Hard disk video recorders

[Stephen Coates]

I think an HD upgrade will be possible if I wanted to do it.

I know that some PVRs are quite fussy about HDs. Apparently some (all?) Vestel boxes use HDs that don't do any error correction unlike most standard HDs. Or something like that.

I don't think I will need to upgrade the 160GB drive for a while though, as I currently manage to record all my progammes onto the few spare GBs on my Mum's box.

Apparently I should be able to access Interlink's website sometime this morning and find out roughly what time it will be delivered.

[Harrison]

I suppose for SD video 160GB should be plenty for quite some time. The problem is when wanting to record HD. It really eats up the HDD space on my SkyHD box.

Have you consider FreeviewHD yet? It should be available all over the country now, with all 5 terrestrial channels being in HD now. Worth it for those without Sky or Cable.

[Stephen Coates]

We should be able to get Freeview HD here. I don't have a suitable television/monitor though.

[Stephen Coates]

Interlink couldn't be bothered to deliver it on the day they were due to deliver it. It came two days late. Never mind.

Anyway, I have it set up and have just about figured out how to use it. I wouldn't say the interface is any better or worse than the Vestel machines. But it works and is a bit quicker.

[Stephen Coates]

The PVR seems to be doing well. All year, it has had sat next to it the Vestel based one (mentioned in other thread) which has hardly been used. I just had a look in the Vestel based one and it has a 320GB Western Digital SATA HDD, so I might just stick that in my computer.

The Humax PVR does get a bit slow and crash sometimes but not very often. The only real problem I am having is recording the new episodes of Family Guy on BBC Three on Saturday/Sunday, but this seems to be a problem with a lot of PVRs as far as I can tell.

[Buleste]

Actually it's major problem of Huimax PVR's that it cannot for some reason playback Family Guy and American Dad. I emailed Humax earlier (I have the 9150T as well) and this is what I got back.

We are currently reviewing this situation and thoroughly testing this on a range of our units such as PVR9150T, PVR9200T, PVR9300T, HD-FOX T2 and HDR-FOX T2.

Apologies for the delay in response, customer feedback is essential to us and we really appreciate your feedback and apologise for the issue you are experiencing, once we have further information on this issue we can update you accordingly.

I did have a Thomson PVR up until just before christmas and that worked fine but it died on me. The Bt Vision box can be all right especially as it has the BBC iplayer on it but you can only have one in your house because of the way it's information is stored.

[Stephen Coates]

A bit of googling revealed that I'm not the only Humax user who has trouble with the new Family Guy episodes (the old ones during the week are fine).

I'm pretty sure my Mum's now oldish Vestel based PVR didn't playback Family Guy properly either. I will record some more episodes and see what happens.

[Harrison]

That seems very strange about Family Guy. Is there an actual technical reason for it? Different broadcast bandwidth or something odd?

And how does BT VIsion actually work? I've had no knowledge of the system at all other than the adverts that don't really explain anything. Is it broadband based?