Certainly the Topfield SD-PVR is capable of recording the HD channels, there is no real difference in the demuxed transport stream of SD and HD in terms of how it is stored on the HDD, hence the Toppy can successfully record either.
However, as you originally mentioned and as the others with no Toppy experience have said, recording is one thing, decoding and displaying is something else entirely, and SD STBs are only capable of decoding SD streams to the analogue outputs.
The Toppy will certainly let you playback a HD stream, but it will only display the red jellybean ("HD or scrambled service") but you can hear the audio as the audio demuxing and decoding process it the same between HD and SD.
But of course the Toppy lets you go one step further and copy the SD & HD recordings to your PC and *then* the fun starts. I have a few caps on my webpage of HD, these were all done by recording using my Toppy...
Regards

Cant add any value to this discusion but just had to vent my spleen on DGTec.

I have recently purchased the HD32LCD and trying to get assistance out of their support was like getting blood from a stone. The fellow answering the call was pleasant and seemed helpful but thats about it.

They continually promised and failed to deliver

Never again

One other niceity that I've discovered after the new firmware upgrade is that we now have a true dual-tuner set-top box: record on both tuners while playing back a (pre)recorded file...

:-)

Thanks Tony!

Next time I have a day free--think I've got Friday off --I'll probably try the firmware fiddle and see what the DGTEC can do with an HD stream, if anything. (Gotta say, the thought of having new Doctor Who episodes on the computer in HD format is driving me forwards... Fingers crossed.)

And samot, that's amazing news--I'm off to try it right now.

Anyone had any luck with the new IceTV support? Or is that just a menu item for now?

Thanks all,

Dan

Yeah, I noticed that too. It's an excellent "upgrade".
You can't "manually" get the 2nd tuner to record
of you are watching a pre-recorded show (i.e by
pausing the video) but it will start recording if you
set the timer. I also assume if it's recording on both
tuners you can go into My Video and just start up
a pre-recorded show manually - but I haven't tried this.



I think it's just a menu item. Paying for IceTV at the moment doesn't
seem like it's worth it.

hey guys, if anyone is interested, I am selling my 200gb dgtec PVR.... Offering a price of $750... but if anyone is interested, make me an offer and PM me.

unit is brand new.. have had it only for 2 weeks...

cheers...

DP

I hate to bring you down.... but nobody will buy at that price.
I just bought a DG-SD200PVR from Harvey Norman @ O'Riordan Street, Alexandria (ex Megamart) for $367 (RRP $899). I couldn't resist this price. They said it was way below their cost, they just have to get rid of ex Megamart stock.
I checked the fan by powering it up, and didn't notice any noise.

Wow! That's an amazing price. What a fantastic deal. I'm almost tempted to buy a second one
as I've only got the 80 gig version (paid $450 for it at a MegaMart - about a month before they
closed).

Has anyone had trouble with SBS after installing 060120A firmware?
SBS was fine before, but can't even find it when entering frequency manually...
I'm sure it's not reception as I can get wollongong and newcastle signals.

Hello all - been lurking for a while. I'm getting SBS fine (Berowra, north of Sydney, but still metro). The new firmware made some significant improvements and I have to say it's great to see the company actively working to improve their product. But just this evening it's ground to a halt again (presumably at the end of the .mts chunk) leaving me to try and remedy the problem as suggested in this thread by renaming files, or dragging the files onto my PC and burning a DVD. Not very convenient. I admire the perseverance of many of you, but as a user rather than an enthusiast (and these forums are ultimately the province of the enthusiast) I don't have the patience. I think I'll be returning the DGTEC before my 30 days are up and joining the irritatingly smug ranks of the Topfield owners. My apologies.

The thing that you need to remember about us smug Toppy users is that many of us have taken the path that you did - buy something that didn't work, then go looking for something that does.

The thing I don't understand about DGTEC is how they can keep coming out with flawed products. They have the distinction of being the first manufacturer out with a HD box, so they've had longer to learn than all the others, and yet they just don't learn. The only conclusion I can draw is that something is deeply wrong in their design and quality control processes.

Has anyone had problems playing mp3's with 060120A firmware? When I select music manager the pvr just freezes. Doe anyone know if there is a restriction for mp3 file encoding (vbr/cbr or bitrate) or filename character restrictions?
Apart from this the new firmware is not too bad.

I've never used it to play mp3's. I can get the radio stations though - so no problems accessing the audio area. I can't see any need to use it as an mp3 player anyway. I think that feature is more of a gimmick, a selling point if you will, but not something many people would use. mp3's belong on iPods and other such devices. Otherwise I'd prefer to listen to a CD directly.

