New Freeview Dish TV recorder - 1TB, Chromecast support, 4K HD

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54 posts

Master Geek

#2303285 21-Aug-2019 19:14

I think I'm still a little frustrated with mine:

The audio stutter is the most annoying. Either listening to commentary or music its very noticeable.
I've had my TV randomly turn on at ~5am (I assume the box restarted for an Android update?, then woke the TV and Amp)
Freezing video - the image freezes for ~15 seconds every so often, but the audio functions normally.
When watching delayed/timeshift (for say 30mins+) it eventually just randomly jumps to a different time, or even reverts to live.

I don't think its a faulty unit and is software related. I'm not sure if its refundable within a year, but I must admit I haven't enjoyed it coming from a TiVo device. I don't use the OnDemand options much as I have another device for that, but would consider if I had IR added.

Matt

paul151

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#2303303 21-Aug-2019 20:03

zebis:

I think I'm still a little frustrated with mine:

The audio stutter is the most annoying. Either listening to commentary or music its very noticeable.
I've had my TV randomly turn on at ~5am (I assume the box restarted for an Android update?, then woke the TV and Amp)
Freezing video - the image freezes for ~15 seconds every so often, but the audio functions normally.
When watching delayed/timeshift (for say 30mins+) it eventually just randomly jumps to a different time, or even reverts to live.
I don't think its a faulty unit and is software related. I'm not sure if its refundable within a year, but I must admit I haven't enjoyed it coming from a TiVo device. I don't use the OnDemand options much as I have another device for that, but would consider if I had IR added.

Matt

It's been several (3+) updates since I bought our unit. It has the feel of 90% done and 10% ongoing niggle about it.

The biggest frustration for us has been the constant glitching in the audio. Watching live news each night, it's always there :(

They did seem to fix some issues with the fast forward, rewind functionality which for the most part now works as it should.

We also have the freezing video issue, especially when watching OnDemand and the same issues with video jumping to a different time or live.

I'd say welcome to my world but it seems we're both already there.

freitasm

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#2303312 21-Aug-2019 20:16

Interesting, I am not seeing these problems.

Also, for point #2, that's an unintended consequence of HDMI CEC, isn't it?

SouthernKiwi

19 posts

Geek

#2306407 26-Aug-2019 19:18

So, I’ve had the box for a wee while now and overall I’d give it a 6 out of 10.

Generally it’s a good unit and does what it says, however there are reasonably frequent glitches which make it problematic for the non tech savvy.

The latest glitch is occasional drop out of audio requiring a restart.
2 - Also occasional picture formatting errors when using the DS app to stream movies off my NAS (the same app works fine if I use it via my blue ray player)
3- Occasionally doesn’t load an image or name for on demand programmes (so you can’t tell what they are until you click in.
4 - Losing your Freeview login details requiring signing in again (which is an absolute pain withe the remote!)

On the upside recent glitches solved
Double recordings of programmes when using the series record function (recorded the plus one channel as well)
Fast forwarding

Cheers
Skiwi

dklong

167 posts

Master Geek

#2306589 27-Aug-2019 09:08

So ... having read 26 pages of comments about this unit going back to December last year... it seems that (as at Aug 2019) the A2 is still a bit 'glitch'y for non-technical users looking for a replacement to their MySky Recorder to mainly record OTA TV. Is that a fair statement of the current state??

A non-technical friend has asked for a recommendation and I am gob-smacked at how few solid options there seem to be??

If so, then for a satellite-only Freeview region (Wanaka) it seems as though the Panasonic DMR-HST270 is about the only other option , despite its clunky and rather old-fashioned interface. And as a side benefit, it does at least have Netflix support...but probably little else! :-)

Is this a fair summary of the current state or would people with this unit now recommend the A2 to their in-laws/parents?

Cheers

freitasm

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#2306593 27-Aug-2019 09:14

I don't know if the "glitches" others have mentioned would make this box rate that low.

Also having Lightbox, Spark Sport, On Demand apps, the ability to sideload other apps if needed makes it a stronger contender when compared to a TV (unless it's a recent smart TV, which will cost a lot more too).

dklong

167 posts

Master Geek

#2306599 27-Aug-2019 09:29

@freitasm Do you use this much to record OTA TV? I got the impression from your earlier comments that you didn't really do that much and that you used other devices for streaming etc (Amazon Fire Stick I seem to remember?) so I assumed you really just used it as a Freeview On-Demand device? . Perhaps I mis-understood.

Also... I thought the Smartvu had Netflix but this didn't. Has that changed in subsequent revisions? Certainly having Spark Sport is a nice option if their slightly older smart TV is not supported.

I am very conscious that a lot of the complaints were in the first few months and people tend to post less once things are working OK so that is why I'm interested in whether people are now happy with it or have just got used to the glitches? :-)

Cheers

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dmshimself

43 posts

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#2306612 27-Aug-2019 09:52

dklong:

So ... having read 26 pages of comments about this unit going back to December last year... it seems that (as at Aug 2019) the A2 is still a bit 'glitch'y for non-technical users looking for a replacement to their MySky Recorder to mainly record OTA TV. Is that a fair statement of the current state??

