V2 Observations so far

[netmask]

Arrived last night - installed this morning.
Recording OK to my USB3 Toshiba HDD
A few changes noticed
The front panel display only shows the time rather than the channel selected - I suppose that's logocal since the TV/monitor makes it obvious. Some may miss the previous feature.

I think the way you set up Favourites has changed? But it has been so long since I last did this not sure?

Tuners appear to be less sensitive - my T3 consistently showed 97 ~ 99% both for strength and quality. The V2 is down around the 78 ~ 85 range. However no pixelation or any apparent visual issues, so far...... picture quality, subjectively, appears a tad better to my ancient eyes. I do have 20 - 20 vision at my last test 3 months ago.

I do miss not having 3 built in tuners - only for overlaps and padding issues. My T3 is being repaired.. Not much of a fan of plugin USB tuners or dangly bits and pieces hanging off my gear.

[MrQuade]

Favorites is the same as always. There may just be a setting that you normally use that isn't set yet

As with the other Beyonwiz models, the tuner sensitivity numbers can't be directly compared with the numbers produced by different tuner hardware models.

It's a pretty neat little unit I think, with lots of potential for upgrades given that it is based on more modern hardware.

[adoxa]

The front panel display only shows the time rather than the channel selected - I suppose that's logocal since the TV/monitor makes it obvious. Some may miss the previous feature.

That can be changed in the skin, if you're comfortable editing it (not sure if I'll create an option). Open /usr/share/enigma2/display/skin_display.xml, on line 6 you'll notice Clock - change that to Number to only have the channel, or Clock;Number to show the channel when you change it (five seconds by default, add ;N to show it for N seconds). You can also have 12 hour time with ;12h and remove the leading zero(s) with ;nozero.

I think the way you set up Favourites has changed? But it has been so long since I last did this not sure?

GREEN will add a channel directly to Favourites; within Favourites it will remove it (added almost a year ago).

[netmask]

Thanks fir that info on the Green button. Didn't know but then haven't had the need to change anything much on my T3 from new I notice the front white light showing the time is quite bright and the setting in menus is at the minimum!

[Greg Hudson]

V2 arrived today, got it up and running fairly quickly, set a few timers to record and waited...
Note: My BW-T4 signal strength shows 97 to 99%
Started watching Channel 7 News at 6pm and found... picture / sound freezing (for a few seconds), and very bad sporadic pixelation.
Basically, it was unwatchable. Pressed pause on the recording then pressed ch up/down to display the signal strength... 55% !!!
No wonder the picture was crap. Moved the antenna back to the T4... Instantly fixed all problems.

I read the comment re different models having different signal values, however having just plugged the antenna out of the T4 and into the V2 (and nothing else)... I would suggest there *IS* a sensitivity problem (at least with the machine I received).

Other issues:
Changing channels instigates a black screen of death while it thinks about what to do, then it comes good. (Does not happen on the T4)
The packaging was a bit lacking. The box was damaged on the bottom. (no bubble wrap at all).

I plugged a 1TB 2.5 inch USB 3 drive into the USB 3 socket to test recording, worked as it should.

WARNING: Don't expect it to run side by side with another BW... The remote appears to use the same frequencies as my T4, so hitting the power button turned both machines on and off at the same time. I did not examine further to see what would happen.

[MrQuade]

Changing channels instigates a black screen of death while it thinks about what to do, then it comes good.

It's a fraction slower than the T4 but not vastly so. It should be less than half a second to change channels.

Your unit might be taking longer if it is having trouble locking onto the signal.

WARNING: Don't expect it to run side by side with another BW... The remote appears to use the same frequencies as my T4, so hitting the power button turned both machines on and off at the same time. I did not examine further to see what would happen.

You can fix that on the T4. Your T4 is currently configured to respond to any remote control code.

Change the T4 so that it only responds to 0x02f2 codes and you shouldn't get any more conflicts.
You do that via the setup menu
MENU->Setup->System->Remote control code settings

[AlbertPark]

Other issues:
The packaging was a bit lacking. The box was damaged on the bottom. (no bubble wrap at all).

My pre-order V2 came yesterday but is not set up yet. Meanwhile I was also a little disappointed with the minimal protection in the packaging, eg a recent similar but less delicate electronic item had 5cm of bubble wrap around the box. AusPost is not gentle in my experience!

In my case there was a small dent on the box, which it seems to have bumped the power supply and led to a minor scratch on the remote IR window (as it was touching the metal plug ends). A bit annoying as tiny bit of cardboard or bubble wrap could have prevented that!