I wouldn't consider it a novelty. It would be a perfect place to backup your mp3 collection (and still have the ability to play it). Agreed, the quality is not as good as cd, but it would make music more easily accessible.
I would also be good to have divx/xvid/mp4 support.

agreed ... has anyone encoded mpegs or the like back to the mts format for successful playback?

hey guys...

I am selling the DGTEC 200gb PVR on ebay if anyone is interested...

bought 2 for a really good price, so just trying to get my money back on one off ebay....

still has 23 months on the warranty...

http://cgi.ebay.com.au/BRAND-NEW-DGTEC-SD-...1QQcmdZViewItem

if your interested.... make me an offer...

cheers..

daniel

Hello all!

Just bought the 80gig model last week, and after the firmware upgrade I'm pretty happy... Thanks to those who have sent it out.

A few things bug me - setting a timer for example... you have to enter everything in manually... The date/time fields allow invalid entrys (eg 99:99 for the time!) - I feel it should be more user friendly.

A lack of OTR - very annoying to have to stop a recording manually.

A commercial skip feature would be good - however I'm getting good at judging breaks.

Also, I get an occasional pause in the display, but audio continues... I suspect this is probably a signal issue... could also be caused by the washing machine or dishwasher - they pump out a bit of electrical noise.

Other than the above, the unit does what I want - records in good quality and 2 channels at once. Whoohoo! No more tapes!

Has anyone had recent contact with DGTEC to see when a newer firmware is coming out?



One more thing - has anyone looked into ugrading the HDD?

Hi All,

I have the 200Gig model. Does anyone know if it's possible to set a mon-fri timer instead of daily? Most shows are 5 days a week not 7, so far its been quite irritating recording the wrong stuff on weekend and interfering with my desired weekend schedules. My old cheap digicrystal has mon-fri timer. It also named my recordings by show title with date, not just date, that's a feature is REALLY miss.

Also, to everyone who said the component picture is oversaturated, it sure is! Other than that, i rate this unit 6.5/10 for anyone who's thinking of getting one. Fan noise is present but not a big issue.

I have been getting a green screen on the PVR lately, which freezes the machine. and timers do not work.

These are the facts as I understand them,
I have have turned the TV off and left the PVR on, for some time,
the PVR screen goes green (as opposed to the blue screen when you first turn on the PVR)

i have to turn it off the mains to re start it.

the bad thing is, the times dont work when this happens..

has it happned to anyone.....any thought?

Mmmm, green screen - can't be good....

Have you updated to the latest firmware? If so, I'd be contacting DGTEC or where you bought it from...

Not all that different to my comments from awhile back... Another option for setting a timer is via the channel's guide:

• Select "guide" button for the required channel
• Select "timer" to set the timed recording

NB: Most channels only have the current and next shows - except for nine, if you can be prepared to wait...

HTH

I'm assuming you don't mean this is done automatically - what you mean
is while the "guide" channel is scrolling through the upcoming programs
you then manually enter the times in the timer. Right?

i got the PVR replaced by the retailer....
anyhow,

i have a sd card in the tv...so i dont need the PVR to wacth TV.

however, i need to turn the PVR on at the moment so that the TV can get signal.

is there any way I can do it so I dont have to turn the PVR to watch tv - i only need to it record

curently i have the antenna feed coming to the PVR In1, patch lead from Out1 to In2, and from Out2 to the TV.

Is there any other way...

Hehe... they are referring to the EIT electronic program guide, not the video channel showing the guide. The electronic guide, if the broadcasters could be bothered getting off their fat arses to send (Nine in the western states seems to be the only one sending more than Now&Next) will let you see quite a bit of detail about each show, and let you create timers from them.
At the moment, the Topfield is the only PVR that has a full 7 day guide for every channel, courtesy of ICETV and their uploading box (there are other methods for getting the 7 day guide into the Toppy too, but the ICE method is the only way that isn't reliant on a PC also being connected).
Regards

kiwigene, if that's not clear--

Press the button marked 'Guide' at the bottom left of the remote. This brings up the 'now' and 'next' display people are referring to, with a little bit of hard-to-read background info on each show.

You can now use the arrow keys to cycle through channel groups (< & >) and to select 'now' or 'next' (v & ^). When a show's name is highlighted, you can press the round Timer button to transfer that show's details onto the timer list. A little clock icon appears beside it to confirm.

Because I usually tweak the time settings anyway to give myself buffer room, I don't normally bother with this--but it is doable.

And once ICE start supporting the DGTEC (end of this month, they say), there should be a week's worth of shows to pick from. If you subscribe...

Cheers,

Danny

Ok, cool! I didn't know about this. I'm going to try it out.

Mmmmm, now my box is starting to play up...

Just seems to lock up...

Have had to kill power to it to re-gain control...

