New PVR - Dion DTR250SS10 (Merged)

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Comments

  • ty webbty webb Posts: 225
    Forum Member
    Davetech, i've now recorded around 30 programmes without failure on this Dion unit, well pleased with it, more so my good lady as she can now record from the Quest/Yesterday channels, which we don't have on Freesat. Just to say, i returned the Logik 160gb freeview pvr to the seller on "flea-bay" for a refund, i am also going to try get my postage refunded too since the Logik box never worked properly from the moment i received it. Cheers
  • ty webbty webb Posts: 225
    Forum Member
    Ps, I have also found that the Dion pvr can record 2 tv channels and view a 3rd at the same time, and they were not all from the same broadcasting Mux! Fluke or something? Lord knows, the joy of "budget pvr's" !!
  • StigidStigid Posts: 2,392
    Forum Member
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    You can also view a recording whilst it is still recording, very useful....

    (Just like a SKY+HD box)

    The Dion doesn't need to be in standby to timer record, and whilst timer recording, you can switch it on without affecting the recording(s), to watch another item, live or recorded.

    I find the bright red led on the front too bright and distracting, so I made little blue-tack open top semi circle cups to hide the led whilst sat down, but they can be seen when stood near the Dions.
  • ty webbty webb Posts: 225
    Forum Member
    Stigid, i'm loving your "home-made" solutions i.e. the Pepsi tops for air-flow and the Blu-Tack one too! The other evening as i was switching things off,lights etc for bed-time, i noticed that i could see right through the front panel of the Dion box when the only light on in the room was the Red LED on front of the box. It really is basic, also, inside the Dion(via the top air-vents) is a Green LED light which is constantly lit, why? I cant believe this unit sold for around £70-80 at one time, given how basic it seems. Loving it though
  • davetechdavetech Posts: 286
    Forum Member
    ty webb wrote: »
    Davetech, i've now recorded around 30 programmes without failure on this Dion unit, well pleased with it, more so my good lady as she can now record from the Quest/Yesterday channels, which we don't have on Freesat. Just to say, i returned the Logik 160gb freeview pvr to the seller on "flea-bay" for a refund, i am also going to try get my postage refunded too since the Logik box never worked properly from the moment i received it. Cheers

    I do agree the dion is better than the logik - The logik I purchase to via ebay, but it was without harddrive, but i had one spare and as worked well - but the dion is little faster they both could do with a firmware upgrade - but i strongly doubt this would ever happen,
  • davetechdavetech Posts: 286
    Forum Member
    Stigid wrote: »
    You can also view a recording whilst it is still recording, very useful....

    (Just like a SKY+HD box)

    The Dion doesn't need to be in standby to timer record, and whilst timer recording, you can switch it on without affecting the recording(s), to watch another item, live or recorded.

    I find the bright red led on the front too bright and distracting, so I made little blue-tack open top semi circle cups to hide the led whilst sat down, but they can be seen when stood near the Dions.

    The main missing item is a led display showing channel number etc... but for sub £30 quid there are no complaints - The red led is a little intense and does catch you eye your right
  • davetechdavetech Posts: 286
    Forum Member
    ty webb wrote: »
    Stigid, i'm loving your "home-made" solutions i.e. the Pepsi tops for air-flow and the Blu-Tack one too! The other evening as i was switching things off,lights etc for bed-time, i noticed that i could see right through the front panel of the Dion box when the only light on in the room was the Red LED on front of the box. It really is basic, also, inside the Dion(via the top air-vents) is a Green LED light which is constantly lit, why? I cant believe this unit sold for around £70-80 at one time, given how basic it seems. Loving it though

    Yep correct there are pricey - but i think the main cost was the harddrive and by the amount being sold without or refurbished it could be hard drives that have failed more often than not probably due to heat - but if they have been repaired etc and new hard drives fitted they are bound to be better than the one they originally had in them, as they are built to price not to quality!
  • ty webbty webb Posts: 225
    Forum Member
    davetech wrote: »
    Yep correct there are pricey - but i think the main cost was the harddrive and by the amount being sold without or refurbished it could be hard drives that have failed more often than not probably due to heat - but if they have been repaired etc and new hard drives fitted they are bound to be better than the one they originally had in them, as they are built to price not to quality!

