Problems

Here is a list of bugs and problems I have found with the NorthQ 7000/7100 DVD Player/Harddrive Recorder.

I have tried to describe the problem, classify it according to how severe I think it is (from 1 to 5; 5 = Very severe), and which firmware version it was fixed in (if it has been fixed).

Problem/Error Severity Fixed in
Problems with skipping in live TV: I got this problem when I had recorded a number of TV programs, deleted some and recorded some more. Then I could not watch live TV on the NorthQ at all! When I tried, it just gave me short glimpses of what was on the TV, and a lot of MPEG2 artifacts. It looked like the unit could not keep up with both recording onto hard-disk and playing of it at the same time. 5 I have not seen this in a while, maybe it is fixed?
Freeze at stop of manual recording: Sometimes the NorthQ freeze up, when pressing "STOP" on a manual recording. It just writes "CLOSING", but
nothing happens. Then only thing possible is to turn off the machine and the recording is lost!		 5 I have not seen this in a while, maybe it is fixed?
FAT32 incompatibility: Read more about this here 4 -
NTFS disk hangs the NorthQ: If you insert an NTFS formatted disk, the NorthQ hangs. 1 -
Problem with the "Goto"-function in timer recording: It seems that the "Goto" function does not work as intended in a timer recording. If I want to go to 00:05:00, the NorthQ ends up going to 00:06:00. If I try to enter 00:10:00, the NorthQ goes to 00:12:00. So it seems that the NorthQ always adds 20% to the time entered in the "Goto"-function.
 3 v2.01
No "Return" key mapped: There is no "Return" (or "Back") key mapped on the remote control. This makes it impossible to get back to the menu on a VCD/XVCD/SVCD/XSVCD/CVD disc.
 3 v2.0
PBC always off: The NorthQ always turns PBC off before starting to play a VCD/XVCD/SVCD/XSVCD/CVD disc. I don't know why, because PBC must be on to use menu functions on these discs.
 2 v2.0
Not possible to change order of the channels: It is not possible to change the order of the channels after channel search.
 5 v1.10
Recording does not play to the end: Sometimes when I watch a manual recording (I have not seen this yet in a timer-recording), the playing of the recorded material stops before it comes to the end of the recording.
I made a manual recording that was 12 minutes long. When I started to watch it, the NorthQ stopped playing it after just 2 minutes and 7 seconds! When I looked at the "Properties" for the recording, it said that it was 12 minutes long.
 5 probably fixed in v1.10
Manual recording problems: This is when you watch TV and decides to start recording on the spot. You then press "REC" on the remote control, and the NorthQ begins to record what you are watching.
The problem is that when you press "STOP" to end the recording, the NorthQ sometimes seem to have problem to save the correct recording.
Once I made a six minutes long manual recording. When I pressed "STOP", I got a recording that was 01h 35m 52s. The content of the saved recording was something that I had watched live several hours earlier!
So it seems that the NorthQ in this case lost track of which recording to keep, and decided to keep what was in the timeslip buffer.
 5 probably fixed in v1.10
Wrong recording lenghth displayed: The length of a recording in "Properties" shows a too short time. If you record 6 minutes it will tell you that it is only 5 minutes long! If you record 30 minutes, it tells you 25 minutes. So you always have to add 20% to the time displayed to get the correct length of the timer-recording.
 3 v1.12
"Invisible" mark disappears: If you mark a channel to be "invisible" (it is done in the "Channel Setup" menu). This means that you don't want it to appear when using the "Up/Down" buttons on the remote control to change TV channels. However, when the player have been in standby mode, all these "invisible" marks are gone!
 3 v1.10

 

I try to verify these problems every time a new firmware is released to see if they have been fixed. Some of them is pretty hard to test, so time will tell if the "hard-to-test" have been fixed.

 

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