Info and forum posts by 'kdmcmullan'

This user hasn't used our main site yet, so has no main account at present.

Joined on: Monday, 4th October 2004, 07:56, Last used: Tuesday, 15th February 2005, 15:02

Access Level: Harmless

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This user has posted a total of 9 messages. On average, since joining, this user has posted 0 messages a day, or 0.01 messages a week. In the last 30 days, this user has posted 0 messages, which is on average 0 messages a day.

Recent Messages Posted:

RE: How to update Phillips DVDR 610 software

Hi.

It`s not so hard (assuming you have a CD writer). The upgrade can be downloaded from:

http://www.consumer.philips.com/consumer/support/cons_product_support_detail.jsp?productId=DVDR610_05_GB_CONSUMER&catalogID=&language=en&country=GB&catalogType=CONSUMER&proxybuster=CVBA4X4B3YLHVJ0RMRESHQVHKFSEKI5P

It`s about 10Mb in size, so if you only have a modem (a fast one), this is a 40 minute download (on a really good day). There is a set of instructions on the philips web site, but in summary, you extract the ZIP file, burn the extracted files to a CDR, stick it in your DVD recorder and sit back for about 2-3 minutes.

The only real risk is if the power goes off during the update. Even then, I thin Philips have built in some sort of default which installs itself in this eventuality. The other danger (you can read about it elsewhere in these forums) is that Philips have a nasty habit of removing (or hiding) features which don`t work rather than fixing them.

Incidentally, if, for this reason, anyone wants to go back an issue of firmware, I have BT1_21 (circa 13-Nov-2004) and BT1_12B (circa 01-Sep-2004).

Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists on other planets is that none of it has come to visit us.

RE: Philips dvdr70 v dvdr610

Hi.

I`m pretty sure the only feature difference is the DVDR610`s ability to play JPeG CDs. That`s a major annoyance: My sister-in-law, who lives in France, can`t view my JPGs on her DVDR75. (The only difference between the 70 and the 75 is the firewire port.)

I`m prepared to be corrected if anyone knows differently.

Hope this helps.

Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists on other planets is that none of it has come to visit us.

RE: Philips 610 & the new update

Dunno if this has anything to do with the new update ornot, but when the clocks went back an hour last night, rather than losing an hour, my DVDR610 gained itself 15 minutes.

Bloody good trick, eh? :/

Is it just me?

Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists on other planets is that none of it has come to visit us.

RE: Philips DVDR610 upgrades

For info,

The new software version BT1_21 (don`t know what date it was posted on the Philips site) has fixed the text titling buglets outlined here.

Another change I note to this release is that there`s a confirmation dialog when you attempt to delete a track. Previously, the user wasn`t asked - the track was just deleted.

Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists on other planets is that none of it has come to visit us.

RE: Philips DVDR610 upgrades

Heh heh! Tell me about it! Surely they COULDN`T remove such a major feature?

Is anyone else experiencing the same test dificulties? Maybe it`s only anoraks like me who bother titling their disks?

Anyway, if we have no joy getting Philips to maintain a library of firmware, we`ll have to do it ourselves. I have a copy of version BE41.51.35 BT1_12B_L2 on disk. Any other budding librarians out there?

Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists on other planets is that none of it has come to visit us.

Philips DVDR610 Track and Disc Titling Problem

Has anyone else tried entering text into their DVDR610?

When titling a track or a disk, the operation of the digits on the remote is much like the operation of the text-entry system on a mobile phone; you press a given digit a given number of times to obtain a given letter.

Except the opertation on my 610 seems a little ...erratic. Pressing 2, quite reasnobly seems to cycle through "ABC2ÀÁÂÃÄÅÆÇ" and pressing 8, for example, seems to cycle through "TUV8ÙÚÛÜ". So far so good. When it comes to punctuation, however, pressing 1 seems to cycle through " 1[at]_#==))". Yes there are two equals signs and two close brackets.

The operation of the 0 (zero) key is even more obscure. It goes ".0,/:;" followed by <double quotes>, <move the cursor right one space>, <nothing>, then "?*+-". Try it - it`s an education!

