New Firmware for (T2/T3/T4/U4/V2) 06/11/2019

[MrQuade]

Oh, excellent!
My T4 did go to Warkus, but it was 3 years ago now after I bricked it after a front panel update (all stemmed from a power failure) sounds like some other parts were replaced at the time - maybe the regulators? Is that something he would have done as a matter of course back then by chance?
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=11384&p=156706#p155616

Possible he did fix it. Warkus will usually give units a thorough going over, and it is likely he was aware of the problem at the time, as your post lines up with this one.

[tb123]

Oh, excellent!
My T4 did go to Warkus, but it was 3 years ago now after I bricked it after a front panel update (all stemmed from a power failure) sounds like some other parts were replaced at the time - maybe the regulators? Is that something he would have done as a matter of course back then by chance?
viewtopic.php?f=50&t=11384&p=156706#p155616

Possible he did fix it. Warkus will usually give units a thorough going over, and it is likely he was aware of the problem at the time, as your post lines up with this one.

thanks, looks like mine was fixed around the same time as that post so here's hoping!

[Paul_oz53]

Returning to the USB recognition question, on one of my U4s I had the same problem with a USB stick hanging mid upgrade to 19.3. It was an old faithful but no amount of re-downloading fixed it. Importantly, it hung mid upgrade each time.

However, another USB stick worked fine. An old Imation IIRC.

The other machines I did online so no clue whether it would have also affected them.

It seems to me that something has affected USB drive recognition at the margin. Maybe a particular chipset or chipset family is not functioning correctly.

[tb123]

Returning to the USB recognition question, on one of my U4s I had the same problem with a USB stick hanging mid upgrade to 19.3. It was an old faithful but no amount of re-downloading fixed it. Importantly, it hung mid upgrade each time.

However, another USB stick worked fine. An old Imation IIRC.

The other machines I did online so no clue whether it would have also affected them.

It seems to me that something has affected USB drive recognition at the margin. Maybe a particular chipset or chipset family is not functioning correctly.

Thanks Paul - mine never hung during the upgrade, I got the updating Splash screen, went all the way through, said it was finished and to remove the USB and press the power button. I remove the USB and as soon as the power button is pressed, unit just turns off and stays off, non responsive to the power buttons.

[Paul_oz53]

Thanks Paul - mine never hung during the upgrade, I got the updating Splash screen, went all the way through, said it was finished and to remove the USB and press the power button. I remove the USB and as soon as the power button is pressed, unit just turns off and stays off, non responsive to the power buttons.

Best as I recall, the U4 hung before the finished message came up. My T4 handled the online upgrade with no problems though.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Best as I recall, the U4 hung before the finished message came up.

I bet it was when flashing 'Rootfile sys'

[Paul_oz53]

Best as I recall, the U4 hung before the finished message came up.

I bet it was when flashing 'Rootfile sys'

Sounds about right.

[tb123]

Thanks Paul - mine never hung during the upgrade, I got the updating Splash screen, went all the way through, said it was finished and to remove the USB and press the power button. I remove the USB and as soon as the power button is pressed, unit just turns off and stays off, non responsive to the power buttons.

Best as I recall, the U4 hung before the finished message came up. My T4 handled the online upgrade with no problems though.

From what I understand the 17.5 > 19.3 upgrade is USB only?

[MrQuade]

From what I understand the 17.5 > 19.3 upgrade is USB only?

Yep, the only way to upgrade between major numbered revisions like that is via USB.

[Paul_oz53]

From what I understand the 17.5 > 19.3 upgrade is USB only?

Yep, the only way to upgrade between major numbered revisions like that is via USB.

To clarify, I was on an earlier version of 19.3 but it was the upgrade to a recent beta that gave me troubles. The U4 came to me secondhand but wasn't working properly so I decided to reflash it by USB as it didn't want to download the online update.

In fact, I flashed it to 17.5 when 19.3 wouldn't install and then to 19.3. At first I thought I had a dud but was relieved when 17.5 worked, followed by 19.3. It's running the 20200405 beta now with no issues.

[stevebow]

How about monitoring the serial o/p during flashing - it may report any flashing issues there.

[peteru]

I split-off the EPG related discussion as it was off-topic for this thread.

[UserLess]

Haven't looked on the forum for several months & just found there's newer firmware. Easily done.

Release Notes anywhere? All I can find is reference to posting release notes later, but can't find any. Can't say I've looked at every post though.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Release Notes anywhere?

