FastForward / Review Issues

Raster · Post by **Raster** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 00:45

Hi I have just bought 2 x DP lite units and networked them with ease. I have to say, they are quite brilliant in the ease and reliability so far.

However i have one issue that is driving my wife up the wall (and me along with her). When we use the FfWd ro Rew buttons to essentially scroll to the point we want and release the button, it automatically skips forward and defeats the whole point of using the buttons in the first place.

I realise that we can use the cursor keys, but we like to see what we are skipping over but with the jump when we stop it makes it very dysfunctional.

Any assistance would be really helpful.

Cheers

Andrew

sub3R · Post by **sub3R** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 09:48

Hi Raster,

I can?t remember the last time I tried the FF/FR buttons (I always use the skip buttons), so what you are seeing could be typical. I notice item ?W3? under the ?Current wish list? for 01.05.320 & 01.07.031 f/w here lists a few requests for FF/FR & skip.

It would be worth configuring the skip buttons in the setup menu & trying those. I think once you get skip configured to your liking you won?t go back to using FF/FR. However, even after configuring the skip increments you still won?t be able to see the point where you want to stop skipping. The older Topfield TF7000HDPVRt was brilliant in this respect but unfortunately the wiz doesn?t appear to have the grunt to be able to display the image while skipping.

Regards,

download · Post by **download** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 10:37

I'm not sure I understand. If you tap the FF button once then the screen speeds up, tap it again and it speeds up more etc. Hit play to return to normal speed. Are you saying this doesn't happen?

Regards

Peter Gillespie

prl · Post by **prl** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 10:50

download wrote:I'm not sure I understand. If you tap the FF button once then the screen speeds up, tap it again and it speeds up more etc. Hit play to return to normal speed. Are you saying this doesn't happen?

Regards

Peter Gillespie

My reading of the OP is that yes, that happens, but when you press PLAY to go back to normal speed it skips forward to beyond the point in playback where PLAY was pressed.

Raster · Post by **Raster** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 11:10

Yes that is right, when you return to normal speed it jumps forward about 15 Seconds so you then have to rewind to get back. I do use the ship buttons, but this is a little annoying if you are trying to find a specific location.

Also sometimes using the FFwd buttons you can see what is going on if you want to speed view a section of a program.

sub3R · Post by **sub3R** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 11:10

That?s was my understanding of Raster?s post Peter (prl).
Clarification from Raster on this would help.

edit: I was too slow on the enter button.

tonymy01 · Post by **tonymy01** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 11:27

configure the left arrow key to be an 8sec back skip, and then when you ff, instead of pressing play, press the left arrow key. Easy solution really

Raster · Post by **Raster** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 12:22

Not really a solution, when you hit play, it should play from that point not jump forward. This solution makes it very difficult for anyone other than me to use as the expectation is that you use the >> keys for what they do on all other PVR's ad DVD's. It is a nice idea and i will set that up, but it wont go down as a solution for my wife.

Does everyone else's do the same or do i have two Dud units (chances are really small so i assume that everyone else is the same.

Thanks for the assistance however.

IanSav · Post by **IanSav** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 13:28

Hi Raster,

Most users here use the skip functions rather than REW/FF to reposition within media.

REW and FF are a rough and ready method of scanning media. They are not designed for accurate positioning. The issue is exacerbated at the higher REW/FF speeds where the flow of the video is not as smooth as screen updates are not as frequent. In the time it takes for you to see and recognise your required target point and the time it takes to press the PLAY button could account for some/most/all of the overshoot issue you are reporting. TiVo have a mechanism for correcting for this overshoot but that mechanism is patented and probably not available to Beyonwiz.

I suggest you explore the skip functionality and see if this provides you a better media positioning capability.

Regards,
Ian.

sub3R · Post by **sub3R** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 14:06

Raster wrote:?. when you hit play, it should play from that point not jump forward.
?.
Does everyone else's do the same or do i have two Dud units (chances are really small so i assume that everyone else is the same.
?.

I agree with Ian?s comments.

I just tried 4x FF followed by pressing PLAY on a wiz recording on the internal HDD (on a DP-S1 running 01.05.334 f/w) & I just seem to be seeing the reaction delay in the time it takes to press the PLAY button. This delay time varies depending on what FF speed is selected ? the faster the speed the further the playback will progress until normal playback speed returns. I?m not seeing a 15 second jump forward with 4x. With any FF speed in excess of 4x the playback isn?t smooth anyway so I think it would be hard to judge when to press the PLAY button - if the playback was a lot smoother in excess of 4x it would be easier to judge but the reaction time would play a bigger part.
I don?t think the wiz is capable of achieving fast super smooth playback (see my first post).

I think Tony?s suggestion is a good one ? it works well at 4x & it?s a lot easier to find the left cursor button than the PLAY button anyway.

I wonder how the FV-L1 users get around this.

