New Firmware for (T2/T3/T4/U4) 17/04/2018

[prl]

Because of a conversation on the IceTV Forum (about doubled up recordings) I thought I'd download and re-install the latest firmware

The changes to the Beyonwiz IceTV plugin that are intended to fix that problem aren't yet in any released T/U series firmware, official or beta..

[csutak40]

Because of a conversation on the IceTV Forum (about doubled up recordings) I thought I'd download and re-install the latest firmware

The changes to the Beyonwiz IceTV plugin that are intended to fix that problem aren't yet in any released T/U series firmware, official or beta..

Thanks for that. I sort of figured that was the case.
The problem is still happening

[Gary_T4]

My T4 has been recording double for quite a while. Can't remember was all was OK!
I haven't updated the firmware for quite a while so I was thinking an update may be the answer to all my prayers (wife's really).
I can't get any updates for my T2 and T4, just the 404 error!
Am I missing something obvious?
Gary
(now back in Perth!)

[Gary_T4]

OK, I am the dummy..
Just found it. Amazing what you see when you open your eyes.
My wife would say I had a "Man Look"
Cheers people

[Krusty]

Your firmware link for the T3 is dead!http://beyonwiz.com.au/firmware/t3/beyo ... 17_usb.zip so where can I get the firmware?

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Your firmware link for the T3 is dead!http://beyonwiz.com.au/firmware/t3/beyo ... 17_usb.zip so where can I get the firmware?

From here - https://beyonwiz.com.au/downloads/

[Krusty]

Much appreciated, many thanks.

I did find it using Google but the firmware is most confusing as in many screens it clearly says T2, in fact in most screens. I appreciate they are likely the same. Backups are also pointless since they get wiped when firmware is updated. I have NEVER found a way to store them elsewhere or externally.

I had to update as a minor power outage corrupted data whereby the machine crashed every time I opened "Setup".

It's a long, long process now to start from scratch & so annoying.

The Beyonwiz is a fantastic device but sadly very outdated in many regards, even the current models.

[MrQuade]

I did find it using Google but the firmware is most confusing as in many screens it clearly says T2, in fact in most screens. I appreciate they are likely the same. Backups are also pointless since they get wiped when firmware is updated. I have NEVER found a way to store them elsewhere or externally.

You just need to click on the T3 tab to expose the T3 firmware downloads. All models are listed.

If you are upgrading within the same major version of firmware, then you can save the config very easily.
If you upgrade from 4.4 to 16.1 or 16.1 to 17.5 though, the configs are not compatible, so you cannot restore them.

All you need to do is go into MENU->Setup->Software manager->Create backup

That will create a setings backup on your T3's harddisk.

The next time you install firmware via USB, the T3 will find the backup automatically, and offer to restore it for you.

[Krusty]

All you need to do is go into MENU->Setup->Software manager->Create backup

Thanks but as I said the machine whilst it worked in most functions failed after a power outage in the early hours. Often these machine have had issues whereby the network mounts failed & needed to be remounted. When I went to setup the machine crashed (five times) so the only option I had was to reload the firmware since I could not access backups or any settings at all.

This restored the machine to factory default & there were no backups remaining. As I said if only a backup could be saved on an external device! We have used Beyonwiz PVRs for many years since they started & have invariably found them to have problems if anything went wrong.

It is now a laborious task redoing the myriad of settings such as mounts, network settings, culling useless channels, EPG, (rows, width, channels, columns, etc.). Not to mention shared folders, timers, auto timers, etc. It will literally take many hours unfortunately.

BTW I am fully competent with complex & advanced technology so heaven help those who aren't.

Of note I did not update, I loaded the same firmware.

[MrQuade]

All you need to do is go into MENU->Setup->Software manager->Create backup

Thanks but as I said the machine whilst it worked in most functions failed after a power outage in the early hours. Often these machine have had issues whereby the network mounts failed & needed to be remounted. When I went to setup the machine crashed (five times) so the only option I had was to reload the firmware since I could not access backups or any settings at all.

You would have needed to have backed up the settings prior to the crash.
This is generally a good habit to get into. Once you have everything working the way you like it, go and perform a settings backup.

