USB Tuner

tezza007 · Post by **tezza007** » Thu May 29, 2014 13:11

Any update on all the problems with these?

garyvx · Post by **garyvx** » Fri May 30, 2014 10:14

Looks like you have the same response as I did when I posted in the "Bugs" thread

viewtopic.php?f=47&t=7790

prl · Post by **prl** » Fri May 30, 2014 10:20

There are three bugs listed in the bug tracker relating to the USB tuner:
#152 - Recording made from the USB tuner are unreliable
#186 - T3 will not boot up when DVBT USB Tuner and USB WiFi Adapter (RTL8192CU) Both connected to rear USB
#217 - Tuners jam up with USB tuner recordings

There isn't anything new to report about them. #152 seems to be what garyvx posted about.

peteru · Post by **peteru** » Fri May 30, 2014 15:26

There are new drivers in the firmware update that is currently in beta, which could help with #152 and #217.

garyvx · Post by **garyvx** » Fri May 30, 2014 16:47

peteru wrote:There are new drivers in the firmware update that is currently in beta, which could help with #152 and #217.

Is this the one that was "just" released today or the next release, as the one released today also mentions "drivers".

Regards Gary

peteru · Post by **peteru** » Fri May 30, 2014 16:48

The one just released.

garyvx · Post by **garyvx** » Mon Jun 02, 2014 23:49

Well the testing I have done on this 4th tuner (USB) confirms that it is still an issue for me.
I'm willing to "hang in" but the main reason I purchased this unit was for the "advertised" 4 tuner PVR and at this stage it is not working as advertised.

Regards Gary

tezza007 · Post by **tezza007** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 00:14

I'm with you, it was the 4 tuners that sold me, i want to be able to record all my programs on the one box, not two

gra · Post by **gra** » Tue Jun 03, 2014 12:41

dido.
i had a failure to launch last night after an online firmware update
just 'beyonwiz t3' on display
unplugged the USB Tuner and the T3 started

HobbsAu · Post by **HobbsAu** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 22:41

I got the fourth USB tuner, too, as I have come into a few instances when three or four programmes have been on at the same or similar time. I have spent a long time trying to get the thing to work, not to mention $100 on a signal amplifier (which is not fully functional anyway and needs to be returned - further time, hassle and money).

I don't know if my problem is listed in the known bugs for the fourth tuner, but once three recordings are going a fourth channel is unwatchable - breakup and blocky - despite there being a 99% signal. Is this a known bug? When do we get new drivers, ideally ones that make it work?

Is there anyone who does have the fourth channel running, making recordings and generally behaving?

prl · Post by **prl** » Wed Jun 04, 2014 23:34

HobbsAu wrote:...
I don't know if my problem is listed in the known bugs for the fourth tuner, but once three recordings are going a fourth channel is unwatchable - breakup and blocky - despite there being a 99% signal. Is this a known bug? When do we get new drivers, ideally ones that make it work?
...

Is this happening simply because the T3 is being forced to use the USB tuner because of the other recordings?

You can test this by going to MENU>Setup>System>GUI Setup and set Preferred tuner to Tuner D. You then need to change to a new service to make the T3 go to a new tuner. 'D' should light green in the tuner use area of the infobar.

If you get the same breakup as you see with three recordings, then yes, I have that problem and it has been discussed on the forum.

jbtinks · Post by **jbtinks** » Sat Jun 21, 2014 16:07

I am also getting the issue with the T3 not booting when both the USB tuner and the WiFi USB are plugged in. I have just completed the last update, the one that had to be done off a USB and I am still getting the problem.

Does anyone have any idea when this might be fixed as I too bought the USB Tuner on the basis that it provided a fourth tuner for recording and currently it is pretty useless.

Thanks

gra · Post by **gra** » Tue Jun 24, 2014 14:15

Hi guys
is the problem with the USB Tuner resolved yet?
is it working?
Thanks

garyvx · Post by **garyvx** » Wed Jun 25, 2014 19:18

Not according to my testing!!!

This was one of the major reasons I bought this unit (4 turner PVR)

Regards Gary

tezza007 · Post by **tezza007** » Thu Jun 26, 2014 13:40

"Beyonwiz
Customer support

Hi
What problem are you getting? No signal?
There are tuners on there way to Korea now, there are rebooting issues when multiple USB connected, this will be a driver issue. Also there seems to be signal issues when some customer run via loop through if signal is not optimal. But there may be other issues but we do not have enough info yet. We have users that get no issues at all, including 3 units that we have running in our Sydney service centre but signal there is very good.
First step is to get the tuner to the engineers which should be this week
It may be that individual tuners are faulty, driver issue, signal issue..
How do you have your tuner connected, loop through?"

