Testing the Magic TV DTR: grandparents
Suzi Heath (Magic TV 3500 DTR), posted: 9-Nov-2009 16:40
A couple of days in and so far the Magic TV is really awesome. Recording have a buffer/delay options so you can choose to start recordings a couple of minutes early and finish them a bit late too, which is perfect seems nothing runs on time. It's easy to access and play the recorded movies and I can also be watching a previously recorded show while recording two new ones!I decided to bring in my mother for the “Grandma” test. I reset the machine, unplugged her and let her loose. She found the plug in instructions very easy and only got stuck on the part of the setup involving the video formats and admitted at this stage she would have asked for help. She then went on to have a play with timeshift and easy record which again she breezed through (Once I taught her what a pause button looked like)
Next we had a try at recording from the guide and here we had a bit of a hitch – the buttons they suggest you use on screen, and the actual buttons are different shapes – as you can see from the pictures below (see arrows) the record, next day and next week are in square boxes, but they correspond to the coloured circular buttons at the bottom of the remote.
Most of us here would work this one out for ourselves but this did have my mother stumped. Once we sorted out the button matchings though she was zooming through the guide and setting up recordings like a pro. This unit gets two thumbs up for me on the beginner users test, as my mum is very beginner and even she felt confident using it.
I must admit though there have been teething issues.
- The first autoscan did not pick up prime tv, the second scan try didn’t make it to the autoscanning screen but the third scan did it. Not sure why this happened but it did.
- A couple of my recording moved folders on me, they have been put in a user1 folder but I thought I had placed them in comedy. I can not be 100% sure on my folder accessing skills, but as they are series I will be interested to see where the next recordings end up.
About the author: Suzi Heath is a 20 year old university student studying towards a Bachelor of Commerce and Administration majoring in Information Systems and E-Commerce. As a retail electronics sales consultant, she has spent many an hour explaining the finer points of Freeview to customers, but up until now has not dabbled much in it herself. Suzi is looking forward to feeding her currently dormant trashy television habit and also showing everyone that you don’t need an abundance of testosterone and long career in IT to take charge of some technology!Other related posts:
The Magic that keeps giving...
The Magic MTV3600TD arrives!
Introducing Suzi Heath, MyFreeview|HD reviewer
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Comment by Aaron Woodcock, on 29-Nov-2009 16:31 , user id: )
Actually, the buttons on the bottom of the EPG dont mean that the buttons are square, they just are there to show you what COLOUR button you should be using to do the appropriate function. All Freeview MHEG5 EPGs are like this and are only an indication of colour, not button shape. But understandable how people may get confused.