Hi,

I've read a lot of the posts in the DVDR,PVR section, so much so it's possible I'm more confused now as to what I should buy than when I started my research a few weeks ago.

I currently don't have the provision to record any TV, except via the trusty VCR. My current TV was purchased in 2001, a 76cm Grundig Elegance CRT. I'm not looking at upgrading this in the next few years, nor do I have, or intend to get, Pay-TV. I'm not an avid TV viewer, but it would be good to record some shows when I am out, large sporting events such as the olympics etc (which I will be away from home for the duration of).

I've got quite a few VHS tapes that, in a perfect world, I'd transfer to DVD (so this would indicate a DVDR, not a PVR), but once this is done, it won't be an ongoing thing, and I could also outsource this to someone if I got a PVR (which unless I am mistaken, don't have any inputs for devices such as VCRs, to record a VHS tape to the hard drive, and then burn the DVD using a computer).

As far as the HD/SD thing goes, there won't be any PQ advantages in HD as my TV won't support it, but it would be good to have the option, either immediately ordown the track, to be able to view Ch 7 and 10 HD in the case that they start showing different content to the SD channel (the TV guide indicates that this happens very rarely, if at all, in the current broadcasting).

I'm also wanting to be able to use my device as a music player, as my desktop PC is in another room (wireless router for internet though), so having MP3's on a HDD that is already connected to my other AV equipment is a good idea, and I would want USB connectivity (good for transferring music initially to the new device, but also for looking at photo slide shows, and transferring files such as divx avi's etc to and from the PC).

At this stage I'm thinking one of the Pioneer 250GB HDD DVD recorders will fit the bill, and, providing it is possible, I will purchase a HD STB later on and connect it to be used in conjunction with the DVDR (viewing 7 and 10 HD, and recording these and otehr channels to the DVDR in SD).

Is there any other device that will do what I want, or is this the best solution for the time being? Has anyone got any ideas where is good to shop to get a good deal on the 250GB Pioneer DVDR's at hte moment (Brisbane)? I think I'll need the 250GB instead of the 160GB for when I am away for a few weeks, and it also means I can leave my music collection on the HDD normally when I am at home and just recording and deleting items.

The Beyonwiz PVRs seem really good, and although it's probably quite easy to get the odd DVD burnt via computer (anyone tried this), I'm not sure about the music jukebox functinality of these and USB, plus they are still quite expensive from what I've seen in my quick browse of the shops.

Good luck mate.
You are in the same boat as me almost.
I asked just about the same questions and still dont know what to do.
Cheap STB to the VCR then a HDD DVR i think.
Most guys here seem to like the PVR's but they dont want to archive as I and you seem to.
Cheers,
Shane.

Me 3!!

It seems in the very short time of researching this, that a very subtle 'preference' in what you want to achieve makes it very difficult to get an overall 'solution' - this world of DTV/HT is not an exact science.

My particular 'NEED" is to shuffle/random play music videos from a storage device - I'd assumed in 2008 that any device with a 50MB+ HDD, designed to interface with a HT system, would be able to achieve this - NO BINGO!!!

Best of Luck - I've gone from in a few days from the BeyondWizDP-S1 to the Pioneer DVR550HXS, to the Mediagate media players, and now looking at some kind of Popcorn thing????

Yeah, I found the thread you started at http://www.dtvforum.info/index.php?showtopic=65021 very useful.

The ability to record from a device such as a VCR, whilst ideal, isn't mandatory. The "must have"s in terms of features for me are:

1. Ability to be able to hold a lot of hours of recording (high capacity HDD)
2. Eventually view HD channels (even though watching and recording in SD is okay) - this isn't something I need this year, but if I can't later attach a HD STB to a DVDR that has an inbuilt SD Tuner, then that will eliminate something like the Pioneer DVR650HXS.

