New Freeview HD hardware: eXtra Terrestrial Freeview HD tuner

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#156131 12-Aug-2008 02:06

Garglo: With everyone wanting a good PVR function on a HD receiver no one is really looking at what is required for the USB 2.0 to deliver High def to a HDD. When I asked a sales rep about the Strong HD receiver, he was sure it didnt work and was needing a firmware update. Another said it only recorded SD Standard definition. Anyone know the true story. I have a top of the line Satellite receiver with a USB ext PVR function and at times there is breakup of audio and picture. The drive is a top of the line ext USB Sata Seagate. Records SD. Maybe need a firewire connection or even an Esata connection for HD.

According to the importer of the Vantage unit, he claims it can record TWO channels in HD simultaneously to an external USB hard disk (assuming both channels are on the same MUX). Not sure if it's the raw transport stream or whether it's a compressed format. He claims it's made in Korea by top engineers poached out of Samsung. There is little info out there so far as he says it's been developed specifically for them. What it pity it doesn't have a proper EPG. Looks like we can't have our cake and eat it just yet.

Tivo upgrades to operate with the new OzTivo EPG, support and service. Over 400 performed here so far. See: www.hillcrest.net.nz

kiwitrc

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#156135 12-Aug-2008 05:26

Garglo: With everyone wanting a good PVR function on a HD receiver no one is really looking at what is required for the USB 2.0 to deliver High def to a HDD. When I asked a sales rep about the Strong HD receiver, he was sure it didnt work and was needing a firmware update. Another said it only recorded SD Standard definition. Anyone know the true story. I have a top of the line Satellite receiver with a USB ext PVR function and at times there is breakup of audio and picture. The drive is a top of the line ext USB Sata Seagate. Records SD. Maybe need a firewire connection or even an Esata connection for HD.

You cant get HD from a satellite receiver, only terrestrial ie UHF antenna. You also need to look at freeview's website to make sure you are in the terrestrial coverage area.

Jaxson

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#156157 12-Aug-2008 08:18

The eXtra Terrestrial units are available now. My order of 5 arrived this morning but I'm away for work for the whole week. I'm sending two to other geekzone members so I'll be keen to see what the think of it. This box has been so popular at this price bracket that I'm going to repeat the bulk order again to supply the friends of mates who now want one as well!

I got the DSE zinwell in the meantime due to the ongoing delays with E T supply so I'll be directly able to compare the two. Sounds great that the EPG is exactly the same as the official ones as this is really good. The zinwell does run very hot, thought it was burning first time it was turned on with the smell. I have an older flat panel plasma with DVI only in. Manual says HDCP capable but zinwell didn't want to work over digital and component is limited. This new box is therefore very welcome from me specifically!

bazzer

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#156180 12-Aug-2008 09:02

Garglo: With everyone wanting a good PVR function on a HD receiver no one is really looking at what is required for the USB 2.0 to deliver High def to a HDD. When I asked a sales rep about the Strong HD receiver, he was sure it didnt work and was needing a firmware update. Another said it only recorded SD Standard definition. Anyone know the true story. I have a top of the line Satellite receiver with a USB ext PVR function and at times there is breakup of audio and picture. The drive is a top of the line ext USB Sata Seagate. Records SD. Maybe need a firewire connection or even an Esata connection for HD.

USB 2.0 has raw data rate of 480Mbps, which might translate to, say, 320Mbps sustained HDD transfer. Considering the HD channels are running something under 15Mbps, I wouldn't think USB 2.0 would be the bottleneck.

ventolin

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#156182 12-Aug-2008 09:10

The Vantage records in full 1080i to USB HDD, in terms of the EPG the current MHEG-5 EPG doesn't allow you to just scroll around the channels and choose what to record so that issn't much of a benefit for a PVR type receiver.

kiwitrc

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#156308 12-Aug-2008 16:05

Received our ET units today. Every thing works fine. EPG is going, only thnig missing is the HDMI cables which I am assuming is the fault of the China supplier.

