Vestel Freeview HD Recorder
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Freeview HD:  T7675T7655T7650T7300Freeview:  T836T835T845RT825T816T810Saorview:  T7660Top Up TV:  T845
Tips & Tricks

Below follows a list of some handy features, most of which are not documented in the manuals:
  1. Software build name, date and time [T810, T816, T825, T835, T836, T845R, T7300, T7650, T7655]
    You can find out which software build is installed on your box by pressing the menu button and selecting "Configuration", where you will see the software version number quoted next to "Receiver upgrade". Move the cursor down to the version number and press OK and scan for an upgrade and you will be shown your software's build time and date (there can sometimes be different software builds with the same version number).

  2. Advert skipping buttons [T810, T816, T825, T835, T836, T845R, T7300, T7650, T7655]
    The four arrow buttons around the OK button on the remote can be used to instantly skip forward/backwards a predefined amount of seconds, which makes skipping advert breaks much quicker than using regular fast forward. Of course, the feature is also handy for skipping through a programme quickly. The exact behaviour of these buttons varies between models and software builds, but generally all models released after and including the T825 allow the left/right buttons to skip 120 seconds and the up/down buttons to skip 30 seconds. On older models, the predefined time delay varied and on the T810 only the up/down buttons were used (left/right duplicated the regular rewind / fast forward).

  3. Page Up/Down buttons [T810, T816, T825, T835, T836, T845R, T7300, T7650, T7655]
    The PR +/- (P +/- on T7300 and T7650) buttons on the remote may be used to quickly scroll through pages in the EPG, EPG search results, timer list and recordings library.

  4. Shortcut to resuming playback [T810, T816, T825, T835, T836, T845R, T7300, T7650, T7655]
    Whilst watching live tv, pressing the play button on the remote will start playback of the recording that you last watched, resuming at the point that you left it at, without the need to visit the library first. After starting playback this way, pressing stop on the remote will return you to live TV instead of the recordings library.

  5. Watching an in-progress recording, aka Chase Play [T810, T816, T825, T835, T836, T845, T845R, T7300, T7650, T7655]
    Those unfamiliar with PVRs may be unaware that it is possible to start watching a recording before the programme has finished. To do this, just go to the library and select the item to play it as you normally would. In-progress recordings will always be listed at the very top of list with the record icon next to them. This feature generally preferable to relying on the the timeshifting feature (pausing live tv).

  6. Live TV programme information [T810, T816, T825, T835, T836, T845R, T7650, T7655]
    Some software builds have these features disabled, but after pressing the INFO button whilst watching live TV to show the now/next programmes of the current channel, there are a number of features available. Pressing the INFO button again will show a full programme desciption, whilst the up/down buttons allow you to scroll through all available TV channels without actually changing the channel that you are watching. Additionally, pressing the left/right buttons toggles between showing the full programme description of the current or next programme.

  7. Setting recordings via INFO button [T810, T816, T825, T835, T836, T845R, T7650, T7655]
    Following on from the previous tip, you can also set up recordings for the current or next programme on any channel, without opening the EPG or changing channels. Just press the INFO button and use the up/down/left/right buttons to choose the channel and current/next programme and then press the record button to toggle a timer for that programme.

  8. Delete unwanted channels to improve performance [T825, T835, T836, T845R, T7300, T7650]
    On these 4 models it is generally recommended that you delete any unwanted channels from the channel list (this function can usually be accessed by pressing OK on live TV). This helps improve general performance and reliability. The exact reason for this is unknown, but is likely to be related to memory usage, and with fewer channels it means less memory is used with the EPG information for deleted channels not needing to be retained at all.

  9. Select audio channel output [T7300, T7650]
    Whilst watching live TV or playing a recording, the yellow button on the remote allows the output audio channels to be changed, toggling between both left/right channels (default), left channel only or right channel only.

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