Aldi - Technosonic PVR £99.99 - Freeview

Brockyman

I have noticed that some people have said it is not possible to record two things at once on the Technosonic (or TechNOTSOsonic as someone else called it, I liked that :snow_laug ). Well I have recorded two things at once a couple of times now and it does it perfectly, BUT you cannot set timers for two programmes. If you set the timer for one programme you can then manually record a second, just press record when it starts - no problem. I am still hanging on with mine as I do hope the problems will be ironed out. When this box does work it works superbly, it just doesn't work very often, at the moment, as a Digibox for live TV, just as a recorder to playback later.
Ian.

robonz

im holding on to mine for the time being as its still a good buy from a recording and play back device, plus you can use it for live viewing if you reboot regularly. a future update may at last fix the NO SIGNAL problem anyway. if not i will take back for refund when something better comes along. i have 12 months in which to return it ;-)

PVRBUDDY

tubster wrote:

So now the decision between the Humax, Topfield and digifusion (which I have found on https://www.tribaluk.com for £156 inc delivery - anyone beat that?)

Tubster

£155.00 from Dixons after haggling a discount to take the warranty, then deciding not to go for the warranty when I got to the desk to pay...

andybiochem

Brockyman wrote:

I have noticed that some people have said it is not possible to record two things at once on the Technosonic...Well I have recorded two things at once a couple of times now and it does it perfectly

No, you haven't.

Brockyman wrote:

BUT you cannot set timers for two programmes. If you set the timer for one programme you can then manually record a second, just press record when it starts - no problem.

No. It's a physical impossibility. When you press 'record' when it's already recording, it asks if you want to stop recording the other chanel.

If yours doesn't do this, which I *doubt*, then it's yet another bug in the software...but an advantageous bug, I'll give you that!

Think about it, ALDI are NOT going to suddenly change all their advertising and leaflets that said it CAN record simultaneously from both tuners, if it acutally can. What a idiot move that'd be! ...they might as well slap a "HD ready" sticker on it too!

Anyway, the box the unit came in explicitly says (as I remember), that you can 'record from one chanel, and watch another'....nothing about recording from both.....even the manual says this.

You must be mistaken.

rowantoad

creddish wrote:

I must say I'm a little surprised that you have had 2 lock-ups in two weeks yet you still think the Humax 9200 is "pretty solid".

It's all relative isn't it. That 2 weeks of pretty continuous use, with a 3 year old at the controls. Actually 3 weeks. Left on it's own it'd probably be ok. If it didn't record when on holiday I wouldn't be that gutted anyway, theres nothing on tv I have to see. Attaching a freeview box to a vcr carries the same risk, the freeview box could lock.

gromituk

And the tape in the VCR could jam. But my Freeview box never locks up.

rowantoad

gromituk wrote:

And the tape in the VCR could jam. But my Freeview box never locks up.

I was starting to think all freeview boxes did that.

tubster

It seems the scart fault I reported earlier can be prevented by pressing the 'dtv' button on the remote to show the video output again :rolleyes:
The only problem is that the video output through the R101 is very, very bright - teletubbies looked like they were enjoying a nuclear summer. Connecting direct to the telly gave normal colours in comparison. This is a strange fault - anyone else notice it? My player has been working very nicely otherwise. I keep missing the end of programmes though because i can't be arsed to change the programme times by a few minutes every time. Still considering my next move. The Fusion looks really good, but the background graphics to the epg would drive me NUTS and I am not even partially sighted. It also doesn't seem to have a bookmark feature which I really like on the R101, but it does look great otherwise. I am seriously considering the Topfield now (£250, empire direct, beat that anyone? Dixons boy?! Cancelling extended warranty at the till after a haggle is impressively brave!) because it can, with a little updating, automatically record everything a few minutes early/late; has a full search capability, even recording programmes with key words automatically; it can store the epg to the hard drive so it doesn't take ages to work when you boot it up; and I know that the geek in me is going to get hours of fun updating software with all the little applications it can run. I'm also very impressed with the support chatboards of toppy fans. The only downside is the price (are a few features worth an extra £90? For something I'll use every day, maybe they are) and the complexity of setting up all the 'taps' to make it work well - this doesn't bother me, but it might if you are not into computer stuff. I hope that once it is set up it is easy to use for the rest of the family.
Tubster

andybiochem

tubster wrote:

The only problem is that the video output through the R101 is very, very bright - teletubbies looked like they were enjoying a nuclear summer. Connecting direct to the telly gave normal colours in comparison. This is a strange fault - anyone else notice it?

Nope, never got as far as hooking my DVD to it. Sorry.

tubster wrote:

Fusion looks really good, but the background graphics to the epg would drive me NUTS and I am not even partially sighted. It also doesn't seem to have a bookmark feature which I really like on the R101, but it does look great otherwise

Yup the EPG graphics are shag. BUT, there are a bunch of guys on digital spy forums working on altering the background by editing on a PC. One guy had successfully got rid of the 'waves effect' and replaced it with a blank backdrop.

Look here: http://digifusion.jeamland.org/ Bottom of page

Give then a few more weeks I reckon they'll have a nice lil prog up and running for easy editing......it's very tech at the mo, and they're bluddy clever I tell ya!

The digi 200 'sort of' has a bookmark function. When it's playing back a recording if you press the OK button it automatically adds a 'scene'. When looking back through the recording it's easy to skip back to this scene with the left/right buttons.

merry new year greetings.

malc_d

Has anyone heard whether the software upgrade due soon (6th-9th Jan?) is definitly coming and is it different to the upgrade already released on the 29th of Dec?
If it doesn't solve the 'no signal' problem the I'll take it back.

Does anyone else feel that the 'menu' button is too small and in the wrong part of the remote?