3. Music player functionality (or wireless from Home PC if I had to)
4. USB (if it isn't capable of Wireless like one of the Beyonwiz models), for getting files from my PC to the HDD of the unit.
5. Divx playback for viewing avi files of TV shows currently stored on my PC.
6. If it is a PVR, the ability to get files from it for the occasional burning via my PC to DVD (this isn't a regular thing, but I need to be able to do it a few times during a year).

ANy other features are a bonus (eg. dual HD tuners, picture in picture, the various editing options for burning to DVD etc)

Has anyone with a Beyonwiz or the Homecast PVRs burnt recordings to DVD from these? Was it an easy process in terms of getting the files from the PVR HDD to your computer, and if so, how did you do it (USB, wireless), and is the conversion of the stored file format to something that a DVD player will play easy to do?

Two options I see serving your needs...

1. DVDR...something like the Pioneer 550HXS or LX60D will get you through for now, minus HD channels

2. Beyonwiz PVR (with LiDiC addon which is currently half price). This meets all your needs and with the use of a PC you can archive to DVD.

I use VideoReDo TV Suite for burning files to DVD. Very easy to use including burning software and recoding HD to SD conversion.

I don't think he really wants archiving, which hopefully makes the possible solutions a bit easier...



There are quite a few options, each having pluses and minuses. Note that PVRs in general don't really do the whole MP3 thing all that well. They're klunky and pretty much limited (ie navigation to get to what you want to here can be awkward). I tend to recommend grabbing a $150 iPod as they're much much better at managing and playing MP3s (at home or out and about)

You'll need to decide how important the HD option is to you. While the PQ is not relevant as you say, the HD channels now broadcast different content to the SD channels (generally nothing un-missable but there's a fair chance you'll have a lot of second tier Olympics stuff broadcast on the 7 HD channel.) You can get a HD PVR at this time ($600-$1000) or a HD STB ($100) if you want.

Assuming you don't really need archive capability then something like the main PVRs might be the go (yes you can transfer to a PC and convert and there's lots of help on setting that up if you want down the track)

Personally I'd be inclined to suggest one of the hybrid DVDRs on the market (like the Panasonic DMR ex-87 ($500 or so)). This has a built in SD tuner so you can set up all your normal recordings and viewing with ease. It has the added bonus that you can plug in a HD STB (Say $100 from Dicksmith) and you can set it to record from the HD STB on the odd occasion you want to (same fiddly issue of making sure both boxes are set to record but its not a big hassle if you don't do it to often). You can also plug your VCR in and transfer your tapes across if you want to. The other main benefit is it has a built in DVD REcorder so all this can be easily saved at any time. The drawback? You don't have twin tuner capability for recording 2 things at the same time.

Alternatively you could grab a nice cheap Twin tuner SD PVR like a Toppy 5000 for under $400 (watch 95% of your TV on this any time you want with twin recording, ad skipping, etc.). Grab a $100 HD STB for watching HD channels live.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

Thanks to everyone who has posted replies so far. I've found a lot of great information, and it's steered me on a slightly different tact/narrowed my choices down.

Good to know that PVRs/DVDRs on the whole don't handle music very well in terms of playlists etc. Because of this, I've come up with a different solution for streaming music from my PC to my HT system (Motorola Bluetooth DC800 adaptor), which, coupled with an S60 phone, will give me full remote functionality of my current music program on my PC, and play the music through my HT system.

As a result, I am now looking at a PVR over a DVDR. I figure the few VHS tapes I would like to watch, I can either piggyback a friends DVDR if they get one or pay someone to do the conversion to DVD. Once I have these VHS tapes in a different format I won't need that part of the functionality that a DVDR offers.

So, I'm looking at the Homecast 8000 or the Beyonwiz DP-P1. I've read the threads on here on each, but have a few lingering questions, some of which may be a bit trivial, so I'll apologise in advance if some of this is a bit simple :-)

1. Does either of the models mentioned above have the ability to change the quality of the recording in order to extend the amount of recording time when recording SD FTA channels (such as the DVDRs that offer multiple recording levels). I need this functionality as I'll be away for a couple of weeks when the Olympics is on, and am hoping to be able to record most of it an then catchup when I return. The 250GB HDD DVDR I was looking at would allow it without using the 2 worst quality settings. In this particular instance I think I'll need about 250hours of recording time, and a lot of the DVDRs with 250GB HDD allow up to 700 hours (but would probably only want to use settings to about 400 hours given my research on PQ issues).

