Freeview HD PVR Comparisons?

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butlerboy

457 posts

Ultimate Geek

#405195 16-Nov-2010 09:23

Jaxson: · There is no just forward a whole section at a time that I can see. Believe this is a freeview thing.

.

as it records it splits the programme into 9 sections. by pressing the number buttons you can skip back and forward.

xarqi

727 posts

Ultimate Geek

#405245 16-Nov-2010 11:40

What about a USB DVB-T tuner for your Vu+ Duo?
This is supported by some images now, I believe, and in the pipe-line with others.

Jaxson

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#405251 16-Nov-2010 12:03

Yeah sounds good. I remember the Vu+ Duo was odd in that the tuners were actually integrated into the motherboard itself. A USB DVB-T tuner would be the go then as you say. Keep us posted!

The full Freeview EPG is available via satellite EIT data so you could still get access to a working DVB-T EPG this way if your device supports sat and uhf tranmissions. This is normally the problem for non approved freeview HD devices, unless you go internet based EPG data like the TIVO and PlayTV, or the hacked MHEG-5 approach via Win media centre on Windows 7....

xarqi

727 posts

Ultimate Geek

#405474 16-Nov-2010 18:14

Jaxson: Yeah sounds good. I remember the Vu+ Duo was odd in that the tuners were actually integrated into the motherboard itself. A USB DVB-T tuner would be the go then as you say. Keep us posted!

Relevant thread on the UK Vu+ support forum:
http://www.vuplus-support.co.uk/showthread.php?3107-sundtek-dvb-t-c-usb-fully-working-on-vix-image!!

Jaxson

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#406223 18-Nov-2010 11:02

Right so have had the JC Matthew box running for a few days now. Last night I was scheduled to record Supernanny followed by The Block on Prime I think it is. Both programs selected for series link via the EPG.

At midnight it's still going so I go to the recorded programs list and find it recording something, in what i displays as an audio file. It says I can't start watching because the audio file is still recording. So I stop the recording and play the audio file. This resets the box and it restarts. I tried again with the same result. In the end I deleted the file and have missed these two programs.

I have 100% signal strength on all 3 muxes.
Not a good start.

freitasm

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Geekzone

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#406224 18-Nov-2010 11:05

Hot linking images is not cool. - and their server is blocking it anyway. Have you noticed all the pictures in the OP were blocked by the original server (or you didn't read after posting)? I have removed those now.

Also 1GB is eight times more than 1Gb... Get your units right folks!

Jaxson

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#406232 18-Nov-2010 11:44

freitasm: Hot linking images is not cool. - and their server is blocking it anyway. Have you noticed all the pictures in the OP were blocked by the original server (or you didn't read after posting)?

Noted. They worked after initial posting, so yes I did read it. Did see some didn't work later on but wasn't sure why. Thanks for explaining this.

freitasm: Also 1GB is eight times more than 1Gb... Get your units right folks!

Noted. Thanks.

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bazzer

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#406261 18-Nov-2010 14:25

Jaxson: Right so have had the JC Matthew box running for a few days now. Last night I was scheduled to record Supernanny followed by The Block on Prime I think it is. Both programs selected for series link via the EPG.

At midnight it's still going so I go to the recorded programs list and find it recording something, in what i displays as an audio file. It says I can't start watching because the audio file is still recording. So I stop the recording and play the audio file. This resets the box and it restarts. I tried again with the same result. In the end I deleted the file and have missed these two programs.

I have 100% signal strength on all 3 muxes.
Not a good start.

I think I had a similar problem the first time I used mine, had the same thoughts as you. It's rpetty much been rock solid since, so I wouldn't worry. The biggest issue I have now is that Letterman often records for 6 hours but the only real issue with that is hard drive space and skipping chapters (i.e. the chapters are 36 minutes long which makes it harder to skip to teh bits I want to see.

Jaxson

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#406339 18-Nov-2010 16:33

Sweet. I've reformatted the hard drive now as I'm just starting out and have no recordings to lose.

F weird though, not the start I wanted given the Supernanny bit was for the wife and all. You get the idea.

Jaxson

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#407547 22-Nov-2010 09:56

JC Matthew update.
Since formatting hard drive and using it normally from there I have so far had no further issues.

JC Matthew have no updates as the box has no problems apparently.

I've found a few issues, but nothing too major, when using optical out to a receiver.

Once when fast forwarding the ads of a recording (that was still recording) there was no audio when I dropped out of fast forward. By rewinding a bit and pressing play the audio started up again. Only happened once out of say 8 ad breaks that were fast forwarded under these conditions that night.

Also, when watching a TV3 recording back, the audio defaults to AAC and not true 5.1 Dolby. Selecting the audio track manually allows you to change to the correct audio track. This happens even if you have selected Dolby as the default audio track under the menu options. The menu options seem to apply to live TV rather than a recording.

bazzer

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#407696 22-Nov-2010 14:33

Jaxson: JC Matthew update.
Since formatting hard drive and using it normally from there I have so far had no further issues.

JC Matthew have no updates as the box has no problems apparently.

I've found a few issues, but nothing too major, when using optical out to a receiver.

Once when fast forwarding the ads of a recording (that was still recording) there was no audio when I dropped out of fast forward. By rewinding a bit and pressing play the audio started up again. Only happened once out of say 8 ad breaks that were fast forwarded under these conditions that night.

Also, when watching a TV3 recording back, the audio defaults to AAC and not true 5.1 Dolby. Selecting the audio track manually allows you to change to the correct audio track. This happens even if you have selected Dolby as the default audio track under the menu options. The menu options seem to apply to live TV rather than a recording.

Mine is connected by coax and I don't have this problem. TV3 always plays back in DD.

Jaxson

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#407710 22-Nov-2010 14:44

bazzer: Mine is connected by coax and I don't have this problem. TV3 always plays back in DD.

Thanks for the feedback bazzer. May have been because it was still recording, perhaps?
Can live with it, but will continue to test as is early days for me.

Raises an interesting point though. These units are very similar to the Zinwell ones. The Zinwells have had a firmware update, but this was over the air a year ago apparently. So point being, anyone who has purchased on that was on the shelf at the time of the over the air update is a little bit stuck. You have to return the whole unit to Next Electronics to have them manually apply the update, which is all rather unfortunate. As I said earlier though, there has not been an update for the JC Matthew unit.

Jaxson

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#411956 2-Dec-2010 09:43

Bit of an update after a few weeks or so of using it. Basically love it. have booked up a whole heap of shows on series link and just don't worry about watching live stuff anymore. Interesting as clearly I only really watch Prime and TV3 by the looks of it.

Problems, well none really after that initial hiccup with the sound file thing. I formatted the hard drive right away after that and have had no issues since then. Would recommend this to anyone who purchases one.

Have twice now had a situation where my harmony would not turn the unit on (when it was recording something I think it was). Pressing the on button on the front would turn it on so something was odd there. Normally it responds to on and off commands fine with the harmony remote.

Great to have an HD recorder now so you pick up the full HD and 5.1 sound that is missing on the freeview sat service. Plus you get a twin tuner unit with a hard drive for the price of a single tuner sat PVR where you have to supply your own external hard drive.

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