Trying all this takes me back to the old technology of VHS video recorders.

scho · Post by **scho** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 14:31

When I first got the BW I too used the FF and RR buttons, just like I used to on my old VHS VCR and I got frustrated with the ability to find a position, same as you describe. It took a while to work out that with the digital paradigm I could achieve the functionality I wanted using the skip function. I use up arrow to skip forward 3 minutes, right arrow to skip forward 15 seconds, down arrow to skip back 3 minutes and left arrow to skip back 15 seconds. (These can be adjusted to your preference). With this combination I can easily skip over ad breaks and quickly skip back/forward in 15 second jumps (using the on screen progress time bar) to a precise location. (My wife quickly got the hang of it too). Now we don't use the FF/RR buttons at all.

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 15:48

I think it is acknowledged that the BW handling of FF and REW is pretty average, and that most of us simply don't use it any more in favour of skip buttons.

The latest firmware update released to the public last week lists an improvement to the handling of playback position following FF, REW and Pause, so it may be worth updating your firmware to see if it helps.

Raster · Post by **Raster** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 17:04

Thanks for all your help everyone, i will try the new firmware update and see if that improves things.

My main concern is user friendliness when we have a babysitter here or similar, they will not know what buttons to use so they will go for the obvious ones.

We have a 5 year old Phillips PVR and that does the whole FF Rev thing really well, but it only has a 90Gig drive and the IR reception is shocking, so it was removed to make way for the new DP-Lites.
I guess if this is the worst thing i find with the units then things really are not that bad.

Thanks again.

A

SJ2571 · Post by **SJ2571** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 22:16

IanSav wrote:REW and FF are a rough and ready method of scanning media. They are not designed for accurate positioning.

Hey, if a DVD player can do it with digital media, even when scanning at 32x speed, then
IMHO so can the BW. As a coder I feel it's laziness not to do it properly. All the BW has to
do is note which key frame was last shown when the Play button was pressed, and just
seek back to there. Seems simple enough to me.

IanSav · Post by **IanSav** » Mon Sep 27, 2010 22:38

Hi SJ2571,

Neither of us is permitted to see the toolkit with which Beyonwiz has to work. I don't know what mechanisms and controls are available to Beyonwiz. Perhaps they can't do better. I don't know. The wish for better control is on the wish list. Lets hope that there is something Beyonwiz can do to improve things for us all.

Regards,
Ian.

Rockets · Post by **Rockets** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 17:41

Raster wrote: We have a 5 year old Phillips PVR and that does the whole FF Rev thing really well, but it only has a 90Gig drive and the IR reception is shocking, so it was removed to make way for the new DP-Lites.

My wife & I came from a analogue Pioneer DVR which didn't have skipping. At first my wife really struggled with the FF/REW being "out" and the lack of playback resume support. Resume was added and she started using the skip keys. It took a little bit but she loves our P1 now especially that she can skip ads. With series recording and skipping it has totally changed how we watch TV. Give it a bit of time - it' sdefinelty better.

crippstor · Post by **crippstor** » Tue Sep 28, 2010 18:27

Rockets wrote: It took a little bit but she loves our P1 now especially that she can skip ads. With series recording and skipping it has totally changed how we watch TV. Give it a bit of time - it' sdefinelty better.

Totally agree. When I brought our P1 home 2 years ago, I got asked to explain why it was going to make our lives better. Within a week, I was being congratulated for the purchase. Goodbye sneakernet, hello never missing her shows which due to FTA weridness can show up anywhere

wozzwizz · Post by **wozzwizz** » Mon Nov 01, 2010 21:40

Raster wrote:Hi I have just bought 2 x DP lite units and networked them with ease. I have to say, they are quite brilliant in the ease and reliability so far.

However i have one issue that is driving my wife up the wall (and me along with her). When we use the FfWd ro Rew buttons to essentially scroll to the point we want and release the button, it automatically skips forward and defeats the whole point of using the buttons in the first place.

I realise that we can use the cursor keys, but we like to see what we are skipping over but with the jump when we stop it makes it very dysfunctional.

Any assistance would be really helpful.

Cheers

Andrew

I agree. I find this a real big annoyance. I have had the BeyonWiz for a while now. And i wait for every firmware update in the hope that this will be fixed. This a great machine and the best on the market but it would be a lot better if this problem was fixed.

brentd41 · Post by **brentd41** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 21:03

i had an lg hard driver recorder before i bought a Beyonwiz lite recently . that used to be able to fastforward at up to 100x and when i hit the play button at the section that i wanted to watch it played from that section. i found that i had the same problem as raster with the bw that i had to rewind as it seems to fail to play from the section i want to watch. i use the scan button to jump forward in 15sec increments but it is very disjointed as some times i just want to watch a recorded progamme from a certain section.maybe in the next update they might be able to fix this . this was the only problem that i have had to date. cheers brent ---------- dplite 500gb firmware01.07.055 into sonykdl-32ex600

IanSav · Post by **IanSav** » Thu Apr 28, 2011 23:34

Hi Brent,

Welcome!

I doubt that this will get addressed by the next firmware of any near term firmware. This is not an easy issue to fix and may well be beyond the current hardware to fix properly. Setting up personally preferred jump settings is probably the better way to go.

Talking about new firmware, are you aware that 01.07.350 is out?

Regards,
Ian.

brentd41 · Post by **brentd41** » Sat Apr 30, 2011 15:20

it still works well so it will be ok. thanks for letting me know about the firmware( i thought it was up to date)all done now thanks brent