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

[tb123]

Perhaps, but that doesn't really explain why either of the USB's I tried, (one new, one old) allowed 17.5 to be flashed back successfully does it?
Also, the fact that I did manage to get it to boot once with 19.3 installed (by flicking the power off and on) but not again would suggest something more intermittent or flaky, wouldn't it?

I'd be a bit suspicious of the tuner power regulators if you haven't had them attended too already. Doc warkus mentioned to me that flash memory issues can result from the bum regulators.
I'd suggest disconnect the power, wait 30 minutes, take off the cover and take a gander.

You've lost me?

From memory, he's actually had this unit back a year or two ago when after an update the Front Panel died (can't recall at the time if the FP was replaced or the whole unit though)

[MrQuade]

You've lost me?

From memory, he's actually had this unit back a year or two ago when after an update the Front Panel died (can't recall at the time if the FP was replaced or the whole unit though)

The T4 suffers from a common failure relating to the power regulators. This often hits the tuners first, but can affect other parts of the T4, including the flash memory.

Read here for some history. If your regulators have never been fixed up, then they may be on their last legs by now.

[tb123]

You've lost me?

From memory, he's actually had this unit back a year or two ago when after an update the Front Panel died (can't recall at the time if the FP was replaced or the whole unit though)

The T4 suffers from a common failure relating to the power regulators. This often hits the tuners first, but can affect other parts of the T4, including the flash memory.

Read here for some history. If your regulators have never been fixed up, then they may be on their last legs by now.

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

[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.

[bpratt]

Having troubles with my T3, as things started to go wrong with trying to change the IP on it, and then it started to crash.

Anyway, after much head scratching I've discovered the flash was full.

So I thought I'd just reflash it to 19.3 again, sadly I can't find my download of it, so trying to download it again, but download fails when I get to around 70Mb stage.

Anyone else able to download it ?

[prl]

There are more than 30 different release downloads for firmware versions based on the 19.3 build system. I presume that you mean this official release, 20191106, and downloaded from here on the forum, rather than from the Beyonwiz Downloads page?

If so, I just downloaded beyonwiz-19.3-beyonwizt3-20191106_usb.zip from here on the forum, and the download went without any problems, and its file size was 156189133 bytes, the same as my archived copy.

It also has the same MD5 checksum as my archived copy, 5ee30038ca19335b18a1afb426278909.

You might also want to try to work out why your flash was full. Lots of things break if it fills up.

You might even want to try moving to the current public beta.

[cockroach]

My front panel ^ (up arrow) doesnt work for some reason and therefore cant force an upgrade via USB. (Down button works fine its only the ^ arrow:(
Is there a syntax or something i can add to the USB to force the upgrade on start-up?

I only have 2 plugins installed, 'series to folder' and 'EPG refresh' ; are there any known issues with these plugins working wirh the latest firmware?

Any assistance on this matter is appreciated,
Sam

[Grumpy_Geoff]

My front panel ^ (up arrow) doesnt work for some reason and therefore cant force an upgrade via USB. (Down button works fine its only the ^ arrow:(
Is there a syntax or something i can add to the USB to force the upgrade on start-up?

Yes, "force" file - see viewtopic.php?f=50&t=14790&p=195068#p195068

I only have 2 plugins installed, 'series to folder' and 'EPG refresh' ; are there any known issues with these plugins working wirh the latest firmware?

None.
But don't install 20191106 - I recommend installing the beta version (viewtopic.php?f=56&t=14807).

[cockroach]

Thanks Geoff, installed the BETA version as suggested.
Have some questions:
Why install a BETA and not the firmware approved on the beyonwiz.com.au/downloads/ website?
I assume/hope the BETA has some bugfixes that the webiste doesnt.

Is there any limitation/issues in loading the BETA.

Whilst its simple to update to the the latest firmware, its quite painfull/time consuming to set up al the personlised settings/GUI (and im sure i missed some), why cant we restore from backup? it discourages users from upgrading.

Im sure these questisn DONT belong here, please advise what the correct method of finding posting these answers to get answers to these:
Is there a way to only record and keep the latest 5 recordings of a show? i.e. I want it to record daily and only keep the 5 'most recent' evening news (LIFO method)

The start-up screen still illustrates there's an IOS app but as you would know no longer exists on the app store, so i downloaded Telly'Mote, is there a way to connect to the T4 remotely?

Even with the latest firmware, i get the occasional swirly (thinking) icon in the middle of the screen, especially if the T4 is possibly doing to much, im happy to add more RAM or whatever is needed if that helps, is that possible?

The TIVO remote was able to be pointed anywhere and it worked, the Beyonwiz has to be directly pointed at the TV, is there a better T4 remote that doesnt have to be so precise?

And more....

[MrQuade]

Thanks Geoff, installed the BETA version as suggested.
Have some questions:
Why install a BETA and not the firmware approved on the beyonwiz.com.au/downloads/ website?
I assume/hope the BETA has some bugfixes that the webiste doesnt.

Stacks. The official firmware was released in late 2019, and there have been dozens of updates to the beta since then.

Beyonwiz officially release firmware fairly infrequently due to the fact that they have to notify people of the update, and then have to support that update and any problems that might arise as a result. Not something to be taken lightly.

The beta is provided as-is, but it recieves much more attention from the community and will always have the latest features and bug fixes.

Is there any limitation/issues in loading the BETA.