Looks like I'll be investigating the DGTEC warranty....

I really feel sorry for anyone who buys a DGTec without doing their homework. The company has a terrible reputation & is loathed by many retail salespersons. If you look at what they have brought out they seem to just replace a dodgy unit with a completely new model then wipe their hands clean of the previous version.

Another thing which concerns me is that the products are made in different countries. I know that they have been produced in Malaysia, Korea etc. I would hesitate a guess that they just source the cheapest units then slap their name on the unit. If that is the case then you really would have to question the engineering & research & development.

My advice would be to go for one of the Topfield PVRs. Tried, tested, good support & reliable. The TF4400PVRt is a fantastic, affordable entry level model. Who cares about HDD size. The functionality is what is important. I think too many people have bought DGTec PVRs purely on price & the fact that the HDD size has been bigger than the comparatively priced Topfields.

Kick the 'Footy' into touch they really are a poor unit.

I also found, at the same store as "turbo1975", the 80 gig DGTEC PVR for $237 (NOT A MISPRINT). They had 20 odd in stock I would guess (28/5/2006) (Old Megamart - now H.Norman in Gardeners Rd Mascot - Sydney)

Took it home, upgraded the firmware and am as happy as I can be for that price!! Works a treat (so far). I hope all the negative responses to this brand in this forum are in the minority. The tips from the other users are also worthwhile. I do agree the manual is very thin on detail.

Did find the reds a bit strong using the component connection though.

Oy. Reading these posts is making me retrospectively jealous. HN in Brizvegas still has the high prices. Still, I am going to Sydney in a few weeks...

Welcome, maurie--if you have as few problems as I've had, you'll be laughing.

Any news on the new firmware?

Anyone?



Dan

Nope - been in contact with tech support in the last few days and they've sent me the firmware from Jan 06 again...

Got the latest firmware installed (Jan06) which seemed to work for a while, but now any recording is garbled and un-watchable. Will be contacting support this week.

Another thing of note is the date on the recorded file refers to the year 2225? Ambitious of Dgtec to have a machine that can represent a date that far into the future I feel..

Those files were dated 2038 when my set was first powered up - but after the firmware upgrade they reverted to the date I actually did the upgrade - not sure if this is an issue.

I wonder if you can "reinstall" the upgrade as you would in a computer situation if things appeared to be going haywire. Also any small imperfection in the antenna to PVR connectors will give problems. Digital systems seem to like a clean signal even if it is weak I have found.

I finally did do the "clean reinstall": wiped the hard drive from the menu, installed the 05 firmware from the website, re-tuned the channels (I was looking for HD, it's all explained further back in this thread) and then re-installed the 06 firmware. Apart from an inability to wake up to a timer immediately afterwards--make sure you turn it on and off at least once before expecting it to record anything--things have been fine.

But then, I wasn't having any problems.

Short answer yes--you can reinstall the firmware. For my money clearing the hard drive is just as good a bet. Both is probably optimal.

Good luck!

Dan

Are you sure the 2225 isn't a time, i.e. 10:25pm?

Since having the 06 firmware installed I've had no problems
(and the date issue - 2038 - hasn't resurfaced).

When they emailed me the firmware upgrade it came from the following address:
"DGTEC" <callcenter@dg-tec.com.au>

Maybe you could try contacting the help desk that way (another secret!!)

As a new Dgtec PVR user, I would be interested in you sharing some of the "secret functions" you have discovered.

I found the "go-to" feature helpful - not covered in the manual and the screen message/counter clearing feature mentioned elswewhere in the forum a good tip.

Thanks in advance.

Mines been playing up again - seems to lock up intermitantly... 3-4times this week. Getting very annoyed!

About to send it to DGTEC to have it checked....

Let's see what they do... The Toppys are sounding better every minute...

Dgtec have updated their download page, but now instead of the old firmware, there is no firmware listed at all.
This would suggest that they are about to update the firmware.... heres hoping....

Let's hope it's not just the one that's been circulating since January.
Although, I must say I've had no problems with this version. I'd just
like a few more features to be added. Maybe what they could also
work on is a half decent user manual...

I've had my 80 gig for about 11 months.
Love it....
I've had freezes, that was easy to resolve.
When renaming files, I kept them in the 8 character format.
I've upgraded the hard drive to 200 gig, no probs.
Today, I installed the firmware :- Jan 06 so far so good
If the fan bugs ya, pull the power lead off the switchable power supply inside the unit. (monitor the heat) touch.
I also use a "Power Genie" look for it on the net.
When I turn off the Dgtec PVR with the remote, it also turns off the DVD player and TV as well. awesome
Save money in phantom power. Who wants a clock, just press information... der
For the price, it is a real gem.
Sometimes we want people to do things for ourselves, lateral thinking can be a powerful tool, greater than any brand name or firmware.

