No Channel 5 HD for the 8320HD

In a frankly appalling move, Channel 5 have pulled out of the bidding for the Freeview HD slot they would have used for Channel 5 HD, handing it over to the BBC instead. This is hugely galling after the utterly pointless launch of Channel 5+1 (SD) on Freeview, particularly for 8320HD owners who have twin tuners to cover programme clashes.

Also, it's not like Channel 5 can't run an HD channel, because Channel 5 HD has been running for a while on both Sky and Virgin. Therefore, apart from the bidding cost, Channel 5 HD wouldn't cost any extra to run on another platform.

Mind you, considering that Channel 5 has precious little worth watching and the BBC is short of HD channel space to cover simultaneous Olympic events next year, adding a third channel to the BBC's Freeview HD arsenal would be handy to remedy that.

FetchTV on eBay

OK, I'm very late to the party on this one, but when the 8320HD launched in June 2010, the only 8320HD's to be had on eBay were from unofficial sellers (I'm not sure if any were strictly "new" or not). However, FetchTV crept onto eBay back in February 2011, though there's no mention of this on the official FetchTV site.

Interestingly, their eBay offerings are noticeably cheaper than their own official site - the 8320HD is £157.50 brand new (inc. postage) and the 8000 is a stonkingly cheap £67.50 brand new (inc. postage). I think the 8000 could be a very nice second box to accompany the 8320HD, especially at that low price.

So that's why the last firmware update was in July...

I've been starting to fret a bit about firmware updates for the 8320HD recently. The last one was in July and my box still exhibits a couple of regular bad bugs (repeating remote control and failure to record about 50% of all timer recordings if the box is in standby or low power mode). I worked around the latter by setting the timeout to standby to be 6 hours - it might use more power, but it seems to actually do timer recordings properly now.

So why no more firmware releases for the moment? Well, it turns out that Fetch TV have been busy coding a "smart app" for Panasonic Viera TVs as I mentioned a few months back. It turns out they've actually rolled it out and will also be producing it for Samsung smart TVs (and other makes) in Q1 of 2012.

I'm not sure who gets the money (if any) for actually putting the Fetch TV app on smart TVs since I guess it benefits both parties. However, unless Fetch TV hugely improve the actual media content of their PPV service, I can't see too many people using it. I've never been impressed by Fetch TV's PPV movies/TV shows, especially since they're not cheap, infested with self-destructive DRM and seem to be quite limited in their choice.

Still, there is a chance this will increase PPV sales for Fetch TV and maybe then they can get back to 8320HD firmware releases and, eventually, the new UI for it that they've been promising since March 2010.

Thanks to RowanDDR on AVForums.com for the article link

8320HD's will need to be re-tuned next week

The dearth of 8320HD news has made me look at the wider Freeview picture and we have a new "terrestrial" channel coming up next week. Don't get too excited, it's just Channel 5+1 (yep, in glorious SD) turning up on Freeview on Tuesday 6th December.

This will require a re-tune of your 8320HD, because the box doesn't recognise any new channels (or moving around of existing channels) automatically - witness the utter fiasco of the last major channel launch - BBC One HD - which the 8320HD blissfully ignored until a re-tune. Don't be surprised if there's no EPG logo for Channel 5+1 either (which may require a firmware update to turn up).

I must question the usefulness of +1 channels to 8320HD owners who already have twin tuners for programme clashes. I also don't like the fact that sometimes the original channel has no onscreen logo and yet the +1 version does! As for Channel 5, it's a disgrace that they don't have Channel 5 HD available on Freeview HD and that's surely more important than another SD copy of Channel 5 shown only an hour later?

FetchTV to beta-test a new 8320HD UI at long last

It's been 18 months of broken promises about a new 8320HD UI, but it looks like Fetch TV are about to start beta-testing it soon, if their request on Twitter for UI beta-testers is anything to go by. Yes, I've applied to join the trial, but there might be some terms and conditions I could be reluctant to agree to.

For example, not revealing the download URL to non-beta testers is a reasonable request (though often the URLs get "leaked" anyway), but if they wanted to "gag" me publicly commenting about the beta, then that could be a showstopper. Judging by the bugginess of previous betas and final releases, I can't say that previous beta testers have been doing a particularly great job...