    Yeah, i would agree Davetech, i've not been let down yet by a "re-furbished" item, especially from tesco outlet. Maybe just been lucky? Re- your Logik box, probably good that you had your own HDD to install in the box, i got a message virtually every day on my Logik- "re-build memory device?" Alarm bells rang in head that the Logik HDD was a stinker, think it was a Hitachi HDD in my Logik as i had a wee peek under the lid. :eek:
  • davetechdavetech Posts: 286
    Forum Member
    ty webb wrote: »
    Yeah, i would agree Davetech, i've not been let down yet by a "re-furbished" item, especially from tesco outlet. Maybe just been lucky? Re- your Logik box, probably good that you had your own HDD to install in the box, i got a message virtually every day on my Logik- "re-build memory device?" Alarm bells rang in head that the Logik HDD was a stinker, think it was a Hitachi HDD in my Logik as i had a wee peek under the lid. :eek:

    I've heard that hitachi hard drive not too good, I've had a fujitsu drive fail - the one I popped in was a seagate - but as long as is not maxtor we can all rest easy - but that my opinion and not DS - disclamer :D
  • ty webbty webb Posts: 225
    Forum Member
    davetech wrote: »
    I've heard that hitachi hard drive not too good, I've had a fujitsu drive fail - the one I popped in was a seagate - but as long as is not maxtor we can all rest easy - but that my opinion and not DS - disclamer :D

    Seagate/Western Digital drives, a bit more expensive,are more reliable, guess you get what you pay for Hard Drive wise. If only the manufacturers of "budget" PVR's would use a decent Hard Drive a lot of problems may not occur,although prices of these "budget" boxes would be higher, they may prove more reliable for the customer and result in less "returns" only to be sold "re-furbished" to the likes of myself! :D:D
  • davetechdavetech Posts: 286
    Forum Member
    ty webb wrote: »
    Seagate/Western Digital drives, a bit more expensive,are more reliable, guess you get what you pay for Hard Drive wise. If only the manufacturers of "budget" PVR's would use a decent Hard Drive a lot of problems may not occur,although prices of these "budget" boxes would be higher, they may prove more reliable for the customer and result in less "returns" only to be sold "re-furbished" to the likes of myself! :D:D

    For sure, where retailers purchased like this

    Manufacturer - Middle Man - Retailer there was QC and control of product but when retailers Purchased Direct from Manufacturer its cheaper and they take on the warranty like a big Retailer A###s they warranty there own products thus they take as many as they can at the cheapest price - and the end user take on testing

    Hence big returns on some products
  • davetechdavetech Posts: 286
    Forum Member
    My Dion is still going well, has there been an update?

    Channel switching is far quicker than it used to be, since the channels got re-numbered,

    The box just seems more responsive, perhaps by only 0.5 sec or so but its worth it,
  • SilvioDanteSilvioDante Posts: 2,561
    Forum Member
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    Davetech, i also have a re-furb Dion 250gb pvr, its maybe missed the 1st couple of minutes of a recording, pretty rarely though. Only thing i miss is lack of display on front of the unit. Good budget SD pvr.
  • davetechdavetech Posts: 286
    Forum Member
    Well my Dion is still working, but there are some items to report,

    For the last few months it has been going well in the bedroom and worked without issue, but now have decided to jack the cable in and save the £££...

    So what have i found,

    Using the box down stairs connected to the same antenna, but via about 25 meters of cable, tunes well and worked well, (though my tv had issues with RT and Film 4 ) even though the signal was about 82% and Quality 69% and was fine on my dion, so the dion tuners are slighty better, anyway, (have increased the DB gain from 10 to 20 Max) corrected this

    1st locked up during playback (removed from mains) to reset, played the recorded item fine!

    2nd locked up when i exited from playback, could change channel no picture.

    So rebooted, and then found i was locked out of factory reset and tune (and other bits) (operation not allowed!) it was saying to me....

    So rebooted again with the same issue, looked everywhere for a reset but something from somewhere said,

    Put the box in standby, then press the standby and Volume up on the remote together, the led began to flash red then green,

    left it like this for 1 min the pressed Vol up and it tuned red again, then took the box out of standby and this seemed to allow access to the menu's again,

    So have done a factory reset and re-install (please note this turns the antenna power off) so power on if you need to before re-tune)

    This also keeps the data on the hard drive, and now seems to be working well,

    my thoughts are that the farther the way the box is from the antenna the worst the general stability is (perhaps) as it worked well upstairs.

    I've also noticed no firmware updates so i guess there will not be any at all now.

    If anyone has any additional thoughts let me know, but as of today still working :D
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