This restored the machine to factory default & there were no backups remaining. As I said if only a backup could be saved on an external device! We have used Beyonwiz PVRs for many years since they started & have invariably found them to have problems if anything went wrong.

The settings backup goes to the Wiz's internal HDD. The HDD is not touched by a firmware reload or a factory reset, so any backups that were made would be left in place.

[prl]

Once you have everything working the way you like it, go and perform a settings backup.

And do a settings backup before every USB upgrade, unless the settings can't be used after the upgrade, like when going from 4.4 versions to 16.1 versions or 16.1 versions to 17.5 versions.

This will make sure that your timers list is restored correctly after the upgrade, as well as saving any minor settings changes you've made, but not saved (or not noticed, like having done scans to keep up with changes to the available channels).

[Paul_oz53]

...
This restored the machine to factory default & there were no backups remaining. As I said if only a backup could be saved on an external device! We have used Beyonwiz PVRs for many years since they started & have invariably found them to have problems if anything went wrong.
...

I don't understand why you don't have backups. From Windows, I accessed my T4. My root directory is open to windows via samba. In "\\BWIZT4\Root\media\hdd\backup\beyonwiz\v1" I have 54 backups going back to Feb 2018 and I have done full firmware flashes at least six or more times. If the firmware version you were using is recent, I don't see a reason why these backups wouldn't exist except if you update without selecting the option to make a backup. The option to save a backup was introduced quite a while back and just works.

If I felt the need, I can easily copy these to my MS machine. You could too if you chose to do so.

I've encountered many software bugs and hardware faults over the years but I've found with rare exceptions the betas are sound and any software faults rapidly rectified. For hardware, I rely on Warkus. My one experience elsewhere didn't end so well. Warkus is quite able to relate problem stories with many competing brands.

As for outdated, the one compromise I make by choice is to prefer to be able to download and save unencrypted programs easily, at the cost of not being able to watch catch up TV. I have a dongle for that. Not sure there are many other modern features worth having!

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Thanks but as I said the machine whilst it worked in most functions failed after a power outage in the early hours.

Just a guess that the flash memory was corrupted from the power outage.

Often these machine have had issues whereby the network mounts failed & needed to be remounted.

I've never needed to remount shares on our T2, T4 and U4.

When I went to setup the machine crashed (five times) so the only option I had was to reload the firmware since I could not access backups or any settings at all.

Adds to my suspicion of corrupted firmware. It's still just a guess though.
I'm with the others here - if you had taken a settings backup whilst on that 20180417 firmware, then a settings restore would've been offered once you reflashed with that version or a later firmware version.
Was there anything in /hdd/backup/beyonwiz/v1/?
Did you change the default backup location at any point in time?

This restored the machine to factory default & there were no backups remaining. As I said if only a backup could be saved on an external device! We have used Beyonwiz PVRs for many years since they started & have invariably found them to have problems if anything went wrong.

It is now a laborious task redoing the myriad of settings such as mounts, network settings, culling useless channels, EPG, (rows, width, channels, columns, etc.). Not to mention shared folders, timers, auto timers, etc. It will literally take many hours unfortunately.

Sure, As above with regards to any contents of the backup location.

[Krusty]

Was there anything in /hdd/backup/beyonwiz/v1/?

In that location is enigmasettingsbackup.tar.gz but dated yesterday as I did a progressive backup. The first thing I did after the restore was to go to restore & there was no restore file.

The file is aptly named "Enigma" as there is absolutely no hint as to what one can actually do with this file? I assume you extract it then copy it to the required but unknown location.

Anyway I will plod along & hopefully get things working though the NAS shared folders will be a challenge as I need to establish these shares again & it's been years since I first did it.

I do find it extraordinary that today I need to use a TP-Link Nano ethernet Wireless N router to have Wireless access, one would expect that Wi-Fi would be a standard inclusion?

Thanks for the feedback!!!

FOOTNOTE: I did just find that five years back I had somehow managed to do two copies of enigmasettingbackup.tar.gz to an external source (thumb drive) so if anyone can explain how I can restore these it would be greatly appreciated thanks?

[Grumpy_Geoff]

Was there anything in /hdd/backup/beyonwiz/v1/?

