Freeview HD PVR - The Facts as I understand them

The set is not even 2 month in the market and it is not my feedback and advise only but many other customers who bought this set , Please read here some comments about ZMT 640PVR not written by me http://forum.dtvforum.co.nz/showthread.php?p=3769

Here's a list of annoyances I've discovered with the ZMT 640 PVR (and which Next is aware of as I have emailed them the list and they are forwarding to Zinwell):

Regularly when the machine is put into standby, it will continue to run the hard disk and fan as noted by others. You have to power up and down a couple of times before it properly goes into standby.

Exceedingly slow response to the keys on the remote - a lag of up to 2 secs behind. Harmony 1 remote with Zinwell codes is far quicker.

Poorly written manual - nothing in the manual mentions OTA firmware updates - it shows the use of the USB port! No mention of the segment keys on playback for jumping to "chapters"

Display lights on the front panel (such as timer recording light) randomly do or don't display.

The unit will not always come out of standby when it has timer recordings set by using the remote - you have to use the standby button on the machine. If the machine has been off for the day, then the remote won't power it up. Pushing the standby button powers it on and it goes through the "boot" process. After that, if the duration between power on/off is not too long, the remote will power it on quickly - weird.

Random loss of set recordings in the rec list - including loss of series recording. This seems to happen if you power it off/on in a particular way but I haven't worked it out yet! Bizarre that it should lose all the settings though - and a bloody annoyance especially if you have gone through the EPG for the whole week!

Regular loss of sound when playing back recordings. You have to turn off the machine a couple of times until it will bring back sound. The annoying thing is that the loss of sound is random - if you exit the playlist, the sound of "live" broadcasts will be there and also for some of the recorded programmes - just not all. See below for more details.

Loss of audio
Zinwell connected by HDMI through Denon 3808 receiver to Sony 1080P LCD.
SPDIF coaxial connection to Denon.
Denon set to pass HDMI video to TV and ignore HDMI audio. Set to pass Dolby Digital through coaxial cable connection.

Turn on all equipment and watch live TV broadcast - all channels play video and audio correctly. Denon decodes TV3 Dolby digital and displays all channels being received. For other channels, AC3 is decoded and converted to Dolby PLII, then output over the 5.1 channels.

Record programmes (all channels). Now the fun starts.

Watch recorded programmes - sound will play as normal (as above) with TV3 correctly playing Dolby digital. Stop watching programmes and turn off for the viewing session. Turn everything back on later in the day and guess what? No sound being played back EXCEPT for TV3 recordings in Dolby digital. Turn off Zinwell and turn back on. Play any programme NOT recorded on TV3 = no sound. Select a programme recorded on TV3 = sound and now, the programmes that previously had no sound, do have sound! (randomly works)

Set the Denon to ignore the coaxial cable and play HDMI audio. Result - all programmes play audio as 2 channel. However, this defeats the purpose of the Zinwell outputting Dolby Digital for the receiver to decode when we are watching programmes encoded with it.

Therefore, it appears that at some point the Zinwell loses the ability to play non Dolby recordings - probably a codec failure?

Setting the audio options during playback or before playback makes no difference either. It is only playback of recorded TV - watching live TV through the Zinwell properly decodes the audio without a problem.

(also randomly occurs with HDMI audio as well - go figure!)

Brunzy

UltraPower

sbiddle

Deev8

Misha

freitasm