Thanks to christgill on AVForums.com for the Twitter info 

Beta firmware release available, but very buggy

Whilst we're twiddling our thumbs for the next 8320HD firmware update, I ran a script to scan for potential firmware releases in the download tree on the media.fetchtv.net site. Somewhat surprisingly, it did indeed come up with a beta firmware release that I hadn't seen before, namely version 4.8.05-03.

However, before you get too excited, it was actually packaged some 14 hours before the current stable 4.8.05-02 release on 25th July 2011. What's worse is that I temporarily installed 4.8.05-03 on my 8320HD and it has the same nasty bugs as the now-withdrawn 4.8.04-11 release. Hence I would recommend not installing 4.8.05-03 and I'm a bit surprised that Fetch TV haven't withdrawn this beta like they did with the 4.8.04-11 "stable" release.

What's disappointing is that there's been no sign of new betas (ignoring 4.8.05-03) for the past two months, which is a new record for the largest gap between consecutive firmware releases. And, yes, I still see the remote control repeat bug plus my sister's 8320HD is also exhibiting that bug now too, so there's still bugs that need fixing.

New IPTV channels 110-112 may need firmware update

Although they haven't launched yet, the new IPTV channels 110, 111 and 112 on Freeview HD may need a new 8320HD firmware update to work correctly. I'm basing this on the fact that channel 112 ("SPORTS TV") - which looks like it'll initially launch with Sports Tonight Live discussion show - claims that I need to connect my 8320HD to the Internet, despite the wireless being fully operational.

If you want to see what Sports Tonight Live looks like, you can check out their Flash-based streaming Web site, though when I just looked at it at 11,20pm tonight, it was anything but live. It was actually a repeat airing of the previous live discussion from a couple of hours earlier. Quite poor not to indicate it's not live and also the female presenter was waving around an Apple iPad constantly - naff for a static studio show and a hugely blatant advertising of the Apple logo and hardware.

I wa also surprised how many brand names they talked about in the show - I bet they get cases of free product for each mention! I guess the fact that, yep, the show includes adverts means they don't really care about being professional product pluggers.

Freeview HD to offer new IPTV channels

According to this article on The Register, Freeview HD channels 110, 111 and 112 in the EPG are to be used for IPTV starting from the end of September. There will be some free content, but it sounds like most of it is going to be subscription and maybe PPV. Let's hope the 8320HD can cope with it - I've no idea if any firmware update (other than maybe new logos in EPG) is needed to enable it.

FetchTV to launch on Panasonic kit

Whilst the recent press release by FetchTV that they are to launch their service on Panasonic VIERA Connect TV sets and Blu-ray players doesn't sound that relevant to 8320HD owners, it does mark the first time that FetchTV's PPV stuff will appear on hardware not manufactured by themselves.

This, in turn, should increase their revenue both for licensing their service to Panasonic and, of course, from increasing the number of FetchTV PPV users. Hopefully, this will mean they will have enough money to actually finish the new UI they've promised for the 8320HD for the last 18 months and haven't come through with yet...

Daily maintenance is far too intrusive

I noticed recently that my 8320HD now runs a "daily maintenance" reboot - I saw it happening as early as 12.15am the other day. This suggests that Fetch TV don't trust the box to stay up for more than 24 hours, but even worse, the reboot will terminate any recording in progress and you'll lose the rest of it!

I've lodged a bug report with Fetch TV about this quite intrusive behaviour. They should switch to a monthly schedule (perhaps throwing in a disk check on reboot too, whilst removing their mount count-driven disk check they currently do) at 2.00am - delaying by 24 hours if a recording is in progress or about to start in the next 30 minutes.

Fetch TV pull latest stable firmware release and release another one...

Fetch TV have unsurprisingly pulled the buggy 4.8.04-11 so-called "stable" release that came out last Thursday and have now released an emergency fixed stable release, namely 4.8.05-02 - installation instructions are in the usual place. Yes, I'm keeping personal copies of all known firmware, so I still have a copy of the miscreant 4.8.04-11 release.

