1465 replies to this topic

[Crusher]

OK, I went out and bought the Mediastar 920PVR today, cost me $549 all up.

http://www.mediastar...0PVR/index.html

First impressions are quite good. Very nice looking unit, like the electric blue LED display as opposed to the normal green 8 segment LED. The front panel can be dimmed. Unit looks very similar to the LG PVR, same style mirror finish and buttons.

This machine is made by Zinwell, who also make hotchip, sony's stb and pvr, and a number of other units.

Included in the box was the PVR, a locally written (ie in pretty good english) manual thats reasonably comprehensive, a set of component cables, a set of composite video/audio cables, technical support sheet, and remote control. No USB cable included. Interesting addition was it has two remote controls. One enormous one (rivals the pana 500A one for size) and one mini one with only a few buttons on it. Cool idea.

Outputs are Component (Y,Cb,Cr), composite and SVHS, with analogue L/R, coax and optical SPDIF. No digital video outputs. Also has USB 2.0 interface for accessing files off the unit, and uploading mp3 files that can be played through the inbuild mp3 player.

Plugged it in and turned it on, auto tuned channels, found the time automatically, and away it went.

Unit has a Samsung 120gb 7200rpm drive in it and runs very cool and quiet. No internal fan. After a few hours of being on, the unit is barely warm. Timeshift buffer is on constantly unless disabled... I have disabled it fornow as I prefer to press record when i want to walk away as opposed to having the hard drive accessing all the time.

I can confirm that this is a TRUE twin tuner. It can timer record up to 4 channels simultaneouly - 2 main channels and one sub channel of each (eg ABC, ABC2, SBS, SBS2). When recording both channels, you can still  watch live tv on the sub channels if they exist. If there arent any subchannels, then you are limited to 2 channel recording.

Fast forward and rewind are excellent, up to 16x FF, 8x rewind. There is no skip-ahead feature for ads, however you can skip forward by going into fast skip mode (burns through 3 mins ina few seconds)... this is a little weird to get into though, you have to press the trim button, then jump ahead, then press play and you are out of trim/skip mode!


Nice things so far

* excellent image quality. Is only SD but its excellent image quality. Far better than my previous Opentel, or my Trio crappy STB from 4 years ago.
* no image or sound dropouts/pops so far, and no image breakup that I have noticed
* excellent sound quality in both stereo and ac3/d
* channel change is very fast, takes about 1 second.
* remote control is very responive and has good range/angle of operation
* has great timer and pvr features
* chaselay whilst recording two shows, or watch a previous recording whislt recording two
* inbuilt ICETV client
* USB port for taking files off and attaching USB wireless bridge for ICETV
* detailed info bar with signal strength and SNR, also shows megabits/sec and tuner info
* front panel dimmable
* excellent looking menus
* existing recordings can be edited, and also have a chapter preview view so you can skip to scenes
* 64 bookmarks
* very fast recording/playback, can be recording 2 channels and playing backa previous recording with no speed problems at all
* does "reminders" so you can set a timer to prompt you to change channels for an important show, rather than recording it
* 40 timer slots, supports folders, timers can be named, and recordings can be renamed
* channels can be deleted from channels list, plus multiple favourites
* FF/REW is smooth and not occasional frame
* fast USB transfer (1 hour show in 3 minutes via USB2.0), appears as drive letter in windows explorer

Things that are not perfect

* need to go into one menu level to get to timer schedule, no quick access (have found a quick way to get to this now, via epg quick menu)
* when entering chase view on a recording, it starts at the live tv point not the start of the recording, so you have to fast rewind back
* unit wakes up from standby to do a timer recording but doesnt go back into standby after. You need to use a timer slot to send the unit to sleep after your programs have finished (need to re-test as I pressed controller buttons when it was out of standby)
* recordings are split into 2gb file blocks (eg a 1 hour show is about 2.7gb, resulting in a 2gb file + 700mb file)
* plugging in pc via USB stops all recordings and time shifting (presumably to prevent file access conflicts and corruption)
* no skip ahead feature... there is an altenate way to fast skip which works fairly well (you change into edit mode via the control button, then use its fast skip to jump ahead in 30 sec blocks or hold down for accelerated skip so you move way ahead until you are at the point you want to be)
* no ff by % (EG ff to 50% of the recording time)
* no hdd spindown setting, so even if continuous timeshift is turned off, the drive still runs


All up for $550 its a great unit, should be interesting to use!

