Is Beyonwiz still in buisness

[GregH]

Hello,

Quick question the V2 has been out of stock for months and support doesn't respond to enquiries. I have a T4 and while it's working fine my family members have a T3, T2 and 2 x V2's. So is Beyonwiz still trading and is the IceBox the only option is these boxes fail? Who repairs them now? I've used Walkrus in the past but not sure if he still does it

Cheers

Greg

[prl]

Nasa Electronics is still doing Beyonwiz repairs: https://www.nasaelectronics.com.au/

I don't have any information about the state of Beyonwiz's business.

As well as IceBox, Fetch is still selling PVRs and so, I think, is Panasonic. You'd need to look at them to see whether they suit your needs.

[xnikx]

So a family's Beyonwiz has just died. Any idea as to when stock of the V2 will be available? Thanks

[prl]

So a family's Beyonwiz has just died. Any idea as to when stock of the V2 will be available? Thanks

Beyonwiz has made no announcement of what their state of operation is. I doubt very much whether there will be any stock of any Beyonwiz model available in the Beyonwiz shop at any time in the future. If that's incorrect, I would be happy to be corrected by Beyonwiz.

Your best chance to get a replacement would be to ask whether there is anyone on the forum who wants to sell their Beyonwiz, to look on eBay for second-hand devices, or to ask about the possibility of repair of the old device or look for refurbished units at Nasa Electronics (https://www.nasaelectronics.com.au/). Nasa Electronics doesn't currently seem to have any refurbished Beyonwizes (any model) in stock.

You could also look at getting a FetchTV instead, or see whether any of the big-name brands are still selling PVRs.

[xnikx]

Have checked everywhere and the places mentioned...what a SAD state of affairs this has turned out to be. Have they all just packed it in and ran for the hills??? SMH. Very disappointing that no announcement has been made here and that all your years of effort and help have received nothing more than a huge 'kiss my a**' Looks like Fetch it is Thanks Peter for the quick reply.

[BigbobOz]

If your game, could try a Vu+ which I think is loosely related to the Beyonwiz (others can better elaborate)

Some discussion on this option in this thread
viewtopic.php?f=16&t=15062&p=199007#p199007

Probably my back up option but I suspect it will require some time to get working as the BW do locally...

[prl]

The Vu+ doesn't run Beyonwiz firmware (and probably never will). It runs a variety of different enigma2-based firmware images that are all different from each other and from the Beyonwiz firmware.

OpenViX probably has the best IceTV support (but it's not pre-installed). IceTV should also work on OpenATV (where it is pre-installed). IceTV hasn't been ported to any other enigma2 firmware.

Series2Folder is also available on non-Beyonwiz enigma2 versions, but it doesn't work properly with OpenATV's default media selection screen (EnhancedMovieCenter) if it has file attribute caching enabled (but caching is disabled by default). I'm currently working on a fix to have Series2Folder work correctly with EnhancedMovieCenter caching (and have a general mechanism that should be able to deal with other media selection screens that cache file attributes).

[tyreless]

Is an Ice TV IceBox( https://www.icetv.com.au/icebox/) an option?

[IanL-S]

Is an Ice TV IceBox( https://www.icetv.com.au/icebox/) an option?

I was going to suggest the IceBox is a possibility; I am one of the beta testing team for the IceBox and depending on your needs, it may be what you are looking for. It uses the IceTV EPG (you get 3 months or 2 months of BYOB subscription). It is possible to configure the IceBox to use FTA epg data, although I have not tried to do so. It may be easier to install LibreELEC directly then load the TVHeadend add-on which provides the PVR function.

At present there is an issue with getting closed captions to display when playing recordings, but they do work for live TV (suggesting the issue is with the TVHeadend add-on). So if closed captions are important, not a good idea at present.

You can reuse any Beyonwiz USB tuners with the IceBox, although I had issues when I tried it during early beta testing.

Ian

[Paul_oz53]

I have a T3 in storage. It was in good working condition and has an overhauled psu. Make me an offer anyone...

[xnikx]

I'll go Fetch to be honest when the time comes if Beyonwiz cant be bought. Looking between the Panasonic and Fetch Mighty for an 83 year old with NO internet connection which is the issue. Emails to Fetch have told me that the Fetch Mighty needs a constant internet connection. I get it has to be activated and was thinking to do this by hotspot with a mobile..but can anyone shed any light as to if the Fetch needs to be internet connected full time please? Ty

[BigbobOz]

The Vu+ doesn't run Beyonwiz firmware (and probably never will). It runs a variety of different enigma2-based firmware images that are all different from each other and from the Beyonwiz firmware.

