PVR / HD recorder recomendations

Compare the two here.
http://www.humaxdigital.com/uk/products/pvr-9200t.asp
http://www.humaxdigital.com/uk/products/pvr-9300t.asp

The 9300 offers double the storage, Freeview+ (the digital equivelant
of PDC) and an HDMI socket for £40 more from Laskys. Your call!

 

Wrong - see other post.

 

It doesn't need to though. If your program starts 6 minutes late, so does
it, and if it over runs, so does the recording. At the beginning you never
miss more than 10-20 seconds. For instance, my mum records Neighbours, and
it often starts the recording as the credits start, missing the 'what
happened so far' bit. It never takes a meaningful amount, like 30 seconds
or a minute or anything. And since I've been series recording I've never
missed the end of anything. The other week, maybe 3 weeks ago, the Live
BTCC racing on ITV4 ran on by about 15 minutes, and I had to set to record
that and the program after (Goodwood Festival of Speed). The BTCC recording
stopped during the end credits, and then the GFOS recording started on it's
credits - missing out the adverts between the programs, which is never going
to be a problem hehe

 

I'm not sure, the amount of info on the Humax site is a bit lame isn't it.
The PVR9200TBX would be what I'd buy if something unfortunate happened to
mine, as I know it works well and does everything I need, but with more
space, which is never a bad thing is it? Although the 9300T probably has
some cool new features, it's just that, from the Humax site, it's hard to
tell because they're not listed - for example Colin has one and says it has
the Series Link feature, which isn't mentioned.

 

Whilst I too would get the 9300T cos it's the new model, not the becoming
obselete, that's cos I'm a bit of a techie snob and buying the older one
would just not be able to get past the run of the grain.

But, the 9200TBX from Humax Direct offers 320gb, and Freeview+ (or it
appears to, re: my other post and the bit about recording the BTCC and
Goodwood) combined with series link despite the fact it doesn't say it on
the site, because the 9200TB does it, so I'm sure it will too. The only
thing it doesn't have as far as I can see is a HDMi - which may or may not
be an issue for Ian's parents. Will there ever be like, freeview HD TV
channels? As that would indeed force me to upgrade to get the HDMi hehe

 

That's the bit I saw and therefore was trying to work out what the
differences were. The one that stood out to me was the 9300 not
currently having USB support, it appears to have the HW but in the
specs I DL it said not supported, whereas the 9200TB specifically
mentions USB2.

As I understand it and it's quite possible I've got the wrong end of
the stick there will be but not unit after the analogue switch off and
then not supported by the current decoders.

 

I am going to call them today and get them to decide. Especially as
there's a grade A PVR9200TBX available for £129. I didn't realise
until calling my mother about various options that a couple of years
back they'd spent £60 on repairing the VCR, FFS.

 

Why not download the two user manuals and find out for sure?

 

I did, that's where I got the information that it's not currently
supported in the 9300t
http://www.humaxdigital.com/GLOBAL/products/new_manual/PVR9300T(UK)_200GB.pdf

 

Ah. So out of interest, does the 9200TBX have Freeview+ and the
ability to record a series?

 

It would seem that it does, you need to be registered to get the
manual, however, the update
http://www.humaxdigital.com/uk/update/PVR9200T_rn.pdf suggest that
series recording is supported as does Dan's post
and on this page
http://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/product.asp?ProdRef=10055 there's mention
of "Freeview Playback Phase 2 (series link)" which I think is the
ability to record a series.

 

<snip>

So in other words you haven't downloaded the user manual for the
9200TBX.

 

Yes, definitely, but not with the existing UK Freeview hardware [2] and
they're not upgradeable, so everybody can look forward to another
generation of STBs at some point.
The next gen of HD DTT is already here, mpeg4/h264 [1], and already
there's something better in the pipeline from what I could see, but
that's the way things go.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_terrestrial_television

[1] Been in use in some countries and being launched in Ireland next
year. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H.264/MPEG-4_AVC

[2] I was hopeful it would be otherwise, as that would mean a supply of
cheap boxes from the UK market.
--
Dave
GS850x2 XS650 SE6a

"It's a moron working with power tools.
How much more suspenseful can you get?"
- House

 

The 9200 series all takes the same manual. There is an update available,
which I just downloaded and it too applies to the 9200TB and 9200TBX and
does indeed confirm they have series link and the PDC thingy. Also some
other new stuff I didn't know I could do heh

 

That's pretty cool I quite fancy having more HD things to view except
Xbox games and BluRays from the PS3.

 

Parents eh? They shouldn't be left alone hehe As I said in another
post, the updated manual for them does say the TBX has the same features as
the updated TB, so it should have the series link and the PDC thing.

 

Yep that's the way I read it, strange you DL all the updates for the
9200 but not the initial manual, but it's the update that confirms it
and the features list. The Freeview 2 feature definitions say[1]

"Signaling within the EPG identifies events that comprise a series.
User must be offered, at the time of reservation the opportunity to
record the whole series or single event."

"Signaling within the EPG identifies events containing parts of a
single program (e.g. a film split by a news bulletin). When selecting
the first part of a split event the user must be informed that there
is a second part, and offered the opportunity to select this"

"When scheduled recordings overlap, the recorder shall use the
alternative instance information, when provided, to record one or more
of the program at their alternate times"

[1] obviously a C&P

 

Super!

 

You're sure about the PDC thing - or Freeview+ to give it its proper
name?

I'm off to Greenwich in the morning for a couple of days, so may miss
your reply!

 

You haven't mentioned Freeview+, so I've asked Dan to confirm that in
another post.