Dave

[tonymy01]

Sounds a lot like a Toppy you have just described there (including the oddities).   Are you sure it won't go back into standby after a timer (thinking of Toppy experience here)?   Did you press any remote buttons while it was awake (again, toppy experience here)?   If so, then (toppy) press the power/standby button and don't touch it, and it will go back to standby after the timer has finished.
I would like to see some screen menu's to see if they ripped off the Toppy code at all! (Topfield requires to bury in a bit to get to the timerlist too!).
Regards

[Crusher]

i did press some buttons on the controller, so maybe thats why.  Iwill have to test again.

The menus are very different to topfields ones (or at least the ones standard on the 5000pvrt). When I get my digicam back next week, I can take some (gf has it and shes overseas atm).

If theres anything people would like me to test, then please let me know. I was about to go buy a 5000pvrt as a stopgap (similar to my failed attempt with the opentel) until the HD pvr market matures and gets better priced, and I saw a thread on the mediastar... and lo, my local harveys had a pile of them in stock.

[pgdownload]

Crusher, sounds like a good buy. Unit looks to behave pretty similar to a Toppy 440 and for the same price. However it has the USB port (programs downloadable), true USB2, ICE EPG capability and apparently a pretty nice interface. I'd be interested in a follow up post in a week or two. I'm thinking there has to be a 'catch' somewhere but from what you've said so far it sound great.

Enjoy

Peter Gillespie

PS Be interested in how the unit handles power failure and time management...

[Crusher]

pgdownload, on May 18 2006, 10:06 PM, said:

Crusher, sounds like a good buy. Unit looks to behave pretty similar to a Toppy 440 and for the same price. However it has the USB port (programs downloadable), true USB2, ICE EPG capability and apparently a pretty nice interface. I'd be interested in a follow up post in a week or two. I'm thinking there has to be a 'catch' somewhere but from what you've said so far it sound great.

Enjoy

Peter Gillespie

PS Be interested in how the unit handles power failure and time management...

its got the feature set of a 5000pvrt sans TAP capability. It can edit/trim files, but I have not had a chance to try that yet (had my strata agm tonight!). One thing I forgot to put above, it also supports folders for timers.

What power failure scenarios would you like to test?

It can get its time from broadcaster or from local settings, has a DST offset setting as well (asks you what state you are in). I let it get the time from broadcaster, then switched it across to manual set time to prevent broadcaster time drift

My testing so far has mainly been around setting of timers. First thing I did after auto tune was record a few shows and test chaseplay, then set some timers and watch it kick those off, and then again from standby to confirm true twin tuner capabilties. I also tested recording 3 channels at once (Ten, ABC and ABC2) and that also worked correctly, and all could be chase played.

Looking like a nice little unit so far!
Dave

[brent]

I'm interested mainly in uploading to a computer. This unit obviously does, but is it USB2 and being a PVR newbie what are the files that are created when transferred? Just MPEG2? Also, is it possible to replace/swap HDDs yourself with these units?

[Crusher]

the files are in AVR format so they need to be decoded prior to viewing. You can also upload MP3 files to the unit via USB and play them with the inbuilt mp3 player.

as for hdd's, I dont see why not. its a standard UDMA PATA drive, and theres options to format drive in the menu. The warranty info does mention that upgrading the drive will void warranty though.

I have just done some basic editing. It is basically a trim feature, where you can skip forwards/backward in either large blocks (FF/REW buttons) or in small blocks (left/right buttons on centre paddle) and highlight sections.

You then press trim, and it asks if you want to keep the section highlighted, discard the section highlighted, or cancel.

It doesnt let you manually enter start/finish times, the trim has to be done via the horizontal time elapse bar. Its not that hard to get the hang of and works reasonably well, as you can ff/rew the program to ensure you start/finish your trim correctly (ie press trim at start of show to set marker, skip through using large jump to the end of the show, press trim again, choose keep section). I trimmed about 10 minutes of a 45 minute recording, and it trimmed instantly.


I have also found a (reasonable) shortcut to the timers menu. Since the unit allows you to setup timers from the EPG, you press the EPG button, then you can get directly into your timers listing (you dont have to select anything from the epg itself)

[pgdownload]

brent, on May 18 2006, 11:32 PM, said:

I'm interested mainly in uploading to a computer. This unit obviously does, but is it USB2 and being a PVR newbie what are the files that are created when transferred? Just MPEG2? Also, is it possible to replace/swap HDDs yourself with these units?

Apparently this unit has true USB 2.0 transfer speeds - The Toppy is a bit cut down (1.5 USB). Be interesting what the transfer time for a 1 hour file is to your PC crusher?

