Problem with Tr112 and external Hard Drive

foxborough · 03-06-2011 1:15pm #1

Hi Folks,

Just got the TR112 Saorview box but am having problems with hooking up my external hard drive. Initially I did a Quick Format and copied a couple of movies on to it to test it out. I was able to play the movies alright through the media function but was unable to use the 'Pause' and 'Record' functionality as I got an error message saying my 'NTFS drive is dirty, please repair using PC'

I did a proper format of the drive, defragmented and ran chkdsk but I'm still getting the same error message.

Anyone have any ideas ?

foxborough · 03-06-2011 1:27pm

Google is my friend. Just got the solution in the "How to format a Hard Drive on the TR112 Saorview Box" section on the following page http://www.tvtrade.ie/triax-tr112-saorview-se-top-box-user-manual.html

Digital Satellite TV · 03-06-2011 1:31pm

foxborough wrote: »

Hi Folks,

Just got the TR112 Saorview box but am having problems with hooking up my external hard drive. Initially I did a Quick Format and copied a couple of movies on to it to test it out. I was able to play the movies alright through the media function but was unable to use the 'Pause' and 'Record' functionality as I got an error message saying my 'NTFS drive is dirty, please repair using PC'

I did a proper format of the drive, defragmented and ran chkdsk but I'm still getting the same error message.

Anyone have any ideas ?

What size is the drive? Is it USB powered or mains?

Even though it say it can work with NTFS, most boxes in our experience work only/better/well with FAT32. Tyr to format the drive using the TR112 itself...See video....

http://www.tvtrade.ie/triax-tr112-saorview-set-top-box-user-manual.html

Also if no joy, download swissknife and format it to FAT32 using you PC or laptop. Note: siwssknife doesn't appear to work well above 500GB and also doesn't work last time I chacked on win7. We do ours on an XP machine.

http://www.tvtrade.ie/blog/how-to-convert-an-ntfs-to-fat32-file-system/

video capture of the process on XP.

See how you go.

Digital Satellite TV · 03-06-2011 1:31pm

foxborough wrote: »

Google is my friend. Just got the solution in the "How to format a Hard Drive on the TR112 Saorview Box" section on the following page http://www.tvtrade.ie/triax-tr112-saorview-se-top-box-user-manual.html

You're too quick for me... Anyway as I say, see how you go with that.

foxborough · 06-06-2011 12:32pm

Just one little heads-up re the solution I posted, if you copy movies/tv shows on to the hardrive to view using the TR112 as a media player, then you get the 'NTFS Drive is dirty' message again.

If you wish to use the TR112/Hard Drive as both a recording device and a media player first partition the hard drive in two then format one of the partitons as described above. You can then copy whatever you want onto the other partition and it works fine.

06-06-2011 1:23pm

foxborough wrote: »

Just one little heads-up re the solution I posted, if you copy movies/tv shows on to the hardrive to view using the TR112 as a media player, then you get the 'NTFS Drive is dirty' message again.

If you wish to use the TR112/Hard Drive as both a recording device and a media player first partition the hard drive in two then format one of the partitons as described above. You can then copy whatever you want onto the other partition and it works fine.

Are you using the Safely Remove Hardware icon to unmount the drive in the PC or are you just pulling it from the USB port? If the latter, then that could be making the file system "dirty."

Dubluc · 14-06-2011 10:17pm

Hi Folks,
I got the TR112 and have problems.
First one I got half the time it kept popping up the message that it had found the hard drive I'd connected. (I'd formatted it to FAT32 a number of times). It gets a bit annoying when the box continually gives this message randomly every few minutes. It also had a habit of only recording bits of stuff. Once a show i recorded i was playing it and it just stopped for no reason. Most annoyingly a few times it was set to record from the EPG and just recorded a bit of the show.
I got sick of this and took it back to the retailer (a well known retail chain) who when this was explained replaced it.
Tried to record a show from the EPG last night. Guess what i got one minute thirty seconds or so! The show was half an hour and was set from the EPG (and i checked i pressed green twice before anyone asks!)
My hard drive is brand new and is formatted to FAT32 using swissknife software.
The box is connected to the telly with a scart cos it's an older telly.
Anyone any ideas? Did i get two duds, am I unlucky or am i doing something really wrong which is probably blindingly obvious and is staring me in the face?
The instruction manual is useless.

Hotblack Desiato · 17-06-2011 9:05pm

Missed two recordings with my TR112 this week, too. NTFS formatted external HDD.

For the second one (Gran Torino, on RTE1 the other night) I was there to watch it. I saw the box switch itself on from standby at the correct time, but recording never started.

Need to check the installed software version (when I can drag the other half away from the endless Friday night soaps

) against what's available from the Triax website. Are Saorview boxes supposed to update OTA like Freesat boxes do?

Hotblack Desiato · 18-06-2011 7:46pm

Software version I have is 0.5892 which is the latest available.

Will try reformatting the drive FAT32 once I move a couple of manual recordings off it. Odd that manual recordings work if the drive filesystem format was an issue, though.