Just saying
M

[mtgreen504]

V2 arrived today, got it up and running fairly quickly, set a few timers to record and waited...
Note: My BW-T4 signal strength shows 97 to 99%
Started watching Channel 7 News at 6pm and found... picture / sound freezing (for a few seconds), and very bad sporadic pixelation.
Basically, it was unwatchable. Pressed pause on the recording then pressed ch up/down to display the signal strength... 55% !!!
No wonder the picture was crap. Moved the antenna back to the T4... Instantly fixed all problems.

I read the comment re different models having different signal values, however having just plugged the antenna out of the T4 and into the V2 (and nothing else)... I would suggest there *IS* a sensitivity problem (at least with the machine I received).

My V2 arrived today and I set it up quickly this evening easily. However, I too am having issues with signal strength. It won't pick up channel 10 at all and I'm getting bad sporadic pixelation across many of the other channels. I moved the antenna back to my Samsung TV and there are no issues at all with the reception. I haven't had a chance to do any further investigation.

[AlbertPark]

My new V2 is now roughly set up, and I concur on the apparent signal strength issue mentioned in other postings above. My TV and old BW DPP1 both show high 90%s and the V2 shows 50-60% on all channels (using Tuner A only so far) with the same antenna feed.

I'm still in the early stages of setting it up but haven't had much awful pixelation yet, but then I also haven't watched each channel for more than a few minutes at a time. The menus on the V2 are quite different from our trusty old DPP1, so there is still some playing to do.

Perhaps 50-60% as measured by the V2 may turn out to be sufficient in my case but it's still a bit off-putting when other devices on the same feed high 90%.

M

[netmask]

" I notice the front white light showing the time is quite bright and the setting in menus is at the minimum!"

I have a temporary solution, a small piece of photographic neutral density filter over the overly bright light drops the intensity and subjectively sharpens the image at a distance. Maybe an iPhone or similar blue light shield might work if a NDF is not available..

[peteru]

Anti-static bag material also works for reducing the brightness and glare.

[billyblue]

My 2 cents

Box inside the Austpost bag was dented & torn. Unit itself unharmed.

Replacing a T2 in the bedroom (same antenna cable in, HDMI to TV, ethernet cable)

Setup as I remember - one day I hope to get network shares working in under 10 gos!

Picture seems "softer" than the T2 (and the U4 in the Lounge)

Chanel changing has a noticeable lag - slowest I can remember since my orig settop box all those years ago.

Quirk/bug with media playback: selected item plays for a second or 2, then the screen blanks for a couple of seconds before playback resumes.
Similar behavior after finishing playback - i.e. (end of playback), the GUI appears for a second or 2 then the screen blanks before the GUI reappears.

Missing the front USB port all ready! Isn't used often, but...

[MrQuade]

The softer picture may be the result of picture processing in your TV. Make sure you have disabled any overscanning there.

The picture blanking will be the V2 switching resolution and/or framerate of you have enabled autoresolution settings. The V2 has a minimum delay time of 2 seconds before this occurs whereas the T and U series units were able to activate the resolution switch immediately.

[netmask]

Tonight I made from a UHD BD disc a rip to MKV leaving 3 audio tracks in the rip. The first track was a 7.1 that the BW din't recognise but the DTS and AC3 were Ok and was able to select via the Audio button. Copied the MKV onto the USB Toshiba 2TB drive and played quite well, looked good on my Samsung 1080p HDTV. One problem I did encounter the "resume play" didn't work. If you selected Yes it would go back to the Media listing. If you left it to do the countdown, some 20 odd seconds it was OK. When I have a bit of time tomorrow I'll post the Mediainfo file

[adoxa]

[...] One problem I did encounter the "resume play" didn't work. If you selected Yes it would go back to the Media listing. If you left it to do the countdown, some 20 odd seconds it was OK. [...]

I tried with a small (22m/166MB) MP4 file and that resumed okay. The length isn't known, so at the end it still resumes and immediately stops again. The same file as TS also resumed okay (and the length is known, so it restarted when at the end). The even smaller MKVs I have (sample H.265 and conversions from TS) also work as expected. Do the normal skip functions work on your MKV?

[netmask]

No skip (cursor buttons) didn't work and initiated a reboot. My MKV had chapters and the next button didn't activate them. Fast forward works.

Enigma2_crash_2019-06-23_07-42-35.log

(39.6 KiB) Downloaded 77 times

[netmask]

Follow up - resume play now works. I removed the 7.1 audio track just leaving the DTS and AC3 tracks. I suspect however it has something to do with the construction of the MKV container. My first experiments I was stopping the file within 30 seconds of the beginning. Once I let it go beyond that the cursor buttons worked. I'll drop in another MKV file later and see if that is the case. Does the BW actually support chapter points within a MKV or MP4 file? I tried the Next button thinking it would behave the same as the Next button on a BD player - this is the case on the Popcorn series media players that I tend to use most of the time.

