Freeview PVR questions

On 30 Dec, 14:17, "CJY" wrote:
If you're still looking for info on the available PVRs, here are a few links
I've used in the past:

http://www.pvrjunction.co.uk/compare...w.pvruk.co.uk/

HTH,
Chris

"Ed" wrote in message

...



Hi there

Spent a few days at the inlaws and explained to them the benefits of a
PVR. They're not keen on getting a dish so I said I'd sort them out a
freeview PVR.

Every freeview decoder I've ever seen has a now and next banner, but
not one where you can press 'down' a la sky plus to see what is on
after that, and therefore to set a recording for later that evening
you have to use the painfully slow on screen tv guides.

Do any newer PVRs work like the sky plus machine?

I know a lot of people on here have topfields, but they seem pricey.
The Sagem DVR64250 has had good reviews too.

Cheers
Ed- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

It does - it says on the first site that the digifusion doesnt
remember where you left a recording, so if you stop it and go back
later you have to find your spot. Surely some mistake?

Mark Carver wrote:
Neil Hopkins wrote:
Mark Carver wrote:
DerekBaker wrote:

I notice that the QuickStart Guide you sent me says 'you can make a
recording of one digital channel and watch a different digital
channel'.

While http://tinyurl.com/3x6p5m says 'Can record 2 channels at the
same time'.

Which is correct?

Both ! But if recording two channels, you can't view a third.


You can with the Toppy, provided the third channel is on the same
multiplex as one of the other two.

Indeed you can. Mind you, you can buy almost three Digihomes for the
price of one Toppy. I've got a Toppy too. Out of the box the Digihome is
far easier to set up. Toppy's fine, and I'm chuffed to bits with mine,
but IMHO you need to be technically/IT minded to get the best from it.


Yes, the Toppy is perfect for anybody who likes to tinker and try
different setups until they find something that suits them.

--
neil h
google brights

On Dec 29, 5:22*pm, Ed wrote:

I know a lot of people on here have topfields, but they seem pricey.
The Sagem DVR64250 has had good reviews too.

As an owner of a Sagem PVR6280 - the earlier series - I wouldn't
recommend any of their products at all.

The initial firmware was hopelessly unreliable. Many programmes would
get cut up into two or three sections with large gaps of the programme
missing - that is if they got recorded at all. Scanning for
multiplexes didn't always work properly, so occasionally channels
would be missing from the EPG. The box would also often crash when
rewinding or fast-forwarding recordings.

Software updates fixed these problems, but the following problems
still exist in the current softwa

The EPG user interface is terrible. You can't schedule a recording on
one channel whilst watching or listening to another, as it switches to
that channel. If you try to schedule two recordings which overlap you
get no warning.
Radio recording doesn't work.
Digital teletext is seriously broken, On the BBC channels it is often
totally unavailable unless you switch to another channel and back
again. It's not available at all when recording.
Subtitles don't work properly, with many being displayed in unreadable
colour combinations.

Unfortunately development has stopped on my version of the box, so I'm
stuck with these horrible bugs.

Ed wrote:
On 30 Dec, 14:17, "CJY" wrote:

If you're still looking for info on the available PVRs, here are a few links
I've used in the past:

http://www.pvrjunction.co.uk/compare...w.pvruk.co.uk/

HTH,
Chris

"Ed" wrote in message

...




Hi there

Spent a few days at the inlaws and explained to them the benefits of a
PVR. They're not keen on getting a dish so I said I'd sort them out a
freeview PVR.

Every freeview decoder I've ever seen has a now and next banner, but
not one where you can press 'down' a la sky plus to see what is on
after that, and therefore to set a recording for later that evening
you have to use the painfully slow on screen tv guides.

Do any newer PVRs work like the sky plus machine?

I know a lot of people on here have topfields, but they seem pricey.
The Sagem DVR64250 has had good reviews too.

Cheers
Ed- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -


It does - it says on the first site that the digifusion doesnt
remember where you left a recording, so if you stop it and go back
later you have to find your spot. Surely some mistake?

Not a mistake.

However, the recorder puts bookmarks on the recordings every five
minutes, so you can soon get back to the bit you want.

PGG wrote:
On Dec 29, 5:22 pm, Ed wrote:


I know a lot of people on here have topfields, but they seem pricey.
The Sagem DVR64250 has had good reviews too.


As an owner of a Sagem PVR6280 - the earlier series - I wouldn't
recommend any of their products at all.

The initial firmware was hopelessly unreliable. Many programmes would
get cut up into two or three sections with large gaps of the programme
missing - that is if they got recorded at all. Scanning for
multiplexes didn't always work properly, so occasionally channels
would be missing from the EPG. The box would also often crash when
rewinding or fast-forwarding recordings.

Software updates fixed these problems, but the following problems
still exist in the current softwa

The EPG user interface is terrible. You can't schedule a recording on
one channel whilst watching or listening to another, as it switches to
that channel. If you try to schedule two recordings which overlap you
get no warning.
Radio recording doesn't work.
Digital teletext is seriously broken, On the BBC channels it is often
totally unavailable unless you switch to another channel and back
again. It's not available at all when recording.
Subtitles don't work properly, with many being displayed in unreadable
colour combinations.