Dubluc · 19-06-2011 10:43pm

I was in touch with Triax who said to download the latest version of the software. I set it to record a hurling match today via teh EPG and arrive home to find it has failed to record again. I've emailed triax again and I'm seriously annoyed.

Hotblack Desiato · 26-06-2011 11:48pm

I reformatted the HDD as FAT32 using the box, and two scheduled recordings today worked fine.

It's still pretty crap for playing back recordings though, the user interface is clunky, and fast forwarding 8x or more is very choppy. When you stop fast forwarding it often jumps to a random point 2 or 3 minutes back from where you pressed play. Once it starts doing that, even pausing or just using 2x fast forward is risky as it keep jumping back to the same point when you press play. Even using the 'go to time' function doesn't work right, the box seems to have a mind of its own when playing back recordings

OTOH my Humax Foxsat has a far better (although not perfect) user interface, and playback functions are flawless. The Triax isn't really sold as a PVR, so I suppose this comparison is a little unfair, but if recording to external disk is offered it should be tested a little better so that very obvious flaws are picked up before release.

Wonder if there will be any software updates to address these?

Edit: Forgot to mention that the sound often gets out of sync after fast forwarding, too. I'm happy with the basic box functions though, it's just recording and playback that cause me problems.

holidaysong · 05-07-2011 7:10pm

Have reformatted my 500GB hard drive that I'm using with this box to FAT32 and it is still missing recordings, both recordings set off the EPG and other ones that are manually set to record weekly. There seems to be no pattern to which ones will fail and which ones won't. It really is extremely annoying as I already have an MPEG4 TV so the whole point of getting the Triax TR112 was to use it in conjunction with an external hard drive to record.

Dubluc · 07-07-2011 10:30pm

Last reply I got from Triax suggested that I take back the box. When I pointed out that I'm already on a replacement box they indicated they'd look further into the problem. That was a few days ago. I've yet to get a reply but the guy I'm onto is good for replying.

I'm experiencing the same randomness in the box recording from the EPG. I've noticed that if it's the same day it tends to record and a day or more ahead it forgets to turn on and record. No predictability other than this.

holidaysong · 10-07-2011 6:32pm

Dubluc wrote: »

I've noticed that if it's the same day it tends to record and a day or more ahead it forgets to turn on and record. No predictability other than this.

That's a good observation. I tested this last night by setting four programmes to record off the EPG - two before midnight and two after midnight. The two before midnight recorded fine but the two after midnight didn't.

Dubluc · 10-07-2011 10:10pm

holidaysong wrote: »

I tested this last night by setting four programmes to record off the EPG - two before midnight and two after midnight. The two before midnight recorded fine but the two after midnight didn't.

I'm not the only one so! Sounds like something they should be able to fix.

hero25 · 13-08-2011 11:51am

hi all, i've experienced all the same problems as above...inconsistent behaviour of PVR and no pattern. did anyone get it resolved? thanks

Dubluc · 17-08-2011 4:11pm

hero25 wrote: »

hi all, i've experienced all the same problems as above...inconsistent behaviour of PVR and no pattern. did anyone get it resolved? thanks

No not resolved yet. I emailed Triax again a little while ago and they got back to me telling me that their technical people were working on it. Nothing since.

Riomheolai · 21-08-2011 10:08pm

bought this box yesterday - watching TV, etc works fine - although the remote control is a bit all over the place.

however the PVR is another matter - apart from a badly designed software interface (which I could get used to I suppose), it didn't work very well.

Last night I selected some programs to record this morning - and they didn't when I checked this morning the TRIAX wouldn't recognize the hard drive again (had that a few times yesterday). I reformatted the drive as NTFS and was able to record after that -

will try again tonight and check in the morning.

@Dubluc, what is the email address did you use for Triax support ?

Riomheolai · 23-08-2011 4:50pm

I sent back the Triax - really couldn't live with the bad design.

I picked up a Finlux Saorview box from Harvey Norman and that is working very well. Very simple remote and menu system. 7 day EPG, scheduled recording, etc all works with an external USB drive.

The only thing it doesn't do is allow me to do is pause or rewind while it is recording a program, although I can pause live TV and rewind if I am not recording. I can live with that given how well everything else works so far.

oh and the interface works as Gaeilge - Tá mé sásta!

one other thing - I was able to format a 2GB USB stick easily and quickly, but asking it to format a 230GB external hard drive didn't work - it just asked me to wait and hung there for over an hour. Formatted the same drive on a Mac (as MSDOS/FAT) and the Finlux box was happy to use that.

holidaysong · 19-09-2011 7:36pm

I just happened to set a show to record a day in advance over the weekend to see if this issue is still ongoing. I set a show to record on Thursday evening for Friday night and it recorded fine. This kind of recording was always failing previously. I've set a couple of recordings for tomorrow and set one recording to repeat each day so I'll see how these go. Has anyone else found that their box is now recording programmes that are set a day in advance, unlike previously when you had to set it on the day that the show was scheduled?

holidaysong · 21-09-2011 10:00am

So both recordings I set on Monday evening for Tuesday failed. Friday must have just been a fluke unfortunately.

Wearb · 01-10-2011 3:32pm

Riomheolai wrote: »

I sent back the Triax - really couldn't live with the bad design.