[MrQuade]

Does the BW actually support chapter points within a MKV or MP4 file? I tried the Next button thinking it would behave the same as the Next button on a BD player - this is the case on the Popcorn series media players that I tend to use most of the time.

Yep, I have a mkv that I use for testing that includes chapter stops and it works correctly. On my file, after skipping to a chapter mark, you need to let the file play for a bit before attempting to skip to the next chapter, otherwise it skips back to the one you just skipped to. I suspect that my file has some screwy timing information in it, as it has previously had issues pausing and resuming within 30s of the end of the file.

Interesting that you had that other soundtrack on the disk. Can you confirm what format it was? If it had DTS on it, then I wouldn't have thought that it would have been a DD True-HD track. But on the other hand, you wouldn't have a separate DTS-MA track since that is usually just extra data on top of the DTS base track. (AFAIK anyway). Do they do PCM on disks any more?

[netmask]

I had inserted Chapter markers as the original didn't have any - I deleted them and ran Chapterizer this time creating 5 points. This worked. Attached is the MediaInfo file showing the Dolby TrueHD with Dolby Atmos that I decided to remove. The Popcorn A-500 plays this ok and does atmos as well...

test.txt

(6.57 KiB) Downloaded 38 times

[MrQuade]

Yea, the V2 doesn't do Dolby True-HD or Atmos properly.

Not sure if updated drivers will fix that or if there are licensing issues or not.

[netmask]

Does the BW actually support chapter points within a MKV or MP4 file? I tried the Next button thinking it would behave the same as the Next button on a BD player - this is the case on the Popcorn series media players that I tend to use most of the time.

Yep, I have a mkv that I use for testing that includes chapter stops and it works correctly. On my file, after skipping to a chapter mark, you need to let the file play for a bit before attempting to skip to the next chapter, otherwise it skips back to the one you just skipped to. I suspect that my file has some screwy timing information in it, as it has previously had issues pausing and resuming within 30s of the end of the file.

Interesting that you had that other soundtrack on the disk. Can you confirm what format it was? If it had DTS on it, then I wouldn't have thought that it would have been a DD True-HD track. But on the other hand, you wouldn't have a separate DTS-MA track since that is usually just extra data on top of the DTS base track. (AFAIK anyway). Do they do PCM on disks any more?

Packed PCM (PPCM)

https://hometheaterhifi.com/volume_8_4/ ... 20Nutshell

[MrQuade]

Packed PCM (PPCM)

https://hometheaterhifi.com/volume_8_4/ ... 20Nutshell

It was more of a question of whether any studios actually *use* it any more though. It was a thing at the start of the Bluray era, but I wasn't sure if it was use much at all lately.

[netmask]

I see more and more use of atmos tracks in production. Final release formats tend to be what the perceived market is. If audiophiles are identified as a significant consumer of a particular product then PCM will be included. It's really hard to predict the minds of producers.... here or Hollywood.

[MrQuade]

I see more and more use of atmos tracks in production. Final release formats tend to be what the perceived market is. If audiophiles are identified as a significant consumer of a particular product then PCM will be included. It's really hard to predict the minds of producers.... here or Hollywood.

Atmos makes sense being the new hotness. I don't get the audiophile reasoning behind PCM though, both DD True HD and DTS-MA are lossless. Back in the day PCM was useful for audio equipment that didn't have support for the newer lossless formats.

[Greg Hudson]

Changing channels instigates a black screen of death while it thinks about what to do, then it comes good.

{Mr Quade}
It's a fraction slower than the T4 but not vastly so. It should be less than half a second to change channels.
Your unit might be taking longer if it is having trouble locking onto the signal.

I'm seeing a 3 to 5 second delay switching from one channel to another, mainly using the CH Up/down buttons...
The new channel flashes on screen, then black screen, then some time later the new channel reappears.

[MrQuade]

I'm seeing a 3 to 5 second delay switching from one channel to another, mainly using the CH Up/down buttons...
The new channel flashes on screen, then black screen, then some time later the new channel reappears.

It sounds like your autoresolution settings may be set up improperly too then.

If you see the new service appear and then black out for a moment, it suggests to me that a HDMI resync is occurring. One cause of that is if the V2's autoresolution option is enabled and it thinks it needs to switch to a new mode.

For an experiment, so what happens when you set your resolution to a fixed 1080p or 2160p (depending on your TV's capabilities) and set the refresh rate to a fixed 50Hz.