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#156316 12-Aug-2008 16:20

regarding this "usb firmware updatable" business, were you given instructions on where/how you'd know/download new firmware? coz i'm holding out till he can guarantee PVR functionality that would be awesome - saves me buying a ps3 which will waste me a lot of TIME!!! (i know i'll just get addicted and life flies out the door...)

kiwitrc

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#156318 12-Aug-2008 16:22

The manual tells you how to do it, but there is no mention of recording to a USB drive yet. Not a biggy for me so havent chased it.

Cadriel

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#156327 12-Aug-2008 16:36

Yesterday I installed a UHF antenna, and purchased one of the new extra terrestrial units. Loving Freeview HD. Beautiful picture, great sound.

However - I wonder how useful the recording features are when the remote doesn't have pause, stop, play or any other useful buttons. I realise that this may come as part of an interface upgrade with firmware, but wouldn't it be more useful to have a remote with these buttons?

Also - i've found the interface on the extra terrestrial to be a little, un-polished. :) Both from a visual perspective, and also from a lack of useful information. For example, on the info screen - instead of giving me the broadcast resolution - it gives me the output resolution (which never changes). It also gives no indication on if i'm hearing AAC or AC3 sound.

Hopefully some of the above will be fixed in an upcoming firmware update.

Other than that, i'm super happy with the results so far.

Cheers.

CASE: Zalman HD160; MOTHERBOARD: Gigabyte GA-EP45-DS3; VIDEO: Geforce Asus GT240 HDMI;
SOUND: HDMI Passthrough; CPU: Intel E8200; RAM: Corsair XMS2 2GB;
HDD: 160MB 2.5" Hitachi; TUNER: Hauppage HDR 2200; DISPLAY: Sony 46" 1080p X Series;
SOFTWARE: Windows 7, XBMC;

--
In a mad world, only the mad are sane.

kiwitrc

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#156328 12-Aug-2008 16:38

Cadriel, now you need a Popcornhour to play it back :-)

Spong

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#156453 12-Aug-2008 23:04

My ET sample ET box arrived this morning, but have only just had a chance to check it out. Seems a very nice unit with great picture over HDMI. Currently AC3 audio is available on TV1 and TV3 which is passed through coax spdif but sadly this unit doesn't seem to forward MPEG audio from the other TV channels over spdif when digital audio is set to AC3 so a seperate analog audio cable is required to feed AV Receiver. This seems to be at odds with the manual top of page 14. Has anyone else found this? Looks like a bug to me.

Tivo upgrades to operate with the new OzTivo EPG, support and service. Over 400 performed here so far. See: www.hillcrest.net.nz

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Bigted

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#156454 12-Aug-2008 23:12

Picked one of these up on Monday.

A couple of Points / questions as I may have just got a bad unit.
Firmware 1.03

Anyone tried using the digital out on their unit?
On mine the sound cuts in and out quite often when using the optical or coax digital connectors. (Connected to Sony Receiver which has never had any issues with any other digital audio connections)
Using the top stereo analog connectors is fine. (The bottom analog connectors don't cut out either but they seem to have a slightly distorted output). (There are no visual issues co-inciding with the loss of audio)

When the audio output is set to AC-3 in the TV setup section, if you choose a channel that only has pcm audio, no audio comes out of the digital outputs, you do get full DD5.1 on channels with AC-3 soundtracks though.
When you set the audio output to PCM in the TV setup section, if you choose a channel that has a AC-3 audio stream (and choose the AC-3 stream), you only get PCM output, no full DD5.1.

I get a large amount of MPEG video corruption quite often (every 2-5 minutes) which is really annoying. Signal strength on most
channels is at 100%, Quality is around 50%.
I have used a Draco unit with the same antenna with no video problems at all.

I have trouble getting some of the settings to "stick".
As an example, i'll change the screen ratio from 4:3 to 16:9, exit the menu, it says it is saying the settings, but no change is made. I go back into the menu and the setting has not been saved at all. I found it will work if you use the aspect button instead.

There are a few cosmetic issues I have with the preview windows while looking at the EPG. The video does not fit the "window"
in the top right hand corner correctly, so it is difficult to see channel logos etc. This is with the unit set to use 1080i resolution.

