Suggestions for PVR please

In article
,
wrote:
I suspect the OP's father in law is from the same generation as my
father, who methodically unplugs pretty much every appliance in the
house every night ;-)

Don't think it's a generation thing anymore - since those who really did
have to do that will be mainly dead. ;-)

More an age thing. Although I hope it doesn't happen to me - it would take
a couple of hours each night...

--
*How about "never"? Is "never" good for you?

Dave Plowman London SW
To e-mail, change noise into sound.

"Steve" wrote in message
news
On Fri, 01 May 2009 11:25:17 +0100, Zimmy wrote:


"Steve" wrote in message
news
I apologise if this topic has been covered recently, but a quick search
didn't bring anything to light.

My elderly father-in-law wants a freeview box with built in recorder. I
know there's plenty to choose from but I could use recommendations for
one which is easy to use for someone who has barely grasped using a
cordless phone or basic TV remote. The idea of trying to teach
him to use interactive menus gives me the shudders. Anyone got any
success
stories to share?

I've not used the feature-topping Humax and Topfields, so I don't know
how
easy they are to use. I do have a TVonics though which is very easy to
use
(same guys who designed the Sonys apparently). My four year old daughter
can
pause and record stuff directly no problem, and the EPG is very good. My
technophobe wife has no problems recording stuff either. It rarely
crashes
and if it does, it resets itself so no unplugging necessary. It also
comes
with an excellent remote that can also control your telly and DVD.

Thanks for the comments. More shudders - I'd forgotton about leaving it
plugged in, let alone plugged in and turned on! That might scupper the
whole idea.

Its kind of necessary if you want to record stuff, but you can leave it in
standby and it'll only spin up to record.
If its any consolation the TVonics say they use 3W in standby and are very
quiet, silent when the hard disk spins down.

Z

In article
,
wrote:

I suspect the OP's father in law is from the same generation as my
father, who methodically unplugs pretty much every appliance in the
house every night ;-)

A few years ago, I was asked by a slightly older friend to help because he
couldn't get his VCR to make recodings.

Easy to solve: It was a Philips machine which needed the clock to be set
and running before it would record. It was turned off every night and sat
ther with the clock time flashing. I think he stopped trying to make
recordings, rather than leave it on at night. His wife was convinced it
would catch fire if left on and unattended.

--
From KT24 - in "Leafy Surrey"

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.11

In article ,
Peter Duncanson wrote:
On Fri, 1 May 2009 04:38:54 -0700 (PDT), wrote:


I suspect the OP's father in law is from the same generation as my
father, who methodically unplugs pretty much every appliance in the
house every night ;-)

There was a time when that was a very sensible thing to do.

not really, the socket probably isn't rated for 365 disconnections a year.
The contacts will get loose, leading to overheating and arcing when the
appliance is in use with a consequent higher risk of fire. Why not just
use the switch on the socket?

--
From KT24 - in "Leafy Surrey"

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.11

Steve wrote:
I apologise if this topic has been covered recently, but a quick
search didn't bring anything to light.

My elderly father-in-law wants a freeview box with built in recorder.
I know there's plenty to choose from but I could use recommendations
for one which is easy to use for someone who has barely grasped using
a cordless phone or basic TV remote. The idea of trying to teach
him to use interactive menus gives me the shudders.

Definitely NOT a Sony then. Just horrible to use.

Tim

Tim Downie wrote:
Steve wrote:
I apologise if this topic has been covered recently, but a quick
search didn't bring anything to light.

My elderly father-in-law wants a freeview box with built in recorder.
I know there's plenty to choose from but I could use recommendations
for one which is easy to use for someone who has barely grasped using
a cordless phone or basic TV remote. The idea of trying to teach
him to use interactive menus gives me the shudders.

Definitely NOT a Sony then. Just horrible to use.

Really ? Why ?

My complete technophobe mother-in-law has used a Sony RDR-HXD710
recorder for over three years. I have *never* had to provide any support
to her because she's had difficulties with it etc.

I've lost count of the number of times she's phoned me about her PC,
mobile phone, microwave oven, central heating controller, car radio,
clock radio,.......

charles wrote:

Easy to solve: It was a Philips machine which needed the clock to be set
and running before it would record. It was turned off every night and sat
ther with the clock time flashing. I think he stopped trying to make
recordings, rather than leave it on at night. His wife was convinced it
would catch fire if left on and unattended.

Wasn't there concern within the BBC in the 1950s, that the all night
long election results programme might cause the transmitters to overheat
and catch fire ?

"Doctor D" wrote in message
...

