Zinwell ZMT-640PVR

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#181969 4-Dec-2008 11:04

Ha, yeah what's good for farmers is generally tough for the rest of us.

As has just been described, what really moves prices/stock is a good dose of competition. Now with Zinwell sleeping with whoever at freeview, we're in a situation where there's only one PVR product. I think we need alternative products, even if it is just a simple rebadge of the same thing, and we need Prime to be forced onto the freeview platform before we can junk a whole bunch of stuff and life will be simple.

We would all love the end of this crap where you need separate boxes and spearate remotes etc just to do what we could do for years with a VCR. It looks like it's coming, but we'll just have to wait a bit longer.

You can buy a Philips/sony single analogue tuner only 250Gb hard drive recorder that includes a DVD player/USB port etc 'all in one' for roughly $450 right now. The new freeview HD PVR twin tuner thing is a good bonus, as is recording in HD, but really how much extra is this worth, given it's only for the same TV content we have now.

Seriously Sony, where is your PlayTV for NZ? There's a killing to be made if you get to market soon.

old3eyes

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#182000 4-Dec-2008 12:53

Where's the HD content on Freeview worth recording?? Not enough to make me go and buy high priced DVR..

Regards,

Old3eyes

DaveB

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#182084 4-Dec-2008 17:37

sbiddle:

If you paid $599 for one you got serriously ripped off. I know Harveys did try and get $549 for them but DSE really set the market price when they launched their's a lot cheaper. From memory they were $449.

The problem here appears to be the huge margins that Next are adding - I know the margin DSE were making on their original boxes was huge and it was a huge cash cow.

I paid $399 for my DSE box on launch day and they never went above that price from memory. Also included a HDMI cable. I have to say, compared to those cheaper trademe imports, it was great shopping - Hi Def from day one and a LOT more stable and trouble free.

But would I pay the asking price for this PVR? No way - it is a blatent ripoff and makes SKY look quite angelic!

Jaxson

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#182211 5-Dec-2008 08:56

Yeah that's right the DSE box included an hdmi cable. Dick Smith have really done well with their price placement of this product and didn't try to do the hdmi cable rip off scam on top of the rip off box price as well. Good on them.

Really hoping they get a rebadged PVR because it will be placed at a price that suits us all. Either that or Sony deliver their PlayTV sometime soon!

mattstutter

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#182217 5-Dec-2008 09:06

DSE are selling the zinwell PVR for $999 - it would appear Next aren't the only people making a mark up - that's a good $150-200 less than the other stores...

Jaxson

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#182227 5-Dec-2008 10:08

Good spotting Matt, that's a good starting point compared to the others and hopefully we'll see some downwards movement on this over time. Personally I've had and have heard of others with really good service from Dick Smith lately.

Also I'm not really aware of many problems with the Zinwell HD box, other than the component output being SD because it's an approved box. (Also you couldn't output at an 'auto' resolution, so it scales every channel to 576, 720 or 1080 that you select.) Apart from these minors though has anyone actually had any bad experiences with this box? I'm hoping that this official PVR is relatively bug free, as even sky had some issues with their offering intially.

JimmyLizar

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#182228 5-Dec-2008 10:10

Bug free?!?!.............Is there such a thing?

I'm picking there will be bugs!

Is it on the DSE website......cant find it

.....c'mon sucker lick my battery........
binary solo...0000110000110000111...

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grant214

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#182237 5-Dec-2008 10:39

Here's the link to the new $999 PVR at Dick Smiths...

http://www.dse.co.nz/dse.shop/49384da5012d3f9a273fc0a87f3b0694/Product/View/G7505

rugrat

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#182246 5-Dec-2008 11:20

grant214: Here's the link to the new $999 PVR at Dick Smiths...

http://www.dse.co.nz/dse.shop/49384da5012d3f9a273fc0a87f3b0694/Product/View/G7505

From Dick Smiths web site from above link...

"Retail Stores (with stock available): Sorry, all Retail Stores are currently out of stock."

Sold out all ready :) or maybe only get them in when someone asks for one.

Jaxson

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#182247 5-Dec-2008 11:21

I'd heard they are not available anywhere until Dec 11th, so this could explain it.

JimmyLizar

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#182249 5-Dec-2008 11:31

Also says on same page

Online Store: Out of stock, due 08-Dec-2008

Maybe their stock arrives 8.12.08, in both retail and online sales depts?

EDIT:
Also noticed an anomaly in some reporting on this receiver. This article in Stuff says:

"The box would store 80 hours of high definition TV programmes"

The DSE website says:

"250GB Hard Drive – up to 60 hours of high definition recording"

20 hours of HD content is quite a bit. Any ideas?

.....c'mon sucker lick my battery........
binary solo...0000110000110000111...

mattstutter

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#182917 9-Dec-2008 09:49

Plot thickens - now DSE aren't showing an expected date of receiving stock and the picture of the unit has gone...
Shame there isn't a manual available to inform purchasers - would be nice to know what features/limitations the unit has. HD over component would be a nice addition - can't claim copyright issues, it's a freeking recorder!

sbiddle

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#182920 9-Dec-2008 09:56

mattstutter: Plot thickens - now DSE aren't showing an expected date of?receiving?stock and the picture of the unit has gone...
Shame there isn't a manual available to inform purchasers - would be nice to know what features/limitations the unit has. ? ?HD over component would be a nice addition - can't claim copyright issues, it's a freeking recorder!

HD over component will never occur with any Freeview certified boxes.

mattstutter

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#182942 9-Dec-2008 11:03

sbiddle: HD over component will never occur with any Freeview certified boxes.

And what's the reason for that again? Seems like SUCH a silly limitation, if it is about copying : can someone point me to a consumer quality recorder with component in? A lot of early LCD's only have the one HDMI input, mine included... While currently not that big a deal but I'm sure one day I'll get a BluRay player..
When I had the ET box (before I returned it for being slightly buggy and a frustrating hub of entertainment!) I used component, mainly as the HDMI output looked a bit rubbish really... The colours were all over the place.

Jaxson

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#182946 9-Dec-2008 11:21

Ha yeah that's the joke of it all Matt. The ripoff DVD's I'm sure are either filmed in cinemas overseas or are a straight rip from the commercial DVD. I don't know of any consumer device that records in SD or HD from a component input. They can get around using the hard drive to record because the official PVRs have no way of getting the info back off the hard drive.

I went to the ET box because the official Zinwell had the component output limited to SD and my TV had DVI only input, which wouldn't work with the HDMI output of the Zinwell. I've got a new TV now though but it's still nice to use the one box to feed a TV and another device TV/Projector etc both with HD signals.

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