Not releated to this box: For some reason my TV (Acer AT3705-MGW) does not like audio over HDMI. The picture is fine but the audio will only work for a few minutes after I turn the TV back on after turning it off at the mains. Strange the picture is fine but audio not?

Cheers,

Steve

Spong

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#156456 12-Aug-2008 23:35

Bigted: Picked one of these up on Monday.

A couple of Points / questions as I may have just got a bad unit.
Firmware 1.03

Anyone tried using the digital out on their unit?
On mine the sound cuts in and out quite often when using the optical or coax digital connectors. (Connected to Sony Receiver which has never had any issues with any other digital audio connections)
Using the top stereo analog connectors is fine. (The bottom analog connectors don't cut out either but they seem to have a slightly distorted output). (There are no visual issues co-inciding with the loss of audio)

When the audio output is set to AC-3 in the TV setup section, if you choose a channel that only has pcm audio, no audio comes out of the digital outputs, you do get full DD5.1 on channels with AC-3 soundtracks though.
When you set the audio output to PCM in the TV setup section, if you choose a channel that has a AC-3 audio stream (and choose the AC-3 stream), you only get PCM output, no full DD5.1.

I get a large amount of MPEG video corruption quite often (every 2-5 minutes) which is really annoying. Signal strength on most
channels is at 100%, Quality is around 50%.
I have used a Draco unit with the same antenna with no video problems at all.

I have trouble getting some of the settings to "stick".
As an example, i'll change the screen ratio from 4:3 to 16:9, exit the menu, it says it is saying the settings, but no change is made. I go back into the menu and the setting has not been saved at all. I found it will work if you use the aspect button instead.

There are a few cosmetic issues I have with the preview windows while looking at the EPG. The video does not fit the "window"
in the top right hand corner correctly, so it is difficult to see channel logos etc. This is with the unit set to use 1080i resolution.

Not releated to this box: For some reason my TV (Acer AT3705-MGW) does not like audio over HDMI. The picture is fine but the audio will only work for a few minutes after I turn the TV back on after turning it off at the mains. Strange the picture is fine but audio not?

Cheers,

Steve

See my posting just above yours. Yes I have the same firmware and same issue with AC3 audio only out through spdif as you, but no randoms drop outs etc. No problems with video corruption - clean as a whistle. Also saw the same "default back to 4:3" problem at the TV setting menu, but once you manually change at the RES or ASPECT menu (these two buttons seem to have the same function!) it remembers 16:9 at the system menu. Haven't had a chance to test it very thoroughly yet, but apart from these minor issues, I feel this box is well worth the price. Hope to check one with component out tomorrow. BTW, AUTO resolution, by default should output 720P on TV1/2 and 1080i on TV3 I'd expect. On mine, it defaults to 720P. Hmmm.

Tivo upgrades to operate with the new OzTivo EPG, support and service. Over 400 performed here so far. See: www.hillcrest.net.nz

pete9321

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#156702 13-Aug-2008 21:01

we have a extra Terrestrial...fantastic unit, so easy to setup...wild..Use remote to set Aspect ratio....
You cannot fry eggs on this unit...unlike the zinwell....
audio problem...we have a later model obviously...asked supplier...They have a usb stick for anyone with problem, easy to fix...minor issue...
Most importantly, this DTT receiver is very sensitive....friend has a unit from satmax...rubbish unit...cosship or something...locks up and won;t pickup , unless you have a high gain antenna...crap unit....I also heard a rumor....supplier of extra terrestrial dropped cosship due its poor software issues and now runs with ET...also dropping all cosship satellite freeview boxes too...bad support and software again...typical chinese...eh!! some can do it, some can't.
A friend of ours works for TVNZ enineer, and he has 3 ET boxes and recons they are the best value for money...looks like they will take the market.....

JaBZ

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#156751 13-Aug-2008 23:11

I'll only get an ET once the firmware enables recording via EPG or any other box that does.. Till then I'll stick to the HTPC no matter how frustrating it can get. Guess I been spoiled using Tivos for 5+ years..

My opinions and ideas expressed in posts are solely my own and do not reflect the views of my employer in any way..

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