Series Link Down ?

captain_boycott · 17-07-2014 07:19PM

Souriau wrote: »

Is the Walker PVR working properly with the serial link recording since the changes made?

walker records flawlessly once the program series link info is captured and the timer is set. Problem is that after approx every 2 weeks, the series links fails to update for one show or another and you need to then go into the EPG and set up the series links again.

So as long as you keep an eye once a week in advance to ensure the timers are set, it will not miss anything...but a bummer if you away on holiday for more than 2 weeks!

The Cush · 17-07-2014 07:52PM

captain_boycott wrote: »

walker records flawlessly once the program series link info is captured and the timer is set. Problem is that after approx every 2 weeks, the series links fails to update for one show or another and you need to then go into the EPG and set up the series links again.

I replaced my Walker PVR with the Panasonic earlier this year. When I installed it I setup approx 10 series link timers to test it out. At the beginning of July I deleted the test recordings, over 100 recordings of the 6 and 9 News plus lesser numbers of other programmes including Tonight with VB on TV3 once I pointed out the reason the series link wasn't working for that programme.

No missed programmes, no resetting of series link timers, timer buffer. True flawless recording that I didn't get with the Walker PVR.

fat-tony · 17-07-2014 09:17PM

The Cush wrote: »

I replaced my Walker PVR with the Panasonic earlier this year. When I installed it I setup approx 10 series link timers to test it out. At the beginning of July I deleted the test recordings, over 100 recordings of the 6 and 9 News plus lesser numbers of other programmes including Tonight with VB on TV3 once I pointed out the reason the series link wasn't working for that programme.

No missed programmes, no resetting of series link timers, timer buffer. True flawless recording that I didn't get with the Walker PVR.

I feel your pain, mate. The Humax Freesat has worked for me for years on satellite. On Saorview I've only had either xbmc or now enigma based firmware. Openelec (xbmc) has been ok, but not perfect. Enigma has been flawless in operation over the past 2 - 3 weeks in regards to recording series and timeshift.

The Cush · 17-07-2014 10:06PM

fat-tony wrote: »

I feel your pain, mate.

Thanks.

Series link was nice to have but stable recording is my priority so I'll live without it.

From the info you posted earlier I see the Freeview CRID values 0x31, 0x32 and 0x33 fall within the 0x20 - 0x3F (User private) range in the ETSI spec.

The only reason that occurs to me for using the Freeview+ CRID type initially was to make series link compatible with Freeview PVRs in NI but now Walker see their PVR losing market share to Freeview PVRs here because of the problems reported with it and may have persuaded Saorview to make the change.

haymur · 17-07-2014 11:31PM

How do I find the people responsible for this change and where do I contact them for a statement on this change which affects hundreds of people with good PVR's and TV's. We all should write to them and see how they respond

The Cush · 18-07-2014 09:31AM

haymur wrote: »

How do I find the people responsible for this change and where do I contact them for a statement on this change which affects hundreds of people with good PVR's and TV's.

2RN - http://www.2rn.ie/contact-us/.

Their reply will most likely be "only Saorview approved products are guaranteed to work with all aspects of the Saorview service, most of the time, as none of the main manufacturers will bother supplying the small Irish market with a decent PVR, so tough luck".
They'll probably omit the last part

haymur · 18-07-2014 11:48AM

The Cush wrote: »

2RN - http://www.2rn.ie/contact-us/.

Their reply will most likely be "only Saorview approved products are guaranteed to work with all aspects of the Saorview service, most of the time, as none of the main manufacturers will bother supplying the small Irish market with a decent PVR, so tough luck".
They'll probably omit the last part

Yes but did the people who waited and waited past the failed due delivery date's for the Walker to finally arrive get a machine that works ''with all aspects of the Saorview service'' . I have seen a large number of complaints from people with the Walker whereas with the other brands there is praise coming from people with Japanese and Korean PVR's. I bought a Humax T2 about a year before Saorview launched a PVR which could record their exiting transmissions.

In the old days · 18-07-2014 06:18PM

The Cush wrote: »

2RN - http://www.2rn.ie/contact-us/.

Their reply will most likely be "only Saorview approved products are guaranteed to work with all aspects of the Saorview service, most of the time, as none of the main manufacturers will bother supplying the small Irish market with a decent PVR, so tough luck".
They'll probably omit the last part

I've just emailed them anyway. They have instructions on how to tune in an unapproved STB on their website. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Do they expect people in spillover areas to have two PVRs, one for Freeview and one for Saorview. Madness.

RED L4 0TH · 18-07-2014 09:07PM

Sam Russell wrote: »

Can not the Humax Freeview PVRs have their country changed by a secret menu? Are these units working correctly when the country=Ireland?

