Mustek PVR-H140 £217.99

mhutchuk

Well I've had it 24 hours now - and first impressions are.... CLEVER bit of kit.

Instruction book is SPARSE to say the least - for a bit of kit that does so much it actually tells you SO little. Quite easy to work and navigate the onboard menus though.

Cute little item that actually feels quite solid.
Headphones supplied are a pile of poo though - get a better set.

Its dead easy to dump music etc across via USB and use it as a portable HD.

Music playback is OK - volume could be a little louder and the internal speaker is a bit tinny.

Tried dumping some video files from PC across to it and they have a fairly slow conversion process with the enclosed software but once on play a treat.

NOW the reason I really bought it...

Firstly to record TV/DVD/SKY on it your bit of kit must have composite out (i.e. yellow phono socket) my Sky doesn't so I got around that by recording via my home cinema set up that does (which sky is connected to via scart)

Its a cinch to record live TV PLUS the item has a built in timer as well. The best bit is you can also put your DVD's on it no problem (only Mono though) and watch while you are away. and the quality is actually darn good

It does have the odd limitation BUT lets be honest it was under £200 and for that kind of money what I can do (and what I wanted it for) it is a treat

Hope that helps

Mark

System

Thanks - very useful

24seven

I have the Archos AV420, what an amazing thing it is. I have had it for about 6 months and everytime I use it I'm so impressed.

The Archos has a great screen, I cannot comment on the Mustek as I have not seen one.

mhutchuk

Well i had my first week away last week so dumped the contents of my sky+ box onto it (as well as a DVD)

Truly amazing gadget but it does have one problem...

As you get into playback the sync of the sound to picture gradually drifts apart for some reason

BUT there is a simple fix

just press pause button, leave 2/3 seconds and resume play - all fixed

Used on a train as a bog standard MP3 player - great - just remember to turn screen off to save battery life.

Built is speaker though is horrible... I only use it through a good set of in-ear headphones and sound is great.

Have filled it up again for next week as I'm working away again.

mark

System

Mark,

Thanks for the info however I have to admit I have now bought an MPM202

See

HERE and HERE

I was really going for the Archos 480 as felt I needed more than 40gb but the price was too high at £450 ish.

The other day I walked into our local gadget shop and they had a 20% off everything day the MPM was already reduced to £350 so got another £70 off reducing it to £280.00.

Ok the compromise is 60gb not 80gb and slightly on the resolution but I couldnt tell them apart in use.

I've put it through it's paces for 2 days, throwing everything at it and recording off TV etc and its just what I want and more the cradle even has it's own TV tuner.

Put away now until birthday in 4 weeks so will report back when started using full time.