MAG Box

Ron, I think you are wrong - i'm not your typical techie. If you look at this forum and the amount of advice to help people over 10 years - I actually find your comment personally insulting, as its simply not true - or speaking in my case - not speaking for others

We may have sold a few hundred 349's before we pulled the plug on selling MAGs. Our office ones are deliberately abused - left on all the time - way longer than anyone here, with no need for drilled holes, to fix related buffering - as there wasn't any - and no one else having never having seen or heard this from clients, staff, other techies, anyone.

But of course, us techies must be wrong - as your 'scientific test' of your box worked for 2 days a bit better - is unrelated, more probably down to simple luck either from your ISP or TV provider.

No ones trying to baffle anyone with the technical stuff - it's down to understanding, which is not the same thing. The opinion of someone with no knowledge is exactly that.

It's really quite simple - if your ISP has problems, your TV will. Rons had a couple of TV providers at least and still looking for an answer to the odd issue - by drilling holes in his box - if you've seen the same issue over a period of time, with different TV providers, logic dictates it it is likely to be an internet based issue - ISP.

You can also check if it is your TV provider (or ISP), by connecting your box to your mobile phones hotspot wifi connection. If works better, then ISP - if same, then TV provider. Test same channel/s. That is a valid example of a test.

I find it quite disrespectful of you to think your opinion based on personal /1 box is better than someone whose job it is to test boxes / support services and deals with a client base of a few thousand, tests multiple providers, works with internet providers (so know how they work and what they can do) and has done that for years. Over 12 years of telecomms experience.

It is not about apportioning blame, it is about finding the issue and trying to help resolve - which is exactly what I have been trying to do. Yes some dodgy TV companies blame the ISP and then some dodgy ISP's blame the TV service - so yes, I do get the frustration when you don't know where the fault is - but when you start proclaiming who is right, without knowing the facts, with a lack of real understanding - it is simply not correct. It is a technical subject and there are a number of parties/equipment involved - and often things are not as simple as people would like them to be.

A N Other - the 256 overheating mention was for general advice of those posting (as it was a BIG issue with that specific box - which we saw reported often, hence the mention). For reference, the MAG 254 has not been updated by the manufacturer for 18 months and won't run many HD/HEVC and certainly 4K files (most retired now) - 322 also has an issue with the update or the last one they have and won't update as Infomir mixed up the software and try to update to 324 (different box) which then goes around in circles. When the box decides it wants to try, press home to cancel. It still works, but is not something we would recommend to buy knowing it won't be updated further. The MAG manufacturer, Infomir have been surpassed by other companies with better equipment & less software issues.


Paul
http://www.televisiontechnology.eu

Well explained Paul I for 1 have had s lot of free advice from yourself.
I also know many people who have used your services and are very happy.
I really can't see how anyone without experience in this subject can say you are dishonest or giving dodgy and vice to make a gain. You have been around a long time and hopefully for the future.

Years of experience have taught me to regard 'updates' with deep suspicion and generally of little or no worth unlsss to fix known and specific problems having a direct and detrimenta effect on the item of 0equipment in question.

My MAG254 is already on the latest firmware version and I would guess is unlikely to be 'updated' any further but nevertheless I have turned off updates completely.

The MAG324 is as it came out of it's box and although there is an update available I won't be applying it and that too has updates turned off.

Fortunately I have no issues with buffering and can comfortably stream with both boxes simultaneously but for anyone who does the speed test to be found in the inner portal under advanced settings can sometimes be a pointer to the possible source of the problem.

As promised I can now report that after following the suggestion I drill vent holes in the MAG 349 case I can say that the buffering problem when the tv is switched on no longer happens and the MAG BOX has been on continuous standby for 4 days. But I also take on board the suggestion here of a remote controlled socket both from a safety and operational point of view. Someone else suggested that I test the download speed at the box which I just did. A speed test on my I pad and mobile tested in the same room as the MAG box gave download speeds of 78.4 and 66.2 BUT testing through the MAG box only gave 1.60 ? All of which suggests to me that perhaps the box is at fault and not the ISP maybe as someone suggested a new box is required. Thanks for your help guys.

