Samsung BD-E8300, BD-E8500, BD-E8900 Master Thread

Hi,

I read somewhere, maybe amazon, that you cant rewind live tv thats in the buffer. Is this true?

Cheers

The BD-E8500 does not automatically buffer the Live TV channel you are watching so you cannot rewind Live TV, without pressing record first. So if you press the record button during Live TV, then it starts recording without interrupting what you are watching and then you can rewind Live TV later (obviously only as far back as to when you pressed record). Similarly if you have scheduled a recording and you are watching it live then you can rewind the Live TV channel or if you want to watch a program you have scheduled to record before it has finished recording, then you can start watching it from the beginning while it is recording.
You can pause live TV, which effectively just starts recording TV and then when you resume, you can rewind and fast forward (and the recording is automatically deleted when you stop what is called "Timeshift"

Mike
 
Open the guide. Type in 82 and it will go to that channel. Press either blue or yellow button; one goes forward a week, the other goes forward a day. Press the one day advance 6 times, find 9 pm, press red button to record. You can even go forward a week and then back a day on a coloured button. Almost fewer key strokes than typing in a name?

Yes it is a bit of a pain, but not too bad really?

I think you must have a different model - I have the BD-E8500 and you cannot type in the channel when in the guide and there are no options to go forward a week.
Options for scheduling programmes to record are:
Type in channel before you go into the guide or once in the guide using PROG +/- to scroll a page of 5 channels at a time (and up and down arrow for one channel at a time)
Use Yellow to move forward a day (and green to go back a day if you go to far)
Use Left and right arrows to go forward and backwards in the time of day

Alternatively you can use Schedule Manager and type in channel number, date and time.
Scheduling programmes to record is one of the few things I find ok to use - the rest of the user interface is not very good and some parts are awful.
 
Hi,
When i bought this machine i had a lot of trouble with it the thing was locking up all the time and when i was recording one programme and watching another it would freeze on me i thought it was a dud machine till that is i did the new firmware upgrade and now the machine is working like a dream does everything samsung should be congratulated on making the perfect machine even though they brought it out a little early before the bugs were fixed so has :clap: everyone now got a great machine since the upgrade.
 
bluerum66 said:
Hi,
When i bought this machine i had a lot of trouble with it the thing was locking up all the time and when i was recording one programme and watching another it would freeze on me i thought it was a dud machine till that is i did the new firmware upgrade and now the machine is working like a dream does everything samsung should be congratulated on making the perfect machine even though they brought it out a little early before the bugs were fixed so has :clap: everyone now got a great machine since the upgrade.

What, so you think around 8 button presses to delete a recording from the planner, only to find out that its not really deleted until you press another 8 buttons on a totally different menu to finally get it off the HD is perfect?
Can you actually access the settings menu now while recording? Mines been relegated to player only.
 
Urrggghhhh.

Really wanted to like this machine, did everything I was looking for at the time of purchase. I put up with its foibles for five months such as random freezes, missed programmes and unintuitive UI, all of which were ok to live with but a touch annoying, hoping each time a new firmware update would resolve the issues that bugged me, but to no avail.

Then last month it suddenly 'forgot' all stored channels and was unable to detect any at all on a full re-scan or factory reset of the unit. Managed to get a new unit replacement from Amazon only for that unit to fail with the same issue (tuner failure) after about a week.

Here's hoping 2013 brings new PVR units that cover as many bases as the BD-E8500 did but are a more polished product overall.

Sad...
 
Hi all,

Have the Samsung BD-E8900 - working fine for the past 4 months and all of sudden, today it can't pick up any signal at all from the aerial. I plugged the aerial to my TV and it works fine, so it's the recorder itself.

Whe I force a retune, it does not pick up anything at all. And it took about 10 minutes from the start to the end.

I even did a full reset on the recorder and tried to tune it again, still the same thing.

I checked the firmware version and I have 1013 which is the latest version from the Samsung website.

Looking at the post above by 'Dreg', which mentions a tuner fault - I wonder if this is what I am seeing as well? Or is there something else I could try?

Thanks.
 
Last edited:
Hi all,

Have the Samsung BD-E8900 - working fine for the past 4 months and all of sudden, today it can't pick up any signal at all from the aerial. I plugged the aerial to my TV and it works fine, so it's the recorder itself.

Whe I force a retune, it does not pick up anything at all. And it took about 10 minutes from the start to the end.

I even did a full reset on the recorder and tried to tune it again, still the same thing.

I checked the firmware version and I have 1013 which is the latest version from the Samsung website.

Looking at the post above by 'Dreg', which mentions a tuner fault - I wonder if this is what I am seeing as well? Or is there something else I could try?

Thanks.

This may help you, I have the STB-E7500 Smart PVR. Had it 4 months then it failed to pick up any channels, it went back for repair at a Samsung repair centre, it had a 'Printed Circuit Board' replaced and is now working fine. Just one of those things and still happy with it. Firmware is the same as yours except you should have typed 1012.3.
 
Called Samsung and went throught troubleshooting - they said it will need to repaired! I only had this for 4 months. :/

Need to drop off at the local repair centre in Norwich and go from there.
 
Dropped it off... up to 7 working days for it to be repaired.

Still can't believe it failed after 4 months! :/

Your lucky, my STB-E7500 Smart PVR, took a month before I got it back, has been working fine since.
 
I think you must have a different model - I have the BD-E8500 and you cannot type in the channel when in the guide and there are no options to go forward a week.

Maybe this functionality is in the Freeview guide itself - we are in New Zealand. The one in the Samsung is pretty much the same as in the Panasonic TV (which has a tuner) and the "old" Zinwell set top box. It will display the requested channel listing if you type in the number while looking at any channel. Next day (yellow? button) and next week (blue? button) are there in all three. The record from guide function (red button) is only in the Samsung (the others have no recording device), although the TV will record to USB (I haven't tried it nor set it up).