Wasn't suggesting to run Beyonwiz Firmware on the Vu+ but I thought the two are related by the enigma2 firmware so in theory similarish in use?

[BigbobOz]

I'll go Fetch to be honest when the time comes if Beyonwiz cant be bought. Looking between the Panasonic and Fetch Mighty

I hadn't come across the Fetch Mighty, will take a look at it

[xnikx]

yeah Bob...its more if something breaks I want to be able to run to the store and replace it ASAP. Tired of the games.

[prl]

I thought the two are related by the enigma2 firmware so in theory similarish in use?

Similar-ish, yes, and anyone familiar with the Beyonwiz firmware shouldn't have too much trouble with any of them. But only OpenViX and OpenATV have IceTV support, if that's important.

[BigbobOz]

But only OpenViX and OpenATV have IceTV support, if that's important.

Yes and instant skipping, not the FFW rubbish. I think the Fetch is the FFW sadly

[prl]

But only OpenViX and OpenATV have IceTV support, if that's important.

Yes and instant skipping, not the FFW rubbish. I think the Fetch is the FFW sadly

For clarity, AFAIK, all of the enigma2 variants, not just ViX and ATV, support skipping, though they generally don't have the use of the four UP/DOWN/LEFT/RIGHT buttons for DP series style skips.

But yes, Fetch only has FFW, not a skip that's useful for ad skipping (I think it has the FreeTV-mandated minimum 300-sec skip). However, most of the Fetch users I see on the Whirlpool PVR forum seem to like it. It apparently has a reasonably good back-skip at the end of FFW for when you inevitably overshoot when the ads stop. I've never used it myself, though.

[dman]

Apologies for such a long post - I'm a chronic insomniac and when I can't sleep, I often get up and write these long posts - I hope there is something useful in here for anyone who cares to read it....

TLDR; Long time Beyonwiz owner and user, local electronics shop, right to repair, other DVRs if Beyonwiz are gone, Media players, Plex and HDHomeRun HDTV tuner, a quick lession on HDDs and why not to buy 2.5" drives and why 3.5" Surveillance HDD are a better choice


After being a happy owner of a T4, since 2016, I thought maybe I should get a V2 and looked into what had changed - I know that I looked at them when they first came out and there was something I wasn't completely happy with. As long as my T4 kept working (touch wood), then I would just swap the drives in it every 3-4 years, that way despite the fact that disk is spinning up and down every time it turns on to record and off, but I keep it in standby mode, so the its eating more standby energy but, anyone who has worked with electronics, and I'm not an electronics engineer, but I did two years of the four year course before going back to work into IT - what people don't realise is there is a huge shortage of electronics engineers, as Australia has the skills, but there is very little manufacturing done here, and hence meaningful jobs can be hard to find. I was told the same thing half way through my diploma that I would always make more money in IT - well that's not the case either - over the years people have pushed the value of IT hardware and software skills down as well - sure they want you know if you want to get into Cyber Security, but its really sad, I've watched colleagues of mine get made redundant or like me, people end up with back problems all sorts of things - but I've worked in multiple different industries over the years and have picked up knowledge from all related fields.

It had been a while since I'd been on the Beyonwiz website, but it was still there and the same, and I was thinking, maybe I should get a V2 with the dual USB tuner, in case my T4 were to die.

I was interested in getting a V2 back in 2021, and it appeared there were still some stock available, (2001) iirc, but the only model was the no HDD, version, which was fine for me, just add the dual tuner box, and you supply your own drive.

Looking into things a bit more, from what I could tell on the website the V2 had been shrunk down, and no more internal mounted HDD!

As I mentioned I've had a T4 since 2016 and I've proactively swapped a new WD Purple 4TB Drives every 3-4 years, over the years, but anyone who works with computers and especially HDDs, electronics don't last forever.