"Dr Zoidberg" wrote in message
...
"Steve" wrote in message
news
I apologise if this topic has been covered recently, but a quick search
didn't bring anything to light.

My elderly father-in-law wants a freeview box with built in recorder. I
know there's plenty to choose from but I could use recommendations for
one which is easy to use for someone who has barely grasped using a
cordless phone or basic TV remote. The idea of trying to teach
him to use interactive menus gives me the shudders. Anyone got any
success
stories to share?


Humax PVR.
It's as straightforward as you'll get


But if it goes wrong don't even expect Humax to be interested, let alone
resolve matters!
Worst manufacturer I've ever dealt with.



they have always answered my emails no problems.........

The message
from contains these words:

====big snip====

I suspect the OP's father in law is from the same generation as my
father, who methodically unplugs pretty much every appliance in the
house every night ;-)

That's perfectly understandable behaviour when you consider its origin,
Back in the day, the risk of an appliance cord fault causing a house
fire was very real (no plugtop fuse protection on the 5 and 15 amp house
wiring circuits of the day).

Although modern wiring standards and materials have reduced the risk
somewhat, it hasn't completely been eliminated so there's no real reason
for such a life saving habit to cease (at least, not in the mind of the
older generation).

You also have to keep in mind that pretty well all electrical devices
back then (even the electronic ones, such as radios and TV sets) were
fire hazards in themselves.

Nowadays, the only comparably dangerous items are electric fires, hair
driers, irons, washing machines and tumble driers (especially tumble
driers, so much so that the fire fighting service strongly advise
against running one unattended when retiring to bed for the night).

Today, the risk of conflagration from low power (sub 40 watt)
electronic boxes is at a vanishingly small level what with modern
materials and standards of construction aimed specifically at
eliminating this risk.

Although a risk still exists (at astronomically high odds against the
event) it is considered small enough in the risk/benefit equation for
most of us to accept the need to leave such devices powered up in
standby overnight in order to stay up to date with software or epg
updates (or even just to save the hassle of bending down to switch back
on at the set's mains isolator switch or at the mains outlet socket
switch).

However, if my youngest son's habit of loading the tumble drier at 1 or
2am and starting a 2 hour drying cycle just before going to his bed is
anything to go by, I suspect a good portion of his generation are going
to die in house fires due to the false sense of security in _all_ things
electrical engendered by the almost total absence of such risk in other
'household appliances' such as set top boxes, TV and radio sets and the
like.

Like anything else, the risk factor has to be decided on the merits of
each case. For instance, it would be deemed risk free to run a
tumbledrier unattended overnight if it were installed in a brick
outhouse _not_ adjoining the main residence.

Alternatively, the risk of leaving a set top box on overnight would be
deemed unacceptable if it were housed in a closed box with other heat
sources and a stuffing of shredded paper along with a pile of dry
cardboard stacked up against the housing and no (working) smoke detector
to raise an alarm.

This last example, whilst rather extreme, seems unlikely, but it's
surprising how often some folk can unwittingly simulate such a
circumstance.

This just shows how easy it is to under or over estimate the hazard of
overnight unattended operation (standby or not) of electrical
appliances. Most of us get it right most of the time (and live to a ripe
old age ;-), but some of us are going to be caught out and have an
exciting tale to tell of how they just failed to qualify for a "Darwin
Award" (if they're lucky).

Whilst all of this might seem "Off Topic" to the subject matter in
hand, it nevertheless addresses a real concern often expressed in
relation to such operational modes of the technical digital TV kit this
news group references.

It just seemed to me an opportunity to lend some context to
airsmoothed's bemusement over his father's seemingly obsessive concern
for electrical appliance safety. After all, airsmoothed's very existence
might, in a Darwinian sense, be owed to this very obsession. ;-)

--
Regards, John.

Please remove the "ohggcyht" before replying.
The address has been munged to reject Spam-bots.

In article ,
Johnny B Good wrote:
The message
from contains these words:

====big snip====

I suspect the OP's father in law is from the same generation as my
father, who methodically unplugs pretty much every appliance in the
house every night ;-)

That's perfectly understandable behaviour when you consider its origin,
Back in the day, the risk of an appliance cord fault causing a house
fire was very real (no plugtop fuse protection on the 5 and 15 amp house
wiring circuits of the day).

It doesn't actually matter where the fuse is placed in the circuit. Indeed
it is argued by most other countries that a correctly fused (MCCB'd)
distribution board is safer. the only real advantage of our Ring Main
system is cheaper installation costs. the fact you can buy fuses to fit in
a plug with a higher rating than the cable leaving that plug is quite
unsafe.

--
From KT24 - in "Leafy Surrey"

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.11