What to look for in a PVR

On Sun, 15 Oct 2006 01:15:05 +0100, "Pyriform"
wrote:

JPG wrote:
and I need to be able to set up to record 2-3 or even 4 weeks hence.

I understand that PVRs use an EPG to schedule recordings
but do that actually need that, can I set to record three weeks
on thursday even if the program is not in the EPG?

Only 8 days ahead via EPG, but longer periods manually.

You seem to have overlooked the PVRs that use the 14 day 4TV EPG.

Are there any brands that I should avoid?

Anything except Humax and Topfield

That's a remarkably silly statement.

Well, you can risk trying a Sagem.

"Mark Carver" wrote in message
...
tim(yet another new home) wrote:
the comparison site. The Humax (and some others) have this.

This is OK provided that you don't want to back to back consecutive
programs on different channels.

Then you have to manually adjust it back off again (or do you?).

Not if the PVR has two tuners, such as the Humax and Toppy

Ah, hadn't though of that (still in the single thing to record
onto mode) - Good job you told me or I probably wouldn't
have worked it out for myself :-(.

tim

On Sun, 15 Oct 2006 14:13:19 +0100, "tim\(yet another new home\)"
wrote:

So this means that I have to manually add/change the required guard
time at the start/end for all of them if I don't like the default value, so
it seems that may be stuck with manually programming anyway.

Not if you use a Topfield with a TAP like MyStuff or Jags EPG. You
tell it what programs you want to watch out for, and it programme's
itself, including padding the start and end times as you require.
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tim(yet another new home) wrote:
snip
Having looked at the website I see than none of the machine used
PDC (I had assumed that this was the purpose of the EPG and that
they all did).

Not all analogue channels work with PDC either.

So this means that I have to manually add/change the required guard
time at the start/end for all of them if I don't like the default value, so
it seems that may be stuck with manually programming anyway.


Auto-padding was added to the Humax at user request earlier
this year. It's a potentially complicated feature due to
two tuners and back-to-back scheduling, but the latest
version works OK, though as you say, the padding has default
values for start and end times. Cheaper models may not yet
(or ever) have this feature.


And finally, I really only have Currys/Comet/Argos to buy
from. All universally bad for electricals, is one better than
the other? (I can't do mail-order as I am regularly not at home).

Any of them should be OK.

A general rule is you should be prepared to do quite a lot of research (on


I don't see this as a critical purchase in my life. It's 200 quid or
less. Put in context, that a quarter of a month's rent or 2% of
a year's rent. How much effort should I put into this?

Obviously I don't want to buy a complete dog, but I'm far more
interested in realiabilty than ease of use.


From reading the forums, the major retailers seem OK with
returns when there's a faulty model. The Humax has a 2-year
guarantee (return to base), which can be used after the
normal 12-month retailer period.

After 2 years, you'll probably be looking at a replacement,
as there'll be more systems on the market with greater
functionality.

For now, if you're happy to spend £200, you should only
consider the two leading models. If you spend less, you'll
get less, and might regret not shelling out an extra £50 or
so. It depends on how demanding a user you are.

From comparisons between the two, it looks like the more
expensive (and less available) Topfield is only better than
Humax if you add the software extras to improve features.
This thread is worth reading for a direct comparison.
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...d.php?t=463032


As to features, my first interest is in making sure that I can
program it to record the same programs every week without
having to set it up each week.

However, I note from the feature list "Timer recording starting does
not switch TV to PVR input" and that both the Topfields are the
only ones with an X in this box. Does this mean that the PVR
does change what is on the TV when the recording starts?
I would get very annoyed, very quicky with a box that did this,
and consider that I had bought a dud.


I think this may be related to the fact that the Topfield
switches ON when recording - other models remain in standby
- and this causes most TVs to switch source (unless you
inhibit the facility). I would doubt that any dual-tuner
box would change channel to the recording schedule if
already ON and tuned to another channel, so it shouldn't be
a problem unless you still want to watch analogue channels.

snip

I've got the Humax PVR 9200T (about £190 currently) which is very good.
The main downside of it is that you can only set it to record 20 timed


Sone of the machines have N/A in that box.
What can that possibly mean?


Having looked at the Digifusion manual, I'd say that the
information is "not available" in published specifications.


recordings at a time, which is quite inadequate. This may be fixed with an
over-air update which they seem to be quite keen on.


If I had the option to buy a box that didn't do this it would be
my first choice. But it seems to be the way things are going
so there isn't going to be one. I do so hate coming to my
computer to find that Billysoft has changed the way it works
overnight (and I fret that one day a change will make my box
not work at all) (BTW it's not just MS that I hate for doing this,
but it's the example most experienced by everyone else)


I suspect most boxes have an option to turn off automatic
checking for updates. With the ones that can be upgraded
from a PC, it should be possible to "downgrade" if there's a
new problem you can't tolerate. If only you could do that
with Windows, eh?

"JW" wrote in message
...


I suspect most boxes have an option to turn off automatic checking for
updates. With the ones that can be upgraded from a PC, it should be
possible to "downgrade" if there's a new problem you can't tolerate. If
only you could do that with Windows, eh?

You can.

In theory