Skybox f5 Recording fault?

[klootzaak]

Hi, My F5 has been working like a charm in most respects and I have successfully recorded programs with it in SD & HD but on two occasions I have tried to record programs that were in the middle of the night/early morning and both times it has failed to record them. The box was left on standby mode, I definitely set it to record and not just "channel", can anyone shed any light on this? Would I be better to leave the box on rather than standby, or is this perhaps a firmware fault?


Kind regards.

[DW190]

Hi, My F5 has been working like a charm in most respects and I have successfully recorded programs with it in SD & HD but on two occasions I have tried to record programs that were in the middle of the night/early morning and both times it has failed to record them. The box was left on standby mode, I definitely set it to record and not just "channel", can anyone shed any light on this? Would I be better to leave the box on rather than standby, or is this perhaps a firmware fault?


Kind regards.

Its an F5 which will have a mind of its own and will do what it wants to do which is not always what you will want it to do.

First check it its an original or a clone, I'll bet its a clone.

[Hadron]

I think this is another "feature" that has affected all openboxes since the S9. I have tried S9,10,11,& X3 boxes.

More often than not, when I set a single timer to record, it works, but occasionally fails. When I set multiple timers to record, the first usually works, but subsequent ones don't.

I just assume that it's one of those things that has never been fixed by the firmware...unless anyone knows of a model/firmware combination that always works!

[wortho]

had an openbox 10s and a f3 both have recorded fine. with a 1 gig passport hard drive, just got an f5 to replace the 10s which never gave me a bit of bother once i got my head around it, but sadly died , after a week of owning an f5 im sending it back, useless piece of rubbish never holds the signal and is a nightmare, works fine comeback an hour later half the channels missing, put my f3 on same setup works fine, waste of space will not be getting another one, lack of on /off switch cant be doing it any good in the long run either

[klootzaak]

I recorded something last night and and left the box turned on (not standby), I just turned my tv off, and it worked fine. I'm going to mess about with different combinations and see what happens. In all fairness I haven't had any other problems with the box so far.

Wortho - sorry to hear about your box playing up, what makes you think that the lack of a power switch will damage the unit?

[wortho]

I recorded something last night and and left the box turned on (not standby), I just turned my tv off, and it worked fine. I'm going to mess about with different combinations and see what happens. In all fairness I haven't had any other problems with the box so far.Wortho - sorry to hear about your box playing up, what makes you think that the lack of a power switch will damage the unit?

just the fact, that to unpower it you have to take the plug out /swich off the plug its not really the done thing to just unplug the power, not an expert but should imagine it will not do the circuts ,fuses ect much good long term, might be completely wrong tho, think its the tuner on the unit i have bought suppose i have just been unlucky, but a lot of forums seem to have a lot of posts with problem with the f5 compared with the others in the range, going to steer clear, f3 or a 10s off ebay.found this,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,, ,,,,,,The problem is that you are using the plug and outlet as a switch. The spark that you see is actually blasting away (vaporizing) a small bit of metal each time. Eventually you will end up with a connection that is loose or has enough resistance to generate heat that could start a fire. Switches are designed with lots of extra metal on the contacts so that they will stand up to thousands of cycles of such punishment. They are also engineered with a mechanism that will make (connect) or break (disconnect) as quickly as possible which reduces the effect, and provide enough pressure to provide a sound connection despite wear.

[stenovelli]

Hi Wortho,I,ve had an f5 for a while and no probs so far switching off at the socket.Do you think the f3,s are more durable? is it worth me swapping for the long term.

[wortho]

Hi Wortho,I,ve had an f5 for a while and no probs so far switching off at the socket.Do you think the f3,s are more durable? is it worth me swapping for the long term.

dont really know mate. it seems there are a lot of problems with these on whatever forum you go on, if yours is running ok stick with it, to be honest the 10s was my fav only thing the others had over it was the media files, it was a few posts on amerzon customer feedback about overheating that got me thinking, i wouldnt swap it ,if yours is working as normal with these things there will be some bad and a lot of decent boxes out there ,think i was just unlucky this time

[klootzaak]

You can power it down via the remote to standby before you turn off the power. Switches spark if you turn them on and off sometimes even if a load is not present. As long as you're not continuosly doing it over and over then I can't imagine the lifespan will be drastically reduced. Also a sudden loss of power to a powered unit usually has no effect on it, think about power cuts etc most stuff still works after the power is restored. Anything that has moving parts might encounter problems, or if the current or voltage spiked very high.