Any news on HD PVRs?

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#165338 18-Sep-2008 13:44

jonathan18:
What size is the datastream of a Freeview HD channel? (I assume TV3's is highest due to being 1080?).

The last two recordings I made were 3GB/hr for TV2 and 2.3GB/hr for C4. Haven't recorded TV3.

butlerboy

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#165340 18-Sep-2008 13:45

i agree with jaxson. buy one now and worry about the pvr capability later.
give it a year or two and there'll be bluray players with an hdd and built in freeview tuners.

jonathan18

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#165550 19-Sep-2008 08:21

butlerboy: There's the Vantage 6000HD. It 's not freeview approved though and doesn't have a 7 day epg, just a now then. I think you need to programme it like a dvr. Not ideal but as far as I know it's the only one out there.
There's a Hyundai terrestrial/sattelite combo with pvr advertised on http://www.ultrapower.co.nz/ . Not sure how far away that is.

I emailed both companies advertising this Hyundai unit, and heard back from Ultrapower: their replies to my questions are copied below. One thing I didn't ask to confirm (stupidly) was whether the unit records in HD, although I note a post above which states it doesn't - do we know that for sure?

Does it:
* have a built-in hard-drive, or require an external unit
Answer: External USB powered HDD with NTFS formating

* use the electronic programming guide from the terestrial decoder to programme the PVR function, or does it need to be programmed like a VCR?
Answer: Use the EPG from satellite to program the satellite recording and 10x timer to program the terrestrial recording

* twin tuners of the same type, in particular two terestrial tuners, to enable viewing of one and recording of another channel
Answer: twin tuner one satellite and one terrestrial, recording 2 channels at the same time is possible

* Also, would be interested in knowing the approximate RRP.
Answer: $449.00 (2 years warranty )

butlerboy

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#165554 19-Sep-2008 08:32

$449 sounds like a good price. Sounds to me as though it uses the sattelite tuner for recording which means SD quality.

butlerboy

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#165555 19-Sep-2008 08:37

* use the electronic programming guide from the terestrial decoder to programme the PVR function, or does it need to be programmed like a VCR?
Answer: Use the EPG from satellite to program the satellite recording and 10x timer to program the terrestrial recording

* twin tuners of the same type, in particular two terestrial tuners, to enable viewing of one and recording of another channel
Answer: twin tuner one satellite and one terrestrial, recording 2 channels at the same time is possible

Forget my last post, i'm still half asleep. The sattelite will be SD and you'd like to think the terrestrial would be HD.

bazzer

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#165566 19-Sep-2008 09:20

Won't it just be recording the stream? It wouldn't be scaling and transcoding on the fly would it?

jonathan18

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#165569 19-Sep-2008 09:24

bazzer: Won't it just be recording the stream? It wouldn't be scaling and transcoding on the fly would it?

But recording HD directly to an external hard drive? What are the content providers going to say about that??!! If that is the case, great, but I've asked them to confirm whether it records in HD.

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butlerboy

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#165588 19-Sep-2008 10:10

hey johnathon18. did they mention a release date for the hyundai sat/terrestrial stb?

jonathan18

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#165593 19-Sep-2008 10:37

butlerboy: hey johnathon18. did they mention a release date for the hyundai sat/terrestrial stb?

No they didn't, however I emailed them back earlier today asking:

1. does it record HD material in HD?
2. when will it be available?

Will post their reply when I receive it.

jonathan18

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#165600 19-Sep-2008 11:16

jonathan18:
butlerboy: hey johnathon18. did they mention a release date for the hyundai sat/terrestrial stb?

No they didn't, however I emailed them back earlier today asking:

1. does it record HD material in HD?
2. when will it be available?

Will post their reply when I receive it.

The answers I've received back are:

Question 1. does it record in high definition (from the terestrial HD signal)?
Answer: Yes Indeed MPEG2 and MPEG4

Question 2. when is it expected to be released?
Answer: end of next month

I'm also checking with them to be sure there's no transcoding going on. I'm just a bit surprised that it will record in HD to an external hard-drive.

butlerboy

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#165601 19-Sep-2008 11:26

The answers I've received back are:

Question 1. does it record in high definition (from the terestrial HD signal)?
Answer: Yes Indeed MPEG2 and MPEG4

Question 2. when is it expected to be released?
Answer: end of next month.

if that's that case they should sell a truck load of them at that price. it's also one of the nicer looking stbs around as well.

ventolin

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#165604 19-Sep-2008 11:45

The Vantage records in HD to external HDD with no transcoding.

jonathan18

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#165613 19-Sep-2008 12:16

ventolin: The Vantage records in HD to external HDD with no transcoding.

That's good news, however, as mentioned earlier, the Vantagae doesn't have a full EPG.

With the Hyundai - while apparently the EPG can only be used to record the satelite feed, this is better than having no EPG at all; I think I could live with using video-style recording for HD recorded images, but would still want access to the EPG, whether for recording (some programme) or just knowing what's on!

ventolin

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#165615 19-Sep-2008 12:19

The Hyundai engineers should share the EPG from satellite to terrestrial then you could use it to record HD

jonathan18

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#165617 19-Sep-2008 12:26

I'm also checking with them to be sure there's no transcoding going on. I'm just a bit surprised that it will record in HD to an external hard-drive.

... and they've confirmed it records the direct datastream, so no transcoding.

Also, apparently it does upscaling, though I guess the value of this would need to be shown.

Guess I'll just need to wait for further news on this product, including detailed specs and confirmed availability date.

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