works as before.
9. You can now Preview a recording in the Record History menu, Simply press the Purple to Start/Stop playback from the selected thumbnail.
10. You can choose the number of thumbnails captured in a recording. Change their interval by pressing Menu, 5, 3, item 8 and choose an interval from 1, 3, 5, 10 mins or no capture.
11. You can now make the on screen display Opaque to improve readability. Press Menu, 5,4, item 4 and set it to OFF.
12. The disc drive is now shut down when not required in order to save power. (Note the fan will still run).
13. You can now move past the last channel in the lists to wrap around to the first one. e.g. Press P+ from 704 takes you back to 1.
14. After adding a recording to the list, pressing EXIT now returns you to your last place in the program guide.
15. Thumbnails are now generated automatically without user intervention.
16. The quick guide banner (viewed by pressing a cursor key) is now bigger to accomodate larger program descriptions.
17. There is now an Archive order indicator to show you in which order the programs will be played out to your VCR.
18. You can now enter the start and finish times in the manual recording addition menu using the number keys.
19. Pressing REC in the program guide now has the same function as the RED button to set a recording
20. At the end of a recording, playback now stops and returns you to the record history, as opposed to looping continuously
-- End Thomson mail --
Overall this looks like a pretty significant update with more in it than I thought there was going to be. I think that most of the hot topics on the DHD4000 thread have been addressed. Still a few niggles and missing features - but if it works well and hasn't introduced too many new bugs, this looks like a good thing (TM) so far.
So far I've noticed that the unused "Channel buffering" option on the main menu is still there and still says "Future feature".
Sorry Thomson but the EPG still needs one tweak - I can't view a fullscreen version of the EPG in time view mode. I quite like the new fullscreen one but I wish I could see it one channel at a time.
The mute button still does nothing when there's an info window up on screen. Nor does it function in the EPG.
Pressing OK in the record list to accept a program for recording used to work, now you have to use the green button like it says. It still isn't possible to edit a program that's in this list already in order to adjust its times - you have to remove the entry, go back to the EPG and ask it to record it again and then you can amend it.
The lockout bug when both tuners are in use has been fixed.
Point 14 from the above list is still broken if you're in time view in the EPG. I set a recording from the view of BBC 2 and it returned me to BBC 1 in the EPG list instead.
Oh, and there's still no partial scan option under "Scan for Channels". I think it's quicker than it was but it still does a full scan and then wipes out your favorites list!
There's a 24 page mail in the messages section of the menu that I'll reproduce here for those that don't have a DHD4000 so that they know what's new too.
-- Thomson mail ---
1. You now have a full 14 program guide
2. Pressing the GUIDE button twice now displays a full screen program guide. Press GUIDE again to return to the one with the preview window.
3. You can now record subtitles with recordings. Turn this feature on by pressing Menu, 5, 2, option 1. NOTE: recordings made with subtitles cannot be compressed
4. The DVR now supports instant recording. When watching a program, if you press and hold the REC key for more than 2 seconds, the DVR will automatically start recording the program you are viewing. The DVR will also save any of the program that you watched before you pressed the REC key (if it is stored in the record buffer, up to a maximum of 30 mins).
5. You can now program a "Recording guard time" which provides an automatic overlap at the beginning and end of a selected program. Press Menu, 5,3, item 7 and choose a guard time from 0, 1,3 or 5 minutes. NOTE: you can still extend program times manually in the record list.
6. You now have the ability to make Daily & Weekly recordings. After selecting a program to record and pressing RED, before you press GREEN, move the cursor RIGHT one space to the new column, now press DOWN to choose D for Daily recording or W for Weekly.
7. You can now use trick modes on a program that is currently being recorded. i.e. No matter how long the program is, you can rewind or skip back to the beginning and watch the recording while the DVR continues to record.
8. Your DVR now saves the last point you watch a program to, so that if you have to stop viewing, to return to the point where you left off, simply highlight the recording in the usual way and press PLAY. The OK selection works as before.
9. You can now Preview a recording in the Record History menu, Simply press the Purple to Start/Stop playback from the selected thumbnail.
10. You can choose the number of thumbnails captured in a recording. Change their interval by pressing Menu, 5, 3, item 8 and choose an interval from 1, 3, 5, 10 mins or no capture.
11. You can now make the on screen display Opaque to improve readability. Press Menu, 5,4, item 4 and set it to OFF.
12. The disc drive is now shut down when not required in order to save power. (Note the fan will still run).
13. You can now move past the last channel in the lists to wrap around to the first one. e.g. Press P+ from 704 takes you back to 1.
14. After adding a recording to the list, pressing EXIT now returns you to your last place in the program guide.
15. Thumbnails are now generated automatically without user intervention.
16. The quick guide banner (viewed by pressing a cursor key) is now bigger to accomodate larger program descriptions.
17. There is now an Archive order indicator to show you in which order the programs will be played out to your VCR.
18. You can now enter the start and finish times in the manual recording addition menu using the number keys.
19. Pressing REC in the program guide now has the same function as the RED button to set a recording
20. At the end of a recording, playback now stops and returns you to the record history, as opposed to looping continuously
-- End Thomson mail --
Overall this looks like a pretty significant update with more in it than I thought there was going to be. I think that most of the hot topics on the DHD4000 thread have been addressed. Still a few niggles and missing features - but if it works well and hasn't introduced too many new bugs, this looks like a good thing (TM) so far.