[beyonbloke]

My new V2 is now roughly set up, and I concur on the apparent signal strength issue mentioned in other postings above. My TV and old BW DPP1 both show high 90%s and the V2 shows 50-60% on all channels (using Tuner A only so far) with the same antenna feed.

I'm still in the early stages of setting it up but haven't had much awful pixelation yet, but then I also haven't watched each channel for more than a few minutes at a time. The menus on the V2 are quite different from our trusty old DPP1, so there is still some playing to do.

Perhaps 50-60% as measured by the V2 may turn out to be sufficient in my case but it's still a bit off-putting when other devices on the same feed high 90%.

Got my V2 this morning. Initial observations, this thing is SMALL Channel strength and quality show considerably less figures than my T4. Have had some pixelation on Channel 7, but need to observe more. Front panel display too bright on lowest setting, and a bit off putting. Might have to cover it up.
There's no video enhancement mode under AV settings, so you can't adjust output sharpness, brightness etc which is a bit sad, as I think the picture is a tad softer, not much, but a tad.

I shall get back if necessary. INCIDENTALLY, can tuner sensitivity be fine tuned with a firmware update or is it fixed as is, for ever?

Thanks
beyonbloke

[peteru]

this thing is SMALL

Yes. Very.

Channel strength and quality show considerably less figures than my T4.

None of the meters on devices like this mean anything in particular. You should never compare the readings between two different models, even if it is the same brand. Those meters are just a rough indicator that tell you whether the changes you are making to your configuration are improving reception or making it worse. Even their absolute value is not very important, it's the changes you observe. Think of this scenario: Look at the meter, make change to config, look at meter again, is the reading better or worse than before?

Front panel display too bright on lowest setting, and a bit off putting. Might have to cover it up.

Yes. It is a bit on the ridiculous side. IMHO, the best solution is to configure the settings to show nothing when the box is running and show the time when it's in standby. However, if you want to tone down the brightness and glare, I find that about two layers of the grey/silver anti-static bag packaging stuck to the front of the LED window works well. Add more layers as required, just be careful not to obstruct the IR sensor.

There's no video enhancement mode under AV settings, so you can't adjust output sharpness, brightness etc which is a bit sad, as I think the picture is a tad softer, not much, but a tad.

I might be able to add that later. At this stage there's an update in beta that is being tested. Once it is released to the general public (hopefully later this week), I can look at enabling that functionality and releasing a new beta. No promises, but I'll try.

Have had some pixelation on Channel 7, but need to observe more.
...
I shall get back if necessary. INCIDENTALLY, can tuner sensitivity be fine tuned with a firmware update or is it fixed as is, for ever?

There is some scope for improving tuner performance with firmware updates. This has traditionally happened with every Beyonwiz model released. At product launch, the hardware is usually configured with conservative settings that are very likely to work OK everywhere. If/as feedback comes back from the field, things get tweaked to improve tuner performance in specific scenarios. Australia as a challenging reception area for most tuner manufacturers to get right and often requires a lot of "training" of their engineers to understand the subtleties.

TL;DR: Yes, it is possible to change tuner performance with future firmware updates.

[beyonbloke]

Thankyou "peteru" for your in depth reply. Much appreciated.

beyonbloke

[adoxa]

There's no video enhancement mode under AV settings, so you can't adjust output sharpness, brightness etc which is a bit sad, as I think the picture is a tad softer, not much, but a tad.

If you've got it online download the videoenhancement system plugin, restart and it should show up. (I think that'll work on the normal feed; the version on the beta feed isn't working for me - PLUGIN won't install it, but File Commander will.)

[beyonbloke]

If you've got it online download the videoenhancement system plugin, restart and it should show up. (I think that'll work on the normal feed; the version on the beta feed isn't working for me - PLUGIN won't install it, but File Commander will.)

You Sir, are a genius. Thanks. Works a treat.
beyonbloke

[netmask]

Is it theoretically possible to have more range on the front panel brightness via software/firmware update? Sticking stuff on the front panel whilst works is a bit amateurish and spoils the aesthetic IMO. It needs to smoothly fade to black rather than just cut off as it does now.

[beyonbloke]

Is it theoretically possible to have more range on the front panel brightness via software/firmware update? Sticking stuff on the front panel whilst works is a bit amateurish and spoils the aesthetic IMO. It needs to smoothly fade to black rather than just cut off as it does now.

I have a peice of old x-ray over mine. It does indeed look ridiculous , but tis better than being blinded.

beyonbloke

[peteru]

Is it theoretically possible to have more range on the front panel brightness via software/firmware update?

Definitely, maybe, probably not.

