Freeview HD PVR Comparisons?

Forums › Freeview (DVB-T/DVB-S) › Freeview HD PVR Comparisons?

Jaxson

8041 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#70714 29-Oct-2010 08:53

Hi all,

Now that they have all been out a while, what do people think of the Freeview HD PVR units?

There seem to be four, and in order of usual price they are:

The Magic TV, 500 GB

The Homecast, 500 GB

The JC Matthew, 320 GB

And the original Zinwell, 250GB.

The Zinwell and JC Matthew seem to be the same box, just the JC Mattew unit is like the 2nd revision. Same remotes and some niceties have been tidyed up on the JC unit.

The Homecast unit I don't know anything about.

The Magic has always been the pick of the bunch. Has some kinda pointless internet add ons and seems to have some ongoing minor issues going by the big thread here on GZ. Unit was taken from Hong Kong market and adapted for NZ and most owners seem very happy with it.

I'm looking for a new unit, so keen to hear peoples thoughts (and not build a HTPC or get the PS3 PlayTV thanks!). Right now I'm thinking the JC Matthew, but keen to hear other peoples experiences.

1 | 2

8041 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#397181 29-Oct-2010 09:32

Oh yeah, forgot about the Panasonic Bluray and DVD recorder options too.
The new ones are freeview approved, so finally have a full EPG on them, plus you can copy to disc.
Nice but out of my price range as the most expensive of the bunch.

DMR-BW880GZK Bluray one for say $1,500
DMR-XW380GZK DVD for say $900

bfginger

1267 posts

Uber Geek

#397186 29-Oct-2010 09:48

Keep clear of anything with less than a 500gb as that isn't as much space as it sounds.

If the Panasonic BW880 ($1399) is up to Panasonic's usual level of quality I would recommend that in preference to the MagicTV despite the price difference.

By all accounts the Homecast does not have a great remote. You could use a learning remote in its place.

Jaxson

8041 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#397204 29-Oct-2010 10:28

Yeah I was looking in the $400 to $500 range once I sell my Ultraplus 980HD sat tuner. That price gets me the Zinwell at $400, the JC Matthew at $450 and the Homecast at $499.

Remote is a non issue as I use a harmony remote. The remote seemed to feature highly on reviews so it appears it's hard to differentiate between units in a lot of cases.

The homecast apparently has a separate screen for scheduled recordings and previously saved recorded programs. That sounds good I think?! Basically looking for a reason to spend more money other than the additional hard drive space.

butlerboy

457 posts

Ultimate Geek

#397206 29-Oct-2010 10:29

i've got both the jc matthew and magic tv pvrs and prefer the jc matthew even though it doesn't have as many features or is as polished a preformer as the magic tv. it's a lot easier to use and i find the menus, playlist, recordlist etc are more basic which is important if your better half is a bit of a techno-phobe.

trig42

5809 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

#397271 29-Oct-2010 12:13

My Parents have the Homecast and they love it. I didn't even have to teach them to drive it and they are away recording series (Masterchef!) and the whole lot.

The remote is a bit yucky (has to be pointed directly at unit) but a Harmony should overcome that.

Oncop53

273 posts

Ultimate Geek

#397276 29-Oct-2010 12:20

I have the homecast and really like it. There were some issues with glitchy sound through RCA out, but the latest beta firmware has fixed that.

I think having an active forum and firmware development is a key consideration.

Jaxson

8041 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#397291 29-Oct-2010 12:47

Thanks guys. I think for me it will come down to the JC Matthew or the Homecast.

However, I do have an onkyo receiver,
http://www.throng.co.nz/myfreeviewhd/my-homecast-ht9200dtr-and-panasonic-bluray-recorder-dmrbw850-experience-review

but luckily I connect my PVR direct to my TV (so I can chose to use the TV speakers only if I want) and then take an optical lead to my receiver if I want to view 5.1 material. So the handshaking issues wont affect me in this case.

The JC Matthews seems to be a good compromise of hard drive size (320Gb) and simple usability. (Do try to make it easy for the wife!). Don't think I'd go with the Zinwell which possibly is a bit light I agree on the Hard drive size front (250Gb).

The Homecast looks a good second option too with possibly nicer separate recorded list and schedule list pages. Larger hard drive, but $50 or so more.

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

robbyp

1199 posts

Uber Geek

#397310 29-Oct-2010 13:10

You didn't mention the TIVO. It is also probably the cheapest if you are a telecom cusomter, at $360

It has a 320GB drive, and I have found it to be good, also also allows you to program it anywhere in the world via the internet.

Jaxson

8041 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#397343 29-Oct-2010 14:06

True, good point.

TIVO

It's out for me as it requires an internet connection to function and I don't have the internet at home

.

My parents would love it but they don't line in a freeview HD reception area.

Agree completely though, it's a stunning buy for what you get, (though still no EPG for Prime or Maori). Does have the option for the networking package too, as I notice the homecast has a bunch of usb ports and a network port that are all disabled, presumably to meet freeviews stunning standard.

nzscom

67 posts

Master Geek

#397347 29-Oct-2010 14:13

Jaxson! You don't have the internet at home? And you mention that in the Geekzone forums? Quick! Run while you still have a chance!! I can hear the community lighting their torches as we speak .... ;)

- Mark

Jaxson

8041 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#397358 29-Oct-2010 14:23

Yeah, shame I know. It's a money thing mainly, living in Palmerston North with limited options for an unbundled naked broadband connection. With two young children to be honest though we haven't missed it that much, most of the time....

