Pioneer 434 - New Media box installed

MTJ

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Well the (friendly) man from Pioneer (not their service agents) turned up first thing this morning with a brand new media box (express air freighted from Japan).

The results.....

1/ Dropout problem - too early to tell! I was assured that this had been fixed.

2/ TV switching - time reduced from 3-4 seconds to 1-2 seconds. Also you now almost instantly get the drop down box in the top right telling you what channel you have switched to. In my view this is now acceptable.

3/ Input switching - was 4 - 5 seconds, no change here.

The guy said he had been told that it was just software setup/adjustment that had been done on the new media boxes, no hardware change. He also said that they only needed 10 to handle customer complaints. Pioneer are looking at providing the equipment (??) required so that the software 'adjustments' can be done on site if required.

If the dropout problem is fixed then I will be happy. The delay on switiching inputs is only a minor irritation compared to the other issues (would be nice to have it improved though).

Am impressed with this service from Pioneer. For those who have yet to receive their plasmas the serial number on my old media box ended in 29xx the new unit is 52xx.

Hope this helps. There is light at the end of the tunnel. :)

Mark
 
Cheers for the update MTJ...keep us posted of how things are going :)
 
Mark

I got mine also this morning... and was just about to write.

To avoid to sound repetitive my comments are IDENTICAL to yours.

From past experience I have been already saying to everyone that Pioneer will provide a good service through their own personnel.

I was told that as soon as everything is set up in the UK site, the software upgrade will be done through PC for any remaining media receivers requiring the software upgrate.

Input switching does remain slower than the 433 but in my understanding this is because the new media box has an all digital processing. What can we do? Ha! Indeed it is still only slightly faster than the box replaced with VCR (press play, wait for image) and teletext is pretty much the same.

I was strongly re-assured that there should be no dropout issues.

Regardind the serial numbers I am not sure if I fully got your message. My old box was CITC001591EW and the new CITC000292EW. Clearly the new one has been made before but was still on stock and the firmware has been applied.
 
Hi Costas,

On the serial numbers..... my assumption is that any unit made after the box I have would have the revised software. But you are right, they can go back and 'adjust' earlier boxes. What the guy did say was that this weekends delivery was the first with the 'adjusted' software.

The other thing that I noticed was that at the end of the auto setup when the channels are being sorted the channels switch instantly! Also on a very weak local tv station (Southampton TV) it takes longer to switch than the other channels, could be the time taken to get sync from a weaker signal?

Also got the 'all digital processing' story for the slow input switching. I dont believe a word of it!

Mark
 
Hi again Mark,

I also noticed the same during set up of analog TV. However, despite the slow tuning, I noticed it does pick some weaker stations signals that the previous box did not pick up. I am in Wiltshire and living right between the footprint of two transmitters.

The Pioneer guy that visited me did not give the "all digital story" for the slow switching between the inputs. This was just my opinion and it looks like your visitor has confirmed it. My thinking is that like with the early digital satellite receivers the processing was slow until software upgrades were inplemented or until the newer models came out. I could be totally wrong but it looks just like that to me..
 
how about a faster processor (for faster switching) which at least would justify the fan...?
 
Bad news......

Having been away since the new media box was fitted on Monday have only had a chance to test it out this weekend.

2 DVDs played and one drop out. Now that is an improvement over before where we would get one or two per DVD, BUT its still not fixed.

Will be on the phone to Pioneer on Monday.

Any other exepriences? Costas?

Mark
 
Mark,

Very sorry to hear that. This is really bad news and naturally needs to be reported immediately. In my case since Monday we have done a lot of viewing from many different sources and so far so good. The only thing that was different in my case is that I had dropouts with every source except DVD before the box was changed. We watched four DVDs since the new installation and there is absolutely no problem. The same is true with analog and digital terrestrial TV, the two sources where I encountered the problem earlier.

I could be wrong but I suspect that either your problem is different or that by mistake the new box installed does not actually carry the updated software.
 
What do you guys mean by *drop outs*?

Koing
 
Picture (and sometimes also sound) disappearing momentarily for a few seconds
 
i to have had dropouts from my sky+ receiver havent watched any dvds so cant comment about that
 
No dropouts so far (serviceman will be coming next week cause of switching issue) but from time to time there is a cracking noise from the attached on loudspeakers... ?? (about 1-2 times a night)

The cause doesn't need to be the TV , but ...
 
Costas, I have the new software as the TV channel switching is much better. The dropouts are certainly less frequent.

Have left a message for the friendly guy at Pioneer, will see what he says tomorrow.

Suspect the shipments of 434's are being held up to get the new software loaded, hope this doesn't delay them even more!Would hope they will have a way of updating it via the CF card. If not the designers need 'educating'!!

Mark
 
MTJ

You are probably right about the held up of 434. I am desperatley waiting here for the 434 to arrive. Just went to see the test units though and the drop outs were like mad. The person there said there was some problem with the dvd player. It was directly connected via HDMI cable to 868 dvd player but still I wasn't really impressed by the PQ. I guess it wasn't set up properly. Actually having seen all these problems associated with the 434 sort of put me off.
 
Surely an 868 via hdmi should be as good as it gets? I've as yet only seen one with a superbit DVD, and HD source via DVI and PC, which was impressive, but all the feedback here is that it's no quantum leap, just the incremental iprovement we have a right to expect. But it seems with some teething difficulties they shoud have fixed before releasing them at all, I'm disappointed.
 
Mark,
Perhaps a silly question but....did you have the drop out problem with any other source other than DVD? Are you using the same player / set up as you did before you got the 434?
 
Costa, yes did have the drop put problem on all sources (with DVD being the least frequent). Haven't watched the analogue TV so can't say whether that has improved. A couple of hours of Sat TV hasn't shown the problem.

DVD player hasnt changed.

Mark
 
Personally I'd be happier if you didn't keep reporting problems with the media box to Pioneer.
Perhaps then they'll start shipping the 504's...;)
 
Sadly, my media box has now started joining in. Four dropouts during the rugby final yesterday morning - and I'm not talking about Australia after another Jonny Wilkinson penalty.

Spotted it just now during the repeat of the England-Pakistan 1-day international.

None during DVD play so far - but I've hardly tried it, as I'm building up a backlog waiting for my 868 to arrive (with HDMI lead!).
 
brogan

I know very well how it feels waiting eagerly for something ordered to arrive. However, it is also just wonderful when you receive it and solutely nothing goes wrong with it. If we have helped Pioneer in sorting out these teething problems I think it is very good for all people with the product on order. Why would you want to receive e.g. a box with the old software wanting immediately to upgrade it? Anyway, from what I hear the 504 delay related to the screen output production and not the mediabox.
 
Costas, it was a tongue-in-cheek comment...hence the ;)

Of course I wouldn't be happy with faulty equipment but having said that, I'd quite happily put up with the occasional drop-out (even if it meant an engineer attending at some point to upgrade it) just to get my hands on it.

A 99% working 504 is better than none at all and a million times better than the 20" mono, 10 year old screen I'm using at the moment.
 
Originally posted by Billilu
Four dropouts during the rugby final yesterday morning
Spotted it just now during the repeat of the England-Pakistan 1-day international.

I saw these too, watching through Skyplus+. :cool:
 

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