Aldi - Technosonic PVR £99.99 - Freeview

malc_d

Next week I wish to go away, I would like to catch the upgrade but I would also like to record some progs. If I leave in standby it won't wake up for the recordings but if I leave it ON will it upgrade? If I leave it on timer, as per your suggestion Lorian, which mode will it reboot into?

dc

The two main hardware problems with the Aldi pvr are the forgotten 75 ohm impedace matching resistor on the video output to the scart.
This will cause instability problems with some TVs and Videos.

Secondly and the major one, is that the receiver circuitry has had a quick production line quick fix. A resistor was added post production, this tends to suggest that something did not work in the quality checks, and the resistor hurridly sorted that problem, but imo not all. I think this and the Philips integrated circuits are the cause of the "no signal" problems and poor pass through problems that some folks have.

dc

Let's hope Key have it sorted before the 1000th post on this thread :rolleyes2

Jefft_2

An interesting comment dc about the Philips chips. The Philips DTR500 suffered from a 'no signal' problem which never was resolved and the unit was discontinued after a very short time.

Jeff

Lorian

tubster wrote:

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.

Try swapping the SCART cable around. That's fixed at least two problems reported that sound similar to yours.

Are you using CVBS or RGB?

Lorian.

rowantoad

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.

The Humax 9200 is fantastic! Since my last post on it, it has locked once, this was related to the press the 'red button' on cbeebies. I don't know what or how as the 3 year old is in control. He can schedule his own programs to record now through the guide.

It really is a great bit of kit.

http://www.cwdigital.co.uk/ are offering free delivery now £199.

tubster

Thank you Lorian for the scart lead suggestion - I completely uninstalled the unit and re-installed it and it is back to normal again so I can watch my Poliakoff films :j This gives the unit a stay of execution... I was almost pleased when it went wrong because it made the decision for me - now I'm back to weighing up whether the Topfield features are worth another £150 :mad: BTW I get round the terrible video signal problem by connecting the video direct to the telly using an svideo lead.
Thanks for your help and comments everyone... out of interest, has anyone actually had a unit replaced by Key?
Tubster

pennies2pounds_3

rowantoad wrote:

The Humax 9200 is fantastic! Since my last post on it, it has locked once, this was related to the press the 'red button' on cbeebies. I don't know what or how as the 3 year old is in control. He can schedule his own programs to record now through the guide.

It really is a great bit of kit.

http://www.cwdigital.co.uk/ are offering free delivery now £199.

I do hope the Humax 9200 is ok because I ordered mine yesterday from this place!. The technoosignal is going back as soon as the Humax arrives. I rang the helpline in december and they said they would send a replacement in Jan - . Maybe they tried to contact me and didn't have a signal ?? who knows

bagpuss

Well Technosignal are gettng their final chance this week. If they do not deliver on their promises with an update on the software mine is going back too as on reflection the Humax 9200 is actually a pretty good deal as although it is twice the price the hard drive actually has twice the capacity - and I understand that you can RECORD from TWO channels whilst watching another, so may be worth the extra outlay, just a shame it is not as slimline as the Technosonic - I am really hoping for an upgrade that works!

Also have a further problem that I think others have had in that I cannot play back videos through the 101 as there seems to be some problem with the scart connection as when I reconnect it is OK again - slightly difficult in the middle of the day when my daughter is watching something and I can't move the TV, etc to do as I have just had surgery and can't lift/move anything heavy - hence the reason why this is the last chance for this PVR

Brockyman

I have never had any lock up problems with my unit until this weekend when it has locked up 3 times. Last night I set it to record a couple of programmes before I went out and it didn't record either because it had locked up. Now, if this were my PC locking up regularly the first thing I would do would be to do a defrag. I assume there is no way of doing that on the PVR? But thinking about it, I have had the thing 2 and a bit months and recorded and deleted quite a few programmes. The hard drive is now going to be fairly fragmented so surely something has to start suffering. Today I have bought a DVD writer to back up the programmes I want to keep and I will format the hard drive, but surely this isn't what the manufacturers expect us all to do every few weeks. Can the hard drive be removed and defragged on a PC? Has anyone tried it and if so did they notice any improvement? Any other idea's?
Cheers
Ian.

dc

tubster wrote:

Thanks for your help and comments everyone... out of interest, has anyone actually had a unit replaced by Key?
Tubster

KEY steadfastly will not even think about replacing faulty units until all the software problems are sorted to their satisfaction.
As they are mainly a hardware fault repair outfit, I can see where they are coming from, by not wanting to replace units more than once. But the delay (which seems to be caused purely by the Winter Hill problem) is causing frustration with the rest of us.

BTW Their main repair depot is in Spennymoor, Co Durham. Offices in Hipperholme Halifax.

dc

Pennies2Pounds, they unfortunately cannot exchange as promised, as they have still have "no exchange units" to date, thanks to Technotrend/Technosonic/Aldi.