Aldi - Technosonic PVR £99.99 - Freeview

gromituk

Eager_Beaver wrote:

And the moral to this story is ......

Buy Sky+ (....especially Sky+ 160)

Eh? Why on earth would you want to pay through the nose, continuously, for that?

You are jumping rather wildly to conclusions on the strength of one dodgy batch of PVRs.

tecstar

Just spoke to support again.
They are aware of this forum, although they havent looked at it yet.
He told me that they are not being flooded with calls about faulty units, which is surprising considering the general consensus on this forum. They are getting calls about setup, usage etc from people who do not seem to have any problems.

They are waiting for new units to be delivered which have been tested and upgraded. They will then contact me and arrange a swap-out. He reckoned it would be early January.
If there are many people without a problem then it would suggest a hardware issue rather than a software issue.
The support staff seem very friendly and genuine, so I am optimistic that things will turn out for the better.

Jaa_4

Purchased my set 1 of 15 in store units from our local Leeds store.
All seemed Ok for the first 30mins’ then the no signal and other faults showed.
I returned the unit the following day after reading this thread.

Has anyone seen or heard any sort of apology from Aldi?

tecstar

The Tech Support line also told me that there would be no problem getting a refund after 28 days.

Eager_Beaver_2

While it may go against the grain of this website, sometimes you get what you pay for.

I am not saying that flippantly, but something is only cheap if it works, otherwise it is an expensive mistake.

We can all be a little hasty sometimes to get that 'bargain', sometimes the inexpensive way of getting something may cost a little more......if you understand what I mean.

I am not suggesting that everyone should go out and buy Sky+ or infact a TIVO (although I would challenge anyone not to think that a TIVO was the best thing they ever bought). What I am saying though is that sometimes something may be too good to be true. Its not always the least expensive that is the best value.

tecstar

Absolutely. When I paid out £99 for something for which the nearest equivalent cost £230, I knew that I should expect the unexpected.
The problem comes when people don't. With some things, you do only get what you pay for. However, if the problems get sorted, then this will be a very good bargain indeed. But if the problems are not sorted, I will have no qualms in taking this back and spending £200 on another unit. When it works, its a nice PVR to use and am very happy with it, which is why im willing to wait awhile.

Searcher2

tecstar wrote:

Absolutely. When I paid out £99 for something for which the nearest equivalent cost £230, I knew that I should expect the unexpected.
The problem comes when people don't. With some things, you do only get what you pay for. However, if the problems get sorted, then this will be a very good bargain indeed. But if the problems are not sorted, I will have no qualms in taking this back and spending £200 on another unit. When it works, its a nice PVR to use and am very happy with it, which is why im willing to wait awhile.

I don't think that the nearest equivalent is £230 though. That was my first thought when I saw the Aldi offer...that the nearest branded equivalent was about £200. I have ordered the Fusion 200 for £150 and the full price of a Fusion 100 is £120. I have not looked too much into the Fusion 100 but I would have thought that on balance there is not a lot of difference between it and the Aldi machine. OK - some people have said there are still problems with the Fusions - but I will find out for myself.... the problems seem to be significantly less than with this machine - and there is a bigger user base for raising issues.

jackson3

Having read the news about a swap out deal in January, I decided to go back to Aldi and purchase another one - (new stock) I really do like what it does for the money...
Anyway, up till now, iv'e not had any of the reported problems - works like a dream.
It will get a good "flogging" over Xmas so I'll report back.
Peter

thereaper101

tecstar wrote:

Just spoke to support again.
They are aware of this forum, although they havent looked at it yet.
He told me that they are not being flooded with calls about faulty units, which is surprising considering the general consensus on this forum. They are getting calls about setup, usage etc from people who do not seem to have any problems.

They are waiting for new units to be delivered which have been tested and upgraded. They will then contact me and arrange a swap-out. He reckoned it would be early January.
If there are many people without a problem then it would suggest a hardware issue rather than a software issue.
The support staff seem very friendly and genuine, so I am optimistic that things will turn out for the better.

Yep, sounds exactly like the call I made word for word, I too was suprised that they had not had many complaints. Spoke to guy called, 'John' who was very friendly and helpful. It`s just a shame I won`t have a working box over Christmas.

carfrog

Picked up the Technosonic PVR from Stirling branch on Friday..............got it home and like an excited child (don't get out much) fumbled through the packing and went through the installation process. Everything installed fine , the feel of the unit was sturdy, slim and attractive, a bit like myself. I have a fusion 150 that has served extremely well for the past year but wanted something else as backup and this was an inexpensive solution with reasonable utilities. The technosonic has some nice features already mentioned elswhere and at under £100 pound with a full 12 months take back to the shop and get your dosh back promise I thought got to be worth a chance.

Only after purchasing the pvr did I find this site....doh.........still all appeared to work then some of the faults mentioned elswhere emerged.

1) No signal
2) Deleted recordings mysteriously reappearing
3) Wrong programme recorded although title, time etc all accurate.


Thought to myself this will have to go back to my friendly purveyor of inexpensive electrical goods. However, being the stoic that I am decided to persevere in the hope of some OTA upgrades and fixes...............this was the case with the fusion which although servicable, initially was quite buggy. After some recording, toing and froing, checking scart and ide sockets were all firmly fixed I thought I would just relax and let it record a number of scheduled programmes. Lo and behold yesterday and this morning all appears well, recorded the programmes, playback stable although not as sharp as the fusion certainly good enough for backup.

I will be happy with the unit if it remains stable and reliable, that said I hope they get their stuff together and put out some fixes for the bugs. Nice little budget machine........................not sure about manufacturer but looks and feel a bit like a Matsui freeview box that I once had.

Did try the number to book my swap out just in case but constantly engaged, wonder if the chap just got fed up and took the phone of the hook