Being in Bendigo, Central Victoria we have one electronics store here and the guy is the only certified dealer for most of the big brand name products - we got to talking and he tells me he doesn't want to do board level repairs, and in fact the maufacturers don't want him to, they sell him a new entire board of components, so unless you can get a replacement board for your TV, and that's *IF* they will give the schematics

I digress - I'm sure every one knows about the huge "Right To Repair" issue that has been huge right around the world, with Apple being at the top of the list of the worst for refusing to repair anything, and every year, iPhones gets harder and harder to repair as you need Apple's software to reprogram all sorts of components on iPhones, otherwise it disables a bunch of features. Don't believe Apple when they tell you they are recyling components - if someone doesn't disable "Find My" Iphone, ipad etc etc, and then they factory reset the unit, they have bricked the device and there are videos on youtube of tens of thousands of devices that are completely locked, that because Apple have built in their security T1 or T2 chip - Apple could do something about it - but its worth reading about it - maybe start with this link below.
https://www.zdnet.com/article/thousands ... ery-month/

Anyway, the local repair guy tells me he's had to do various courses at his own cost to be an authorised repairer and companies that distribute in Australia but don't actually have an office here, are often the hardest to get stuff repaired. Often he says, someone walks in with an AVR weighing 15-20KG, doesn't have the original box, and because the distrbutor wants to fix the items themselves, he can't do anything, because he said, spending hours working out what the problem is, is often not worth it, since he can't get components for it anyway. Lets just say a brand that almost went out of business starting with the letter O which has been around for years and used to have a very good reputation, they've had manufacturing problems on certain AVR models for years - and not once, but twice it happened to me. Four-Six weeks with no AVR was not a lot of fun.

So if people have circuit schematics for the T2, T3, T4 and V2 which are probably the only models people are using since 2016, which iirc, was roughly when they started broadcasting in DVB-T2, all the older models of DP1 and DP2 are only DVB-T and can only receive the Standard Def channels. Nearly any TV made before 2012-2014 didn't have a DVB-T2 tuner in it, and therefore became useless as a SD TV or as maybe as a gaming monitor for kids, since no more HDTV and a bunch of those extra channels on the multiplex stream couldn't be decoded.

That was actually the reason I bought the Beyonwiz T4, as I realised I couldn't watch or record HD channels anymore.

Over the past 10 years, I've had to do research into what DVR was going to suit different people - but I've watched a huge market turn into almost nothing and this post doesn't bode well for Beyonwiz's future.

I've had to do research for my parents and other people who have had Toppys and older Beyonwiz boxes as have I, and 9 times out of 10 they either choose the Fetch Mighty or the Panasonic DMR-HWT260GN (It's had at least one or two other models, but there are also the more expensive ones that have Bluray players or UHD-BD players as an all in one box), but their basic model only has a 1TB Drive, and its all saved in proprietary format. Pretty sure I looked into it and I'm not even sure you can put a stock standard HDD into it. They will let you copy stuff to an external drive, but the file or stream is locked with either the S/N or MAC I guess and you can't play back the file on any other player according to the manual - not that I've bothered to pull it apart. The 1TB drive - (I shake my head) - recording HDTV you'll burn through that in no time flat, and don't use Panasonic's lower resolution options, as it re-encodes the MPEG2 or H.264 files into a lower bit rate while destroying the picture - this is something left ofter from the days where they had a DVD-RW and HDD in the same unit, and in order to fit a longer program onto a disc, you had to re-encode it to a lower bitrate - ah - how far we've come.


Anyway, someone might be able to explain it to me, and its not because of streaming TV, though the fact that commercial TV has sport and a lot of reality TV on it, and a bunch of stuff that doesn't interest me), I don't understand why DVRs / PVRs were so popular, and towards the end of 2020s, besides the two I mentioned, they seem to have disappeared from the market.

I believe a lot of modern smart TVs can record one channel iirc onto an external HDD, but again, haven't looked at that, should get around to it. My LG C9 OLED has an option to record to a USB External HDD, so I gather that is for recording a single channel?, but what good is that if you can't watch another channel at the same time?

My biggest concern is now, based on post earlier commenting about a broken V2 and no one seeming to respond to Beyonwiz's office is the V2 gone as well?

The Panasonic interface is OK, but like all their stuff, they haven't upgraded it in 15 years, and forget their Mozilla based OS on their OLED Screens - last I heard, Panasonic were getting out of selling OLEDs, because they can't compete with Sony, Samsung and LG It wont be long before Hisense and TCL will own the lower end of the market, but I understand Hisense has some interesting tech on the way. There are going to be a lot of changes to TVs over the next few years - improvements to LEDs but also reduction of head on OLEDs and increasing brightness - which LG and Sony have already done - the Sony is more expensive, but is it $1000 or more, better picture quality than LG?

