Passion Plus Hard Disc Problem

[Andrew0568]

I purchased passion plus last week with a Seagate 500gig hard drive.
The receiver works fine until I try to record , most of the time it says the drive is not Fat32 which it is or that its not connected which it is when it does record which is only twice so far , when you stop recording all the channels show a good signal but say no audio or video . The only way to get the picture back is to reset the whole system . Has anybody out there managed to get the recording part working or got any bright ideas.

Andrew

 

[Andrew0568]

I seem to have found my own solution by formatting the hard drive to FAT32 from my PC by downloading an exe file from a contributor to driverheaven.net . Google formating fat32 gives you several options.
All working correctly now fingers crossed:

 

[Andrew0568]

Worked for a bit but then went back to its old ways . Has anybody out there had a pvr working successfuly on their passion+ ? Maybe I just have a duff box or is it a software problem , I don't want to return the box just to get the same problem with another. Please help if you can.

 

[Topper]

I was under the impression that there were firmware updates to be made to the passion, even though you only just bought it I am sure the supplier will not have done any. Do a forum search for passion to find the threads

 

[Strat]

Hi
I bought one of these for my Passion+ and after formatting it using the Passion+ formatting facility it is working fine.

 

[Andrew0568]

Strat Thanks for your posting , have you tried using the timer recording facility ? My hard drive seems to go into a coma , it lights up when the STB is trying to record but the hard drive isn't spinning , if i turn off the power to the drive and then turn it on it comes back to life and works fine. Connected to my PC it records from DigiTV without any problems and no coma I am almost at the point of sending the drive back but I'm not sure if that will fix the problem. The format facility on my STB doesn't seem to work properly so maybe its the STB I should be returning.
Andrew

 

[Strat]

Hi Andrew.

Yes I have used the timer facility with success.
I did format the drive Fat32 using the Passion+.
Have you tried recording a short piece (1 minute+) on a USB Memory Stick in the front USB socket. You could try a format on that to see if it works.

Dick

BTW Recording less than 30 seconds will not lay down a file on the drive.

 

[Andrew0568]

Strat Thanks for the feedback , I have given up with the freeagent and bought a WD Passport 320 gig which is powered from the USB port , I can now put the STB into standbye and the drive wakes up everytime for timer recordings . It also works on timeslip and no more messages "drive not ready or not FAT32" ! Still got this problem with recording HD which I have seen other people mention in that every 20 minutes it jumps back a bit and the sound goes off ,solution press fast forward then play, it doesn't seem to do this in SD no matter how long the recording . Hopefully someone at Fortecstar will come up with a fix.

Cheers Andrew

 

[richard57]

I have the very same problem the unit will lose 5.1 sound when playing back recordings also sometimes when viewing live hd channels
The hmdi sound is not lost though
I have a maxor 250 gb usb drive
I hope fortec can solve these issues as the reason i brought this unit was for the pvr function

 

[SianKJones]

I just bought a FS-4400 and I’m starting to regret doing so.

I can record onto USB drive using the instant recording. However I can not use the timer recording. I have tried three different USB drives, USB only HD, powered 250GB HD and a Flash Drive. None of which have worked. The box pops up with a reminder but there is no attempt to start record anything and no error messages.

Without this feature this product is effectively worthless.

Does anyone have any idea about the 4400?

 

[Justin]

I just bought a FS-4400 and I’m starting to regret doing so.

I can record onto USB drive using the instant recording. However I can not use the timer recording. I have tried three different USB drives, USB only HD, powered 250GB HD and a Flash Drive. None of which have worked. The box pops up with a reminder but there is no attempt to start record anything and no error messages.

Without this feature this product is effectively worthless.

Does anyone have any idea about the 4400?

Have you now installed the latest firmware since last posting? Mine records fine.

The main problem I now have with the FS-4400, is joining its ".dvr" output files into one big ".ts" file without glitches. I've been trying different software for days now.

PVAStrumento seems to seamlessly join the video, but drops audio frames:
_http://www.afterdawn.com/software/video_software/video_encoders/pvastrumento.cfm

NullPacketSaver seamlessly joins the audio, but drops video frames:
_http://web.archive.org/web/20060430221421/users.adelphia.net/~mwilczyn/nullpacketsaver/

There's apparently some kind of quirk with the box's ".dvr" files, as detailed here:
_http://www.nicecuppa.net/2009/03/freesat-and-recording-to-usb.html#comments

Yes, I've tried that software too!

It's driving me crazy!

 

[Cooldude007]

Hi all

I updated my Passion+ with the latest software at Fortecstar website. I tried to record but as soon as I do it all the channels disappear and a message appears saying no audio or video signals. I tried it with number of times but it does not help.

Can anyone help me with this.

Thanks

S