2. USB - for viewing divx (avi) files currently on my PC, both of these will accept these via a flash drive or external hard drive connected to the front USB port of the PVR?(I say divx, but I'm presuming the same logic then applies to image files and the like).

3. Will I also be able to extract from the PVRs HDD to a USB device (again, flash drive or HDD), content that I've recorded from FTA TV? Once on an external device I can then choose if I want to make a DVD of something or just keep it electronically on a HDD, but away from the PVRs storage space.

Again, I'm not too worried about PQ, with the HD it's more about having access to the channels as opposed to not having access. My 76cm widescreen CRT will only handle SD anyway.

Just to emphasis that Sd is 2.5Gb/hr and HD is about 6Gb/hr. These values are fixed on all digital PVRs. YOu might like to have someone visit the house mid trip and offload the programs to a external harddrive?

Regards

Peter Gillespie

Good to know. so about 100 hours SD on a Beyonwiz P1, unless I change the HDD as diesel pointed out is possible (handy to know). Has anyone changed one of these to a larger HDD? Will any HDD do or does it have to be a certain brand?

I think I'll go down the path of Peter's suggestion and get someone to offload everything in my absence, but if changing the HDD is a very easy process then I can get someone to just swap that over whilst I am away.
Anyone heard anything about FW updates down the track that might allow for recording to be done directly to a HDD via USB?? Probably asking too much but in a perfect world it would be ideal.

From what I've been reading people seem to be more in favour of the Beyonwiz products. Considering my budget, and in terms of comparing equals, the DP-P1 is what I'm interested in compared to the HC8000. Both sound like great units, and the price difference is neglible at the moment going by what people have haggled stores down to. In terms of the major features is there anything I've overlooked that makes one stand out from the other in anyon'es opinion, or does it come down to personal preference and the "extras" such as bookmarking and similar that I probably won't use? I've already noted that there is an extra 70GB to play with on the Homecast, but it isn't swaying me.

They both seem to allow for a lot of timers to be setup in advance, dual tuner, all the fundamentals that would be expected in a PVR basically. I might yet go shopping this weekend!!!! :-)

Well you're basically specking the Toppy 7000 there. It allows you easily connect a standard external USB drive and transfer files and you can set it to be the 'save' drive of the Toppy directly.

Regards

Peter Gillespie

The Topfield 7000pvrt allows recording to external HDD. Otherwise you can get authorised people to upgrade the HDD without voiding warranty. If you do it yourself, go for a CE version of a HDD, they are designed for DVR/PVrs etc and run a bit quieter than their PC bretheren.

The Beyonwiz are a great unit but they have a lot more features than the Homecast - mostly around the mediaplayer side of things. From what I can ascertain, the BW also have some more options/control around timers and some menus.
But the HC also have some better features like PiP, resume play (?), larger HDD, more controls on the front of the unit.

By "standard external USB drive" you're including the connecting of an external HDD via USB? So if someone wanted to go a bit crazy they could hook up a terabyte HDD and this would then allow for mass saving directly from FTA broadcasts?

If this is the case then the Toppy is worth my investigation. I've heard good things about the, but haven't seen one in a shop or done much research on them as yet.

I'd rather not play around with swapping the HDD if I can avoid it. The Topfield unit sounds good. From the quick read I've had it seems that it's on par with the Beyonwiz, and the HC trails these 2 but has it's fair share of followers (possibly due to it being cheaper until the BW became more price competitive in recent weeks).

Any standout features between the BW and the Topfield? The ability to record direct to an external HDD with the Topfield is awesome, but if it means sacrifcing a lot of other functionality then it won't be worth it. It won't be often that I won't be home to pull things off a PVRs HDD before it fills up.