I have the Humax HDR Fox T2 and you could change the country via a secret menu. Ireland was in the list, but selecting it disabled series link. Had to be set to England for it to work, until now.

fat-tony · 19-07-2014 01:37PM

Have you tried setting it back to Ireland since the CRID change? Maybe series link will work now?

RED L4 0TH · 19-07-2014 02:58PM

fat-tony wrote: »

Have you tried setting it back to Ireland since the CRID change? Maybe series link will work now?

Just tried. No luck.

If anyone wants to access this menu, do the following:

Menu > Settings > System > System Information > Red > Green > Yellow > Blue > Green > Yellow > Blue.

JDxtra · 21-07-2014 09:16PM

This seems like a pointless change... right?

It has killed series link on my Saorview approved Samsung TV.

I do have my TV set to UK to get the Freesat channels. Will see if setting back to Ireland fixes series link - but if I do that, I'll only get now/next data for satellite and no nice Freesat EPG.

If they are "fixing" things, they should remove the additional space from the start of all program descriptions.

Gerry Wicklow · 22-07-2014 09:09AM

JDxtra wrote: »

This seems like a pointless change... right?

It has killed series link on my Saorview approved Samsung TV.

I do have my TV set to UK to get the Freesat channels. Will see if setting back to Ireland fixes series link - but if I do that, I'll only get now/next data for satellite and no nice Freesat EPG.

If they are "fixing" things, they should remove the additional space from the start of all program descriptions.

I tried changing my Samsung ES6300 from UK to Irl to see if it helped but it only made things worse! MHEG5 text stopped working also. At this stage I have pretty much given up on RTÉ ever getting it all right. When you add in things like their inability to correct the EPG for overruns and two versions of the same news story on Aertel, you really begin to wonder if they give a toss at all. Oh yes, don't forget their silent audio streams. :mad:

JDxtra · 22-07-2014 10:29AM

Samsung are very good at responding to issues. I will check my TV later after I reset it back to Ireland - if series link is still broken I will contact Samsung.

I have already emailed 2rn and RTE. I urge others to do the same. It's in everybody’s interest to have as many recording devices working as possible with Saorview.

mgc102 · 26-07-2014 10:53PM

fat-tony wrote: »
What seems to have happened is that RTENL/2RN/Red Bee have changed the coding identifying the CRID (the programme and series link info) to conform to the standard as defined in the Nordig specification for all Saorview receivers and PVRs.

The value identifying CRID was 0x31 and 0x32 (ie ASCII character '1' and '2'). This seems to work with Freeview-type PVRs / receivers. '1' to identify the link containing programme ID, '2' to identify the link containing series ID.

The values now for programme and series link are 0x01 and 0x02. These are the actual values contained in the Nordig specification and conform to ETSI standards for DVB.

It doesn't really help anyone with a Freeview PVR, but it seems to be just a tightening of the specifications. I would imagine the reason the UK values are different is that they are part of the proprietary D book spec. Why those values were coded into the actual EPG data on Saorview up to recently I would not even begin to speculate on :rolleyes:

Here is an extract from the Nordig spec:
12.4.6.1 CRID type 0x01 &#8211; programme CRID (NorDig PVR only)
Programme CRIDs are used to identify two or more EIT events as being the same programme. This
prevents duplicate programmes being recorded from within the same series and also allows alternative
programme instances to be recorded (or offered for recording) if a booking clash occurs.
It is not necessary for all EIT events to have a programme CRID. An event may only include a maximum
of one programme CRID. In the current context they are only useful where alternative instances or split
programmes are being identified.
12.4.6.2 CRID type 0x02 &#8211; series CRID (NorDig PVR only)
Where a series CRID is conveyed in a CID according to the signalling outlined, it is to be used to only
refer to an editorial concept of a series.
An event may be associated with more than one series, i.e. an event may include several series CRIDs.
Where an event is associated with more than one series, an invitation to record &#8216;programmes in the same
series as this event&#8217; would book to record all events in all series associated with the selected event (see
more section 13.3.3).
12.4.6.3 CRID type 0x03 &#8211; recommendation CRID (NorDig PVR only)
This identifies a looser linkage to another programme or series. A recommendation may point to a single
event (programme CRID) or a series (series CRID).
A CRID in the CID shall be marked as crid type 0x03 (recommendation) and be a programme or series
CRID.
It is not required that the recommendation CRID be present in the current scope of EIT. If the event
referenced by the recommendation CRID is not present in the current scope of EIT, the recommendation
may be presented to the user when it appears in EIT. If a recommendation CRID does not appear in EIT
within 91 days of the referencing event it shall be discarded.

I get freeview and saorview on my Humax T2. Saorview series link is no longer available on the HDR.
The EU protects freedom of movement (but not series link information). It all most reminds me of the Microsoft explorer monopoly commission controversy years ago!! (I.e. you need a saorview sticker on your box to get series link).