A non-technical friend has asked for a recommendation and I am gob-smacked at how few solid options there seem to be??

If so, then for a satellite-only Freeview region (Wanaka) it seems as though the Panasonic DMR-HST270 is about the only other option , despite its clunky and rather old-fashioned interface. And as a side benefit, it does at least have Netflix support...but probably little else! :-)

Is this a fair summary of the current state or would people with this unit now recommend the A2 to their in-laws/parents?

Cheers

I went through the same process a month or so back having moved to an are which was satellite only. I had one other option initially as I'm long time user of mythtv. I tried very hard to get mythtv working with a vbox but pretty much failed with the program guide, tvheadend was better, but the vbox just didn't stand up to full time use. In the end, NM had a good deal on for the A2 and the 4 recordings as a time swung it for me. It works fine wiith the basics, although the audio sync always seems to be slightly out, no matter how much I fiddle with it. As it runs kodi, that allowed me to sensible play existing media as the A2 doesn't seem to be able to do that out of the box. Searching for programs was a bit hit and miss until I started using 3 chars initially and thn the hits were accurate. An extra remote I bought worked fine too.

The on-demand seems reliable to me and we are only on 10Mbit ADSL here.

Overall it could be a lot better, but I would say was fine for the average non-techy user as long as you buy it from somewhere where you can take it back easily.

grantsimpson

15 posts

Geek

#2306613 27-Aug-2019 09:53

Apart from the lack of Netflix support, I am happy with the unit over all. There are very few glitches while watching on air and they are so short that are hardly noticed.

Satellite is the only option here in Blenheim as there is no terrestrial coverage here so don't know how the terrestrial would behave. Must be one of the largest populations without terrestrial coverage. Amazon Prime through 2 Degrees does work but I haven't been able to get it to show up in the APPS menu so that is a problem for ease of use.

Off air recording works well with the only problem here is that the EPG on Prime disappears occasionally so the off air scheduled recording doesn't happen. All other channels don't have this problem.

Other streaming apps such as Mobdro etc work well and no problem installing those.

I don't like the remote though, having to scroll through the channels to select the one you want rather than just using a keypad to punch in the channel number still annoys. At least there's not too many channels to select from.

Overall, happy here.

Grant.

freitasm

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#2306621 27-Aug-2019 10:03

@dklong:

freitasm Do you use this much to record OTA TV? I got the impression from your earlier comments that you didn't really do that much and that you used other devices for streaming etc (Amazon Fire Stick I seem to remember?) so I assumed you really just used it as a Freeview On-Demand device? . Perhaps I mis-understood.

Also... I thought the Smartvu had Netflix but this didn't. Has that changed in subsequent revisions? Certainly having Spark Sport is a nice option if their slightly older smart TV is not supported.

Ooops, sorry - edited my post and removed Netflix from the list. Yes we use the Amazon Fire TV a lot more but wife does use the box a bit to watch a couple of on demand programs and there is a series she records.

Haven't had problems with the recording and it was interesting to see the box offering at one time (on another program) "This program has already started. Do you want to record from this point or want to schedule to record from the +1 channel?" so it's actually pretty well thought out.

dklong

167 posts

Master Geek

#2306655 27-Aug-2019 11:05

Thanks for the feedback folks. It sounds as though things have improved a bit since the early days (as you would hope! ).

On paper it certainly ticks a lot of boxes and there are some nice features including the four satellite tuners (as @dmshimself commented) and I certainly wasn't aware of the smarts to suggest recording on +1 when the program had already started @freitasm. Pity about the lack of Netflix but the Sky Sport support could be handy coming up. I'll have a chat to my friend and see which is more important.

Thanks again!

freitasm

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#2306662 27-Aug-2019 11:16

dklong: Pity about the lack of Netflix but the Sky Sport support could be handy coming up. I'll have a chat to my friend and see which is more important.

Worst case, for Netflix you can always use the box as a Chromecast target device and start the program from your smartphone or tablet.

AdamB

4 posts

Wannabe Geek

#2306719 27-Aug-2019 13:10

freitasm:

dklong: Pity about the lack of Netflix but the Sky Sport support could be handy coming up. I'll have a chat to my friend and see which is more important.

Worst case, for Netflix you can always use the box as a Chromecast target device and start the program from your smartphone or tablet.

If the Chromecast feature worked then that would be great. However it doesn't for me.

I now only use this box for watching Spark Sport, which works brilliantly well.

I use the Panasonic or a chromecast for everything else.

freitasm

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#2306726 27-Aug-2019 13:22

I used the Chromecast feature a few times to watch ThreeNow (which for some reasons showed some programs on the smartphone app but not on the OnDemand interface on the recorder).

dm2000

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#2306739 27-Aug-2019 14:05

I don't believe that the built-in Chromecast supports Netflix.

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