I`m guessing that not many people bother punctuating their track and disc titles, but I was producing a wedding DVD the other day and it was driving me up the wall...

I`ve asked Philips to patch it and also how many more firmware upgrades we need to have before the machine is stable...

Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists on other planets is that none of it has come to visit us.

RE: Philips DVDR610 funnies

trippingzebra: I`m not sure the machine actually switches on. It normally happens when I`m concentrating on another program! However, everything else you described about the problem is identical to what I`m seeing. I also noticed this happen last night at 20:30, ruling out my "00 minutes" idea as coincidence, but making me consider PDC.

I`m with you on the over-attentiveness of the scart listening. Fire off an email, by all means!!

Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists on other planets is that none of it has come to visit us.

RE: Philips DVDR610 funnies

Hi again.

Interesting - that was my first post to a forum since the days of "bulletin boards" (BBS) back in the late 1980`s!

Anyway, good plan - I`ll try the 15 minute thing.

I`ve updated to the new software build and the first thing I noticed was that the machine still switches itself on apparently randomly. It started last night on the stroke of 21:00hrs. I was watching TV, the DVD player came on, the TV switched over to AV, the DVD display went blank, then it switched itself off again. All in about 2 seconds. It repeated this about twice a minute until I got fed up with it and just switched it on.

To date, my observation is that this only starts when the minutes field of the time switches to 00, and it doesn`t appear to happen if there`s a disc in the machine.

Trés bizzarre, non?

In the meantime, I have no response from Philips to my question about what the software upgrade is supposed to have fixed. However, they did send me this in response to my query on MP3 disc format:

When creating MP3 CDs please note the following:
File system: ISO9660
Directory structure: maximum of 8 levels
Formats: *.mp3
Filenames: maximum of 12 characters (8+3)
Maximum of 32 albums, 999 titles
Supported sampling frequencies: 32, 44.1, 48 (kHz). Music with
sampling frequencies other than these will be skipped.
Supported bit rates: 32, 64, 96, 128, 192, 256 (kbit/s)
ID3 Tag: Version 1, 1.1. In later versions the directory name is
displayed as the album and the filename as the title.
Important notes for playback:
Only the first session of a multi-session CD will play back.

New question: Has anyone tried the RC6 code 222 222 005 255 PLAY multi region hack on his machine? For some bizzarre reason I can`t get OmniRemote to run on my Palm V.

Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists on other planets is that none of it has come to visit us.

RE: Philips DVDR610 funnies

Hi.

Having read about the Italian Job, I remembered that my Dad has a copy. I nipped over to his house and borrowed it. Guess what? It doesn`t play on my DVDR610!! Furthe to your infomration, when you look at the track listing, all the tracks on the DVD are length 0:00.

Anyway, the reason I was here was that I, too am experiencing versions of the buglets detailled in the forum:

The front panel record button sometimes only records for 15 minutes or so. What`s the little red LED for? Surely it can`t be a recording indicator? It`s certainly not always illuminated when my machine is recording.

I`ve also experienced it switching itself on at odd times, when I`m no messing about with it or any other device in the chain. Nor am I pressing butons at the time. It only happens a couple of times a month and it usually switches itself off again immediately.

I really don`t understand the logic for the fan, either. Another user has posted a message from Philips explaining the temperature/input thing, but mine just comes on when it feels like it. (I wonder if the central heating is causing it to go over the 27 degrees?)

I`ve also asked Philips what the upgrade upgrades., ie what the changes are from the 20040804 version to the 20040901 version. More on that later.

In the meantime, does anyone know what the directory structure of an MP3 CD needs to be? I have a CD containing several albums. Easch is in an appropriately named directory of its own. When I stick the disk in, the machine seems to recognise the directories (I can browse their contents), but according the the browser, all the directories (albums) are called "Unknown". Anyone got any ideas? Is the album name pulled out from the MP3 tag, perhaps? If so, that would be terribly confusing having grouped all the tracks from a given album into a directory and called it something different!!

Many thanks.

Sometimes I think the surest sign that intelligent life exists on other planets is that none of it has come to visit us.