I've now had a chance to install the 4.8.05-02 release and it seems to simultaneously record OK (I tried SD+SD, SD+HD and HD+HD - all had the appropriate two red blobs and played back their recordings OK). I also checked out the resume playback capability from some older recordings and had no problem, but I've not had bugs in this area in previous firmware anyway, so I've no idea if 4.8.05-02 fixes this playback issue or not.

Bad simultaneous recording bug in latest firmware

Ah well, the rejoicing lasted about 3 days then - predictably, Fetch TV have introduced a nasty new bug in the latest firmware that a lot of people will hit. It seems that recording two programmes simultaneously will often only record one properly (immediate symptom is that one of the two recordings fails to have a red blob next to it - almost as if the software pressed stop on one of them at the start).

When the failed recording is played, it wil display a blank screen, pause the playback and put up a length time of 0 minutes and 0 seconds. No amount of keys seem to resurrect the playback either. It happened with me when recording a mix of one HD and one SD programme, but I guess I'll try other combinations and report back here (yes, I did try to "restart" the second recording either via the EPG or via the Record button, but all that did was end up with a load of zero-length recordings - one for each resumption attempt!).

AVForums.com users have also seen this bug, so until Fetch TV fix this, I would either advise you to downgrade to the previous stable release or avoid simultaneous recordings. I'll see if I can report this to Fetch TV's dreadful ticketing system.

Tesco (instore) selling 8320HD's for £95

If you're very lucky, your local Tesco might still have some 8320HD's in stock, because they're apparently doing a shelf-clearing price of £95 now. They'll fly off the shelves at that price (in my case, my local Tesco has never stocked any 8320HD's so no flying there) - perhap trying the apparently not-very-helpful customer helpline on 0800 505 555 (9am to 6pm) to find out the closest store with stock might help.

There's a HotUKDeals posting on this, though predictably some people slag off the 8320HD for the flaky firmware (I've pointed out that the latest firmware is actually not too bad at all).

Sixth beta morphs into stable release

The URL for the sixth beta (no mention of a beta tree in the URL) should have given the clue that after over 5 months, FetchTV have finally decided that version 4.8.04-11 will be a stable release. If your 8320HD is hooked up to the Net, a green SW. UPGRADE item will appear when you press the Menu button on your remote. Select that option and upgrade to this latest stable release, but if it doesn't work, there's always the USB stick route instead.

Some AVForums.com users are having trouble resuming playback of a recording that they'd pressed stop half way through viewing when using the 4.8.04-11 release - I've been unabled to reproduce this issue: all resumptions worked for me. Note that you can't resume during the first or last minute of a recording playback  (don't ask me why!). Overall, though, it does seems quite a reasonable firmware release for once.

Sixth beta seems to be as good as the fifth one

Yes, another week, another beta - this time the 6th consecutive beta has turned up with a version number of 4.8.04-11. As ever, the installation instructions are on the Latest Firmware page and it seems to be another good release on a par with the 5th beta. I can still see an old bug of dropping live TV frames when early-exiting playing back a recording (I just had it when playing back tonight's Tour De France highlights recording - I used the stop button because I'd caught up live via skipping the ad breaks). Rumour has it that it fixes the Sky Go On Demand crashes that Sky subscribers had been seeing with the 5th beta, but since I don't have a Sky sub, I can't confirm or deny that.

Fifth beta turns up - first one showing promise

Yes, another week, another beta firmware I'm afraid - at least the 5th beta I know of since last February's so-called stable release. For the record, it's version 4.8.04-10 and the usual installation instructions are on the Latest Firmware page. I've installed it on my 8320HD and it fixes the remote control repeating bug and also seems to login properly to Sky Go (formerly Sky Player) and play the sample channel OK (I don't have a Sky sub). There's also no sign of some of the other beta bugs (blank recordings, unable to pause live TV properly), so could this be the first beta that I might actually keep on my 8320HD?

FetchTV incredulously wins a third award

I'm convinced that none of the ISPA members have ever used a 8320HD, otherwise they would never have given FetchTV an award (their third award of the year would you believe it), this time for "Best Over-the-Top TV".

Let me see, we have Tesco discontinuing the 8320HD, horrendous bugs such as repeating remote control buttons, failure of Accurate Recording to catch starts or ends of shows and a totally broken Series Link facility existing for at least 5 months now, plus a series of rabidly buggy beta firmware releases in the meantime. Yeah, that's worth an award - for the flakiest PVR known to man...