It seems the Topfield only has a USB port at the rear of the unit, but I presume most users just run a USB extension cable and connect a flash drive or external HDD via that?

I think the original shipment of Toppys came with a short USB extension, but I don't know if they still do that. There is a new Toppy coming out soon(ish) which is the same as the current 7000, but adds ethernet (and possibly some other features).
From all accounts, the Toppy is a better finished PVR, like easier GUI, but there still seems some people have issues with stability/reliability...something I have not experienced with my BW...rock solid. The main thing is the Toppy is a PVR, nothing more. The BW adds a mediaplayer to it's feature set.

I'm scouring the itopfield.com.au forums for info at the moment but with out luck. By mediaplayer, do you mean the ability to play divx files such as .avi etc and look at photo slideshows etc, or are you just talking about music files such as mp3? I've taken care of mp3 via another option, but need the ability to view .avi and similar files by connecting an external source (HDD or flash drive) via USB. This would just be for content I've downloaded via torrets etc and means I can finally watch things in my loungeroom instead of on my computer screen! :-)

The fact I won't be streaming as per a media centre PC setup doesn't bother me. I'm happy copying files from my PC to an external HDD, then moving this to my loungeroom and connecting to a PVR to watch through my TV.

Do not underestimate what is already available exclusively on HD. For Example on 10HD on Thursday evenings you can watch 4 Sci-Fi programmes in a row. Smallville, Battlestar Galactica, Eureka and the 4400. Pretty good if you like a bit of Sci-Fi and exclusive. Also Nascar racing from the USA never previously shown on FTA. Just something to consider when it comes to the time to buy your gear.

Yep, you can play a bunch of files, (mpegs, avi, divx, VOB, MKV coming in April FW, mp3, jpegs) direct off your PC drive via ethernet without having to transfer to external HDD.

DP-P1 specs - check out the Video, audio, jpeg decoding specs

Are you talking about the BW DP-P1 or the Toppy? I think the DP-P1 as from what I have read the Topfield 7000 doesn't have an ethernet port. I thought the BW already played the files you listed, without the need for another FW update. I need the ability to play .avi files, so if the Topfield won't do it then looks like the DP-P1 is going to be my best bet.

I am guessing the soon to be released Topfield 7100 will be a lot more expensive and therefore out of my budget so not a lot of point waiting for it.

he means MKV is being added in the April firmware update.

Okay. Well I've read through the manual for the DP-P1 for the sections affecting the dumping of content to an external HDD via USB, and it seems straight forward (I'll be trusting mates who aren't tech savvy in the slightest whilst I am away), and I think they'll cope. Pity aspects of the Topfield 7000 and the BW DP-P1 can't be combined, but that's always the way. I need the mpeg/avi etc playback functionality for downloaded content on my PC more than the ability to have a massive external HDD as the primary source to record to, so the DP-P1 wins for me over the Topfield 7000. The HC8000 looked good to, but like others have said, the BW seems to have a few more nice features, is roughly the same price etc, and seems to have good support.

Now I just need to find a good price in Brisbane somewhere. Anyone bought one in this neck of the woods in recent weeks and/or what are people able to haggle to at the moment? Is $760still the best? Hopefully all the new stock is 250GB and not 200GB...

The ticketed price at Good Guys in Tuggeranong, Canberra was $749 this week.

Ty the price thread.

Just have the fridge stocked with some beers and I'm sure you'll have some volunteers. Only problem maybe that transferring all the shows to an external HDD will take some time, so maybe you are better off to get them over to start copying and then come back the next day to check it's all gone well and then delete off the BW's HDD.

You can "move" files to an external HDD which will delete them off the BW's HDD, but I'm more inclined to "Copy", to ensure that it's gone well before deleting off the HDD of the BW. Don't wantt to find out what happens if you are moving files and you get a blackout...will you lose the file that was being transferred at the time?