Back to the electronics guy, he says, he loves getting in actual electronics you can work on from the 60s-90s, before everything went surface mount. Because he is the only guy around for about 100KM, you either wait for 4-6 weeks for him to look at it if he is authorised repairer, or find out who the closest repairer of your product is (and if you have a 77" screen, I'd like to see you get that in a car and drive it 150KM to Melbourne only to find out they have the same four to six week wait.

He also commented on the fact that that he could probably fix stuff if he was prepared to buy the microscope, and surface mount desolder/solder station to fix a component, but the manufacturers are sending out entire boards when it might a couple of components and then charging the customer several hundred dollars to swap a board over annoys him a lot, but he has no choice, that's the way the industry has been for a while now. Hence why he likes working on actual gear from decades ago.

I recall speaking to a Sony repair technician in their Melbourne office and even 15 years ago, they were doing those sorts of things, swapping out boards - I think he told me they had a diganostic station where you plug the board in, and then ran some tests, probably similar to computer tests and if it doesn't measure a voltage or current at a certain spot on where the board plugs in, it used to give something useful that you could use to repair.

The local electronics guy says he gets service mode remotes and most of the recent TVs can dianose themselves now, providing the screen hasn't failed, they have service remotes, and the firmware, gives him result codes tells him what he needs to order to fix the problem.

Since the TVs are plugged into WiFi or Ethernet, you'd have to wonder why they couldn't do remote diagnostics - and I'm sure if I did a bit of research, maybe that is possible.

Anyway, back to Beyonwiz:

So, everyone who has the technicial diagrams on these units, and code for the firmware, they are now like gold, especially if there is only one place repairing them.

Anyone who has worked with electronics knows, power supplies are are a comon source of heat and often a common source of failure, and they contain components which will eventually fail - fortunately, power supplies are one of the few things that can be fixed with a minimum of tools -

The amount of heat that comes out of my T4 is significant - I love being able to save programs to an formatted, but bare 3.5" drive (which I store in the anti-static bag)

Pretty sure it was FreeView who were the ones that made sure there is no AD skip button, only FFW.

Panasonic is the only big brand CE company next to Fetch who sells a DVR product, so I hope my box doesn't fail as I don't have a backup and the Fetch Mighty isn't cheap and last time i checked, the Panasonic on special was $399, but its increased since then. I wouldn't be surprised if Panasonic eventually dropped that base DVR only model for the combined BD Player / DVR - check out their website. I couldn't even find it, but its still on plenty of electronic retailers' websites. I'm sure I've listed the model. The Fetch Mighty from Optus and the one you can buy from certain electronics retailers are not the same - I know there are a number of companies that carry Fetch on their NBN service, and you need one of those boxes to hook up to your NBN RSP. The Telstra Bigpond TV is a rebadged Roku and the firmware has been hammered down so hard, Telstra and their control - they do the same to their modem/router/wifi boxes. I'm not sure if the Bigpond TV can record TV to a HDD, but it only has a signal antenna input, but it would be pretty easy to split the signal inside the box. I do know that Roku is light years ahead of what Bigpond are selling here as the Bigpond TV, and unlike the Fetch TV, I don't think there is any $10/month streaming option, everything requires a subscription and it doesn't even support every streaming service.

Android TV / Google TV on a Shield TV Pro is by far the best media streamer I own, but if you you want something super simple and part of the Apple Eco System, its expensive, but buy the 128GB version of the Apple TV (that one has Ethernet) the 64GB cheaper version has a bunch less features and is only $60 cheaper. You can't do VPN easily with an Apple TV, so if you want to do that, strongly suggest Shield TV Pro, and then next down the line would be either the Amazon Fire Stick 4K Max (has WiFi 6 and a faster processor), then the Google TV 4K. You can sideload, there are all sorts of instructions how online how. You just need to remember one program called "Downloader" you can sideload any Android .apk you like, buy do so at your own risk, and make sure you download the right .apk for the right hardware.

Back to the to my Beyonwiz T4: if people are still reading you must be really interested in my extremely long long post - look I might post something here that people want to know about, hopefully if you send me a PM, I'll get notified, and I can get back to you if you want some advice.