Fourth (buggy) beta released

With each of the recent beta releases seemingly adding more bugs than they fix, Fetch TV have tempted fate for the fourth time with yet another beta, this time version 4.8.04-08. As usual, installation instructions are on the Latest Firmware page and I've installed the beta on my 8320HD.

It seems to have pretty well cured the repeating remote control bug, but I still get repeated horizontal/vertical slats on FF/REW'ing. Talk on AVForums.com suggests that Sky Player login doesn't work with this latest beta, but that's hardly a critical loss, since it's so awful anyway. Live pause now works for both SD and HD channels, but I've had a couple of "blank" recordings (possibly when doing 2 simultaneously), so I'm back on the Feb 2011 stable firmware again.

New (buggy) beta firmware available

The third consecutive beta firmware (version 4.8.04-05) for the 8320HD has been released and can be downloaded here. The installation instructions are on Latest Firmware page as usual and I have applied to my 8320HD. On initial testing it actually seems to have largely fixed the remote control repeating bug, which is a huge relief.

However, two obvious bugs are still present - the repeated video slats in the bottom half of the screen during high speed FF/FEW and new bizarre bug that live-pausing SD programmes fails to hold the pause (it is released after 1-2 seconds). It's bizarre because HD programmes don't seem to be affected and will hold the pause as you would expect.

According to AVForums.com postings, Sky Player may be broken with this latest beta release. I could get all the way to the login screen, but I have no active subscription (only used the free month, which was so awful, I'd never pay for it) so it was tricky to work out if it was locking me out because of that or a firmware bug.

Tesco Direct finally throw in the towel

Tesco Direct haven't really liked the 8320HD due to its very buggy nature - it was even the victim of an Tesco Emergency Product Recall briefly last year because its initial firmware was so bad, it couldn't even record programmes!

Earlier this year, it disappeared for a few weeks without any notice, only to come back at a lower and lower prices, ending up at a very reasonable £155 (delivered) for its final few months. However, that record low price was accompanied by the death knell phrasing "while stocks last" and sure enough today saw the last remaining units sold and Tesco Direct putting up their discontinued notice.

All is not quite lost, because you can still buy an 8320HD directly from FetchTV themselves, albeit for a significantly higher price of £189.50 delivered. What this does to the future of the 8320HD is uncertain - Tesco were surely selling a lot more 8320HD's than Fetch TV due to a cheaper price, bigger brand name and both offline and online distribution.

It does worry me that the gap between stable firmware releases has been getting longer over time, suggesting that FetchTV have scaled back on that front due to lack of either commitment or finances. They promised a new UI over a year ago and I'm sceptical their latest deadline of Summer 2011 will be met. All I'd like is fixes for the remote control repeat and FF/REW bugs and the addition of auto-padding. I'd be happy to see a further 3-6 months delay for the new UI if that happened.

New (even more buggy) beta firmware available

Version 4.8.04-03 dated 27th May 2011 has turned up and here's where you get it:

http://media.fetchtv.net/upgrade/beta/upgrade8320HD-4.8.04-03-86f477676e.zip

Instructions on both upgrading and downgrading are on the Latest Firmware page, but  I would tread very carefully with this particular beta firmware release. It's got new bad bugs in it such as crashing more often, not letting you log into Sky Player (no loss there then!), the GUIDE button often not working (use "0" instead) and it fails to pause live TV (it pauses it for a few seconds and then resumes).

However, its one small saving grace is that it doesn't repeat the previous remote control button anywhere near as much as the current stable release.

Yes, you can downgrade your 8320HD firmware...

After being told for a long time by FetchTV that you can't downgrade your firmware once you've upgraded it (not good for people testing beta firmware out!), it turns out that there is a facility to do this.

Download the older firmware you want to downgrade to and put its unpacked files (autorun.html and upgrade.bin) at the top level of a FAT32-formatted USB stick as usual. Insert the stick into one of the 8320HD's two USB ports (go to Menu -> Media Centre -> USB  and select autorun.html if nothing happens) and it should tell you that the older version isn't suitable. Press and hold the Info button on the remote and it will apparently force a firmware downgrade.

