Detail on Samsung ES6300 as Freesat+Saorview+PVR+Smart TV

Phibsboro

rleahy wrote: »

I am thinking of getting one of these TV's but want to be able to watch any other programme while recording any programme - if I connect a combi box like the Triax TR 114, I would have 2*sattelite and 2*DTT tuners can anyone speculate as to whether this would this work or not?

It would of course, just set the TV to do the recording then switch to what ever HDMI input you have your combo box on to continue watching. Obviously you'll need a separate LNB for the sat bit of the combo box and you'll be in the combo boxes own UI - so no lovely Freesat EPG! Also, again obviously, the TV will know nothing of your box so you can't schedule recordings to take place on the box (i.e. you can't have two recordings at the same time, unless of course your combo box has its own recording facilities).

rleahy

Thanks for the info, sounds like I would need 2*HDD's to be able to record two programmes at once? either that or connect a Vu+ Ultimo (has 3 tuners) for recording and just use the TV tuners for watching TV.

vince

hi im thinking of getting the ue37es5500 model as its dropped to 649 euro is this a good bye and good valu thanks i have freesat already just need saorveiw and txt and what will i neeed to record onto ie harddrive. i am fussy about having a good picture is 100 hz good i see others have higher hz rating i have a tight budget

Gwynston

Had a problem with the recording feature yesterday...
I noticed that under AllShare Play->Recorded TV is listed all programs that were manually recorded (e.g. just pressing record while viewing something). But also everything I'd ever scheduled for recording from the EPG and had subsequently watched and deleted from the Schedule Manager.

So it seems that everything that's deleted from the Schedule Manager doesn't get physically deleted from the disk and is left taking up (a lot) of space.

So I went through deleting everything from within Recorded TV, figuring the quickest way to do it was to "select all", then manually unselect the handful of recordings I wanted to keep, then chose "delete all selected". Anyway, when executing this the TV popped up an "unknown error" and abandoned the task, except that looking afterwards there was nothing left in the Recorded TV list!

"Oh well, just a small bug-ette", I thought, except that when I later switched on the TV again, it immediately reported a "problem with a connected device", i.e. the HDD. It offered to try to recover the situation but couldn't manage to and wouldn't let me use the recording feature at all without reformatting the HDD.

It seemed to just do a quick format and thankfully the extensive list of scheduled recordings I had set up were retained, and indeed seemed to work as expected when one kicked in later in the evening.

This is the first real problem I've had with the recording feature, but it could be a real pain if it reoccurs whenever I have to clear out the HDD. Unless there's a way to make deletions from the Scheduler permanent on disk also, to avoid having to delete them all again manually from Recorded TV?

faithfulfan

Does anybody know if its possible to update/replace the firmware of the French model from pixmania with firmware for the English model to avail of Freesat tuning option?

zg3409

faithfulfan wrote: »

Does anybody know if its possible to update/replace the firmware of the French model from pixmania with firmware for the English model to avail of Freesat tuning option?

I thought that during installation you just set country to UK instead of Ireland?

faithfulfan

Not that I can see zg, I have country set to UK but no Freeview or Freesat epg, just Samsung 7 day epg for Irish DTT and Now and Next epg for Sat. Can anyone else with French model confirm?

Phibsboro

faithfulfan wrote: »

Not that I can see zg, I have country set to UK but no Freeview or Freesat epg, just Samsung 7 day epg for Irish DTT and Now and Next epg for Sat. Can anyone else with French model confirm?

I think I mentioned earlier in the thread that I avoided the French model for exactly this reason. As I understand it there is a license cost associated with including the Freesat epg so it is only available in the relevant models. I googled and goolged (and googled! The pixmania one is miles cheaper than the UK model!) and could find no success stories of managing to revert it to UK functionality. At some point of the next few years samygo users might find a back door and you may be able to install a UK firmware, but I wouldn't count on it. If you can return the TV, I'd do so now.