I still have to fix my Picons since WIN and TEN swapped back - I might even have the old firmware on it, and I think someone wrote a script to back up the timers as you lose them when you upgrade the firmware. I don't understand why I wouldn't have upgraded the firmware ages ago, but I recall I ran a script for Peter when WIN and Southern Cross swapped, which had the LCNs and I know it was rolled into a another firmware, but I don't recall ever seeing Bendigo on my list.......but I don't watch much commercial TV - its mostly ABC and SBS, or something from streaming TV.

I do know for sure my local electronics guy wont fix my T4, but if anyone still uses DP1 or DP2 and is interested in parts, I'm sure we can come to some arrangement - iirc both HDD died, but the units should be OK, not that I've checked them in more than five years, pretty sure they were still working, but I can't imagine anyone would want that old stuff - but in case they do, I've got one of each here, and even the original boxes (at least one of the original remotes)


Digressing for a moment, anyone using Plex?
I heard of a box and did a bit of research that was one being sold here (2017-2018) called the HDHomeRun - but the website is US based and the Australian distributor, I think maybe shut down, but you can buy them direct from the US, and I know they can put DVB-T2 tuners in them, they are one of the few designed to work with Plex but and one of the few recommended by Plex, but pretty sure you need a lifetime pass from Plex to get it up and going and the box isn't exactly a DVR from what I can tell, though if it is, I might start a new thread.

I'd say all of us are going to find a day where our Beyonwiz boxes no longer work, and it will sadden me to have to say goodbye to it, or maybe I can get it repaired through the one and only repairer.

When I found out the V2 was dual tuner only, and required a USB dongle for additional tuners, and then also needed a external HDD - I was very disappointed - I don't think you can get any thing but the not very reliable for constant read/writing like a DVR will need to do on your typical 2.5" external drive. I would suggest getting a Surveillance drive from WD or Seagate and mount it in a 3.5" case. Also, the price was pretty high I don't think it was any cheaper than the T4 or maybe a tiny bit cheaper, but when people start craming electronics into small cases which generate a lot of heat, which my T4 does, you want as much ventilation as possible and hope they have used high heat tolerance components. Maybe people who bought the V2 can tell me what they think of them if they have had them 3-5 years. I was told the inface was the same, but having worked in IT, Electronics and Telcommunications over the years, heat is the enemy - but now, if people are using 2.5" drives with their V2, for the past 3-4 years, most of the 2.5" drives are slower to read and write, their spindle speed is slower, but that's typical of most cheaper drives now, but the plus side they don't generate as much heat, as they used to but anything 2.5" < 6TB are mostly in sealed plastic cases which have no ventilation are not good at dissipating heat if you are running them 24/7,

If you aren't familiar with the difference between CMR (aka PMR) Conventional Magnetic Recording vs SMR (Shingled Magnetic Recording) you can Google it if you want more info, but it was something drive maufacturers came up with so the could use less platters in their smaller drives, but it means the actual data tracks are only half as wide in order to cram more storage space, the write head, over writes half the written track, much like a shingled roof, so the written track is half as wide as the more common and more reliable CMR drive. When I say more common, well, most people are moving to SSDs for boot drives, but if you are someone like me who has a 8-Bay NAS or 40TB worth of external drives, I've experienced everything from partital failures to complete failures of spinning magnetic disks. People I talk to tell me when and SSD fails, you have almost zero chance of saving anything. Google might have some nice diagrams explaining this if you don't know what it is, but like I said, any drive smaller than 6TB is 98% likely to be SMR and that often means cheaper 3.5" drives as well.

I can tell you all, from someone who had worked for many years on HDDs, they are all ticking time bombs, with no timer - they will all fail, either the controller board or the drive itself will crash, so if you have a program you really want to keep, copy it off onto another drive along with anything else - or so what I do, every 3-4 years, buy a WD Purple Surveillance drive or Seagate have a similar model - all these 2.5" drives being sold on the market now are SMR (shingled magnetic recording) and are being made cheaper and cheaper, I've seen drives fail just out of warranty and I've tried Aust Consumer Law, but since WD and Seagate are only distributed here, the 3 year warranty they offer in Australia is actually pretty good, and I've only ever got one which was a month out of warranty replaced.