Here.

[UserLess]

Release Notes anywhere?

Here.

Thank you. I tried to think what else besides "Release Notes" I should search for.

Haven't looked on the forum for several months & just found there's newer firmware. Easily done.

I understand the issue about can't auto-update notify for the major version upgrades, however I was receiving Beyonwiz marketing material email.
It would be good to get an upgrade email. Possible?

[diesel]

Hi All
It's been a while since I last visited the Forum and I see a newer version of FW is available
I'm on a U4 running the 17.x version
I don't really have any issues with my unit, except for;
* occasionally shutting down after a pop-up saying a timer has finished and giving me an option to continue shutdown or continue using the PVR. Usually I press "No" and after the 3rd time it closes down anyway
* Occasionally it fails to boot, or freezes when in use (maybe once or twice a month) and a hard power reset is required.

The family have learned to live with these "quirks" so I am reticent to upgrade for benefits we may not use/perceive.

Any reason not to upgrade - big issues or watch outs?
Our use is 100% Live TV and TV recordings only, with an occasional home video stored on the internal HDD.

Also, is development still ongoing for FW - looks like the latest version is more than a year old?

[prl]

I don't really have any issues with my unit, except for;
* occasionally shutting down after a pop-up saying a timer has finished and giving me an option to continue shutdown or continue using the PVR. Usually I press "No" and after the 3rd time it closes down anyway

If you mean this problem: #738 Unwanted shutdown when recording ends, then that is fixed in the current public beta (20210119), but not in the most recent official release (20191106).

IMO, you'd be better off using the current public beta than 20191106 anyway.

It's hard to say whether your freezes will be addressed by the upgrade (to either version), because there's not much information to go on. The current beta has trimmed down memory use for IceTV updates, but the issues that that addresses shouldn't affect "big memory" boxes like the U4.

You will have to re-do your settings as per the installation instructions for 20191106 whether you upgrade to 20191106 or to 20210119, but settings saved in 20191106 can be restored in 20210119.

[MrQuade]

Any reason not to upgrade - big issues or watch outs?
Our use is 100% Live TV and TV recordings only, with an occasional home video stored on the internal HDD.

None that spring to mind.
The file sharing security has been tuned quite a bit since the 17 series firmware, so you may encounter some differences there, but no issues as such.
You'll get quite a nice raft of improvements and bug fixes along with all the new channel icons and such. I even think the end of recording popup code has been changed since then too, so one of your gripes may be resolved. (honestly, it has been that long, I can't remember when that was changed exactly)
EDIT: Thanks prl!

Also, is development still ongoing for FW - looks like the latest version is more than a year old?

The firmware is effectively being updated in the beta stream at the moment. Beyonwiz haven't pushed the beta out to the public release in some time, I would encourage you to install the latest beta image to get the most up to date firmware. The last update was only a couple of weeks ago.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

You will have to re-do your settings as per the installation instructions for 20191106 whether you upgrade to 20191106 or to 20210119, but settings saved in 20191106 can be restored in 20210119.

You _can_ restore from a settings backup taken using a 17.5-series firmware.

[prl]

I was just going from what the installation notes said: "v19.3 is a Major Upgrade and you cannot restore your old settings from previous versions or it will cause problems."

[Grumpy_Geoff]

I was just going from what the installation notes said: "v19.3 is a Major Upgrade and you cannot restore your old settings from previous versions or it will cause problems."

Yes I'm aware of that, it was simply Jai's lazy posting. As I wrote in the 3rd post in this topic -

This is just a lazy copy/paste jobbie from the post of the first general release in the 17.5 series firmware - 20180417.
In the topic on the 19.3 series first public beta, peteru posted that one can "restore settings if upgrading from 17.5 series, otherwise configure from scratch".

[Paul_oz53]

Also, is development still ongoing for FW - looks like the latest version is more than a year old?

The firmware is effectively being updated in the beta stream at the moment. Beyonwiz haven't pushed the beta out to the public release in some time, I would encourage you to install the latest beta image to get the most up to date firmware. The last update was only a couple of weeks ago.

I am running the 20210119 beta and it is quite stable. Your security settings for networking may require a tweak if you use SMB networking but, apart from that, it should be fine.

I complained of unexpected lockups on 17.5 back in 2018 but never resolved the issue. With 19.3 it is rare I have that issue. I expect you will have a similar experience if you update.