However, the snags with downgrades are 1) finding the appropriate old firmware zip file in the first place and 2) whilst this might improve the behaviour of some later firmware bugs (e.g. HD exports, remote control repeating etc.), it will also bring back nasty old bugs and crashes galore. Early firmware releases were incredibly crashy for me and I wouldn't really want to go back to any of those.

Thanks to MaffyBoon on AVForums.com for the downgrade tip.

FetchTV wins two awards...stop looking so surprised

FetchTV, who market the 8320HD, recently won two awards at the Connected TV summit. No, they weren't for "most repeating buttons on a remote control" or "most annoying ad banners in an EPG", but actually for "Outstanding Connected TV Service" and "Outstanding Achievement in Connected TV" - who'd have thought it? Thanks to RowanDDR at AVForums.com for spotting this.

I guess with Youview - likely to steamroller the market that FetchTV/IP Vision have been struggling in - delayed until February 2012, they didn't really have much decent opposition this year. I can't say that any of FetchTV's paid content appeals to me at all (DRM-infested, self-destructing, often not cheap and often months late appearing) and the slow fixing rate of various serious bugs since the 8320HD's launch almost a year ago hasn't put FetchTV in anyone's good books (except, it appears, other TV industry luvvies, who I bet haven't even seen an 8320HD!).

Tesco Direct throw in free 1m HDMI cable

As part of their final offer, Tesco Direct have also added an extra free 1m HDMI cable worth £4.99 (er, you can buy cables for under £2 elsewhere!) when you buy the 8320HD. A bit strange perhaps, because the 8320HD comes with an HDMI cable already, but I guess it's always nice to have a spare.

I've just ordered an 8320HD for my sister for her birthday, but I'll be loathe to give it to her until Fetch TV release a firmware update to fix the dodgy remote control repeating bug. I'd also like Fetch TV to add auto-padding, because I'm still missing the beginning and ends of programmes unless I manually pad programmes (which is a pain to do). If they fixed those two bugs, the box would have no major issues for me (or ultimiately my sister!).

Fetch TV launch eBay UK store with not-so-special offer

Just had an e-mail through from Fetch TV that they are offering the 8320HD for £200.50 delivered with £30 of "free" movies included as a special deal (expires on 24th April) for launching their new eBay store. The problem with this is that Tesco Direct's deal of £155 delivered is still £15.50 better, plus Fetch TV's PPV movies don't exactly get me excited (a lot of them are pretty old).

Update: The offer ended and Fetch TV predictably only sold 1 of the 9 8320HD's they'd put up for sale. Unsurprising, considering how the Tesco deal is much better.

Tesco Direct cuts another £30 off - now £155

Tesco Direct have now cut the price of the 8320HD twice in just one month - it's now down to £155 (including delivery), the lowest it's ever been by far. It's difficult to make sense of these cuts, especially since Fetch TV have now committed to a new UI this summer. Is there a successor to the 8320HD waiting in the wings or is this just a temporary second cut by Tesco?

Still, one thing's likely - the new price will bring in more sales, since it's now the cheapest twin-tuner HD Freeview hard disk recorder by quite some distance. Now if only the next firmware release would tidy up the major bugs, I might actually be able to recommend the 8320HD to people at long last!

Updates:
Tesco Direct have added a "Final chance to buy - Order now whilst stocks last" banner to their 8320HD page, suggesting that the 8320HD won't be available from Tesco Direct for much longer. The Pocket-lint review I mentioned in the previous post does say "the remote control has been improved for future roll-outs of the box", so I don't think the 8320HD will be discontinued per se, but it might get a model number change for the new remote. Let's hope existing 8320HD owners don't have to buy a new remote to fully use the new UI!

On AVForums.com, the user natterjack has posted up a couple of discount codes for Tesco Direct (I don't know if both can be used on one purchase):

£10 off purchase over £50 on Tesco Direct - code TDX-KMAW
500 extra Clubcard points on electrical purchases - code TDX-KNA7 (that makes it 800 points in total on an 8320HD, equivalent to another £8 discount)

New 8320HD UI coming this summer

Pocket-lint have a review of the proposed new UI for the 8320HD - yes, the one we've been promised for about a year now. It does look far slicker than the current one, though I hope they remember to include auto-padding and non-repeating remote control responses in this one! A second article on the UI claims Summer 2011 is the new UI launch date, so start those countdown clocks now....