Both the Seagate SkyHawk Surveillance and WD Purple Surveillance have five year warranties on them, and if the shops refuse to deal with you, both Segaate and Western Digital are both using a logistics facility in Sydney which I think is UPS. I used to buy Seagate's because I could send a drive to Sydney and they would send a warranty replacement the day they received it from Singapore. Until fairly recently WD had to be sent to Vietnam which cost about AUD$45 along with customs declarations - but I am pretty sure that WD are also using the same UPS Logistics facility (its the idential address as Seagate) so whoever they are using, at least you on'y have to get your drive to Sydney.

Sorry for the long email - just thought Id do an info dump as I had lost all my login details to the website and the forum site, and only managed to get them reset - used to be someone had to manually reset it, but at least that has been fixed.

If anyone wants to ask about the Panasonic recorders, I can strongly recommend for non-technical types who want something easy to set up and program. After all my parents are in the 80s and both of they have one each and they can drive them without much trouble. I've never used a Fetch Mighty, but I'm told there plenty of places where you can buy them, and the Panasonic DMR-HWT260GN probably at most electronic retailers but if you can stand HN, but you might get one a bit cheaper a The Good Guys. Otherwise, hopefully there are enough parts around to keep the T2, T3, T4 and V2 going for the foreseeable future.

That's more than enough - sorry to post such a long bunch of stuff, but as I said, someone might find somethign useful.

Cheers, DMan

[MrQuade]

That's more than enough - sorry to post such a long bunch of stuff, but as I said, someone might find somethign useful.

I read....about 3/4 of that. wow.....

In all seriousness though, could you post a couple of "highlights" or Cliffs Notes at the beginning of the post to summarise the content.

Some good stuff in there, but it would help for when people are searching. Folks are likely to skip such a big text wall.

[dman]

There was too much info I agree - sometimes I have a bad habbit of it, but I did put a TL;DR at the top.
Maybe I need to put a table of contents as well, give me a few days, I'll see what I can come up with.

However, also went into more detail than I expected.

Some interesting things:

1. The Ice TV Box isn't too bad for what it is, but it *IS* expensive considering they packed so much in a such a small box with a fairly low powered CPU, but they offer detailed notes on building your own. It looks like the the price is high for a four tuner box (over $500, less than $600), and I haven't read whether you can copy shows off onto another hard drive, something that lots of us want to do: Their solution for tuners is USB for their own box, and yet I note only two USB ports on the back - I don't know how these things would go with a USB 3.0 Hub or whether anyone tried that with Beyonwiz tuners.

these are the tuners that apparently one guy has tested with the BYOB version of the Ice Box:

I have got XBOX ONE USB tuner to work with my BYOB IceBox; also got the Sony PlayTV Dual USB tuner to work. Tuners that work with my Beyonwiz also appear to work.

Update - more detailed information

USB Tuners
IceTV Dual USB [Hauppauge WinTV-dualHD] (Silicon Labs Si2168)
XBOX ONE (Panasonic MN88472)
Sony PlayTV dual tuner (DiBcom 7000PC)
Tuner from Beyonwiz (Afatech AF9033)
Generic USB tuner (Realtek RTL2832)

PCIe Tuners
Hauppauge PCIe card: HVR-QuadHD PCIe (?)

Update 2: Some USB tuners are less reliable than others. The Beyonwiz tuners can be flakey (as they are, in my experience, on the T2). Also potentially problematic are Generic USB tuner mentioned above - the problem is with the way it connects to the recorder, not the chipset itself; the same would go for the Beyonwiz tuner.

So you could take your Beyonwiz tuners and put them on a BYOB Icebox.

You don't have to have a subscription with IceTV for the Ice Box to work, their software will work with the OTA EPG, but obviously there are plenty of people who use IceTV on Beyonwiz products, and its easy to move your settings from one to another.

If we could find out once and for all that Beyonwiz V2 are definitely not coming back, I think its about time to start looking for something else, though NASA Electronics are still fixing Beyonwiz products, I imagine they can fix some things not others.

I don't know if Fetch Mighty let you copy files off their drives or whether they are locked on there, but the panasonic solution is stupid, they let you copy the file off, but lock it to the box you copied it from. At least that makes up for the stupid decision of a 1TB drive in this day and age.

Mind you, not everyone is like me and takes months to get around to watching stuff.

I find it hard enough just to find the time to watch the 7pm news and then 7:30 afterwards. I also highly recommend The Drum at 6pm - some really interesting topics covered on there which are often really important, but get very little coverage.

