Aldi - Technosonic PVR £99.99 - Freeview

Jefft_2

fixerman wrote:

In this life you get what you pay for.
Fixerman :beer:

Definately not true when it comes to PVRs even the most expensive machines have numerous issues.

If I am going to have problems I would rather have cheap problems.

Jeff

Lorian

fixerman wrote:

The longer you keep the machine the more difficult it may prove to be able to get a full refund.

Is that based on knowledge of ALDI's no quibble 12 month money back guarantee, or consumer protection legislation and the right to return goods of unmerchantable quality?

Lorian

Jefft wrote:

I can't help but wonder why these problems do not appear on their own test units.

Jeff

They don't have any of their own (the software people are in germany) and the UK support company borrowed a few from customers. (did you guys get them back yet?)

They don't only have to fix the bugs (and we've given them a good clue what they are) they also need to spend time and energy regression testing functions they think they havn't touched. When you are under pressure to delivery a release regression testing is one of the first things to be overlooked. Plus its a boring job anyway.

dc

fixerman wrote:

I have considerable experience of PVRs.

When I saw the Aldi unit being advertised I thought "Too good to be true" for the price. I purchased one on the first day they went on sale. I put it through it's paces for a week and I realised my original thoughts were correct. I returned it for a full refund. In this life you get what you pay for.

For what it is worth, my opinion is that this machine is not worth considering at any price. Waiting for a "fix" to come over the air in a software update will prove to be a very frustrating experience indeed. The longer you keep the machine the more difficult it may prove to be able to get a full refund.

This is just my opinion and I know how dissappointed some people are but I feel that a refund and wait until one has the funds to purchase a quality machine is preferable to months of frustration.

Life is too short to allow a poor quality PVR to take over your life.

Likewise moi, but not as much spare cash.

Sorry Fixerman but you are wrong.

This too is a product made with high quality products inside, just as good as the ones you mention, and it too has niggling software problems, caused by a rush to get it into the Christmas market. The problems are not fatal imo and
Aldi will give the refund within the 12 months, they are not a get rich quick back street electrical box-shifter.

The delay is because of it's German pedigree, timing and the "dumped on" UK service agent's determination to solve ALL the issues in ONE go before moving forward.
The main delay ( fixing WRH ITV sound loss) may not even be a pvr fault, but a transmission one. If I were in charge, that would be classed as a minor problem, and put way down the list of priorities.

dc

not stalkin you gromit, honest

fixerman

gromituk wrote:

I agree with most of your posting but this throw-away remark needs some challenging . If it were true, there would be no MSE website. The point about Aldi, Lidl and Netto is that their stuff is very good value, because it has very limited availablility, is not advertised widely, and does not have the snob value of other brands. If you are prepared to put up with these disadvantages, you will generally get yourself a bargain. It seems that in this case the product has failed to meet expectations, but in general, these shops are a goldmine.

I thought I might generate some debate.

Please do not think my critiscism is directed at Aldi. I am a big fan of Aldi and I have many Aldi products in my home and garden. However in this instance the quality does not match the normal excellent standards one has come to expect from Aldi. The Technosonic brand name is not a brand that is normally associated with Aldi and in this case I would go so far as to suggest that it has harmed Aldi's reputation.

However in fairness to all concerned and at the risk of stirring the pot even more, one of the most troublesome PVRs recently put on the market is the Panasnic TU-CTH100. It is another tale of promises to rectify, by downloads, problems that should have been sorted out before going to market and they don't come much bigger than Panny.

Fixerman

Brockyman

dc wrote:

The main delay ( fixing WRH ITV sound loss) may not even be a pvr fault, but a transmission one. If I were in charge, that would be classed as a minor problem, and put way down the list of priorities.

Couldn't agree more. I have the Winter Hill problem but it is a very minor irritation compared to the NO SIGNAL nightmare.
I sometimes have a problem which I don't think anyone else has mentioned. Sometimes when a programme broadcasts small segments of black screen the PVR keeps on playing a black screen even when the picture is supposed to have come back. Invasion and Shameless are both prone to this (both on channel 4, hmm only just realised that) during the title sequences. Sometimes it just skips over the black segments completely as if it hasn't recorded them. I have only seen this on recordings as I rarely watch live television, but it has happened several times.
Ian.

Brockyman

gromituk wrote:

I'm sure they do, but with half their customers baying for immediate updates, what are they supposed to do?

Only half? :rotfl:
Ian.

tubster

My Technochronic developed a major fault today - it won't tune in properly (the picture is a yellow colour and comes half way down the screen). I imagine this is a fault with the scart out. The machine already has a problem with the pass through signal which makes a VCR picture passing through the unit very bright (other forums say you need to solder something in the unit to stop this).
As I can't get freeview any more it will have to go back. I am sad because I had some good Poliakoff films I wanted to see on it; and I liked the software which seems pretty robust. The signal error was an irritation too, but I was prepared to put up with it. I wonder if the no signal issue is hardware related - if the scart connections are badly designed, it doesn't bode well because they are very well established technology.
I will be taking a big gulp and getting a Topfield for £250, because it seems that this is the only unit that can record programmes with key words automatically and it remembers the EPG, and it seems relatively bug free compared to the others. But what a lot of money! I'm addicted to freeview recording now though. Any thoughts or other people that have experienced this new(?) fault?
Tubster

Brockyman

If I play a Video tape through the PVR the picture is slightly unstable, a bit like macrovision but not as extreme. It is just about watchable but gets irritating after a while. I haven't had the non tuning or yellow picture but sometimes, when there is a letterbox style picture, I get the picture dropping down the screen and the top half fills up with noise/pixels/interference/blocks of black and white (sorry, thats the best way I can describe it). I have wondered if this is similar to the problem I mentioned in my last post about the screen going black as it only happens to the black part of the letterbox.
Ian.

creddish

fixerman wrote:

I have considerable experience of PVRs. I own a Pace Twin, a Digifusion 200, a Humax 800 and a Humax 9200. These are considered quality machines but as this is a still evolving technology, they are not without their faults. The Pace was the first to market and was way ahead of it's time. Pace, to their credit, have never stopped supporting the Twin, even though they have decided to exit the PVR market. The Twin has features that are still not available on some of today's machines. The so called bugs on thse units are very minor and do not detract from the huge improvement that this technolgy has to offer.

As you have experience of the Fusion 200 I am surprised you did not appreciate the clarity of the OSD's, the much more intuitive and easy access to the main fuctions of the PVR101 compared to the clunky menu's and garish background of the Fusions. The Fusion's have inconvenient and inflexible skip options compared with the very useful 2 minute skip feature of the PVR101.

The Humax 8000T costs about the same as the PVR101 but has very limited functionality not being able to view a different channel from the one being recorded and not even able to view a previous recording whilst recording the current one.

The Humax 9200 at twice the price has issues which IMO are more serious that those on the PVR101, i.e. lock-ups resulting in failed recordings and total loss of all recordings.

Waiting for a "fix" to come over the air in a software update will prove to be a very frustrating experience indeed.

The PVR101 had an update within a coule of weeks after launch which solved some problems and another is sheduled for next week. Humax 9200 have waited since October 2005 with no signs of an update to solve any of the serious issues. The Fusions are still waiting over a year for the solution to some of their issues which can result in lost recordings and wide screen switching issues.
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Colin