You -
Yes, loop through as the instructions say. No-one on the forum can get them working

Beyonwiz
Yes they can
We have reports from some users that they are working

You -
Haven't seen any on the forum, only all the complaints

Beyonwiz
Its the nature of the beast unfortunately you hear about the problems but don't hear when there are not any problems, 1min there is a link on the forum for 1 user who solved his issue by using a splitter amp I will try and find link
viewtopic.php?f=42&t=7661

You -
I have 99%, so shouln't have to get a splitter

Beyonwiz
Signal meter on STB is not very accurate.
We are not blowing this off, we understand that there is a problem and we are committed to getting to the bottom of it
So hopefully once the tuners get to the engineers in Korea we can get to the bottom of it quickly

You -
Let's hope

Beyonwiz
You can try and connect antenna directly to USB tuner and in menu make Tuner D the default and do some recording to test

There was more, he was rather helpul

tezza007 · Post by **tezza007** » Sat Jun 28, 2014 16:52

I connected the aerial directly to the D tuner and all recordings were faulty, with strange recording lengths, some almost nil after several minutes, some showing 700+ others 15,000+. Some recordings were blank. These are the same problems I was getting when it was connected via the loop from tuner C. So nothings changed since the beginning of May. I did notice that the signal strength dropped to 49% assuming it's the top status bar, whilst quality remained around 85%. The manual is not at all clear about those bars

prl · Post by **prl** » Sat Jun 28, 2014 16:59

tezza007 wrote:... The manual is not at all clear about those bars

The bars are measures of Signal Strength (top) and Signal to Noise Ratio (SNR, bottom). SNR is a measure of the signal quality in the analog parts of the tuner. I don't know exactly how they are derived.

The DP series showed Signal Strength (top), and Signal Quality derived from the (corrected) Bit Error Rate (BER, bottom). The BER is derived from the rate at which correctable errors are occurring in the data stream once it's been digitised. I think that's a more useful (and more immediately relevant) measure of signal quality.

tezza007 · Post by **tezza007** » Sat Jun 28, 2014 17:15

I assumed the top bar was strength and the bottom one quality, as that's what other DVR's I have seem to use.

prl · Post by **prl** » Sat Jun 28, 2014 18:44

tezza007 wrote:I assumed the top bar was strength and the bottom one quality, as that's what other DVR's I have seem to use.

They are. I was just being explicit about what "quality" was being measured and contrasting it with the DP series, which uses a different measure of quality.

diesel · Post by **diesel** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 11:45

Hi all
I have the beyonwiz supplied USB tuner and have issues with recordings breaking up.
I have tried boosting signal strength with an amplifier but still the same issues
Previous was looping through the C tuner but now fed direct from the splitter/amplifier.

Is this a firmware or driver issue?

4 tuners is exactly what I need and having to revert back to 3 means I'll need to use my DP-P1 as a 4th/5th tuner but the lack of ability to play recordings remotely on the T3 from a DP series is a killer for that application.

So is there any hope of getting the USB tuner to work as advertised and like the 3 built-in tuners?

scotty · Post by **scotty** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 11:55

The drivers for the USB tuner on the T3 have trouble with signal strengths that are too strong, as well as too weak.

It's not a problem with the USB tuner itself as it works fine when plugged in to a PC.

For me, the solution was a variable attenuator so I could adjust the signal strength for the USB a tuner. Available from Jaycar.

Scotty

simoncasey · Post by **simoncasey** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 14:50

I'm not sure what the cause of the problem is that others see but it would make sense that it is related to the individual set up and incompatibility with the usb tuner hardware or drivers. I have a T3 USB tuner and it works perfectly, I sometimes see the signal bars drop slightly but I could never pick the difference when watching or recording. I don't have anything in place to adjust teh signal and just loop the usb tuner after the last built in tuner.
I would say that I certainly don't have a high quality signal and back in the analog days I would see some picture fuzziness that doesn't appear in digital.

diesel · Post by **diesel** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 19:56

I'm pretty sure mines nor signal related - maybe too strong. I'll have to try an atennuator

I still think it's FW or drivers but I'll keep testing

tezza007 · Post by **tezza007** » Wed Mar 11, 2015 20:28

Mine is working perfectly and has been for a very long time.