I picked up a Finlux Saorview box from Harvey Norman and that is working very well. Very simple remote and menu system. 7 day EPG, scheduled recording, etc all works with an external USB drive.

The only thing it doesn't do is allow me to do is pause or rewind while it is recording a program, although I can pause live TV and rewind if I am not recording. I can live with that given how well everything else works so far.

oh and the interface works as Gaeilge - Tá mé sásta!

one other thing - I was able to format a 2GB USB stick easily and quickly, but asking it to format a 230GB external hard drive didn't work - it just asked me to wait and hung there for over an hour. Formatted the same drive on a Mac (as MSDOS/FAT) and the Finlux box was happy to use that.

Does the Finlux box allow partially watched recording to be watched from where one left off the previous time, or does it start back at the beginning each time you turn it on? That is a huge problem on the Walker box.

holidaysong · 03-10-2011 4:52pm

Riomheolai wrote: »

I sent back the Triax - really couldn't live with the bad design.

Were you in contact with Triax about it in the end or did you just go back to the shop with it?

I've emailed them on sales@triax.co.uk and triax@triax.dk and haven't received any replies. Very poor form.

professorpete · 04-10-2011 9:14pm

Hi folks,
My dad just got one of these Triax boxes - against my advice I might add!

So he hooked up the harddrive, formatted ok (eventually) but here's the problem; when recording on another channel, all the Irish stations (bar the one that's being recorded) are lost for the amount of time the programme is being recorded; the channels just disappear - and re-appear after recording has finished...

Anyone seen this particular problem and / or know anything that might fix it? My poor IT - illiterate folks are terrified!! There's a tech support - type fella that power city recommend, but he wasn't able to help them on this one.

Cheers, P

PaulDolan · 03-01-2012 8:46pm

I've just bought one of these (groan- should have done some research)
Anyway I've formatted the usb stick from the box but when i record an error comes up saying device speed is not enough. Record anyway? If i'm there to select record anyway-it will- but if i'm not there it won't.
Any ideas.

Thanks
Paul

STB · 03-01-2012 9:46pm

PaulDolan wrote: »

I've just bought one of these (groan- should have done some research)
Anyway I've formatted the usb stick from the box but when i record an error comes up saying device speed is not enough. Record anyway? If i'm there to select record anyway-it will- but if i'm not there it won't.
Any ideas.

Thanks
Paul

Paul you will have to get a USB stick or drive with a higher write speed.

A lot of these boxes that record via USB require a write speed of 9mb/sec.

professorpete wrote: »

Hi folks,
My dad just got one of these Triax boxes - against my advice I might add!

So he hooked up the harddrive, formatted ok (eventually) but here's the problem; when recording on another channel, all the Irish stations (bar the one that's being recorded) are lost for the amount of time the programme is being recorded; the channels just disappear - and re-appear after recording has finished...

Anyone seen this particular problem and / or know anything that might fix it? My poor IT - illiterate folks are terrified!! There's a tech support - type fella that power city recommend, but he wasn't able to help them on this one.

Cheers, P

Despite the fact that it is a single tuner box, whilst recording it should be possible to switch to another station on the same Mux (all the channels are on the same mux at present, so it shouldnt be an issue).

Have Triax written the software as such ? Perhaps Dave @ TVtrade can help you. I am not familiar with the single tuner Triax 112.

Hotblack Desiato · 04-01-2012 2:00am

STB wrote: »

Despite the fact that it is a single tuner box, whilst recording it should be possible to switch to another station on the same Mux (all the channels are on the same mux at present, so it shouldnt be an issue).

I'm pretty sure that I was able to do that - I no longer have a USB disk connected (have basically given up on the TR112 to record or play back) so can't easily check.

Failed timer recordings were bad enough, but it was even more frustrating trying to get the stuff which did record to play back properly - OK if watching straight through but any attempt to fast forward through ads etc. led to the box jumping to random points in the recording when play was pressed again.

Even when viewing live, the lip-sync can be way out (fixed by switching to another channel and back again) and once in a while the signal strength meter will drop from 100 to 35% for no apparent reason and stay there, with occasional picture breakups, until I switch to a Mux2 channel and back again, then I get 100% signal again. Switching to another Mux1 channel produces no change. And yes I know Mux2 is off the air at the moment, which to me confirms this is a box fault not a signal problem.

Triax don't seem to have any plans to produce software updates to fix these problems.

I couldn't recommend that anyone buy this box, get a €50 (or less?) box next time they're in Aldi or Lidl instead.

hero25 · 04-01-2012 12:25pm

PaulDolan wrote: »

I've just bought one of these (groan- should have done some research)
Anyway I've formatted the usb stick from the box but when i record an error comes up saying device speed is not enough. Record anyway? If i'm there to select record anyway-it will- but if i'm not there it won't.
Any ideas.

Thanks
Paul

from my experience it's just pot luck....sometimes it'll record, sometimes it won't! if you're within the time period...i'd return it, as it's very frustrating to look forward to a recorded programme to then find out it never recorded....

Problem with Tr112 and external Hard Drive

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