So far I've noticed that the unused "Channel buffering" option on the main menu is still there and still says "Future feature".
Sorry Thomson but the EPG still needs one tweak - I can't view a fullscreen version of the EPG in time view mode. I quite like the new fullscreen one but I wish I could see it one channel at a time.
The mute button still does nothing when there's an info window up on screen. Nor does it function in the EPG.
Pressing OK in the record list to accept a program for recording used to work, now you have to use the green button like it says. It still isn't possible to edit a program that's in this list already in order to adjust its times - you have to remove the entry, go back to the EPG and ask it to record it again and then you can amend it.
The lockout bug when both tuners are in use has been fixed.
Point 14 from the above list is still broken if you're in time view in the EPG. I set a recording from the view of BBC 2 and it returned me to BBC 1 in the EPG list instead.
Oh, and there's still no partial scan option under "Scan for Channels". I think it's quicker than it was but it still does a full scan and then wipes out your favorites list!
0
Comments
Any idea why I am not getting full EPG anyway? I get ITV2, BBC FOUR, QVC, The Hits, TMF but nothing much else.
WooHoo! At last.
Got nothing better to do at 5am than to transcribe the whole message, then, Trevor? Glad you did though.
I'm hoping they've fixed the skipping on radio recordings as well, though it isn't mentioned in the notes. I've tried a couple of short radio recordings and had no faults so far (though it always was intermittent).
If the radio thing is fixed then the job is a good'un as far as I'm concerned - there is nothing more I want from the machine that isn't now included.
Merry Christmas to the nice people at Thomson. I never doubted you.
I got there in the end, I asked it to record EE then incremented the end time to the maximum of 1 hour ahead that it would let me get to. This takes in TVoD but will lump it all in the same recording.
It is a bit of a shame about that one. In fact, it's slightly annoying in that when viewing full screen, the green button to switch to time view is not available, so you have to press Guide to switch back to half-screen, then green.
Also annoying in that I will often view channel by channel to see what's on (i.e. in time view). To be able to see a whole evening in one screen would be handy.
Though I notice you get one line of the program description when in full screen mode.
Nowever, that's just one niggle (i.e. no worse) amongst a whole load of good fixes and new features.
And you now have proper One touch record - just press + hold the "REC" button. No need to press Green to confirm.
Dave
it looks good.
PS Maybe the moderators should close the huge DHD4000 thread now, and we should move to this one?
I notice when putting the unit in standby you can here the HDD turn off - I wonder why we need the fan? Its so small and doesnt really do anything except make a noise...wonder if we could simply unplug it?!?!
It would also of been good if they had made use of the 16:9 format for the EPG or even made it much like the Sky EPG.
Very well done, definately a pat on the back from me.
Now the DVD 4000 is a bargain to be sure. Have the day off so will be looking at these features later on this morning.
Unsurprisingly, they don't mention any bug fixes so be interesting to see how many of them have happened on top of the LOADS of new stuff. I am quite gobsmacked.
Now we just need a hard drive update kit!
Sure, but I suggest folks here try not to moan until after the holidays are over, season of goodwill and all that. Thomson has earned a well deserved break :sleep:
Spotted the little yellow light this morning
I've had this box since the end of May but it's suddenly become so much more useful
Hopefully the radio skip bug is fixed also. And the one where it sometimes doesn't start the (2nd) overlapped recording until the 1st one has finished despite the second tuner being unused (i.e. it's scheduled both overlapping recordings onto the same tuner).
Glitches still remaining:
Doesn't remember that you are in time view on the guide (and always returns to the current channel, not the last one viewed)
Still sometimes saying the recordings overlap when they don't.
But a big thanks to Thomson for not only standing by the product and fixing the problems but also enhancing the product too. And just in time of Christmas. Nice one Thomson
and confirm, as far as I can see, the loop one got into when two recordings were running, then trying yo access the tuner seems to be fixed.
mark
I'd like to offer thanks for the effort involved here, Im sure it's of value
mark
When I switched on the box for the first time after the update, the first thing I noticed was that "channel buffering" still said "future feature". However, once I read the message, it was clear how hard Thomson have been working. This update adds more features than I could have ever imagined, and according to Thomson, also improves general stability (if that's possible!).
Every new feature is a welcome addition in my opinion, and being able to set the recording buffer time is no big deal to me. In fact, I'd leave it at 30 minutes anyway. The fact that they did not remove this menu suggests that it will be a user-customisable option one day.
The only remaining bug that I am a little upset about is the one mentioned by TrevorPH regarding overlapping recordings. I think that if anyone discovers bugs, let Thomson know, but do so in a nice way! Tell them you're extremely happy with the new update, but have found a couple of bugs (you have to be nice, it's Christmas!).
So all in all, I'm extremely happy with this long-awaited update. It's finally here and has improved an already excellent piece of equipment.
On the subject of bug fixes not being mentioned, I used to work in the games industry, and we used to 'bury' a lot of fixes in free levels, weapons, cars downloads.
I'm not surprised they haven't mentioned bug fixes, but I bet they've tackled a lot of them.
The filthy language that came from me when I realised this made me miss the update cannot be printed here.
Hopefully it will be repeated tonight.
Stew