Astone 360T Firmware 1.93

[PeterM]

CAUTION Theses are My findings.
History...
I had earlier formatted the HDD with 1.9b1
Was labeled correctly SYSTEM HDD (C:)
Was able to record LiveTV and Instant DTV.
I updated to 1.9b2 and seamed to work OK - No Problems.

NOW ....
I applied the 1.93.test firmware.
I DID NOT Format the HDD.
I now have Hard drive listed as...
NTFS (C:) EXT3 (E:) and when I plug in a USB at the front it appears as (G:)
Note...
If I boot up with a USB in the front. The USB appears as (C:). and NTFS (D:), EXT3 (F:)

Note.. All my Media and recorded programs are still there under the NTFS Folder.


aslo the EXT3 folder has a empty "lost+found" folder in it.

NOW THE PROBLEM...
I am not able to Record Instant DTV - HDD Error ICON appears.
I am Not able to record LIVE TV - HDD error icon appears.
EPG Recording does not complain, but I have not tested if it really will record the program.
I'm sure if I back up all my data and Re-format the HDD, things would come good, But Its too Hard (for Now anyway)

I am now going to go back to 1.9b2 and hope the file structure comes good.

My Recommendation is do not Update to 1.93.test if you have formatted under 1.9b1 or 1.9b2 and you have a stable and working version.
p.s. I should take my own advise more often!!!! ( Note: 1.93 has not officially been released to this forum by Astone - as Yet)

Update...
Re installed V1.9b2 All back to normal - All working as before.

[Shappy]

CAUTION Theses are My findings.
History...
I had earlier formatted the HDD with 1.9b1
Was labeled correctly SYSTEM HDD (C:)
Was able to record LiveTV and Instant DTV.
I updated to 1.9b2 and seamed to work OK - No Problems.

NOW ....
I applied the 1.93.test firmware.
I DID NOT Format the HDD.
I now have Hard drive listed as...
NTFS (C:) EXT3 (E:) and when I plug in a USB at the front it appears as (G:)
Note...
If I boot up with a USB in the front. The USB appears as (C:). and NTFS (D:), EXT3 (F:)

Note.. All my Media and recorded programs are still there under the NTFS Folder.


aslo the EXT3 folder has a empty "lost+found" folder in it.

NOW THE PROBLEM...
I am not able to Record Instant DTV - HDD Error ICON appears.
I am Not able to record LIVE TV - HDD error icon appears.
EPG Recording does not complain, but I have not tested if it really will record the program.
I'm sure if I back up all my data and Re-format the HDD, things would come good, But Its too Hard (for Now anyway)

I am now going to go back to 1.92b2 and hope the file structure comes good.

My Recommendation is do not Update to 1.93.test if you have a stable and working version.
p.s. I should take my own advise more often!!!!

Update...
Re installed V1.9b2 All back to normal - All working as before.

Peter,
Your test results mirror all of the other testing where people DID NOT format under 1.9x at all except that it is all out by one version. ie We all experienced the C: and D: drive lettering and record problems under 1.92 and it is all fixed under 1.93.

Very Strange! I guess that those who formatted under 1.9 should follow your instructions for the moment anyway! Those that did not format can move safely to 1.93.

[securelogic]

I have Astone 360T with 1.76 firmware. I installed 1.92 beta firmware in the past, and found issues.. so I rollbacked to 1.76 firmware.

Currently, I am using an internal harddisk with 2 NTFS partitions. It's not formatted with astone device yet - so it can not record live tv. I am waiting for new stable firmware before formatting my harddisk.

I saw 1.93 firware, I decided to upgrade to 1.93 - and first few days, the new firmware worked nicely. However, I decided to format my harddisk, so I can record live tv. The firmware says it will reboot to format the harddisk, and it reboot itself - but it did not format my harddisk at all..

However, 1.93 firmware is not stable in my device. When I start the device, it keeps reboot itself in the loop, and remote does not response as well. I have to power down the unit, and power up again.. and it restarts correctly sometimes, or it keeps rebooting...

Specially, when I power ON my TV cabinet unit, it starts Astone device automatically, but my TV is still Off position. I am not sure if it causes this reboot issue as my TV is off.

My suggestions:
- Do not start astone device when it got a power connected. It should power ON when user presses a switch on device or using a remote. e.g. when I power ON my TV cabinet unit, the device should be OFF. I may not want to watch tv.
- Do not display 'menu' when it starts the device in front of TV video. It's annoying to press a remote button everytime.

I suggest to release a "stable" firmware. There are many problems in each firmware from many months, and we are not "astone testers". We would like to have a firmware which is resonably tested by astone. We would not expect the perfect firmware, but we would expect some quality firmware for the purchased device from Astone.

Regards.

[Shappy]

I have Astone 360T with 1.76 firmware. I installed 1.92 beta firmware in the past, and found issues.. so I rollbacked to 1.76 firmware.

Currently, I am using an internal harddisk with 2 NTFS partitions. It's not formatted with astone device yet - so it can not record live tv. I am waiting for new stable firmware before formatting my harddisk.