Ours has a habit of messing up recordings.
 
The quality of this box is terrible. I bought it in October 2012, and by the end of November, it had stopped playing blu-ray discs - can just about manage normal dvd's, but blu rays just generate a huge amount of noise and then say "cannot read disc".

I have been trying to get Samsung to fix it now for 2 months, and they've done everything they can to muck me about and not actually fix the device. Now this morning, the TV tuner has lost the ability to see any channels, and no amount of tuning will get any channels back - definitely not the aerial, as it passes through to the TV and the TV still has a perfect signal.

Very unhappy. :rolleyes:
 
The quality of this box is terrible. I bought it in October 2012, and by the end of November, it had stopped playing blu-ray discs - can just about manage normal dvd's, but blu rays just generate a huge amount of noise and then say "cannot read disc".

I have been trying to get Samsung to fix it now for 2 months, and they've done everything they can to muck me about and not actually fix the device. Now this morning, the TV tuner has lost the ability to see any channels, and no amount of tuning will get any channels back - definitely not the aerial, as it passes through to the TV and the TV still has a perfect signal.

Very unhappy. :rolleyes:

Go through to Samsung UK (complaints) 0330 7267864 wait for the selection recording and then press 6. If you are now not getting TV channels then this seems to be a regular problem with Samsung both on the Blu-ray and STB, I have just had a new Printed Circuit Board fitted.
 
Hey all,

Thought I'd update on what has happened to my BD-E8900M as I forgot to update this thread.

The Samsung repair centre has checked over my BD-E8900M and they returned it to me without any action... just "No Fault Found" and blamed on our poor aerial signal??? They told me to get an aerial fitter to check over our TV signal strength. Paid someone to check over our cables & aerial yesterday... guess what? All working perfectly!

Plugged my BD-E8900M again and it still breaks up/lose signal. Had enough. Fed up.

Contacted Amazon this afternoon and explained the issue. Sent the report from the guy who checked over the aerial signal strength and Amazon agreed to have it back & give me full refund without any question.

Looking at the reviews on Amazon website for this player and it has more 1 star review than 5 stars review!!

Player boxed up, waiting for Yodel to collect it tomorrow. Then once Amazon have it & refunds e, I'm going to look for a different player. Amyone got any recommendations?

Thanks all.
 
New update released today. 1013.0 Improved system stability.

No detailed release notes as usual.
 
Hi,

I`ve just bought the 8300 but cannot get the HDMI cable to work on my samsung TV (model UE32C4000). When plugged in the TV says no signal can be found. Previously had the LG HR600 which worked fine through the same HDMI cable. I`ve tried another HDMI cable with the same result. The 8300 does work through the external RGB port but the picture quality is not great. Any ideas???
 
Sounds silly but it MAY be an HDMI handshake problem. Try turning the TV on first, or vice versa.

Just a thought, have you set the remote to BD, (top left)?
 
Over the last few days my BD-E8500M tuner has stopped working. At first I thought it was the signal, but it's perfect in my TV. I retune and that seemed to work ok last night, but today the picture kept breaking up, then went totally blank. Updated to latest firmware, retuned - worked for a few seconds then blank again. Kept trying, finally now I even retune doesn't find any channels :(

Only 9 months old, will be calling support tomorrow morning.
 
Hi,

I've had the 8500 for a couple of months and have now got quite a bit of recorded material on it from the TV. I have selected sharing on in the setup menu and would like to access this material over my network on an Iphone or ipad. I've tried several apps and they can see the 8500 but when I try and find media there is none to be found.

Any ideas?
 
Over the last few days my BD-E8500M tuner has stopped working. At first I thought it was the signal, but it's perfect in my TV. I retune and that seemed to work ok last night, but today the picture kept breaking up, then went totally blank. Updated to latest firmware, retuned - worked for a few seconds then blank again. Kept trying, finally now I even retune doesn't find any channels :(

Only 9 months old, will be calling support tomorrow morning.

A quick update - after I posted this I called support. They were very helpful and arranged collection the next working day. Today I received it back in full working order. Very good service :)Samsung, thanks!
 
Another new update today. 1014.0 Improved System Stability.
 
Hello all,

Three days ago I purchased a BD-E8500A. I'm in Australia. Set it up, updated to the latest firmware, got it up and running no issues.

However, it seems to have a problem recording two channels at once - but only when the unit is not switched on. If it's switched on, you can record two channels and watch a third without a problem. If it's switched off, it records the first channel, then when the second tries to start the unit freezes and does not respond. Responsiveness can only be restored by unplugging and replugging, and the partially recorded program does not save.

Does anyone else have this issue or a fix for it? I'd rather not have to leave the unit switched on every time I want to record two channels. I'm a bit nutty that way :)

Thanks in advance.
 
Hello all,

Three days ago I purchased a BD-E8500A. I'm in Australia. Set it up, updated to the latest firmware, got it up and running no issues.

However, it seems to have a problem recording two channels at once - but only when the unit is not switched on. If it's switched on, you can record two channels and watch a third without a problem. If it's switched off, it records the first channel, then when the second tries to start the unit freezes and does not respond. Responsiveness can only be restored by unplugging and replugging, and the partially recorded program does not save.

Does anyone else have this issue or a fix for it? I'd rather not have to leave the unit switched on every time I want to record two channels. I'm a bit nutty that way :)

Thanks in advance.

Yes, I saw the same thing with the latest firmware!
It only happened once (but maybe I haven't tried to record two programs at the same time since then).
 

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