Anyway, in future, I'll cut down my emails.

If someone wants me to cut that big long email into smaller chunks, let me know, and I'd be happy to.

The HDhomeRun DVB-T2 model can only be bought from the Silicondust website - I haven't checked their website, but there are lots of mixed comments on Amazon. Don't buy from Amazon as you will end up with the ATSC tuner. You can get their larger storage box from there though.

There are cheap DVRs on eBay, but not sure how well they work, I've ordered one which has dual tuners, but its designed for satellite and DVB-T2 - but Iam assured by the seller that there are two DVB-T tuners in there, and the are more designed for people who are doing trips, who might be switching between a broadcast antenna and a satellite dish, but how the operating system works, I don't know, but they are sub $100, so I'm not expecting much. I assume they will ship without a HDD, since there was no mention on eBay, but its not just the EPG, is media management and being able to program timers - if a box can't do that in a relatively simple way, then its not worth much.

Thanks and hope this email was a bit shorter and easier to gain info from.

Cheers.

[exitguy]

1/ There was too much info I agree
2/ However, also went into more detail than I expected.
3/ Thanks and hope this email was a bit shorter and easier to gain info from.

1/ - Yep, totally agree. That was not only War & Peace but also the American Civil War + Spanish Civil War + WWI + WWII + Korean War + Vietnam War
2/ - Yep, sure did - Short and to the Point are the best way to get peoples attention. Wall of Text just puts people off reading.
3/ - Noop, it wasn't just more extraneous stuff that puts people off.

[Coalminer]

Where can I get a new Remote for my T4 PVR (or can I use another model?)

[vader1111]

1. The Ice TV Box isn't too bad for what it is, but it *IS* expensive considering they packed so much in a such a small box with a fairly low powered CPU, but they offer detailed notes on building your own. It looks like the the price is high for a four tuner box (over $500, less than $600), and I haven't read whether you can copy shows off onto another hard drive, something that lots of us want to do: Their solution for tuners is USB for their own box, and yet I note only two USB ports on the back - I don't know how these things would go with a USB 3.0 Hub or whether anyone tried that with Beyonwiz tuners.

It is definitely possible to copy shows off the IceBox. You can just connect to it using SMB, and use File Explorer to the files around your network. Dead easy.

[prl]

Where can I get a new Remote for my T4 PVR (or can I use another model?)

You can use any Beyonwiz remote with a T4.

The Beyonwiz shop is showing the T3 remote as "in stock". It's marked as "Beyonwiz Replacement Remote for T2 T3 T4 & U4". It will work as a remote for all of those PVRs, but it's the original remote for the T3. IMO it's a better remote that the original T4 remote, but its layout is different from the T4 remote.

I'm not sure what the turnaround on the remote would be of you order it from the Beyonwiz shop.

Nasa Electronics, who do Beyonwiz repairs, also list the T3 remote (as the T3 remote) as in stock in their "Shop Now". They also list the T2 remote (which has the same layout as the T4 remote, but no backlight), but as out of stock.

https://www.nasaelectronics.com.au/shop

Personally, I'd go with buying from Nasa Electronics if I needed a remote.

[Coalminer]

Thanks PRL
I have ordered a T3 remote from NASA

[prl]

No problem.

[JohnDee]

Hi,
My V2 has started doing odd things.
It started with being unable to access the recordings without waiting for a very long time for the compass to stop going round (Over 2 hours)
I thought it could be the hard drive so changed it (Checks out OK), The files are readable on other devices too.
The replacement hard drive was OK for up to 7 recordings, then did the same thing, as also did a brand new a new drive.
Tonight I noticed when watching a recording that while the recording seemed smooth, bits were missing.
When I now make a recording I get the message:-
Creating hard link to timeshift failed
The file system used for timeshift must support hard links
/media/hard drive/timeshift
ERROR 1 [operation not permitted]
I have updated the software from the original to the latest with exactly the same results
I have no problem with anything else, just the recording.
Has anyone come across this problem, or any idea what is happening.
Thanks, John

[peteru]

First troubleshooting step would be to reseat all cables connected to the V2 and to replace the USB cable used to connect the HDD. It sounds very much like the HDD is being disconnected - bad cabling is a common problem and in some instances deterioration of cables and connectors happens over time.