A speed test on my I pad and mobile tested in the same room as the MAG box gave download speeds of 78.4 and 66.2 BUT testing through the MAG box only gave 1.60 ? All of which suggests to me that perhaps the box is at fault and not the ISP maybe as someone suggested a new box is required.

Ron - not trying to offend you, but suggest caution with opinions on technical subjects as your 'suggested to me' is not how I would diagnose this at all. Personal opinions on technical subjects can not always give you the right answer. That's why people do exams on these subjects. By virtue of the fact they are not simple and technical analysis is required.

You need to know, the reality on how ISP's can and do work. The speed test is misleading - it only gives you the speed test / 30 second approx snapshot of the specific device you are testing - at the time. So you can have 100Mbps showing for example on your laptop, but as you state the box comes up at 1.6? why?

2 devices in the same house showing different speeds?

The ISPs see each device's ip address on their system, so they can identify any specific equipment and data use. So, if they are having network resource issues or throttling, they can and have been known to target the single device in the household using the most data - which of course is your TV box/video viewing. This can be deliberately throttled to help balance network resources.

What you have just stated, I have seen many times & know as a statement of fact that ISP's have and do this from time to time. I have even had to go to people's houses and prove to the Telefonica engineer (in one example), that TF was throttling one customer who has used numerous companies and different boxes and they all worked for a day or two before problems again. Eventually fixed after we proved via a mobile connection that TF was responsible.

What would have been a good idea to try (or you can do if TV plays up again) - is take the box and put it on someone else's internet connection or as mentioned before, if you have a smartphone, they can share a mobile hotspot and you can test the box on that.

I believe you need to take a closer look at your ISP, as in the manner you have stated 99% that is the cause.

In terms of 'could it be a faulty MAG box' - based again on what i've seen, box failures do not happen in this manner (or not that i've seen on any MAG thus far), so again the number of 'pointers' you have provided, leads back to an issue with the ISP - the question is, is it a deliberate throttling or is your ISP just having issues? But either way if you've seen this over a period of time, it's them you need to get onto first.

As I also mentioned to you, don't go drilling holes in your box, as the manufacturer will invalidate your warranty - however, I don't think this is relevant in terms of your issue, as just based on what i've seen and my understanding of ISP's, I would have been focussing on from the beginning or certainly from now.

I'd also want to know who the ISP is, to see if there's been other reports against them previously by others and have the got their own TV service? This I would look at too, as have seen the odd instance of an ISP deliberately tripping up multiple TV providers, yet magically when their technicians put in their TV, all works swimmingly - as I said, you won't believe what these companies can and do, do. Not stating this is the case, but a possibility & worth checking, if seeing repeated problems.



Paul
http://www.televisiontechnology.eu

Paul I do understand what ISP providers do. But, at the end of the day I am simply a customer buying a product and have no need to understand the technicalities of how it works. That’s why I rely on the expertise of others to do that on my behalf. For example I have a car but wouldnt know how to diagnose and repair it
In this situation with the MAG 349 box I simply was looking is there was a simple solution available which others on the forum had experienced and I found 3 possible solutions here on the forum 1 add vent holes to the case which I have done, 2 buy a remote controlled switch socket which I would do if suggestion 1 failed and 3 buy a new box. For the moment at least over the past 4 days I’ve experienced no buffering so suggestion 1 seems to have done the trick and I’m no worse off. However, the download speed on the box does concern me as the advice given you the experts suggests these boxes need about 4 meg to work properly. But I may be wrong with that. Finally, you suggest that these MAG boxes are on the way out and better products are available however you did not mention a product name etc ? And whether these new boxes would perform any better given the ISP issues you raised

Ron...if you bought the box from TVTech, why not ask Paul to come over and take a look at it for you, and to carry out some tests on other devices you may have?

You might get to the bottom of the problem rather than taking advice from random folk who are telling you to drill holes into electronic equipment....which throughout my 20-odd year career in IT is never a sensible suggestion!

We were told a Firestick is better than a Mag box

I had the exact problem with my mag box I changed providers and it's perfect! All issues we're resolved very happy now

Which Mag box do you have...if you have a 254 then you will have slight problems....the processor has half the speed of a 256 and the memory is almost half of 256.