Buffy71 · Post by **Buffy71** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 17:11

Mine was working for a very long time, died last night. Could be something to do with having to remove it a thousand times during all the firmware updates. It's probably stuffed the usb port for all I know.
Has anyone tried another usb tuner with success?
I must admit I'm a bit over the t3, it just seems to be one thing after another.

simoncasey · Post by **simoncasey** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 17:15

How many firmwate updates have you done? I've only done about 4 since I owned it. And I never bother taking the usb tuner out when I usb upgrade. Worst thing is that the upgrade would fail and I would have to do it again.

Buffy71 · Post by **Buffy71** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 17:23

Well I've had 2 units (first replaced after days of wasting time only to find ethernet port faulty) , so double the updates, and as others have stated on here, sometimes it won't update with any other usb plugged in, then there's the failed updates (sometimes it would take 3-4 goes to get it working without being stuck in an endless boot loop.
Lucky you!! Sounds like you've been very fortunate!

tezza007 · Post by **tezza007** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 18:14

I believe the official instructions are to remove any other USB devices during a USB upgrade

Buffy71 · Post by **Buffy71** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 18:25

Well after some investigation, I believe my usb tuner failed last week, not last night as I first thought. Two failed recordings of the good wife

grrr
This prompted me check all my recordings and settings, and I decided to update to the latest beta firmware.
Well, lo and behold, my usb tuner is working again. Wtf. Let's see how long it lasts this time

simoncasey · Post by **simoncasey** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 18:29

tezza007 wrote:I believe the official instructions are to remove any other USB devices during a USB upgrade

Yes, that is correct

simoncasey · Post by **simoncasey** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 18:32

Buffy71 wrote:Well after some investigation, I believe my usb tuner failed last week, not last night as I first thought. Two failed recordings of the good wife grrr
This prompted me check all my recordings and settings, and I decided to update to the latest beta firmware.
Well, lo and behold, my usb tuner is working again. Wtf. Let's see how long it lasts this time

That's an interesting outcome. I wonder if it is something to do with the beta itself or if it was just reinstalling the firmware. This may be of interest to diesel who restarted this post and I think is holding off on upgrading to the beta.

diesel · Post by **diesel** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 20:40

Been keeping a close eye on the beta thread but looks like some unintended bugs/issues have crept back into the beta, so glad to remain on the current public FW.

I'm hopeful that a FW upgrade (soon hopefully) can fix the issue, but I'm not that confident it will happen
Mrs diesel is over the T3 and wants to replace with a refurbed DP-P2!

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Thu Mar 12, 2015 20:52

What issue is bothering you? The only real showstoppers in the beta that I am aware of are the broken gmail and flickr plugins. If you use those plugins then avoid the beta. If not, then use the beta. It is vastly improved over the main release.

dna_watt · Post by **dna_watt** » Thu Apr 09, 2015 19:21

Any update on this. I just discovered mine isn't working. I was recording 3 shows (3 different networks) and couldn't watch a fourth channel.

prl · Post by **prl** » Thu Apr 09, 2015 19:27

dna_watt wrote:Any update on this. I just discovered mine isn't working. I was recording 3 shows (3 different networks) and couldn't watch a fourth channel.

Does it show up in MENU>Setup>Information>Devices? If so, what happens if you set MENU>Setup>Tuners>Tuner setup>Preferred tuner to Tuner D? After exiting back to live TV from the settings page, you have to change channels to get the new tuner. Once you've done that, does the infobar show 'D' in green over near the signal quality box?

diesel · Post by **diesel** » Sat Apr 11, 2015 22:44

diesel wrote:I'm pretty sure mines nor signal related - maybe too strong. I'll have to try an atennuator

I still think it's FW or drivers but I'll keep testing

I've done some testing (haven't tried an attenuator yet) and noted that with 4 tuners employed, the tuner D show appears fine when watching, but picture starts breaking up about 5-10 mins later. The recorded show shows break-up from the start of the recording, so not sure what's happening there.

peteru · Post by **peteru** » Sat Apr 11, 2015 23:02

Try with the latest beta.

diesel · Post by **diesel** » Mon Apr 27, 2015 22:34

using the latest Beta and now FW but still the same issues with tuner D when all other three tuners are employed.
will try an attenuator this coming w/end and see what happens

emmsee · Post by **emmsee** » Sun Oct 11, 2015 23:53

Has the problem with the USB Tuner been resolved - no updates here since April?
cheers
emmsee