If you take the second step and subscribe to the beta update feed, then it does open you up to regular online updates that may have a couple of bugs in them. Those bugs will normally get fixed within the day if they are showstoppers, but there are occasional windows where an update might sneak through to end users that is no good.

The safer option is to install the beta from USB, and then not update, or even don't subscribe to the beta update feed so none of the temporary glitches make it through.

Saying all that, Beyonwiz has actually recently agreed to promote the current beta to a full release, so the beta will become official within a couple of weeks now.

Whilst its simple to update to the the latest firmware, its quite painfull/time consuming to set up al the personlised settings/GUI (and im sure i missed some), why cant we restore from backup? it discourages users from upgrading.

If you come from a very old version of firmware (like 16.1 series or earlier), then your settings are likely incompatible and will cause problems.
If you are updating from the 17.5 series, or one of the 19.3 series firmwares, then you *can* restore from backups.

Im sure these questisn DONT belong here, please advise what the correct method of finding posting these answers to get answers to these:
Is there a way to only record and keep the latest 5 recordings of a show? i.e. I want it to record daily and only keep the 5 'most recent' evening news (LIFO method)

Short answer is no. Longer answer is that you could write clever scripts to do that. Some have been developed by users, but none are really robust enough to be elevated to a standard feature. It's not the easiest feature to implement once you dig into it since the Wiz doesn't strictly know what constitutes "episodes" and has to do some guessing.

The start-up screen still illustrates there's an IOS app but as you would know no longer exists on the app store, so i downloaded Telly'Mote, is there a way to connect to the T4 remotely?

There are some other apps that work. They work with any "enigma2" compatible PVR.
The popular one is called "Gigablue Player". Available on IOS and Android.

Even with the latest firmware, i get the occasional swirly (thinking) icon in the middle of the screen, especially if the T4 is possibly doing to much, im happy to add more RAM or whatever is needed if that helps, is that possible?

That means the Wiz main GUi task is hung up waiting for something to happen in the background. This can happen if you are smashing the web interface, or if you have an Autotimer definition that has run rogue and is taking too long to process. Usually cleaning up the Autotimer definitions will fix this. Otherwise you need to work out what the Wiz is getting "stuck" on.

The TIVO remote was able to be pointed anywhere and it worked, the Beyonwiz has to be directly pointed at the TV, is there a better T4 remote that doesnt have to be so precise?

The the Wiz itself that's mostly at fault here. The IR sensor is buried too deeply into the front panel.

You can use an IR repeater (I have a harmony remote that uses fixed location IR blasters), or if you are super keen, modify the front panel to bring the receiver further forward.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Is there a way to only record and keep the latest 5 recordings of a show? i.e. I want it to record daily and only keep the 5 'most recent' evening news (LIFO method)

One "hacky" way is to set up an AutoTimer definition to record those programs directly into Trash (or a sub-directory of it). That way they'll get cleaned up automatically. Set up a suitable Trash retention period of course.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Even with the latest firmware, i get the occasional swirly (thinking) icon in the middle of the screen, especially if the T4 is possibly doing to much,

Do you use AutoTimers? Does this happen exactly every 30 minutes (assuming default run interval)?

[cockroach]

Even with the latest firmware, i get the occasional swirly (thinking) icon in the middle of the screen, especially if the T4 is possibly doing to much,

Do you use AutoTimers? Does this happen exactly every 30 minutes (assuming default run interval)?

Yes i do have/use many Auto Timers, NO it does not happen every 30mins, (if it was that often i would lose my mind) but i think your own to something there as it does see to happen a few times a week of he evening for some reason- weel it did on my previous 17.5 firmware, ive only have 19.3 for a few hours now.

[cockroach]

Ive installed Beta 19.3 as suggested and found a consistent bug/crash.
If you press MENU then go to POWER>POWER TIMERS>AUTO DEEP STANDBY and then press the Volume down it will crash the T4 and restart.

I found this by going into this area to set up AUTO DEEP STANDBY and the volume was loud so tried reducing the volume and it crashes/restarts, tried again after restart and same again. Not a big deal as its unlikely to need to do this, BUT you may find a bug fix to this may also resolve other matters in future releases. If it helps, attached is my logs.

ALSO: As suggested by someone, I've enable AUTO DEEP STANDBY after 240mins but does the T4 still record any Auto Timers due when in this state?

Thanks
Sam

[MrQuade]

Ive installed Beta 19.3 as suggested and found a consistent bug/crash.
If you press MENU then go to POWER>POWER TIMERS>AUTO DEEP STANDBY and then press the Volume down it will crash the T4 and restart.

Possibly related to some other recent changes to power timers....

ALSO: As suggested by someone, I've enable AUTO DEEP STANDBY after 240mins but does the T4 still record any Auto Timers due when in this state?

It will wake for any timers that have been set, manual, Autotimer, or Ice. The Wiz won't automatically wake to check the EPG and run an Autotimers scan though. Shouldn't be a problem unless your Wiz doesn't wake very often for other timers.

[peteru]

Thanks for the bug report. The next beta update should fix the crashing problem.

[netmask]

Not sure where to post this, so move as appropriate: Did the firmware update OTA, nothing remarkable happened and seems happy. I missed the update log so could someone point me to it?

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Not sure where to post this, so move as appropriate: Did the firmware update OTA, nothing remarkable happened and seems happy. I missed the update log so could someone point me to it?

It's in the "other" thread, the one for 20211010.