BTW, the samsung 7 day EPG for DTT is probably similar to what Irish users are getting for DTT on the UK model, the only difference being we are branded as freeview (assuming the TV as been set up as UK to get Freesat, otherwise it is branded as Saorview). Either way, you are probably only missing the branding on DTT, the key loss is Freesat.

faithfulfan

Phibsboro wrote: »

I think I mentioned earlier in the thread that I avoided the French model for exactly this reason. As I understand it there is a license cost associated with including the Freesat epg so it is only available in the relevant models. I googled and goolged (and googled! The pixmania one is miles cheaper than the UK model!) and could find no success stories of managing to revert it to UK functionality. At some point of the next few years samygo users might find a back door and you may be able to install a UK firmware, but I wouldn't count on it. If you can return the TV, I'd do so now.

BTW, the samsung 7 day EPG for DTT is probably similar to what Irish users are getting for DTT on the UK model, the only difference being we are branded as freeview (assuming the TV as been set up as UK to get Freesat, otherwise it is branded as Saorview). Either way, you are probably only missing the branding on DTT, the key loss is Freesat.

Cheers Phibsboro, ya I kinda guessed that was the case alright. As you say the big loss is the Freesat epg. The price difference is significant and I'm probably content to put up with this limitation at present. Its a great pity this functionality is not available on what would appear to be identical models and the difference is not highlighted on any retail sites that I can see.

Phibsboro

faithfulfan wrote: »

Cheers Phibsboro, ya I kinda guessed that was the case alright. As you say the big loss is the Freesat epg. The price difference is significant and I'm probably content to put up with this limitation at present. Its a great pity this functionality is not available on what would appear to be identical models and the difference is not highlighted on any retail sites that I can see.

Yep, it took me a few days of research to realise it wasn't the same model! But then when you know that, you see that in fact pixmania don't mention Freesat at all on their page One just assumes that a .ie site will be selling the UK model

To others reading this, get it in Powercity, ask someone who looks like a manager for their best price...

maxg

@faithfulfan
Are you able to select Freesat as satellite option?

faithfulfan

No Maxg, theres a "fransat" option which I guess is a French sat service but no Freesat option to be found. It also has a problem auto tuning the BBC HD channels but I think this can be done manually with the transponder settings, will post if I get them working. Other than that it a good piece of kit, Netflix and RTE Player are very good on it.

vince

i bought my samsung 37es5500 just wondering will it record rte onto a flash drive as some shops said yes some said no id like to know before i purchase a stick thanks

Phibsboro

vince wrote: »

i bought my samsung 37es5500 just wondering will it record rte onto a flash drive as some shops said yes some said no id like to know before i purchase a stick thanks

It will ye, you can schedule a recording off the EPG. Gets messy when you want to watch something else at the same time though, read back through the thread for info on that..

vince

silly question is it ok to unplug this tv each night. i heard before some things dont like being turned off and on via the mains

Johnboy1951

It is generally very good advice to turn off (and even unplug) electrical devices that are not in use during the night .... and at other times if they are not attended.

Richard Dower

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

It is generally very good advice to turn off (and even unplug) electrical devices that are not in use during the night .... and at other times if they are not attended.

Even with all the new tech and energy saving, all devices on standby use power...it might also save on wear n' tear of the electronics you you unplug...it also could prevent an electrical fire.

Richard Dower

faithfulfan wrote: »

Does anybody know if its possible to update/replace the firmware of the French model from pixmania with firmware for the English model to avail of Freesat tuning option?

The firmware is the same, it's pan European....so the UK firmware is the same as the french. It's NOT freesat!....it's Free-To-Air satelitte!

The tunner does not include the Freesat EPG,

Richard Dower

faithfulfan wrote: »

Not that I can see zg, I have country set to UK but no Freeview or Freesat epg, just Samsung 7 day epg for Irish DTT and Now and Next epg for Sat. Can anyone else with French model confirm?

Yeah...because the tv is not Freesat!....it's free-to-air, Freesat has the EPG like Freeview, free-to-air has not....read the tv specs!