We're all on cell phones and I threw the towel in after getting a $60 phone bill one month, of which only $5 were call charges.

Likewise SKY TV went and I have a 1.8m dish out the back of our smallish town section to get F1 and league coverages for free now. With the internet I'm sure there's a good chance of getting some coverage for free that way as well now.

Jaxson

8041 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#402911 10-Nov-2010 15:43

Quote from a Zinwell owner:

It has a number of issues:

- Sometimes scheduled series recordings 'disappear'

- If you schedule a recording for TV3, it'll also record TV3+1

- There is no live rewind, ie it's not buffering all the time like a lot of htpc's do.

- If you schedule a recording, it'll use the 'active' tuner (there are two) to do the recording, ie it changes the channel on you, which means a mad scramble for the remote to change the channel back!

- Remote isn't the best (buttons not distinct enough)?

The last 2 I don't care about, for me it will be a recording only device so I won't use the live pause side of it, and I have a harmony remote.

The first 2 though seem real annoying. Is this typical of freeview PVR's, especially the JC Matthew unit I'm looking at buying?

butlerboy

457 posts

Ultimate Geek

#402936 10-Nov-2010 16:18

Jaxson: Quote from a Zinwell owner:

It has a number of issues:

- Sometimes scheduled series recordings 'disappear'

- If you schedule a recording for TV3, it'll also record TV3+1

- There is no live rewind, ie it's not buffering all the time like a lot of htpc's do.

- If you schedule a recording, it'll use the 'active' tuner (there are two) to do the recording, ie it changes the channel on you, which means a mad scramble for the remote to change the channel back!

- Remote isn't the best (buttons not distinct enough)?

The last 2 I don't care about, for me it will be a recording only device so I won't use the live pause side of it, and I have a harmony remote.

The first 2 though seem real annoying. Is this typical of freeview PVR's, especially the JC Matthew unit I'm looking at buying?

1 - i've had that happen 2 or 3 times on me in the year i've had the jc matthews. 2 times i have no idea what happen but the other i discovered the programme went straight into season 2 which probably had a different code.
2 - i've never had it record tv3+1 as well as tv3. it does however show up on the tv3+1 epg as being set up to record. on a couple of occasions it's recorded tv3+1 instead of tv3, but i'd assume that's an epg code error.
3 - it not buffering isn't a huge thing for me. you can still pause live tv which for me is more important.
4 - the jc matthew doesn't do this, it uses the un-used tuner to record. however, if you are recording something at say 8:30 on tv1, are watching tv2 and have something set to start recording at 9 on tv3 it'll flick over to tv3 when the recording starts. you then have to find the remote and swith back to what you were watching on tv2.
5 - the remote is ok. not the best but once you get used to it it's fine.

Jaxson

8041 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#403249 11-Nov-2010 09:35

Thanks for the feedback.

Looks a bit like most problems could be down to incorrect EPG data (for series link).
This sounds more like a problem from the broadcasters/freeview end than any of the units themselves.

Thanks.

Jaxson

8041 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#405184 16-Nov-2010 08:37

Follow up. I went with the JC Matthews box.

Pretty much as you'd expect really, plugged it in and it just worked.

·         Has an internal fan so is a bit noisy, nothing too bad though.

·         Has buttons on the front so you could use it if you lost the remote.

·         It's one of those units that doesn't have an 'Auto' output resolution, you have to scale everything to just one output. I've left this on 1080i as TV1,2 & 3 are this now so no worries really upscaling the rest.

·         On screen menus are essentially not HD. They are clear and functional, it's just for a box that can display HD, why not spend just another 5 minutes making the menus some eye candy. This is especially true for the controls window that pops up when you play back a recorded program. Almost looks tacky, like so 1998 or something.

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

·         Also a freeview thing is that the ethernet port on the back apparently does nothing.

·         The physical box doesn't look too bad actually, which is nice, given it's world famous JC Matthew brand and all...

·         There's a cool hard drive capacity indicator on the front screen. This is probably a good thing.

·         By going to the manual install menu and stepping through the channels you can see the signal strength you are currently getting. This might help others to check if they experience problems.

Remote:

·         Is typical cheap plastic feel, but for me it works really well angle/response wise etc. Harmony has the unit in it's data base so I wont be using this one anyway.

·         Realistically poor button layout in that a lots of the main buttons (recoding list etc) are buried in with buttons you will rarely use (Output Video Format etc)

I've contacted JC Matthew to check for firmware updates and they responded explaining that as there is nothing wrong with the box, there have been no firmware updates to date.

There are separate screens for recorded programmes and for scheduled programmes which is good. I'd read they didn't have this so this was wrong elsewhere.

These JC Matthew units don't seem to be available so much any more so I guess they are a one off wonder.

MHEG5 EPG is actually quite fast and easy to use. Just a bit painful having to step through each channel one page at a time. That said, it's common to every official box. The screen layout is very easy to read, though that's not so much of a problem on a modern HD TV anyway.

Just got to sort Dolby surround via optical connection back to the receiver and I'll be sorted. Nice and easy to use so so far quite happy.

1 | 2