PVR?

"André Coutanche" wrote in message
...
WCZ wrote:
"André Coutanche" wrote
Dr Zoidberg wrote:

My humax has always "just worked"

Good. Done a rescan lately?

Yes, at the weekend. Was something supposed to go wrong?

Dunno, I don't have one. But look for the thread roundabout 26 August
titled 'ITV3 problem from Mendip this evening' to see that at least
one Humax owner came across the less-than-satisfactory response of the
Humax software to new LCNs coming and going. I was able to advise him
because my Topfield shares this flakiness.

I did one to get the new "4" channels in the right place.

I then had to remove all the dross channels from the list.

And two days later they came back and I had to remove
them again.

And then a week later they came back and I had to remove
them for the third time.

But I don't have a Humax, or a Toppy.

tim

On Tue, 4 Sep 2007 09:55:16 UTC, "Andr Coutanche"
wrote:

bugbear wrote:
So - is there a consensus best PVR
out there?

Ideally I'd like to be able to record
to DVD too. DVD playback is optional,
since I already have a DVD player, but I imagine
any box that can record DVD can also play them.

There are (I think) just one or two boxes which combine hard disk and
DVD recording, and I'm not sure that they have dual-tuners (which you
need - believe me).

I am fairly sure the HD/DVD boxes are single tuner. With most of that
ilk if you are recoding something *you cannot watch anything else
through that box* on some, not even what you are recording from the
start of the program. Of course you can watch what it is recording
live - but then why record it?

Unless you like lots of different boxes then you *need* twin tuners.
The top end ones like Topfield can record two streams at once. If they
are both on the same MUX then the other tuner can be used to view
*any* other channel. If they are on different MUXs then obviously it
needs both the tuners, but - it will still let you watch *any* channel
on *either* of the MUXs being record from. At least here there has
only ever been a three way gotcha in two years of toppy ownership and
I had to brak out the VHS from mothballs. :-)

--
Regards
Dave Saville

NB Remove nospam. for good email address

tim..... wrote:
"Robin" [email protected] ndstuff.co.ru
wrote in message news
He did say "best", not easiest.

Bearing in mind also "Ideally I'd like to be able to record to DVD too"
I'd have to say that neither the Topfield (which I have used) and the
Humax (which I own) is "best" since they don't do DVDs. So you (OP)
might want to consider a PC-based solution.

Personally I think that the OP should reconsider his requirement
for a box that has both a disk and DVD recorder. Such boxes
are not easy to find.

tim




Comet's web-site has 10 Freeview HDD/DVD recorders, from
£250 upwards.

While it's nice to have the option to archive to DVD, it's
something you may only need occasionally. With a big HDD,
you can keep some programmes as long as you want. Consider
a separate DVDR, if you must, alongside a good PVR rather
than compromise on features. Many Humax/Topfield owners use
their PCs to archive (note: not MACs!)

"tim....." wrote in message
...

"Robin" [email protected] ndstuff.co.ru
wrote in message news
He did say "best", not easiest.

Bearing in mind also "Ideally I'd like to be able to record to DVD too"
I'd have to say that neither the Topfield (which I have used) and the
Humax (which I own) is "best" since they don't do DVDs. So you (OP)
might want to consider a PC-based solution.

Personally I think that the OP should reconsider his requirement
for a box that has both a disk and DVD recorder. Such boxes
are not easy to find.




shame really - i'm sure i've seen american tivos with built in dvd recorder.
such a beast would be - lovely.



--
Gareth.

That fly... is your magic wand.
http://www.last.fm/user/dsbmusic/

JW wrote:

alongside a good PVR rather than compromise on features. Many
Humax/Topfield owners use their PCs to archive (note: not MACs!)

No reason you could not use a mac (or any other system that can use
FTP), if you add an external NAS box to allow comms over ethernet.

--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

tim..... wrote:

http://www.avreview.co.uk/news/article/mps/UAN/827/v/3/

Um, so it does.

But take a look in an Argos catelogue or walk around your
local (chain) electrical shop and see how many you see.

A less obvious problem that I found with many of the DVD inclusive
solutions is that they don't tend to have multiple tuners (which really
becomes vital when you want to use facilities like "record every program
starting with name" etc.

The inclusion of the DVD recorder means that the boxes need the
capability to digitize video in real time (otherwise the external video
input would not work). The tends to mean that they decode the DTT to
video first and then either direct it at the DVR part, or re-digitise it
for HDD storage. This lowers the quality a bit, and also prevent tricks
like being able to take parallel streams out of a mux etc.

In the end I found the solution that got what I really wanted was having
the PVR on the end of my LAN so that I could drag programs off it and
then edit and transfer them to DVD there.



--
Cheers,

John.

/================================================== ===============\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\================================================= ================/

Andy Dee wrote:

WCZ wrote:
"Wilf" wrote in message
...

On 04/09/2007 11:52 am, Andy Dee wrote:


bugbear wrote:

So - is there a consensus best PVR
out there?

I

I have a Humax but I would not recommend it.
The firmware has always been "flaky" and mine and others suffer frequent
lock-ups requiring a power-off to reset.

A

On the other hand, I've been very pleased with my Humax 9200T. No
problems with lock-ups etc.

Touch wood, I've had no locks up either. It just works.

Well, I am pleased for you and envious, as from the Humax forums, you
must be in the minority.

By "problem", I am referring to something in the stream (MHEG or
whatever) that causes the box to lock.
Badly written firmware I'm afraid :-(

Well the Beeb don't help by keeping on changing things. The Toppys had
a phase of going crash bang wallop when the BBC changed something. The
UK importer was very quick about getting something done.
--
Phil Cook looking north over the park to the "Westminster Gasworks"

the dog from that film you saw wrote:

shame really - i'm sure i've seen american tivos with built in dvd recorder.
such a beast would be - lovely.


The US range is here. Humax, Pioneer & Toshiba make 'em.
http://customersupport.tivo.com/UserGuides.aspx

--
Adrian C

In the end I found the solution that got what I really wanted was
having
the PVR on the end of my LAN so that I could drag programs off it and
then edit and transfer them to DVD there.

May I ask (only for information)* which PVR (as I could not find any
(mainstream) ones last year with native ethernet support)?

--
Robin

*"for inf" as I do not intend to buy a new PVR or the like in the next
year or two, by when I hope many (more) will include/support
Network-attached storage

In message , Phil Cook
wrote

By "problem", I am referring to something in the stream (MHEG or
whatever) that causes the box to lock.
Badly written firmware I'm afraid :-(

Well the Beeb don't help by keeping on changing things. The Toppys had
a phase of going crash bang wallop when the BBC changed something. The
UK importer was very quick about getting something done.

The MHEG problem on the Toppy hasn't been solved by Topfield or the
importer. The reason it isn't being seen at the present time is because
BBC are not transmitting something like Wimbledon with the three
interactive steams in parallel.

What did happen is that knowledgeable users identified the problem and
posted a few solutions in the UK forums quickly followed by TAPs (third
party programs) that could be loaded and run on the Toppy.



--
Alan
news2006 {at} amac {dot} f2s {dot} com