The Magic that keeps giving...
It's been a couple of weeks now and really I am loving the Magic TV unit. I find it simple to use and fantastic to just be able to record what I want and watch TV when it's convenient for me, not TVNZ or whoever. I have always found Friday night fantastic TV night and previously this has dictated me staying in a bit more than I would like, but having the DTR has allowed me to watch those shows whenever I want.I have had few issues with this unit on the whole really. Although I think something funky happened last night as the picture kept cutting in and out – but I am blaming this on my television as after turning it off and on all was good in the world of Freeview again.
I have been trying to fill my hard-drive as quickly as possible to see how well it will handle it. Every time you go into the recordings it gives you the hours left to record in both standard and high definition, which is really handy. When full this unit will automatically start deleting old shows. First from your deleted items, which is really a recycling bin folder for your set top box. Once these are all deleted it will start deleting the oldest shows first. There are multiple options to save those shows you really love, so you can always protect that movie you just can’t get enough of, or a really funny episode of 7 days.
What else is there to say? I will keep testing this unit even if it means spending time watching even those terribly trashy shows, like Rock of Love, over and over again – all for Geekzone and not my own guilty pleasure of course. What I would love to know though is if there is anything that you fellow geeks are particularly interested in knowing? Let me do the testing before you decide whether this unit is for you.
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:
Testing the Magic TV DTR: grandparents
The Magic MTV3600TD arrives!
Introducing Suzi Heath, MyFreeview|HD reviewer
Comment by Russ, on 22-Nov-2009 14:07 , user id: )
It looks like quite a good box for Freeview, but what about the networking side of things. Can you stream content from your PC, does it have any media centre type of capability, how does it compare to Tivo's networking?
Comment by thefatmould, on 23-Nov-2009 22:13 , user id: 45486)
Short Answer: It Doesn't
Comment by Gemini, on 12-Dec-2009 09:17 , user id: 38018)
Hi Suzi,
Great article. 
I have a couple of queries.- how do you skip/fast forward ads?- does it have tv series record- what audio/video outputs are you using?
Thanks!
Comment by Martin, on 18-Mar-2010 15:44 , user id: )
Hi Suzi,
Does anyone know if the hard disk is upgradable eg. can you just pop in a 1TB drive, format and go?
thanks
Comment by Martin, on 18-Mar-2010 15:49 , user id: )
Hi Suzi,
Does anyone know if the hard disk is upgradable eg. can you just pop in a 1TB drive, format and go?
thanks
Comment by Gary, on 3-Apr-2010 00:23 , user id: )
Well Suzie you suggested we ask you questions about the MagicTV but there's 4 unanswered questions before mine, dating back to November last year...
I want to know the same things as the other guys: how capable is it in recording or streaming across the network; can files be off-loaded to external disk; can the disk be upgraded to a larger one with a quick format?
Keen to hear from you!
cheers
Comment by pebbles, on 13-Apr-2010 16:22 , user id: 23861)
Hey, the reason I didn't reply is, as this is not my blog, I was never able to get the replies sent to me and had no idea they were here!! They can't be upgraded, and due to freeview NZ restrictions you are unable to take shows off the box.
Comment by pebbles, on 13-Apr-2010 16:24 , user id: 23861)
There is series record which is fantastic. The skip button is set to ten minutes... I am actually currently trying to see if there is an ability to shorten that. But the fast-forward can go right up to 32x which is fantastic!
Comment by Jane, on 11-May-2010 12:37 , user id: )
I have just bought one, all really good., except the machine is pretty noisy when watching TV. is yours? or do I have a dud one?
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Comment by thefatmould, on 19-Nov-2009 19:24 , user id: 45486)
just a couple of things can you test the instruction in this .PDF and see if they work? Playback of my own movies is important so if it can't I want to know before i buy it.