I saw 1.93 firware, I decided to upgrade to 1.93 - and first few days, the new firmware worked nicely. However, I decided to format my harddisk, so I can record live tv. The firmware says it will reboot to format the harddisk, and it reboot itself - but it did not format my harddisk at all..

However, 1.93 firmware is not stable in my device. When I start the device, it keeps reboot itself in the loop, and remote does not response as well. I have to power down the unit, and power up again.. and it restarts correctly sometimes, or it keeps rebooting...

Specially, when I power ON my TV cabinet unit, it starts Astone device automatically, but my TV is still Off position. I am not sure if it causes this reboot issue as my TV is off.

My suggestions:
- Do not start astone device when it got a power connected. It should power ON when user presses a switch on device or using a remote. e.g. when I power ON my TV cabinet unit, the device should be OFF. I may not want to watch tv.
- Do not display 'menu' when it starts the device in front of TV video. It's annoying to press a remote button everytime.

I suggest to release a "stable" firmware. There are many problems in each firmware from many months, and we are not "astone testers". We would like to have a firmware which is resonably tested by astone. We would not expect the perfect firmware, but we would expect some quality firmware for the purchased device from Astone.

Regards.

Due to the fact that the drive is preformatted and partitioned into 2 Logical drives, you need to format the drive correctly!
You will need to hook the drive up to your PC and delete ALL of the partitions on the drive.

The steps that have and are working for me have been to;
Upgrade from 1.75 to 1.76
Go from 1.76 to 1.81 ( format drive)
Go from 1.81 to 1.93 (Do not format Drive)

All is working perfectly with none of the strange behaviour of self starting, rebooting etc.

[sloppy]

I took the leap last night and went from 1.81 -> 1.93.

Everything seems good so far. I stripped the partitions from my internal HDD before the upgrade and formatted it after I loaded the firmware. I noticed in the setup that the time-zone thing is a little different now ... you actually choose your timezone/offset rather than choosing where you are in the world. Only real difference I've noticed.

One Touch Recording worked fine, Network media playback worked fine, setting up schedules for recording worked fine but they won't kick in til tonight, so hopefully they work ok.

Everything I tested seems good so far(except for UPNP, I posted separately about that, but it wasn't right for me in 1.81 either). Hopefully we don't come across the reason why it wasn't officially released

[pepejesus]

I formatted my HDD when I first got the unit and it was running 1.76.

I then formatted again when going to 1.9b2.

Will I need to format again if I go to 1.93?

PeterM's post suggest that a format may be required.

I'd like to give 1.93 a go but really don't want to format - I've got too much stuff on the HDD now!

[crenn]

You shouldn't need to, I formatted last when I got 1.81 and haven't needed to format so far.

[PeterM]

I formatted my HDD when I first got the unit and it was running 1.76.

I then formatted again when going to 1.9b2.

Will I need to format again if I go to 1.93?

PeterM's post suggest that a format may be required.

I'd like to give 1.93 a go but really don't want to format - I've got too much stuff on the HDD now!

After updating to 1.93.test from 1.9b2 I was unable to record instant DTV, due to the HDD renaming as mentioned earlier. I did not loose any of my data and was able to access it and play it with the at-360T. ( remember I had formatted the HDD under 1.9beta )
I went back to 1.9b2 and all my data was fine and the Drive appeared as SYSTEM HDD: as it should. And I was again able to record DTV.
I suggest you can upgrade to 1.93.test (without formatting the drive, if your using 1.9b1 or 1.9b2)and if you experience similar issues, You can downgrade back to 1.9b2, without any data loss (as long as you do not format the drive). All you would have to do is re-scan the channels and set-up IP address again.
My short experience with 1.93.test did not seam to improve anything for me, being previously on 1.9b2.
Others who had not formatted with 1.9b (1.81 to 1.9b to 1.93) and were having DTV recording issues with 1.9b firmware, seam to have benefited by having their SYSTEM HDD: corrected and now are able to record DTV.
I personally am waiting for an official release.... HOPEFULLY SOON !!!

What is happening ASTONE??? The silence are signs of hiding and being unsupportive to your remaining Customers.

[sloppy]

Is anybody using the wireless dongle on 1.93??? I just realised that it is incredibly slooooooowwwwww Way to slow to actually use it for anything! Is it just me? Or is anyone else experiencing it?

Cheers,

Sloppy.

[hisso]

God I hate Astone.

I've upgraded from 1.81 to 1.93. No reformatting required. Can record live TV (haven't tried timed recording yet). I can change channels. I guess I should be grateful.

The NAS *still* doesn't work. Well, of course it doesn't work. Why would it work? Why would Astone sell something that works?

Anyway. When mounting the 360T via Samba the drive erroneously reports "1MB free" even though the HDD is practically empty. I've seen a few others report the same issue.

And I expect I'll see a few more reporting the same issue 6 months from now.

PS: sloppy -- can't test the wireless dongle. It's probably really slow but client computers don't even try and upload files to it because it's only got "1MB free". I can download about 1.5GB in 15 mins though.