Unfortunately development has stopped on my version of the box, so I'm
stuck with these horrible bugs.

The Digifusion/Digihome boxes are miles better than that!

"PGG" wrote in message
...
On Dec 29, 5:22 pm, Ed wrote:

I know a lot of people on here have topfields, but they seem pricey.
The Sagem DVR64250 has had good reviews too.

As an owner of a Sagem PVR6280 - the earlier series - I wouldn't
recommend any of their products at all.

The initial firmware was hopelessly unreliable. Many programmes would
get cut up into two or three sections with large gaps of the programme
missing - that is if they got recorded at all. Scanning for
multiplexes didn't always work properly, so occasionally channels
would be missing from the EPG. The box would also often crash when
rewinding or fast-forwarding recordings.

Software updates fixed these problems, but the following problems
still exist in the current softwa

The EPG user interface is terrible. You can't schedule a recording on
one channel whilst watching or listening to another, as it switches to
that channel. If you try to schedule two recordings which overlap you
get no warning.
Radio recording doesn't work.
Digital teletext is seriously broken, On the BBC channels it is often
totally unavailable unless you switch to another channel and back
again. It's not available at all when recording.
Subtitles don't work properly, with many being displayed in unreadable
colour combinations.

Unfortunately development has stopped on my version of the box, so I'm
stuck with these horrible bugs.

....

Apart from those minor problems, is it any good as a doorstop, or for
propping up table legs ?

Every cloud has a silver lining, at least so they say.


michael adams

On 30 Dec, 15:16, DerekBaker wrote:
* Mark Carver:

DerekBaker wrote:

Is there a manual to download for the DTR80? As I say in a another
thread, I'm looking for an easy to use PVR for my (not tech-savvy)
Mother.

Can't find it on the web. Email me Derek as per the instructions below,
and I can send you a scan.

Thanks for the scans.

Got my Mum a DTR80. She complained about my spending money on her so soon after Christmas, but after
* she saw how easy was to record programmes compared to programming the video she was happy.

Now all I have to do is decide between a hummy or toppy for myself.

--
Derek

Thanks from me too, does anyone have any negative comments about the
Digihome DTR80? It seems to be bargaintastic, and I think 40 hours is
more than enough for my aging inlaws. They may not last that long
themselves!

"Ed" wrote in message
...
On 30 Dec, 15:16, DerekBaker wrote:
* Mark Carver:

DerekBaker wrote:

Is there a manual to download for the DTR80? As I say in a another
thread, I'm looking for an easy to use PVR for my (not tech-savvy)
Mother.

Can't find it on the web. Email me Derek as per the instructions below,
and I can send you a scan.

Thanks for the scans.

Got my Mum a DTR80. She complained about my spending money on her so soon
after Christmas, but after
she saw how easy was to record programmes compared to programming the
video she was happy.

Now all I have to do is decide between a hummy or toppy for myself.

--
Derek

Thanks from me too, does anyone have any negative comments about the
Digihome DTR80? It seems to be bargaintastic, and I think 40 hours is
more than enough for my aging inlaws. They may not last that long
themselves!

Biggest bugbear is that it gets a timed recording wrong over the clock
change in an almost completely unpredictable way. You simply cannot use it
to do this.

But apart from that:

1) Sometimes loses the sound on playback. You have to stop and start again
and the sound returns. If you rewind and play again, it loses the sound in
exactly the same place, so I guess that this is caused by a blip in the
recording.

2) Very occasionally decides that it wants to do a disc check at an
inappropriate moment when fast forwarding. If recording at the same time
this will stop. I have had mine do this check about 5 times in a year.

3) It loses your 'deleted' changes and undeletes them. It doesn't do this
repeatidly, it just does it for a couple of delete cycles and them
remembers.

It has a few missing features, but what do you expect for 80 pounds?

tim

"JNugent" wrote in message
...
Ed wrote:

It does - it says on the first site that the digifusion doesnt
remember where you left a recording, so if you stop it and go back
later you have to find your spot. Surely some mistake?

Not a mistake.

However, the recorder puts bookmarks on the recordings every five minutes,
so you can soon get back to the bit you want.

Yuk!

You'll be saying that you can't add manual bookmarks next.

--
Max Demian

Trevor Rea wrote:
Mark Carver wrote:
If you want a cheap PVR the Digihome DTR80 seems quite good. Twin
tuners, 80 Gig HDD, (40ish hours recording time), very intuitive menu
(very similar recording set up as Sky +). My lad got one this week,
early days, but it hasn't crashed or failed to record yet. 80 quid at
Argos (30 day return deal does not apply).


Does anybody else have any experience of the Digihome?

I'm really tempted by it as my 2-3 year old Humax set top box
drives me nuts by constantly locking up, losing schedule info and
refusing to record.

Have you tried turning it off at the mains for a few minutes, then doing a
factory reset?

If those don't work, there is a major OTA software upgrade (to V20 or 21)
taking place on 14 - 16 January. That may hopefully improve things for you.

--
Jeff
(cut "thetape" to reply)