Also make sure that the new HDD is formatted using the V2. Do not expect the HDD factory formatting to work reliably.

[JohnDee]

I used 2 different HD,'s with their own cables. I also used a new 128 gig USB stick.
I tried both "doze and the V2 to format.
It has made no difference.
I can get at all the V2 functions, and they seem to work Ok.
John

[JohnDee]

I have found one thing, the format instructions do not always work. The USB stick I tried last night may play but was formated to FAT32, which may explain the missing sections of playback.
I have formated another tonight to EXT4 with G-parted, but it will take several days before I have enough recordings to know if the problems have been fixed.
I will post later on the outcome.
John

[JohnDee]

Well, it's not getting any better.
I find that with 20+ recordings it will only display the first 6, then pauses doing something for about 3 min. then displays the next batch of 6.
It also started pausing in the middle of displaying the program list for 30 seconds. This made me wonder if the RAM has become corrupt.
It has started having problems with the picture breaking up to the point I had to bypass the V2 and connect the antenna directly to the TV tonight.
Has anyone suggestions what to do next?
Thanks, John

[prl]

Does the V2 have a HDD? Did you restart the V2 with both the HDD and USB stick connected when it restarted?

And when you say "with 20+ recordings it will only display the first 6", what is "it"?

[peteru]

If you are trying to record directly to a USB stick, then I am not surprised that you see problems. The majority of USB sticks are not designed for real-time recording performance and can have unacceptable write latency. If you require a small form factor solid state solution, an A/V rated SD or microSD card in a good quality USB adaptor is likely to do a better job. However, a proper SSD drive would be even better.

[JohnDee]

Well I changed the power supply just in case.
It has cured some of the problems, but I have just tried to display the original recording list.
It displayed the first 7 in a few seconds, then took 8 min for the next 4, 20 min for the next 2 and was still trying to show more after nearly an hour when I had to power off to stop it.
I am looking at alternatives. Panasonic have one, UEC have one, and the rest seem to be glorified STB's on ebay ((Twin tuner! ?})
I am a bit limited in that I am on Skynet with it's limited download so anything needing internet on is out. Any other suggestions?
Thanks, John

[prl]

Any other suggestions?

You don't seem to have addressed the ones that peteru and I made.

[JohnDee]

I did do what you said, though it does not appear so. The old hard drives were ex-laptop in new enclosures.
I have got rid of the USB stick and am now using a new WD green SSD in a new enclosure. I will have to see what happens in the long term.
For interest I also in my searching saw that new Humax are still selling on ALIExpress
John

[peteru]

Make sure that the enclosures don't put the HDD to sleep. Or that the drive isn't programmed to go to sleep. Leave the HDD power management to the Beyonwiz, otherwise you will end up with what amounts to unexpectedly disconnecting the HDD. That's bad juju.

[ShawnK]

Is an Ice TV IceBox( https://www.icetv.com.au/icebox/) an option?

I was going to suggest the IceBox is a possibility; I am one of the beta testing team for the IceBox and depending on your needs, it may be what you are looking for. It uses the IceTV EPG (you get 3 months or 2 months of BYOB subscription). It is possible to configure the IceBox to use FTA epg data, although I have not tried to do so. It may be easier to install LibreELEC directly then load the TVHeadend add-on which provides the PVR function.

At present there is an issue with getting closed captions to display when playing recordings, but they do work for live TV (suggesting the issue is with the TVHeadend add-on). So if closed captions are important, not a good idea at present.

You can reuse any Beyonwiz USB tuners with the IceBox, although I had issues when I tried it during early beta testing.

Ian

Of course, captions are important at certain points (not always). My friend was never able to configure it. Did it work out for you in the end?

[ShawnK]

Make sure that the enclosures don't put the HDD to sleep. Or that the drive isn't programmed to go to sleep. Leave the HDD power management to the Beyonwiz, otherwise you will end up with what amounts to unexpectedly disconnecting the HDD. That's bad juju.

I should have read this earlier

[The Old Man]

The shop still shows that there still a couple of things still available like a remote control. Would trying to purchage anything anymore just be akin to throughing your money into a black hole?

[IanL-S]

The shop still shows that there still a couple of things still available like a remote control. Would trying to purchage anything anymore just be akin to throughing your money into a black hole?

I would only purchase via PayPal where you get additional protection if they don't deliver.