In that location is enigmasettingsbackup.tar.gz but dated yesterday as I did a progressive backup. The first thing I did after the restore was to go to restore & there was no restore file.

If there's no other backups located in /hdd/backup/beyonwiz/v1/ then that means either -

• Your previously installed firmware was an earlier firmware version (e.g. 16.1 series 20170310) than the 17.5 series 20180417 you've just installed now.
  The backup location was changed between the 16.1 firmware series and the 17.5 series.
  Is there anything in the parent directory - /hdd/backup/beyonwiz/? If so, they'd be from an earlier series.
• You had 20180417 installed previously, but never took a backup.
  Backups aren't deleted. When a new backup is taken, the then "current" backup is renamed with a date stamp.
  You only have the one backup file present in /hdd/backup/beyonwiz/v1/, thus you've only taken backups using 20180417 yesterday.

There is newer firmware available than the 17.5 series 20180417 that you installed yesterday - 17.5 20190207.

FOOTNOTE: I did just find that five years back I had somehow managed to do two copies of enigmasettingbackup.tar.gz to an external source (thumb drive) so if anyone can explain how I can restore these it would be greatly appreciated thanks?

Yes it is possible. I question the value of that though, because if they really are dated 5 years ago then the settings are from a much earlier firmware series and can't be directly used.
You could extract the settings file and print it out to get an idea of what values you've used. You should be able to use WinZip to open the backup and view the settings file.
The AutoTimer definitions likely would be directly usable - but how many from 5 years ago would still be current?

[Krusty]

Yes, true! Five years is a long time ago. The HD did have a current backup but for reasons unknown it was gone after the firmware update.

One issue I'm presently having is creating favorite channels, I tag those required & the EPG then is empty with entry 1 having N/A which cannot be removed. I have so far restored the progressive backup to try again but each attempt ends with this line 1 being N/A. Most annoying.

I won't try to use the old backup but will in future copy backups to an external source more often.

Many thanks!

Okay figured out the N/A problem. it happens is you add favorites to quickly.

[MrQuade]

One issue I'm presently having is creating favorite channels, I tag those required & the EPG then is empty with entry 1 having N/A which cannot be removed. I have so far restored the progressive backup to try again but each attempt ends with this line 1 being N/A. Most annoying.

Are you just coping your preferred channels into the Favourites bouquet?

Note that you shouldn't be deleting anything from the automatically generated bouquets. That's the only reason that I can think that you might end up with N/A entries.

You will also need to switch the EPG so that it is displaying your Favourites bouquet and not one of the others.

[prl]

The file is aptly named "Enigma" as there is absolutely no hint as to what one can actually do with this file? I assume you extract it then copy it to the required but unknown location.

The file has "enigma2" in its name because enigma2 is the name of the open source software that runs the Beyonwiz (and many other) PVRs.

The files in the /media/hdd/backup/beyonwiz/v1 directory are normally managed by the settings backup/restore features, in MENU>Setup>Software manager>Create backup/Restore backup. You normally never need to know the name of the files to use settings backup. The files there are also checked when you do an upgrade from USB to allow you to restore your old settings on the new firmware.

There are more advanced backup/restore options in PLUGIN>Software management>Advanced options.

FOOTNOTE: I did just find that five years back I had somehow managed to do two copies of enigmasettingbackup.tar.gz to an external source (thumb drive) so if anyone can explain how I can restore these it would be greatly appreciated thanks?

That would happen if you did a settings backup when there was a USB drive connected, but the internal HDD was inaccessible.

You can also make that deliberate choice by setting the backup location in PLUGIN>Software management>Advanced options>Select backup location.

I'd advise against making changes to the backup location (and using many of the other advanced backup features) unless you have a particular need to use them, and know exactly what consequences using them has.

The most recent backup is called enigma2settingsbackup.tar.gz. Earlier backups, if they exist, have names in the form 2019-10-23-enigma2settingsbackup.tar.gz, where the date is the date the backup was done.

[Krusty]

I really appreciate the help given & I'm mostly back in action albeit not yet with the NAS share folders, but I will sort that later. I have the EPG back as previously, I cull the unused (Radio & Shopping, etc) channels & in Sydney this allows you to compress the number of lines to 19 or 20 which then shows ALL channels on just one screen.