Anyway a few months ago I noticed that UTV (Freeview) and TV3 (Saorview) had the exact same CRID for their shows. Maybe that was causing problems on some equipment and they had to tighten the specifications.

Bummer. I am in an overspill area and can't access the Blacks Mountain Saorview MUX. As a result I am unable to series link Irish Language Programmes. Maybe I should complain to my elected representative as I believe that access to Irish Language channels/ programme was part of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement?

clonion · 04-08-2014 01:58PM

Just found this thread. I am so annoyed about this - we have a Panasonic box which we love - 1TB & really reliable. Really does not seem fair to me that though we pay our TV license, this very simple info can be turned off and made inaccessible for us. Given that most things we watch are repeated on British channels, I guess I know where we'll be watching them from now on.

JDxtra · 04-08-2014 04:34PM

No reply yet from either Saorview or RTE.

JDxtra · 05-08-2014 10:21AM

Got a reply from Saorview...

As for the Series Link issue, if you set the country code / country ID to 'Ireland' you should be able to use series link again. This is usually found in the setup - tuning menu, wherein you will see a prompt on your tuning menu asking you to select from a list what country you are in. The series link feature was linked to country code to improve the stability of series link recording.

realdanbreen · 05-08-2014 11:28AM

I need a bit of help. I am having problems(power light going off) with a 12v masthead poer supply.From time to time power goes off as it was a short or something, what do I do?

JDxtra · 05-08-2014 12:13PM

realdanbreen wrote: »

I need a bit of help. I am having problems(power light going off) with a 12v masthead poer supply.From time to time power goes off as it was a short or something, what do I do?

You should start a new thread on this topic, this thread is related to series link issues.

The Cush · 05-08-2014 12:38PM

JDxtra wrote: »

Got a reply from Saorview...

The series link feature was linked to country code to improve the stability of series link recording.

Well that's a load of rubbish, the problem is with the Walker PVR. I had no series link stability problems with the Panasonic only the Walker box.

realdanbreen · 05-08-2014 01:53PM

JDxtra wrote: »

You should start a new thread on this topic, this thread is related to series link issues.

All I want is a solution, I don't particularily want to turn it into a big long winded topic. I would have thought it should be easy peesy to anyone with a little knowledge of this stuff.

maximus02 · 05-08-2014 01:56PM

Hi

The series link is most certainly not just with the Walker PVR.

I have a Humax HDR-2000T and it suffers from exactly the same problem. I have the country set to Ireland and still no series link any more. It used to work fine.

I specifically replaced my Triax box with the Humax to get a better box with series link but alas no more.

Regards

lkdsl · 05-08-2014 02:19PM

Using the hidden menu suggested above, I reset the country to Ireland on my Humax Fox HDR T-2 but still no series link. I also tried Norway, Sweden and Finland with the same results.

Still, better a PVR that works well than series link and unreliable recording.

mackersdublin · 05-08-2014 03:58PM

maximus02 wrote: »

Hi

The series link is most certainly not just with the Walker PVR.

I have a Humax HDR-2000T and it suffers from exactly the same problem. I have the country set to Ireland and still no series link any more. It used to work fine.

I specifically replaced my Triax box with the Humax to get a better box with series link but alas no more.

Regards

The Humax box isn't Saorview Approved, that's why it won't Series Link when set to Ireland

maximus02 · 05-08-2014 04:11PM

mackersdublin wrote: »

The Humax box isn't Saorview Approved, that's why it won't Series Link when set to Ireland

Yes I understand that. However it used to work fine until Saorview changed something.

Just annoying.

galtee boy · 05-08-2014 04:29PM

realdanbreen wrote: »

All I want is a solution, I don't particularily want to turn it into a big long winded topic. I would have thought it should be easy peesy to anyone with a little knowledge of this stuff.

Something is shorting out in it. It will probably calve completely. Get a new one, they are only about €15-€20 .

mackersdublin · 05-08-2014 04:30PM

And now Saorview Approved TV's don't Series Link unless set to Ireland, it's annoying alright

realdanbreen · 05-08-2014 05:44PM

galtee boy wrote: »

Something is shorting out in it. It will probably calve completely. Get a new one, they are only about €15-€20 .

Tried a new one,no joy. I could give some Tv installer €50 to go in the attic and tell me what the problem is but I thought somebody on here might know and save me the 50

kooga · 05-08-2014 08:10PM

realdanbreen wrote: »

Tried a new one,no joy. I could give some Tv installer €50 to go in the attic and tell me what the problem is but I thought somebody on here might know and save me the 50

sorry, but how can paying some installer fifty euro to go into the attic fix series link.....................whats up there?:)

Series Link Down ?

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