BBC Red Button channel 301 won't ever be Remote Recordable

With the Formula 1 season only weeks away, I was keen to see if there was any possibility to be able to remote record the Friday practice sessions which air on the BBC Red Button channel 301, because I might forget to set a recording via the local EPG on the 8320HD before leaving for work.

As some of you may know, channel 301 is present on the 8320HD's EPG, but bizarrely missing from Fetch TV's Web-based EPG (the one that lets you remote record). I lodged a ticket about this with Fetch TV's support, but got this unsatisfying response:

"Unfortunately the EPG data providers who supply the programme guide do not include the red button channels as the BBC doesn't provide the programme information  for them. So even if we added the channel itself in the listings it would have no programme information."

So what they're saying is that the Web EPG has a different data source than the 8320HD's EPG (the former is collated by non-geniuses TV Genius and the latter is taken from the Freeview on-air signal). Surely there are two obvious ways to fix this - the first is to get TV Genius to supply the channel 301 data (I find it difficult to believe that the BBC wouldn't supply it to TV Genius if asked) or secondly, simply add the "missing" channels by merging the TV Genius EPG data with the on-air signal data.

It's disappointing that Fetch TV haven't even thought of considering either course of action, especially when channel 301 isn't the only missing channel in their Web EPG. As it stands, you can forget ever Remote Recording anything on the BBC Red Button - another thumbs down for the Web EPG/Remote Recording facility then.

Tesco Direct drops the 8320HD's price to £185

As reported last month, the 8320HD returned to Tesco Direct, albeit surprisingly at the original price. This month, however, they've dropped the price a further £20 to £185 (including the £5 delivery charge) and this finally undercuts Fetch TV's price by £4.50.

Potential new purchasers should be aware that there at least two serious issues with the latest 8320HD firmware: repeating the previous remote control button press instead of obeying the latest press and no auto-padding facility causing regular losses of the start or end of programmes that don't run exactly to the EPG schedule unless you manually pad them.

8320HD returns to Tesco Direct

When Tesco stopped selling the 8320HD, it was natural to assume that it was a 6-month contract that had expired and Tesco - because of early issues including an Emergency Product Recall - weren't renewing the distribution contract. Less than a month later, however, it's back for sale at Tesco Direct again! It's the same price as before (£205 including postage) and is still undercut by the seemingly long-lasting Fetch TV offer (£189.50 including postage).

New stable firmware available

Only a week after the "leaked" beta firmware download, Fetch TV have released a new stable version, 4.8.03-01. I've installed it on my 8320HD and it seems to have mostly cured the repeat remote control problem (it still happens, but not as frequently). More details are on the Latest Firmware page.

New beta firmware available

Thanks to Jacko at AVForums.com, we now have a new beta firmware release to play with, namely version 4.8.01-20. Apparently it improves recording accuracy (hopefully not chopping off ends of recordings due to using the EPG end time like the current stable firmware does), but I haven't yet applied it to my 8320HD. Check the Latest Firmware page for instructions on how to install the new beta firmware.

Beginning of the end for the 8320HD?

It was always rumoured that Tesco had a short-term distribution deal (6 months from the World Cup 2010 onwards?) with IP Vision for the 8320HD and it's now official - Tesco have discontinued the box. It doesn't really come as a shock with the high rate of returns due to horrifically buggy firmware and Fetch TV selling direct to the public and undercutting Tesco by almost £20 for a few months now. What's worrying now is that the 8320HD might be abandoned completely by IP Vision - we still need firmware updates to fix outstanding bugs and these look less likely to appear now...

8320HD price increase due to VAT rise

Although Fetch TV's end-of-year offer of £185.95 delivered for an 8320HD has ended, the £20-off page remains. It's just that the VAT increase has made the normal price £205 and the discounted price £185. You can also get 48-hour delivery for £4.50, making the delivered/discounted price now £189.50. Tesco is still at £205 delivered for the moment.