I did remember that to change to favorites you need to select & switch to one of the channels, a somewhat tricky maneuver. I really love the Beyonwiz products though would never recommend then to a luddite or non-technical user (or I could become their support).

I am surprised though that the current V2 still doesn't have Wi-Fi though I'm sure it is far more advanced than the T3. I would upgrade if they made it easier with Wi-Fi instead of the dongle or TP-Link AP that I use. They are a great product though thanks to this forum it had to be sent away for replacement of the dodgy capacitors a few years back.

Maybe I will research the V2 to see what has changed. I would as well probably use an SSD though is there really any point since they don't cope well with frequent sector writes. We record under 5 hours each week.

Thanks all for the info, I will check out the backup file as a text file too as suggested!

[MrQuade]

I did remember that to change to favorites you need to select & switch to one of the channels, a somewhat tricky maneuver. I really love the Beyonwiz products though would never recommend then to a luddite or non-technical user (or I could become their support).

Almost any TV I have ever used that has multiple favourites lists does it the same way. Perhaps it is just the navigation steps on the Wiz that make it seem more convoluted?

I am surprised though that the current V2 still doesn't have Wi-Fi though I'm sure it is far more advanced than the T3. I would upgrade if they made it easier with Wi-Fi instead of the dongle or TP-Link AP that I use.

It deliberately specced to be cost effective, and you add features as required by adding parts. That way, you can sell a cheap base model for those people who don't want WiFi, or those who don't want a HDD, or extra tuners etc..
You can either do that, or sell a range of differently specced products, and having lots of different production models has its own costs and headaches for the manufacturer/distributor.

Maybe I will research the V2 to see what has changed. I would as well probably use an SSD though is there really any point since they don't cope well with frequent sector writes. We record under 5 hours each week.

The Unofficial Comparison Guide should be your first stop then.

Your big improvements over the T3 is full 1080p and 2160p(4K) support.
HEVC (h.265) media decoding support.
Ability to run Kodi and Kodi plugins.
External power supply (fewer issues with failing internal supplies).
Gigabit Ethernet.
Much faster CPU for a snappier GUI.
USB3.

Anyway, I'll let the list talk about the cost/benefits in detail.

[Krusty]

On a brief look it's somewhat surprising, no internal HDD, no front USB, the external power supply is better of course & the improved speed but in some ways it appears to be a downgrade rather than an upgrade. Whilst the T3 is still doing okay I shall think about it.

The internal Micro SD card confused me as most SD cards are slow compared to drives & have little capacity, is it simply as memory & you need to use an external HDD? Can't say I'm impressed! Sorry. External HDD, external Wi-Fi dongle or AP, external additional tuners?

Thanks for the information, I haven't really kept up with the progression of the newer models. It is small I have to say!

[MrQuade]

The internal Micro SD card confused me as most SD cards are slow compared to drives & have little capacity, is it simply as memory & you need to use an external HDD? Can't say I'm impressed! Sorry. External HDD, external Wi-Fi dongle or AP, external additional tuners?

I use a MicroSD on mine as the only local bulk storage. It's mostly used for timeshifting.
MicroSD is definitely not as fast as a a SSD, but it is comparable to a regular low-power HDD. My recommendation is to ensure it has a U3 speed rating. A U1 (Class 10) is probably good enough, but better to be safe. The V2 supports 500GB cards, though I run a 128MB in mine.

But yes, the V2 has 2 internal tuners, and additional tuners must be USB. The T2 was the same, except you could only add a 3rd tuner, you couldn't add a fourth. All the other models were limited to 4 internal/external too.

The external HDD is one that is a bit of a bummer true. You can just plug one in and tuck it away somewhere unobtrusive thought. Also consider if you used a MicroSD for local timeshift and cache files, and then simply recorded directly onto your NAS or another networked computer instead.

[Draadnor]

....... I cull the unused (Radio & Shopping, etc) channels & in Sydney this allows you to compress the number of lines to 19 or 20 which then shows ALL channels on just one screen.

I hope you don't mean that you deleted the "Terrestrial TV LCN" channel. Apparently this is a nono. The best way is to setup your favourites to include only the stations you want (easiest to do this from your PC using the Openwebif webpage.

