Home cinema - expensive Pace Twin v. cheap Ferguson FDT500

HomeCinemaBanter (http://www.homecinemabanter.com/index.php)

- UK digital tv (http://www.homecinemabanter.com/forumdisplay.php?f=5)

- - expensive Pace Twin v. cheap Ferguson FDT500 (http://www.homecinemabanter.com/showthread.php?t=24269)

Whoops - that was a typo. They're now £60 (well, £59.99), not 70 quid !
I caved in at that price because at least now they're available.
I didn't mention I want to get a second box for my brother too, but I
only bought one of the cheap(er) Ferguson's to check out the quality.
The second box won't be one ...

QrizB wrote:

It's not just that the Pace is using RGB, while the Fergie is set to
composite, is it?

Don't know - they're both SCART

"Martin" wrote in message
...
QrizB wrote:

It's not just that the Pace is using RGB, while the Fergie is
set to
composite, is it?

Don't know - they're both SCART

Most boxes have a menu option for PAL or RGB. The FDT500 doesn't
have the RGB option, presumably to cut costs.

In article , Wills
wrote:
Martin wrote:

I read about that a number of times on this group, but I could never
see what the problem was. Maybe there are much higher quality boxes
out there that make my Twin look cheap :-)

Well how nice it is to see someone else compliment the Pace Twin. I
think it is a superb bit of kit, and is getting better all the time with
software updates.

BTW the 'soft' picture was sorted by a update.

But still you get the people putting it down. Are they all ex-Acorn folk
who haven't forgiven Pace for killing Acorn :)

O.T: Pace didn't kill Acorn. *Acorn* killed Acorn. :-) Pace just took
over some of the pieces and then didn't really know what to do with them so
far as desktop computers are concerned.

Fortunately, new RISC OS machines have been developed by other people, and
I'm using one at this very moment. :-) Castle Technology essentially now
own the operating system and develop new machines.

Back on topic: FWIW I was tempted by the 'Twin' (it even reminds me of an
editor I used to like ;- ). However until I bought a DTTV box I wasn't
sure we could get the signal reliably. I also still have not heard any
figures for the audible (mechanical) noise level from its HD. Hence I ended
up buying the Nokia 221T.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html

In message
Jim Lesurf wrote:

Back on topic: FWIW I was tempted by the 'Twin' (it even reminds me of an
editor I used to like ;- ). However until I bought a DTTV box I wasn't
sure we could get the signal reliably. I also still have not heard any
figures for the audible (mechanical) noise level from its HD. Hence I ended
up buying the Nokia 221T.

The drive is quiet, inaudible at more than four feet, it's much quieter
than an Iyonix. (An in comment for connoisseurs of fine products.)
However (some) have a sound fault which results in a low level buzz
from all its analogue outputs. It has to be returned for a hardware fix.
Mostly it works very well indeed, the concept is very well thought out
with good sound and vision, but it does need resets of the mains plug
type. It is outperformed in reliability terms by my Nokia OnDigital box.

--
Dave Pitt.

Iyonix, OS5.03.

In article , David Pitt
wrote:
In message Jim Lesurf
wrote:

Back on topic: FWIW I was tempted by the 'Twin' (it even reminds me of
an editor I used to like ;- ). However until I bought a DTTV box I
wasn't sure we could get the signal reliably. I also still have not
heard any figures for the audible (mechanical) noise level from its
HD. Hence I ended up buying the Nokia 221T.

The drive is quiet, inaudible at more than four feet, it's much quieter
than an Iyonix. (An in comment for connoisseurs of fine products.)

That is a useful calibration as I'm also writing this reply on an Iyonix.
;-

Pity that the magazine reviews never seem to actually *measure* the
mechanical noise level and can give a value in something dB(A) at a couple
of metres. I'd find this useful.

However (some) have a sound fault which results in a low level buzz from
all its analogue outputs. It has to be returned for a hardware fix.

OK. I'm using the S/PDIF from the nokia I have as this gives decent
results.

Mostly it works very well indeed, the concept is very well thought out
with good sound and vision, but it does need resets of the mains plug
type. It is outperformed in reliability terms by my Nokia OnDigital box.

Is the 'mains out and in again' reset a common 'feature' of DTTV boxes?

The Nokia 221T I have has locked up a few times since we bought it, and has
required this sort of reset to poke it back into behaving correctly. When
it freezes it ignores the remote. Mostly the problem locks up the picture
and occurs when using the handset to issue some commands. However last
night it just ignored the handset at one point when I tried to change
station, but continued to output the vision and sound as if all was well.

Slainte,

Jim

--
Electronics http://www.st-and.ac.uk/~www_pa/Scot...o/electron.htm
Audio Misc http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/AudioMisc/index.html
Armstrong Audio http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/Audio/armstrong.html
Barbirolli Soc. http://www.st-and.demon.co.uk/JBSoc/JBSoc.html