Hi guys,

I'm completely new to this high tech caper but I'm quite keen to get a pvr. Maximum I want to pay is $300, less if possible. It looks like the Omni D530 & Wintal X10A are popular. Any pro's or con's you feel like sharing will be much appreciated by this luddite.

cheers,
daized and confused

I do'nt know the Omni, but Wintal, Supernet and Digicrystal are the same guts with different cases. Supernet (Via Ebay) is cheapest, Wintal has the best remote and instructions, Digicrystal (Strathfield or Ebay) has by far the best record for backup and service (I have one). All should be well under your price limit, probably under $250.
John B

The Omni can easily upgrade the hard drive (supports up to 750gb) and is a twin tuner, record one, watch one so a slight edge in features, I still like the simplicity of the Digicrystal also.

Thanks guys. Muchos appreciated.

Is there a shop in the inner suburbs of Sydney that anyone can recommend to purchase a cheap pvr or is ebay the best way to go?

cheers,
daisy

You will probably find something cheaper on Ebay, warranty issues can be a problem though with some sellers, even some of the big ones so buyer beware I guess, if you find something you think is ok maybe ask here if anyone has bought from the seller before

try strathfield they have them

Hi I bought one of the omni go d530, never having owned one before i think it works well, the only problem i have with it is that the time cannot be set manually. It gets its time from the digital stations the problem i have in melbourne australia is that we have daylight savings and not all the stations have changed the time some are on non daylight time. not much of a problem, until you go to record, if you set your recording time while on a station with the correct time and leave it on that station until recording finishes no problem, if you change stations to one with the wrong time while recording then you are up the creek, because the machine changes the time to match the station, then the list of record times change as well. in other words you don't get the shows you want recorded. machine was cheap but this seems a pain.

If you want the Digicrystal PVR9000 I'd be quick, if I were you. A fellow I know who works at Strathfields told me that the company had indicated that this unit was in "runout" mode. If this is true, grab one while you can. They are cheap, reliable and dead-easy to use. I have three of them! (Lounge, bedroom and one connected to a DVD recorder for archiving...) They all work fine!

The Omni D530 does not comply with Australian STB specifications.
It seems that instead of selecting the correct zone (which is not selectable in the settings as it should be)
from the TOT (Time Offset Table) it selects the first entry in the TOT.
If you tune to a station that sends all Australian time zones to every market (as TEN & ABC currently do) the Omni D530 will select Zone1 in the TOT. Zone 1 does not actually exist in Australia and is a reserved entry.
Currently both the ABC and TEN have Zone 1 set to GMT +11 (AEDST) which is fine if you are in Sydney, ACT or Victoria. Anywhere else and you will have the wrong time.
Hopefully Omni will address this in a future firmware release.

They are unlikely to if nobody notifies them of the problem, have you contacted them at all to advise of the problem?

Yes.

Hello:

I bought one of these a couple of months ago and it works perfectly, once you get past the awful manual. You must experiment with the remote and you'll eventually end up with a system that works as well as similar devices that cost a great deal more.

Everything works as it should: for example you can easily change the order of the channels to the way you want it.

The big minus is output is limited to RCA plugs and S-Video. However, output through RCA is so very good I've not bothered with S-Video.

The bottom line: persevere with this cheap but far from nasty unit. The dual SD tuner works well and so far no glitches of any kind. I've recorded and played back heaps of stuff and tried to force errors and crashes by turning the unit off and on at the power point - no problems of any kind!

David John

The key here would seem to be 'a couple of months ago'. Purchased an Omni D530 last August, 3 months later sent for repair as it wouldn't power up. One month later I finally received a replacement. Three months later failed again, one month later, a 'Strathfield' refund. Owned one for 8 months, it was being repaired for 2 of these.

A few internet seaches and you'll find common themes with Omni D530:
failed - no power up,
poor service - often replaced with another refurbished unit, takes for ever.

Also when buying ask the store about their refund policy, ie if the unit fails will they refund your money?

Galas has a firmware upgrade for the D530 which locks the time to how you set it and doesn't allow the EPG to change it all the time. Useful especially in Brisbane as we have no daylight saving and sometimes the clock changes to Sydney time. The firmware is a modified version of the December 11 2006 version. May be newer ones too but I can't recall the URL of where Galas keeps the firmwares to check. Just email service@galas.com.au

Galas is no more so may be a problem, perhaps someone here has a copy

Does anyone have a copy of the OMNI D530 firmware?

I think the original filename was:

Galas_D530_TwinTuner_Upgrade_20061124.rar

Thanks...

I had it but maybe too long ago to still actually have a copy of it

Hi, I'm trying to find a firmware upgrade for my Omni D530, but Galas doen't seem to exist anymore.

Would you by chance have a copy of it. I think the last version available on the Omni/Galas website befofe they disappeared was:

Galas_D530_TwinTuner_Upgrade_20061124.rar

Thanks for any help.