[Krusty]

No, I added the ones that are used to favorites.

I'm sure that others have found that one badly timed button click has unwanted results! This was the reason that number 1 in favorites loaded N/A. Also in my laborious restore the thing typically has frozen around five times requiring the long power off reset/reboot. I've learned to live with this over the years though!

Sadly I am coming to the realization that the beloved Beyonwiz PVRs are no more but have been replaced with the V2 basic media player. I have a media player that we sometimes of use in hotels if the TV has HDMI but they are unfortunately not a scratch on a true PVR.

[MrQuade]

I've learned to live with this over the years though!

You shouldn't have to. Can you recall exactly what you were doing when this happened?

I literally can't remember when I last had to hard reboot any of my T/U/V series during normal operation.

[Krusty]

I've learned to live with this over the years though!

You shouldn't have to. Can you recall exactly what you were doing when this happened?

I literally can't remember when I last had to hard reboot any of my T/U/V series during normal operation.

Well so far in my mammoth attempt to restore settings I have needed to do this now probably 10 times, the spinner comes up & that's it. One example is if I look at network devices, click on one & then cancel it invariably freezes & needs power off!

My current problem though is restoring the network mounts but I posted this as a new post!

[Grumpy_Geoff]

My current problem though is restoring the network mounts but I posted this as a new post!

That topic of yours has disappeared.

[prl]

I hope you don't mean that you deleted the "Terrestrial TV LCN" channel. Apparently this is a nono.

The problems that made editing the Terrestrial TV LCN bouquet (if that's what you mean) problematic have now been resolved. However, IMO it's still not a good idea, because it's a little tricky to do correctly, and all your changes will be undone the next time you do a service scan.

If you meant deleting the whole Terrestrial TV LCN bouquet, then that's never been a technical problem, though again, it will come back every time you do a service scan.

[prl]

Sadly I am coming to the realization that the beloved Beyonwiz PVRs are no more but have been replaced with the V2 basic media player. I have a media player that we sometimes of use in hotels if the TV has HDMI but they are unfortunately not a scratch on a true PVR.

I'm not sure which "beloved" Beyonwiz PVRs you mean. The newer T/U/V model series all run pretty much the same firmware, and IMO they're all good PVRs and fairly ordinary media players.

The way you select the current Favourites list is pretty much the same in those models as the old DP series.

Each time I visit my daughter's and use her DP-S1, I'm reminded how much better I find the new models.

BTW: the rationale for needing to select a channel when you switch to a new bouquet (or Favourites list) is that it ensures that the current channel is one that's actually in the new bouquet.

[prl]

I've learned to live with this over the years though!

You shouldn't have to. Can you recall exactly what you were doing when this happened?

I literally can't remember when I last had to hard reboot any of my T/U/V series during normal operation.

I can remember for my boxes. It's usually the last time I made a mess of the code I'm trying to modify.

But in normal use, very rarely.

I wonder whether there's a hardware problem or some other issue specific to Krusty's setup.

[Krusty]

My current problem though is restoring the network mounts but I posted this as a new post!

That topic of yours has disappeared.

Sorry I should have modified this post.

I did explain the issue in a post but then resolved it so I went back & deleted the other post. My problem was in the mounts showing "Directory does not exist" but this related to the fact that "Media" was not mounted (so it didn't have a path). This was because the Media default was 192.168.0.0 whereas it needs to be the Beyonwiz IP, in my case 192.168.1.180.

Everything at this time is now pretty much back to where it was & maybe the clean install will improve things? I had noticed for some time scrolling in the EPG was painfully slow & adding timers occasionally failed to register, so maybe it has eliminated a lot of old & redundant superfluous data similar to the issues with the Windows register. Does this happen?

Thanks everyone for your excellent help & hopefully I can keep the T3 going for a long time, I'm just not sure that the V2 really is an improvement as it appears to be more a media player & not a PVR.

[Grumpy_Geoff]

I've learned to live with this over the years though!

You shouldn't have to. Can you recall exactly what you were doing when this happened?

I literally can't remember when I last had to hard reboot any of my T/U/V series during normal operation.

I can remember for my boxes. It's usually the last time I made a mess of the code I'm trying to modify.

