OT: PVRs

[Dave Plowman (News)]

I've asked on a suitable group but not had a helpful reply, and I know the ones to trust on here. ;-)

I'm after a PVR as my DVD-R is a bit clunky for time shifting and only does one hour at 'broadcast' quality. I want a twin FreeView tuner type as this will allow me to re-use the existing FreeView box elsewhere. It's very rare I'll want to keep anything so I don't mind a slight fiddle to transfer to DVD if needed.

Which? did a review of such things this month but missed out the one I'm interested in - the Topfield TF5800 which I can get for just under 300 quid delivered (250G drive).

I prefer the looks to the equivalent Humax. ;-)

I've read the reviews available on the net but am still rather unclear about just how easy it is to use for simple time shifting, and as a STB for the TV when recording or not. My existing Sony STB is a delight to use and I'd not want something worse.

[Richard Phillips]

I have the Humax PVR-9200T (paid about £220 for it), I can *highly* recommend it, it's one of the best pieces of electronics I've ever bought for anything!

100 hours of recording, twin tuner, record 2 channels while watching a 3rd (if you are lucky with multiplexes) or watch a recording etc etc, all the features I wanted. Love it.

HOWEVER it does have one nasty little problem. If you have scheduled a programme to record (e.g. a 2 hour film) and come home 15 mins into the film, you cannot watch the programme until it has finished recording, you also can't timeshift back 15 mins because the PVR was in standby (assuming you put it into standby).

I have been in touch with Humax and they are looking into it, expect a solution sometime in the next millenium...

R.

[mark.mai]

Interesting.... I have an old Humax PVR800T and it can manage to do this, so i would hope that it's in their capabilities to do a fix.

If I was considering upgrading it would be a tough choice between the newer Humax (I love my 8000T) and the Topfield (I know people who are very happy with these too.)

[Richard Phillips]

I can't see why it would be difficult, the programme info is on the hard drive!

But I've tried everything I can think of and have not found a way of doing this, and (generally) I'm not an idiot... although idiots rarely realise they are so, eh?!

What would you do on the 8000T to watch a currently recording programme when you've just come out of standby then? I can't rewind it and it's not available in the programme list...

I know nothing about the Topfield, but when I bought the Humax about 6 months ago, it was the leader in a field of 1 for twin tuner at that price-range!

R.

[mark.mai]

If a prog is being recording on the 8000T, you can press play which brings up the control icons on the screen, and then select the cursor icon to move the viewing point to the start of the program. I know this def works when I'm recording, not 100% sure if it works if the 8000 has just been in standby before, but I *think* it does.

[Richard Phillips]

I will double check this action tonight, but I'm 90% sure that if you do this on the 9200T, you cannot go furthur back than when you first started

*watching* the programme, whether you were in standby or not. Does this feature you describe work if you have been watching a different programme and then turn to the programme you are recording and try to rewind to the start?

Essentially, on the 9200T you are just using the timeshift feature to rewind what you've watched.

Obviously, if you were in standby you weren't watching the programme!

R.

[Styx]

I have one of these, too. The problem with chase-play is apparently going to be fixed with the next software update (currently working in Beta, AFAIK.) Next update is also supposed to be adding auto-padding around recording schedules (so that you don't get top-&-tailed recordings) and the Electronic Programme Guide is supposed to be getting written to the disk when you put it on stand-by so it shouldn't take so long to load when you next use it.

Apart from those little issues it has worked *flawlessly* since I got it. Took about two minutes to set up and start using it, too.

You can now buy them for about 170GBP!

Styx

[Chris Bacon]

could be very useful to you.

[Richard Phillips]

"Chase-play", didn't know it was called that... If they fix that, add the auto-padding (have missed last few mins of programmes a few times), and sort out the EPG reloading (I have got into the habit of turning it on and then making a cup of tea before looking at EPG!), it will be perfect!!

Agreed, I've had no probs with it at all. Software seems *very* robust and bug-free from what I've seen. I wish everything I bought could say the same.

R.

[mark.mai]

Hehe.... I don't have the option of watching a different program while another program records - the 8000T is single tuner.

[Chris Bacon]

I got a Thomson DHD 4000 a while ago... they're now available for £98!!! I'm going to replace the 40GB drive with a bigger one, but it's still quite a nice machine "2-tuner, 14-day EPG, etc., etc.).

[Richard Phillips]

Oh yes, of course :-p

No big surprise that you can rewind a programme that's recording then. I wonder if you can rewind it if you've come out of standby 15 mins after the recording started? This is now purely academic curiosity though!

R.

[Chris Bacon]

Richard, you are posting upside-down.

[Richard Phillips]

I do beg your pardon, Outlook Express defaults to this behaviour, I try to post the right way up but sometimes forget.

R.

[F]

An excellent PVR!

Try

- £237.83. My daughter got one from there last week.

Have you tried the forum at

? You'll find all you want to know on the site?

Time shifting is easy and if you add a couple of TAPs (add-on utilities written by users) like MyStuff and eit2mei you can automate EPG collection and have the box automatically search it for programmes of your choice.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

Ain't got the time for yet another forum, but thanks anyway.

[Roger Mills]

The use it in conjunction with OE-QuoteFix

- and fix the problem once and for all!

[Richard Phillips]

How's that then?!

Ta very much.

R.

[Dave Plowman (News)]

They haven't got the one I want in stock.

[Dave Liquorice]

Presumably this and the Humax boxes also mentioned are Freeview only? Says him living in a Freeview free area and very likely to remain so for the next 5 years.

Can they work with Freesat and have EPG data for the Freesat channels and control the (Sky Digibox) Freesat Rx?

I've got a Phillips HDRW720 combined 80G HD and DVD recorder which can do all that but has several shortcomings. But I'm willing to put up with them for the advantages that HDD based recording has, the 3hr buffer, pause live TV etc.