DGTEC SD80PVR - very impressed (so far).

Purchased Dgitec SD80PVR after reading this forum. Despite the "mixed" feeling expressed here I thought I would take a chance as it had all the features I was looking for at a very good price point. The fact it had one month money back warranty and three year general warranty overcame some of the concerns. First thing I did was upgrade the firmware courtesy of this site.

Having hammered it for two weeks now I have to say it performs pretty faultlessly. The one exception - it has locked up once when rewinding a recording. This happened the first day but can't get it to recur since.

Feature wise it is fantastic and has recorded and played back faultlessly especially those long three hour sessions of soccer on at present. It wakes itself up and goes back to sleep after recording.

Have been able to extract and move/archive to my laptop all the recordings I wanted and play as well as strip out the ads using Video Re Do.

The multi day and multi week timer is easy to program and use. PIP is great and the GOTO is a must that most of my friends using an IQ box miss after seeing me skim through 30 mins of play in a second.

Agree the initial colour saturation was a bit high but I am using a plasma TV that has multiple inputs (don't all the units these days have this?) with each input having its own settings so I just tone the colour down on the TV settings without impacting the DVD player input.

Maybe I am just lucky with this unit but if it holds out working the way it is at present I would not only classify it as good but also a bargain.

Hi all,

i've had the SD200PVR since December last year. The first one lasted 5days before the green screen of death appeared, took it back to JB hifi in Penrith and swaped it for a new one. Only had a few problems with it locking up (once or twice a week ) not that big a problem for me but it seems to hate my wife!! She hammers the remote and wont wait for the box to respond. It's missed the odd record but now that i think about it, it's only on ch2, so i think it's suffering from the 2nd tuner problem that has been discussed in this forum.

I'd just like to thank those that have put in so much effort in supporting this product, i down loaded the 06 firmware last night and followed the comments made by others in this forum and the upload went without a hitch.

BTW i use convertXtoDVD to burn on my pc

All seems well!

Thanks again

Philb

What do you mean by '8 character format'?

The My Videos list doesn't appear to have *any* ordering (not alphabetical or recency etc). The list is a big jumble on my 320Gig drive (modded) which makes findings things a little difficult/tiresome. It wasn't so bad when I was using the original 80Gig drive because I couldn't put much on it in the first place.

I've also found that spaces in the filename often result in playback not going beyond the first VIDEO.MTS file.

I think he means the old DOS requirement of filenames being no longer than 8 characters
(plus the "." and the 3 character file extension) e.g. 12345678.txt

But I don't think that should be a problem. As you pointed out, a bigger issue in the old
firmware was the spaces in the filename. I suggest using underscores or dashes if you
really want to separate the words. make sure you have the latest firmware as most of
the issues described aren't a problem. It also saves the files with a date format, which is
much more convenient.

Got mine back from DGTEC the other day...

It has a new firmware: 060615A!

I'd suggest you get in contact with them and see it they'll send it to you...

I haven't figured out the difference to the Jan firmware as yet...

Has locked up once in a week... we'll see how she goes... It bothers the missus somewhat when it does!

Question for those who have changed the HDDs... how easy was it and how do you go about it?

Hey Dillster.

Noticed today that DG have finally updated the firmware page on their website--by listing the January alpha!

The big promise for the next upgrade--I believe--was that filenames would be drawn from the EPG: any sign? Also IceTV integration was supposed to actually, you know, work.

But if it's still regularly locking up... oy.

I'm away from my machine and home for a few more weeks, so no chance of testing myself. Any news would be welcome!

Thanks,

Danny

Ooooohhh!!! Please Please Please - if anyone elese manages to get the firmware emailed to them,
as mentioned above, can you let us know and be kind enough to share it around. I'm happy enough
to be the "distributor" if someone passes it on to me.

Oh and FYI the DGTEC website has the firmware from 060120 available for download now.
This was (is offcially?) the most up to date until Dillsters post.

I'll have a bit of a play tonight and see if I can tell whats different...

I haven't checked the filenames yet...

As for IceTv - the option is there but I'd need to connect to my pc... have to get a 5m USB cord and punch a hole thru a wall...

Is there a way of getting the firmware off the unit? If so, I can send it to you...

I'd be happy to make this one available for download from my website (as I did with the last one) so if anyone can get their hands on it, please let me know.

That's ok, I've emailed DGTEC asking for the latest firmware. I'll see if I get a positive response first.
But if you do connect to your PC, I'm sure you can just copy the .bin file across to your computer harddrive.
When you connect the PVR to your computer it just reads it as if it's another drive.