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Aldi - Technosonic PVR £99.99 - Freeview

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  • k0sh
    k0sh Posts: 80 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture Combo Breaker
    I mus say that apart from not being able to record two channels, it is a pretty good box.

    I have a panasonic tx32dt40 (award winning TV) with built in freeview, so I am comparing it to that

    Pro's:
    Very quiete (no fan)
    Loading digital text faster than the Panny
    EPG better and more intuitive than the Panny
    Can delete a channel (like redhot) which you cannot do on the Panny
    Setting up recording takes you to the time page so you can pad out the times easily.
    Picture quality up to par.

    Con's:
    Tuner slightly less sensitive
    R/C could be better laid out
    Front display too small and the red S/B light annoying.
    Can only record 1 programme at a time.


    So all in all, I would recommend this for someone who does not yet have a freeview telly, where they can record a channel yet view another channel at the same time.

    For those of us with a freeview telly, the option to watch a second channel while another channel is being recorded is not useful at all.
  • Bought one of these technosonic pvrs this morning and I'll be taking it back tomorrow. It's locked up several times requiring a cold restart and I've only used it for 10-15mins.

    I hope the rest of you get a software upgrade soon but don't hold your breath. I've owned a philips box, complete with bugs, for several years and there has never been an update for that.

    Haymish
  • znww5
    znww5 Posts: 14 Forumite
    Hi all,

    :xmastree:

    The following web address, belonging to the trade organisation Digital Television Group, gives broadcast schedules for software updates aimed at all makes of DVR's:

    http://www.dtg.org.uk/retailer/download_schedule.pl

    Unsurprisingly, there is no update scheduled within the next week or two - and frankly I wouldn't hold my breath for updates to an El Cheapo DVR such as the Technosonic. That said, I'll be hanging on to mine for a while as it does all I need.

    The site also gives information regarding which channels are on which multiplex, which channels are available in different areas and the main transmitter locations for aerial alignment purposes. Note however that only the main transmitter sites are listed, details of the smaller 'transposers' are not available.

    Thanks for the hard drive info - don't suppose there were any tell-tale indications on the circuit board as to who makes this DVR?

    Oops - I see I've been beaten to it with the URL, must learn to type faster :)
  • cheekymole
    cheekymole Posts: 3,417 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 1,000 Posts Combo Breaker
    you can record one program and timeshift another p22 of the manual
    I haven't got one!
  • So if the HD is easy to replace, I'd assume that it'd be pretty easy to hook up to a computer via IDE ?

    If so then you could move any recorded files to your comp for burning I'd assume.

    That in itself would warrant me keeping it....can't wait to get my hands on it...this is my first jump from VHS.

    So do we reckon there'll be an upgrade tonight at 3am?

    While it is a standard IDE drive (WD80) it isn't using any type of windows recognisable FAT as I hooked mine up and the drive showed up as being un-partitioned, but i'd guess you should be able to fit a larger drive though (haven't tried yet)
  • The chances are they are using a LINUX based operating system......like TIVO.
  • dfarry
    dfarry Posts: 940 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 500 Posts Name Dropper Combo Breaker
    shovon wrote:
    This is annoying :mad:

    I have checked the original advert posted at the beginning of this thread and it seems to be the case that the advert now showing on the Aldi site has been changed.

    Originally, the PVR was advertised as being able to record two separate channels while watching one of them. This has now changed to being able to 'record one channel while watching another'!

    If this is indeed the case, then this PVR is no longer the bargain it originally appeared to be. I will be checking mine when i get home tonight and if it doesn't record two at the same time then its going back.

    £99.99 for a single tuner 'Technosonic' PVR is not value!

    OK I don't have one of these..but I was under the impression that it would record separate channels that use the same MUX....

    In otherwords, BBC1 may share the same stream with say BBC News 24... if the whole stream is recorded then you can in effect select either BBC1 or News 24 to playback after recording.

    This would be supported by the fact there are two tuners... one to view, one to record.
  • I keep getting the "no signal" problem and have found that it seems to fix itself after a few minutes if I simply leave it alone. Also, it may be that the problem only occurs soon after switching the machine on from standby? Now it's been on for more than half an hour, I can't reproduce it. Has anyone else had the same experience?

    Just managed to get through to Technosonic's helpline. The person at the other end seemed not to know that other people have the same trouble. He said it sounded like "the microprocessor is crashing" and that I'll need to get a replacement.

    I'll try getting a replacement and see how it goes, but I don't really hold out much hope.
  • Correction to last post. The "no signal" problem started again an hour after switching on. It might be that it doesn't happen while recording though.
  • The chances are they are using a LINUX based operating system......like TIVO.

    Checked it with some hard disk partitioning software, which will usually show up linux partitions.

    Many more problems have occurred since I've been playing with it.
    -A group of about 6 channels on the list didn't respond, they just showed what ever channel was selected before I tried to switch to them. A full reset/rescan was needed to fix it.
    -EPG won't update, just shows no entry for allot of channel with large gaps on ones that show, usually followed by no signal when leaving EPG. Power off to fix.
    -Selected a program in the EPG to record that had already started, It thought it was recording it but the hard disk didn’t start and when I tried to stop it, it just kept asking me to confirm I wanted to stop over and over again. After this it wouldn't record anymore even once power off and on again. Full reset rescan needed to fix.
    -Deleted programs keep returning occasionally!?
    -Channel names and numbers become offset by one in the timeline view.

    And I thought Microsoft operating systems were buggy!
    I hope they release a firmware update or they will get 90% of these back!
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