Re: power failure:

1) Unit in standby, timer due to fire in 5 minutes, time from broadcast, pull plug and return. What happens?
2) Unit in standby, timer due to fire in 5 minutes, manual time, pull plug and return
3) As for 1 and 2 but have unit fully ON.
4) Unit on, set timer for 1 hour, wait till recording starts wait 5 minutes, power fail, does recording resume?

Regards

Peter Gillespie

PS Will you be trying out ICE crusher? There's a free trial period available at their site.

[madmax]

Whoa! Could this thing really be as good as it sounds? Could be a new 2.0 tuner to challenge the big boys....

[Crusher]

pgdownload, on May 19 2006, 09:19 AM, said:

Apparently this unit has true USB 2.0 transfer speeds - The Toppy is a bit cut down (1.5 USB). Be interesting what the transfer time for a 1 hour file is to your PC crusher?

I just did a copy of 1 hour recording I setup to test with. It copied the 2.7gb file down in about 3 minutes. PVR's hard drive appeared as a normal USB mass storage device and drive letter.

One thing that is strange, and I will add it to the list in my initial post is that plugging in my laptop via usb..

a) disables any pvr functions at all, including timeshift and recordings in progress, and prevents any features of the box being used, over and above changing channels (ie it acts only as a STB). This might cause a problem if someone wanted to leave it connected via usb wireless bridge for icetv.
recorded files are split into 2gb segments (maybe a fat16 drive format?). So my 2.7gb was a 2gb and a 700mb file that were copied seperately


I would assume that the stopping of recordings/timeshift when plugged in via usb would be to stop file corruption, and also to prevent lack of disk IO when copying files off (ie recordings wouldnt be able keep up)


How does the toppy handle this scenario and file sizes?

Dave

[jokiin]

Crusher, on May 19 2006, 10:36 AM, said:

recorded files are split into 2gb segments (maybe a fat16 drive format?). So my 2.7gb was a 2gb and a

What's the actual file format, are they .ts files or something else?

[Crusher]

jok11n, on May 19 2006, 11:03 AM, said:

What's the actual file format, are they .ts files or something else?

.AVR

[pgdownload]

jok11n, on May 19 2006, 11:03 AM, said:

What's the actual file format, are they .ts files or something else?

The Toppy has a 'turbo' mode that also locks out any remote control action. I think timers/recording continues though... Very nice transfer speeds - although the 2.0 GB split seems a bit weird? Is the AVR format set up like this normally or do you have to join files back together on the PC. 2.7G is about 45 minutes of recording I believe? Toppy handles 50Gb files as one .REC file (as long as the PC drive is NTFS)

So to compare this unit with the 'Toppy'

- Both True Twin Tuner (Toppy Max 2 silmultaneous recordings, Mediastar can record 3 with one in the same mux as another (eg Nine and ABC and ABC2)
- ICETV 7 Day EPG support buy both units ($3 a week). Toppy provides free 7 Day EPG option too via TAPs
- Toppy has TAPs, Mediastar doesn't.
- Toppy would appear to have better SKIP abilities (esp with TAPs) although FF/REW of Mediastar are well implimented.
- Both machines have similar and responsive editing features
- Both machines look like being able to upgrade the harddrive
- MediaStar has true USB2.0 (45 minutes of TV in 3 minutes) Toppy has Quasi USB2.0 (45 minutes of TV in 20 minutes)
- Price MediaStar $550 Toppy (5000) $700

So I'd say if the stability of the unit holds up you could say this is a Toppy beater... esp as vanilla out of the box.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

PS Eager to see if you can get ICE onto the machine Crusher.

[Crusher]

yeah the 2gb file limit is unusual, I am guessing they are running something like FAT16 on the drive to make it accessible directly via USB, as FAT16 has a 2gb file limit. This doesnt bother me much since i dont ever keep recordings (i watch then delete), but I can see how having to join files would be a pain.

Files are named "EPGName_#00x_date_starttime.avr" where 00x is the part number... ie first 2gb is 001, second 2gb file is 002 edtc

The transfer speed was very good - 1 hour was 2.7gb. Just as fast as using a normal USB cradle hard drive on my laptop. I will try icetv today or on the weekend and see how it goes, and will try to test the power failures today as well (just to make you happy ;-) )

As for pricing, I rang HN and said "I want to buy a mediastar, whast your best price" and they answered $549 without any haggling at all. So that price should be available without too much hassle.