It depends on the hardware. It depends on the software architecture. It depends on who is listening. It depends on who is told to do something about it. It depends on how much time they are wiling to spend on making changes and testing them. It's also possible that reducing brightness further could introduce flicker.

Bottom line is, it should be possible, but it may be in the too hard basket. You could always stick the optical filter inside the front panel, but I completely understand that most people would not want to open the case or stuff about with that kind of a hack.

Unlike the T-series, I don't have access to any of the code that would be needed to address this issue. If I did, I would have looked into it already because I don't like the super bright front panel either.

[Spot]

G'day guys,

Got my V2 today and have been playing with it a bit. Bit of a steep learning curve of course coming from my old FV-L1. So far I'm really impressed. Congrats to the dev team and testers, a job well done!

One thing I'm having trouble understanding is "Add Autotimer". What is Autotimer and how does it work?

Thanks,
Spot

[Grumpy_Geoff]

One thing I'm having trouble understanding is "Add Autotimer". What is Autotimer and how does it work?

A plugin that will generate timers based on program name or keyword matches against the EPG.
See "A comprehensive guide to Beyonwiz T/U/V-series AutoTimers".

[Spot]

One thing I'm having trouble understanding is "Add Autotimer". What is Autotimer and how does it work?

A plugin that will generate timers based on program name or keyword matches against the EPG.
See "A comprehensive guide to Beyonwiz T/U/V-series AutoTimers".

Ah, righty-o. Seems like a feature I won't need.

Thanks Grumpy_Geoff.

[Spot]

Blue electrical tape calms the white LEDs down. Otherwise, I'm very happy so far with my V2. Time will tell if it stands the test of time.

[peteru]

What is Autotimer
...
Seems like a feature I won't need.

I think you may want to reconsider. Once you get your autotimers going, you are unlikely to want to be without them. Bit of a learning curve, but worth it.

[beyonbloke]

Off topic a tad, but I found the V2 records SHOUTCAST very well. I tried to ftp the resultant mp3 I recorded to my computer, but it won't let me, I assume some sort of protection. I get a CRITICAL ERROR message. I can't even change the name of it, not from my computer anyway over ftp.

Any way around this does anyone know, not that its critical. I would just like to play the music on my computer out to my wireless speakers.

Cheers
beyonbloke

[MrQuade]

Off topic a tad, but I found the V2 records SHOUTCAST very well. I tried to ftp the resultant mp3 I recorded to my computer, but it won't let me, I assume some sort of protection. I get a CRITICAL ERROR message. I can't even change the name of it, not from my computer anyway over ftp.

Any way around this does anyone know, not that its critical. I would just like to play the music on my computer out to my wireless speakers.

It won't be protected by the Wiz, it should just be a normal mp3 file that you can download.

What program are you using to ftp?
Can you transfer normal recordings via ftp?

(i'm not even sure where the Shoutcast plugins save the downloaded files?)

[beyonbloke]

(i'm not even sure where the Shoutcast plugins save the downloaded files?)

It saves it to a folder "streamripper".
I can ftp mp3 files from shoutcast using the T4 ok, but not the V2. Might try recording another stream and then seeing how that file goes.
I'm using filezilla.

beyonbloke

[beyonbloke]

I just tried recording another stream and that one ftp'd ok.
So, dunno.
Just a one off quirk.
Bit like myself.

beyonbloke

[MrQuade]

Try rebooting the V2 and try transferring it again. The original rip might have been locked open by something.

[beyonbloke]

I did try that without success. I think it was protected somehow, I couldn't even rename it.
.... some time later ....

Actually, I just tried recording the same stream ( I favourit-ed it), and again, I can't ftp it or rename it, so it must definitely be a protected stream. No other explanation makes sense.

beyonbloke

[MrQuade]

There is nothing on the V2 that should be able to protect that file in that way AFAIK.
Did the file name have any weird characters in it?

[beyonbloke]

Actually, I just tried recording the same stream ( I favourit-ed it), and again, I can't ftp it or rename it, so it must definitely be a protected stream. No other explanation makes sense.

Of interest perhaps, I just renamed the file from the V2, and found that it then WOULD ftp across to the computer. Hooray.
As they say, what's in a name? Well, everything if you want to transfer a file heh heh

beyonbloke

[Spot]

Since my V2 received an update this morning I can now allow the blue LED while the machine is on and and the white LEDs are off. I like the other front panel display options too.

Is there somewhere to see what is included in the updates?

[beyonbloke]

Since my V2 received an update this morning I can now allow the blue LED while the machine is on and and the white LEDs are off. I like the other front panel display options too.

Does it still flash REC when recording tho?