| Known Software Builds |
|---|
| Version | Build date | Release Type | Feature Differences |
|---|
| Skip buttons | Accurate Recording | Series Link | Notes |
|---|
| 1.9 | 2007-01-?? ??:??:?? | Development | 30 & 60 seconds | No | No | |
| 2.4 | 2007-??-?? ??:??:?? | Factory | 120 seconds | Yes | No | This was the initial build shipped with most T816 units when they first hit retail |
| 3.0 | 2007-03-23 14:59:21 | Development | 30 & 120 seconds | No | No | |
| 3.3 | 2007-04-09 08:10:24 | Development | 30 & 120 seconds | No | No | |
| 3.4 | 2007-04-19 17:14:15 | Factory / RS232 | 120 seconds | No | No | Was shipped with early batches of Hitachi HDR081 and HDR161 |
3.7  | 2007-05-12 17:53:13 | Factory / RS232 | 120 seconds | Yes | No | The last batches of most brands of T816 units were shipped with this version |
| 3.7 | 2007-06-21 09:51:42 | Factory / RS232 | 120 seconds | Yes | No | Supplied with Evesham units. Has some annoying little quirks, such as pressing OK to change to the current EPG channel doesn't work and trying to use the EPG during playback returns you to the library after closing the EPG, whilst not remembering the resume point in the recording. |
| 3.7 | 2007-07-04 14:22:30 | Factory | 120 seconds | Yes | No | Supplied with Hitachi units |
| 4.7 | 2007-07-13 07:21:55 | RS232 | 120 seconds | Yes | No | The target of this build is unknown, but contains some very annoying quirks. You cannot press info twice to get information on the current programme; the EPG always lists every channel (ignoring favourites and TV only settings) and the EPG is extremely slow and unresponsive compared to previous versions. It also tends to freeze/crash more often. |
| 4.7 | 2007-??-?? ??:??:?? | Factory | 120 seconds? | Yes | No | Shipped with Grundig units. Archive feature not present and pressing the OK button to start playback displayed a banner for about 5s before playback started. |
| 6.7 | 2007-??-?? ??:??:?? | Factory | 120 seconds? | Yes | Yes | Freeview Playback Group 2 supplied on the Sharp TU-R160HA |
| 6.8 | 2007-11-29 13:48:12 | RS232 | 30 & 120 seconds | Yes | Yes | Freeview Playback Group 2 |
Vestel T816 based PVRs first went on sale in July 2007 after being in development since at least January 2007.
The T816 is a minor evolution of the T810 hardware, with double the amount of DRAM (64Mb) whilst sharing the same outer casing as the previous T810 model. The software was upgraded with Freeview Playback Group 1 compliancy on almost all models.
Sharp shipped a model that had fundamentally different software, which was known as Freeview Playback Group 2 back then. This software was never shipped with any other models and was never made available via OAD, probably for a good reason... Despite the advantages of the new features that the V6.x software had, these were somewhat outweighed by how sluggish and less stable it had become.
Eventually, I did manage to persuade Vestel to provide me with the V6.8 software so that people could at least try it if they wished.