Can you give us details of what is involved with the Freeview Certification process?

Does it just verify that digital tv can be received, and in the case of a MyFreeview box, recorded/played back?
Are certain levels of usability also checked? e.g. That the unit can be used over extended periods of time in a normal consumer manner and perform as normal. In the case of a MyFreeview box, record say 15 programmes a week, some simultaneously on multiple channels.
Are units re-certified after new versions of firmware are released, especially after Freeview are aware of significant issues. e.g. The change to the EPG data early this year

My interest has been sparked by my experiences with a Magic Tv MTV3600TD unit, but I also have also used 4 other Freview HD units over the years.The 3600 has Freeview certification but has still suffered from a number of issues, which other models do not appear to have had. I have kept up to date with the latest firmware versions, currently using 3.21.

Some of the problems are
1) After the format of the EPG data was changed, programme names would not be saved. From the info placed on this forum, only 3 other units were similarly affected
- two of which weren't actually Freeview certified. A firmware update for all models did fix this.
2) A long term issue (probably 3 years - see the thread on Geekzone http://www.geekzone.co.nz/forums.asp?forumid=83&topicid=150415) has been an auto-reboot of the unit shortly after being powered on, either by the user or because of a timer recording starting. This is believed to have been due to a memory leak in the code. A recent firmware update 'fixed' this by attempting to use virtual memory.
This has stopped the full auto-reboot at power-on but after 4-5 days of normal usage, the response to remote control commands gets slower and slower, to the point where it must be rebooted anyway.
Normal usage is then possible for another 4-5 days. Some users have resorted that they use a timer to power the unit off on a daily basis to avoid the issues.
3) Still get occasional mini-reboots (where the screen goes blank for up to 30 secs and then resumes. This has occurred in the middle of playing back a recording while also recording a current show. The programme being recorded was lost
4) A test channel 600 (copy of TV1 in HD but only 1 audio channel) appeared and all scheduled TV1 recordings changed to record on channel 600. Some people found recordings started as normal but only lasted a few seconds. Mine did record ok. As far as I know, the Magic Tv 3600 was the only model to be affected.
5) There has always been an issue with using the fast forward/rewind - it is not stable and sometimes loops back and forth
6) Hardware wise, the supplied remote control fails to work with commonly used buttons - I had a 20 year remote for a VCR and it still worked!

You might think that I have a faulty model, but there are lots of threads on the Geekzone forum with many users getting similar problems. There has been some responses from Magic tv but lately every 'fix' appears to come up with additional issues. Some of the issues have been reported on this forum but geekzone has more.

I compare my experience with 2 Panasonic units I have - they just work! The older unit (DMR-XW350GZ) too had the issues with the new style of EPG data - Panasonic released a new firmware version and it continues to work, and the EPG is now a full 8 days instead of being ~4 hours. The newer (DMR-XW390GZ) one had a minor series link recording issue for a couple weeks last year (maybe earlier) but this was fixed by reverting a change in the EPG data at that time.

I realise these are just annoying issues, but I would have expected that buying a Freeview certified unit should guarantee a high level of reliability. Prior to the analogue switchoff, my VCR's would record faultlessly and would never reboot or require a reboot to function normally!

I have a technical background and understand there may be some technical issues using modern appliances, but I wonder how an average consumer would react.

The NZ distributors of the Magic TV units are Dish Tv who are aware of the issues, but do not appear to be getting much traction with the manufacturer Pixel Magic.

Are you able to liaise with Dish Tv/Pixel Magic to get some action?