Also the French tv's are DVB-T....not DVB-T2....so not Freeview HD!


READ THE SPECS!!!!!! :rolleyes:

Richard Dower

Phibsboro wrote: »

Yep, it took me a few days of research to realise it wasn't the same model! But then when you know that, you see that in fact pixmania don't mention Freesat at all on their page One just assumes that a .ie site will be selling the UK model

To others reading this, get it in Powercity, ask someone who looks like a manager for their best price...

The Pix website dosen't mention Freesat because there are TWO different tuners!, one is Freesat and the other is Free-To-Air....one has an EPG and one does not.

Freeview HD uses DVB-T2 and the Pix model is DVB-T....but Saorview works perfectly even in HD because the tv is MPEG4 + MHEG5.

The UK and Fench tv's are identical save for the UK one being DVB-T2....even the UK model is Free-To-Air....not Freesat!

You're moaning because you didn't read the bleedin' specs properly...was hoping to save a nice few quid over getting a UK tv, well boo hoo! :rolleyes:

Pix is based in France....they sell French and European models...this is WELL KNOWN!, it's also the reason why they sell stuff alot cheaper...cry me a river!

zg3409

Richard Dower wrote: »

The firmware is the same, it's pan European....so the UK firmware is the same as the french. It's NOT freesat!....it's Free-To-Air satelitte!
The tunner does not include the Freesat EPG,

If the software was the same it would work. We all agree the software is not the same, hence the problem with the Freesat EPG. DVB-T/2 has nothing to do with the satellite side. The EPG is nothing to do with the tuner. It is software.

The OP bought the TV as it was super cheap and is happy to use it as is.

Phibsboro

Richard Dower wrote: »

The Pix website dosen't mention Freesat because there are TWO different tuners!, one is Freesat and the other is Free-To-Air....one has an EPG and one does not.

Freeview HD uses DVB-T2 and the Pix model is DVB-T....but Saorview works perfectly even in HD because the tv is MPEG4 + MHEG5.

The UK and Fench tv's are identical save for the UK one being DVB-T2....even the UK model is Free-To-Air....not Freesat!

You're moaning because you didn't read the bleedin' specs properly...was hoping to save a nice few quid over getting a UK tv, well boo hoo! :rolleyes:

Pix is based in France....they sell French and European models...this is WELL KNOWN!, it's also the reason why they sell stuff alot cheaper...cry me a river!

Richard, I think you may have (drunkenly? :P ) stumbled into a thread you're not quite up to date on. The UK model does indeed have Freesat and is listed on the official UK site - http://www.freesat.co.uk/products/hd-tv-range. I know because I have it!

On the DTT tuner, I'd be amazed if the French model isn't T2, the pixmania specs are unclear on this point.

Edit - just to add, freesat and free to air are actually not two different tuners. They both use the DVB-S2 sat tuner. Freesat is a firmware solution that grabs the EPG from a sat stream and displays it in a certain way, as regulated and licensed by Freesat in the UK. So it is theoretically possible for a non Freesat TV with an S2 tuner to be given the right firmware and display a Freesat epg. Some unlicensed STBs are getting a 7 day guide this way (though not as fluidly or as prettily as an official solution). The likelihood of this happening for a TV is quite small though as there isn't as much of a hobbyist culture around TVs as there is around the STBs.

faithfulfan

Richard Dower wrote: »

The Pix website dosen't mention Freesat because there are TWO different tuners!, one is Freesat and the other is Free-To-Air....one has an EPG and one does not.

Freeview HD uses DVB-T2 and the Pix model is DVB-T....but Saorview works perfectly even in HD because the tv is MPEG4 + MHEG5.

The UK and Fench tv's are identical save for the UK one being DVB-T2....even the UK model is Free-To-Air....not Freesat!

You're moaning because you didn't read the bleedin' specs properly...was hoping to save a nice few quid over getting a UK tv, well boo hoo! :rolleyes:

Pix is based in France....they sell French and European models...this is WELL KNOWN!, it's also the reason why they sell stuff alot cheaper...cry me a river!