Dave

[pgdownload]

In DOS you can just go COPY PR1+PR2+PR3 PRFINAL etc. to join files. Not sure if the final file would be acceptable though. Presumably whatever AVR reader you can find would handle the split files automatically?

2.7Gb sounds a bit 'lite' for a SD signal. The Toppy records it 100% - possibly there's some sort of compression/conversion to the AVR format? Was it ABC2 you recorded for an hour?

At $550 I think we would have to pronounce the machine a definate Toppy beater. Still waiting for the catch to pop up (possibly quality control is an issue?)

No rush on the power testing (after all its not like I'll be buying a new PVR any time soon ) but thanks for the thought.

Regards

[Crusher]

I recorded channel 7 for the hour test.. it was a 4:3 format show though not sure if it will reduce the size.

the quality seems to be quite nice, good build quality, feels solid and well put together (some cheap units just feel shoddy).Even nice touches like the mirror finish front has plastic protection you pull off. They even include a set of component cables in the box (just generic low quality ones like you get in the video/audio left/audio right) as well as normal composite video/cables. No usb. The only thing that does feel a little cheap is the remote, its not as ergonomic or solid feeling as the opentels.

One comment has to be made about the heat level.. there isnt any. After recording for an hour today in an enclosed tv cabinet, the unit was barely warm to the touch, and is cold when in standby. Has good top ventilation.

Something I just noticed is that even with the continual timeshift buffer turned off, the hdd doesnt spin down. My opentel had a spindown timer to save it running all the time. Have added this to my original post

I will try and borrow a digicam to take some photos (mine is being borrowed atm and is overseas) so I can take photos on some inputs, front panel, remote, menus, epg, timers etc to help people with their decisions.

Dave

[pgdownload]

Quote

Something I just noticed is that even with the continual timeshift buffer turned off, the hdd doesnt spin down.

If the unit handles 'wake from standby' to record and also recovers the time from standby after a power failure then you can always turn it off when you turn in. Something to try:

1) Does the unit have a SLEEP after X minutes option?

2) If you are recording and you hit the power off button, do you get a warning? If you just leave the warning up on screen, does the unit turn off anyway after the recording has completed?

Note have you checked if there are any FW updates available?

Regards

Peter Gillespie

PS My cat has taken to sleeping on my Toppy (much to my disconcertion)

[ozdoc]

pgdownload, on May 19 2006, 11:50 AM, said:

PS My cat has taken to sleeping on my Toppy (much to my disconcertion)

So you're saying your Toppy is now able to pick up  CATV?...    

Yeah.  I know...  Don't give up my day job.

[pgdownload]

ozdoc, on May 19 2006, 02:32 PM, said:

So you're saying your Toppy is now able to pick up  CATV?...

    Haven't quite been game to see if I can get FoxTel too

Regards

Peter Gillespie

[PVR guy]

Crusher can you take the lid off and post some pics?

[Crusher]

i will see how game i am this weekend. Need to borrow a digicam first (explained previously) and check for any case seals

[MagAdelaide]

Crusher,

Where did you buy your Mediastar from?

I tried ringing a few HN stores in Adelaide but they only stock Toppy and DGTEC, no Mediastar or even Humax

Cheers

MA

[dogsrus]

Can the 2Gb file size be changed ???

[Crusher]

MagAdelaide, on May 19 2006, 06:45 PM, said:

Crusher,

Where did you buy your Mediastar from?

I tried ringing a few HN stores in Adelaide but they only stock Toppy and DGTEC, no Mediastar or even Humax

Cheers

MA

harvey norman at gordon in sydney


dogsrus - i would assume not thast the way they are on the drive. i havent got a tool to try and join them.. idf anyone can find me an editr that does AVR mpeg2, I will test it out

[thinkingbraindog]

Crusher, on May 19 2006, 07:26 PM, said:

i havent got a tool to try and join them.. idf anyone can find me an editr that does AVR mpeg2, I will test it out :)

Thought: they might be MPEG-2 in .avi container? IIRC, AVI1 has a 2 gig limit; AVI2 (OpenDML) is essentially unlimited. Nothing much supports AVI2 anyway.

Anybody know offhand if multi-part .avi files have header info in each file, or is it all in the first part? If the latter, it should just be a matter of concatenating the files together.

To join binary files: "copy /b part1+part2+part3 allparts" will work in a DOS window.

To start with, I'd try just renaming one as a .ts file and loading it in ProjectX. If that doesn't work, try VirtualdubMod...