Buffy71 · Post by **Buffy71** » Mon Oct 12, 2015 07:03

I don't think so. I have latest firmware, and had same issue that diesel had above, just a couple of days ago, that when the 3 tuners were being used, couldn't get usb tuner to work.
Luckily it's not too often that I require all 4 tuners, but still annoying that it does not work as advertised.

scotty · Post by **scotty** » Mon Oct 12, 2015 07:44

I haven't had any issues with the USB tuner on the T2. For me at least it was only an issue with the T3 which was solved by using a variable attenuator to reduce the signal strength.

I haven't needed the attenuator with the T2. I suspect the faster processor of the T2 better handles a strong signal compared to the T3 with the USB tuner.

Scotty

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Mon Oct 12, 2015 08:34

scotty wrote:I haven't needed the attenuator with the T2. I suspect the faster processor of the T2 better handles a strong signal compared to the T3 with the USB tuner.

A faster processor will not help with that sort of thing. The T2 uses a different variety of tuner that has different reception characteristics than the T3. It likely some subtle differences in that tuner hardware or drivers that has made the difference.

scotty · Post by **scotty** » Mon Oct 12, 2015 08:53

MrQuade wrote:
scotty wrote:I haven't needed the attenuator with the T2. I suspect the faster processor of the T2 better handles a strong signal compared to the T3 with the USB tuner.
A faster processor will not help with that sort of thing. The T2 uses a different variety of tuner that has different reception characteristics than the T3. It likely some subtle differences in that tuner hardware or drivers that has made the difference.

I'm only talking about the USB tuner which is the same for the T2 and T3. I suspect it is the capacity of the processor as the USB tuner works fine when plugged in to a laptop or the T2. Wouldn't the USB tuner driver between the T2 and T3 be the same?

Scotty

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Mon Oct 12, 2015 10:00

scotty wrote:Wouldn't the USB tuner driver between the T2 and T3 be the same?

The drivers would be the same, so I would be putting it down to the hardware difference again.

The T3 tuners have been suspected of boosting the signal when they regenerate with each hop/loop. By the time it has passed through three tuners on the T3, the signal would have been boosted beyond the USB tuner's ability to deal with.

The T2, only have two tuners, and possibly less gain on each, will not be feeding the USB tuner with as much power.

Now, if the USB tuner is not being plugged into the T2/T3 tuner loops, then I am completely out of ideas

.

simoncasey · Post by **simoncasey** » Mon Oct 12, 2015 10:26

This could be tested on your T3 by putting the the USB tuber into the T3 and connecting the aerial directly to it rather than chaining through the other tuners. Obviously tuners a-c wouldn't work but you should get a good signal on the USB tuner.

prl · Post by **prl** » Mon Oct 12, 2015 10:42

simoncasey wrote:... the USB tuber ...

The ones I got were about as useful for the purpose as a potato, too

simoncasey · Post by **simoncasey** » Mon Oct 12, 2015 10:57

prl wrote:
simoncasey wrote:... the USB tuber ...
The ones I got were about as useful for the purpose as a potato, too

Damn you, autocorrect. Having said that, my USB tuner works perfectly. Must be something to do with the chips.

paullings · Post by **paullings** » Fri Sep 16, 2016 16:23

Hi,
I have just bought a USB tuner for my T3 however the output for Tuner C is already used by an aerial cable going to the TV. Do I need to also buy a signal splitter for my aerial cables.
Thanks,
Robert

MrQuade · Post by **MrQuade** » Fri Sep 16, 2016 16:42

paullings wrote: I have just bought a USB tuner for my T3 however the output for Tuner C is already used by an aerial cable going to the TV. Do I need to also buy a signal splitter for my aerial cables.

You can just buy a two way splitter and send one to the TV, and the other to the T3. The T3 antenna connection can then be daisy chained to each of its three internal tuners, and then to the USB tuner instead of the TV.

It would be technically better to get a 4-way or 6-way splitter fed straight from the antenna and send a separate antenna feed to each of your antenna inputs on each device, but the 2-way splitter solution I mentioned earlier will probably suffice and will be neater (fewer cables), and easier to manage.

Either way, it is worth buying a quality passive splitter with f-type (screw in) connectors instead of a cheap one with PAL connectors. A powered splitter shouldn't be required unless you have particularly low signal strength where you are.

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