[Telvest]

In choosing a new PVR, I believe the Vestel (eg. Hitachi HDR325) is worthy of serious consideration depending upon the circumstances. The advantages to me are:

1. Silent operation due to the absence of a fan. (It goes in someone's bedroom and is often set to record during the night).

2. Simple user interface. Many would regard this basic interface as inadequate. But is just right for use by a person who, frankly, is not clever in things technical.

The above has to be set against the breathtaking indifference of Vestel to the distress caused to their customers by the two most recent software "upgrades", versions 4.6 and 4.6, about which much has been written.

I have the mental picture of a senile management just ready to pick up their free bus passes and showing two fingers to the entire nation. Can their attitude be said to symbolise the demise of British industry, the falling GDP, the recession and its dreadful consequences ?

Happily I have been able to revert to the software of the earlier version 3.4 which is free of the bugs that afflict the later versions. This I did with some trepidation due to the fear of "bricking it", but the procedure worked perfectly.

Therefore my thanks are due to Mr. Futaura who provides version 3.4 as an Internet download, including instructions for constructing the necessary interface cable to the PC, and the pointers to the required "Hyper Terminal" procedure.

I would be grateful if Mr. Futaura can please explain what deficiencies may be present in version 3.4 that the later versions were intended to correct ?

[Futaura]

Not sure how the problems can symbolise the demise of British industry, given that Vestel are located in Turkey . That said, Cabot in the UK were maybe involved in breaking the software on this occasion. I am not privy to the changelogs, but the most obvious differences beween v4.6 and v3.4 is that support for Target Region Descriptor, Trailer Booking and Recommendations was added, as now required for Freeview+ certification.

Most of the problems have now been fixed in v5.3, and some users have experienced no problems with it feeling more like v3.4 again. However, the infamous "Service is not running" problem is still there, and due to its seemingly random nature it is proving difficult to pinpoint in order to provide a reproducable test case to Vestel so they can fix it.

[Telvest]

Thank you for this information. Now I shall have to think up something pejorative to say about Turkey.

The differences between v3.4 and v4.8 seem to be more political than technical. It was a stroke of genius to screw-up the software while making such minor changes.

I was not previously aware of new version 5.3. My own box has not yet picked-up this version as an OAD. I am now inclined to de-activate OADs so as to avoid the "Service is not running" problem. (Actually, I have never witnessed this problem with v4.8).

In issueing new software containing a known and unresolved problem, Vestel continues in its tradition of selling the public a "turkey" (in the American idiom).

[Futaura]

v5.3 is not a public release, at least not yet anyway. It has been in testing for a couple of weeks internally and by a handful of users who responded here and on Digital Spy on the two main threads dedicated to the v4.8 problems.

[Telvest]

Ok. I would like to obtain the source code (of any version). I would like to pick through it, try modifying it and maybe produce my own version.

Come to think of it, there could one day be hundreds of versions produced by hundreds of people. I am sure the best of these would be truly superlative.

Can anyone supply me with some source code ? (I won't ask where they found it).

[Futaura]

No offence intended, but you must be dreaming - although I do dream of such things too . Needless to say, I woudl be the first to jump at such a thing - I feel I would be well qualified for such a task. However, there are countless reasons I could give as to why this will never happen. Portions of the source code are no doubt the intellectual property of Vestel, and some parts will belong to STMicroelectronics too.

[Telvest]

Dreaming is what I do best.

It might be possible for someone with the right background to write a program from scratch, using the CPU maker's info. The CPU apparently is dedicated for use in PVRs and it looks like all information about the instruction set and architecture would be freely available.

It would be a very substantial task and well beyond my own ability. But there are likely to be people able to do it and without any breach of copywrite law. There would remain the question of their motivation to do so.