[ney]

Anynone know much about the box. I see its new in the Argos book.
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...CORDER+BOX.htm

Dose it pick up the Freeview HD channels.

Darren

[drgeoff]

View21 500GB Freeview+ HD TV Recorder Next Generation.

[Fred Smith]

Originally Posted by ney

Anynone know much about the box. I see its new in the Argos book.
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...CORDER+BOX.htm

Dose it pick up the Freeview HD channels.

Darren

There is a clue in the title "View21 500GB Freeview+ HD TV Recorder"

Must type quicker.

[lbear]

View 21 is the name Harvard have adopted for their set top boxes after they ruined the reputation of the Grundig and Goodmans brand names.

As with anything Freeview HD from Argos, this is outrageously overpriced. You can get the tried and trusted Humax HDR Fox T2 from Richer Sounds for the same price - it comes with a perfectly reasonable HDMI lead too!!

PS Richer Sounds will charge you a (refundable) £25 for a 5 year extended warranty as opposed to Argos's £70 non-refundable for 3 years.

NB, the other Vision 21 box that has appeared on the Argos site is listed as HD but is not unless they have found a magical way of sending HD over SCART; It certainly does not have a Freeview HD logo.

[detlar]

beware the T2, when brought out of standby it does not also bring the tv on via the hdmi.this causes confusion in the family! The blue ray player does this,
asdid our old digifusion Hdd via scart, . it was much more ùserfriendly`.
The reply to an email to Humax re this was``It des not do this``, no explanatoin given.
.I assumed too much when I bought what I thought was
the Rolls Royce of hdd boxes!
I await further info on the view 21.
Detlar

[lstar337]

Originally Posted by detlar

beware the T2, when brought out of standby it does not also bring the tv on via the hdmi.this causes confusion in the family! The blue ray player does this,
asdid our old digifusion Hdd via scart, . it was much more ùserfriendly`.
The reply to an email to Humax re this was``It des not do this``, no explanatoin given.
.I assumed too much when I bought what I thought was
the Rolls Royce of hdd boxes!
I await further info on the view 21.
Detlar

Yes, it must be truly devastating to have to bring the TV out of standby manually.

[ejstubbs]

Originally Posted by detlar

beware the T2, when brought out of standby it does not also bring the tv on via the hdmi.

This is a not uncommon problem with many HDMI devices. See this post on hummy.tv for more information. Note also that another poster on that thread reported that their HDR-T2 does auto-switch their Toshiba TV. The issue is by no means unique to the Humax - the View21 is very likely to behave in a similarly inconsistent way.

FWIW my Sony Blu-Ray player doesn't auto-switch my Sony TV on HDMI, so it's not even the case that equipment from the same manufacturer is guaranteed to work!

[lstar337]

Originally Posted by ejstubbs

FWIW my Sony Blu-Ray player doesn't auto-switch my Sony TV on HDMI, so it's not even the case that equipment from the same manufacturer is guaranteed to work!

I think you will find that it does if you enable 'HDMI Control' on both devices.

My Sony will switch on from my Samsung Blu-ray player, sadly the 'HDMI Control' also introduces a whole load of other problems, probably due to being different brands.

[Paddy C]

To answer the OP's question, no I don't think this unit will receive the HD channels, it merely takes the current channels and outputs them over HDMI, allowing for a slight improvement in picture quality, but nowhere near HD quality. You would be better looking at a different receiver if you want to receive and record the HD channels.

For something that's listed as a HD TV Recorder, not once in the description does it state that the unit receives the HD channels and in fact, only refers to upscaling. If this does actually receive the HD channels, that is one incredibly badly written product description.

[Hummyowner]

Originally Posted by Paddy C

For something that's listed as a HD TV Recorder, not once in the description does it state that the unit receives the HD channels and in fact, only refers to upscaling. If this does actually receive the HD channels, that is one incredibly badly written product description.

I agree, however the box does carry freeview+HD logo, and this video would imply it is a HD recroder as HD channels are listed in EPG

[ejstubbs]

I agree the description is poor, but I'd be astonished if the device doesn't actually receive and record HD channels. Trying to charge £250 for an upscaling SD-only recorder is 'avin' a larf!

According to the photo, the front panel does have a Freeview+HD logo...

[kasg]

Yes, it clearly is a Freeview HD receiver, but Argos has managed to completely omit this from the product description, referring only to "HD upscaling". I suppose this is the opposite of the usual problem with Argos descriptions.

[lbear]

Originally Posted by kasg

Yes, it clearly is a Freeview HD receiver, but Argos has managed to completely omit this from the product description, referring only to "HD upscaling". I suppose this is the opposite of the usual problem with Argos descriptions.

Down to their usual standard of product knowledge though. Still trying to flog their 25quid HDMI leads as well I see.

BTW, what the heck does 'next generation' mean?

[darnall42]

Originally Posted by lbear

Still trying to flog their 25quid HDMI leads as well I see.

i have a panasonic blu ray recorder,sky HD box and a cyclone media player and they all connect perfectly to my TV with HDMIs Cables bought off E-Bay for £2 (including P&P) each anybody that pays £25 has more money than sense

[kasg]

Originally Posted by darnall42

i have a panasonic blu ray recorder,sky HD box and a cyclone media player and they all connect perfectly to my TV with HDMIs Cables bought off E-Bay for £2 (including P&P) each anybody that pays £25 has more money than sense

Often available in Poundland as well.

[lstar337]

Originally Posted by darnall42

i have a panasonic blu ray recorder,sky HD box and a cyclone media player and they all connect perfectly to my TV with HDMIs Cables bought off E-Bay for £2 (including P&P) each anybody that pays £25 has more money than sense

I bought 4 from tesco for 75p each, and they all work great. They were Philips branded and cheaper than the Tesco blue/white stripe version at £1 each.

They are only 75cm long though, so best used if your equipment is close to the TV.

Still a bargain!

[1andrew1]

Originally Posted by ney

Anynone know much about the box. I see its new in the Argos book.
http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...CORDER+BOX.htm

Dose it pick up the Freeview HD channels.

Darren

The View21 products have now been removed from the Argos website. The View21 brand website still says "Coming soon".
Incidentally, Harvard itself has recently been acquired by Chinese STB manufacturer Geeya see http://www.geeya.co.uk/

[Grouty]

Got one of these today for my mother (well the SD one http://www.view21.com/freeview-smart...al-set-top-box), as the one she had gave up the ghost, but going to take it back tomorrow, as its got a default inactivity of 3 hrs (i.e, if you leave it for 3 hrs without touching it, it goes off), and you can't set it to not do that, as it keeps defaulting back to the 3 hrs.

[Grouty]

Swapped it for the Humax 9300T with 500gb hd, cracking box, and already got one in the sitting room, so know how good they are.