Wrong, Wrong, Wrong and Correct.

Obviously the firmware is not the same as we would all have the same options if it were. Everyone is well aware of what Freeview and Freesat are if you actually read the previous posts. You are wrong they do not have two different tuners, most people will agree that the hardware in the two tv's models are almost identical including tuners as the French one does indeed dispaly RTE 2 HD, Saorview EPG data and the Free to Air HD channels which it would not if the tuners were not T2 and S2, as someone mentioned Freesat and Freeview are just part of the software ie. firmware and it would not make sense for a manufacturer to put a different "out of date tuner" in the same model.

Phibsboro is 100% correct, the UK model does have Freeview HD and Freesat HD, perhaps you should read the spec's yourself.

No one is moaning about anything, just having a discussion about a tv, if you have anything meaningful to contribute, please do so. I've stated in a previous post that I'm very happy with the TV.

Well done, Pix do indeed have their headquarters in Paris, France.

maxg

zg3409 wrote: »

If the software was the same it would work. We all agree the software is not the same, hence the problem with the Freesat EPG. DVB-T/2 has nothing to do with the satellite side. The EPG is nothing to do with the tuner. It is software.

The OP bought the TV as it was super cheap and is happy to use it as is.

The software can be the same. Some basis setting is different.
Do you remember the Panasonic G10 hack?
Hacking/changing a samsung tv should be easier in the engineer menu.

faithfulfan

In this case I don't think its a conscious decision by Samsung to prevent use of Free-Sat, more likely its just a regional variation with Fran-sat installed instead. Samsung have obviously paid money to include Free-Sat on this model and its passed hardware and software requirements, hopefully more info will become available on updating the set to UK firmware as the issue becomes more prevalent.

maxg

The firmware is the same.
It looks like the country code (locale) has to be changed.
The germans have have a similar problem to get hbbtv at imported samsungs from france. Their solution is to change the country code to eu_ger in the service menu. The entry is locked and had to be unlocked first via a service remote or a ir emulator.

The Pontiac

CWest wrote: »

Hi

I'm another looking for a “superman TV”, in my case full Freesat (not FTA) + Saorview (inc. MHEG5), plus a good PVR and ability to play digital files from digital sources (MKV, AVI, etc).

I gather from this forum that this Samsung Smart TV is a rare beast in terms of supporting Freesat + Saorview.

Are you not better off getting separate box/es?

If one device breaks, then just replace that one device rather than one whole expensive device.

Apogee

maxg wrote: »

The firmware is the same.
It looks like the country code (locale) has to be changed.
The germans have have a similar problem to get hbbtv at imported samsungs from france. Their solution is to change the country code to eu_ger in the service menu. The entry is locked and had to be unlocked first via a service remote or a ir emulator.

This is an video illustrating a similar hack on a D-series Samsung. At 2.30 in the video, you can see where they can change the 'Locale' - they scroll past 'EU_UK' as one of the options.

[edit]At 2.58 in video, they change the TV model type.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q5yHB3vHiqQ

Though the potential for bricking a shiny new Samsung is likely quite high - see youtube comments!

Phibsboro

Samygo is the key forum for sammy TV hackers. This is the forum for the E series...

http://forum.samygo.tv/viewforum.php?f=52


Still quite sparse unfortunately but as the year progresses you should see some developments in tools, tricks etc. Looking at the C and D series forums, it isn't clear that getting freesat will be as straight forward as changing locales in the service menu, there don't appear to be any reports of that actually working on the previous models.

I scoured Samygo before I decided not to get the pixmania model, there doesn't seem to be a whole pile of people developing in this area and there may be a long wait for a technique to appear to turn on/load freesat. Or it may be discovered tomorrow

Apogee

Some info on access to Extended Service Menu on certain E-series models via ruSamsungTVCommunicator here:
http://forum.samygo.tv/viewtopic.php?t=4695