But in normal use, very rarely.

For me, it's usually when I'm phaffing around with different wireless adapters or changing bands and start streaming to test out the change - the connection will sometimes drop and GStreamer (or whatever) gets a stream EOF and gets in a "wait to grow" loop.

[Krusty]

I shall see if these random lockups still happen as the clean install may have reduced or eliminated them. I honestly just accepted it as normal & it related to nothing in particular. Maybe I'm too fast as I do tend to speed ahead & rarely wait assuming that keystrokes & functions are buffered, maybe not.

The favorites issue with the N/A as entry one definitely related to selecting the "adds" to quickly. I'm sure it is easy to reproduce this problem.

If I do find things have improved I will post back here.

Thanks again all!!!

[Krusty]

There are more advanced backup/restore options in PLUGIN>Software management>Advanced options.

Thanks, great information which I did not know! This allowed me to save the relevant backup file to a share & then transfer it to a backup location where I keep such things (A networked shared USB). I did previously do this back in 2014 but had totally forgotten how I did it.

Many thanks!!!

[Grumpy_Geoff]

There are more advanced backup/restore options in PLUGIN>Software management>Advanced options.

Thanks, great information which I did not know! This allowed me to save the relevant backup file to a share & then transfer it to a backup location where I keep such things (A networked shared USB). I did previously do this back in 2014 but had totally forgotten how I did it.

If you saved it to a network share location, then the PVR won't be able to find it when you next flash firmware via USB.
I think it's better to leave the backup location set as per default, and put a copy of it in your off-PVR location.

[prl]

There are more advanced backup/restore options in PLUGIN>Software management>Advanced options.

Thanks, great information which I did not know! This allowed me to save the relevant backup file to a share & then transfer it to a backup location where I keep such things (A networked shared USB). I did previously do this back in 2014 but had totally forgotten how I did it.

As Grumpy_Geoff says, this is one of those areas where you need to know what you're doing. There's nothing wrong in principle with changing the backup location, provided you know that if you do, you won't be offered the opportunity to restore settings after you do a USB upgrade, because the USB upgrade will set the backup location back to its default (/media/hdd/backup), where you won't have the most up-to-date backup (or perhaps even any backup).

You can't even just do a manual restore after the upgrade. You first need to go to PLUGIN>Software management>Advanced options>Select backup location and set the correct backup location, then do the settings restore.

IMO, you'd be better off leaving the settings backups in their normal place and arrange some other means of making an off-device copy of the settings backup files, if that's the reason why you're saving backups off-device. If you have more than one Beyonwiz device, you definitely shouldn't be saving settings backups for all devices to the same location, especially if you use IceTV. Using one device's settings backup on another one is generally not a good idea (and it will break things in IceTV).

BTW: if you want to quote someone's post, the cleanest way of doing it is to click on the double-quotes icon at the top right of the post, and then edit out the irrelevant parts of the quote. This then clearly identifies the person you're replying to, and even includes a link back to the original post (the up-arrow hyperlink in the quote header).

[Grumpy_Geoff]

You can't even just do a manual restore after the upgrade. You first need to go to PLUGIN>Software management>Advanced options>Select backup location and set the correct backup location, then do the settings restore.

... in this particular case there'd be the requirement to setup network first, and the mount to the share second, and then alter the backup location, then do the settings restore

[prl]

Yep, I missed that bit. For things like doing settings backups, KISS applies.

[arthackett]

I've learned to live with this over the years though!

You shouldn't have to. Can you recall exactly what you were doing when this happened?

I literally can't remember when I last had to hard reboot any of my T/U/V series during normal operation.

Well so far in my mammoth attempt to restore settings I have needed to do this now probably 10 times, the spinner comes up & that's it. One example is if I look at network devices, click on one & then cancel it invariably freezes & needs power off!

My current problem though is restoring the network mounts but I posted this as a new post!

I used to have this problem with the spinner and complete lockups but I thought it was part of the T4 experience. Turns out after a small firmware update killed it completely, it was a faulty cpu or motherboard. I think it was the cpu though. After a warranty repair it was great, but it’s started with occasional lockup’s again and the HDMI recording fails after one or two recordings with the 2018 firmware.