I can't agree - not just for PVRs or even for A/V equipment I see posts on all sorts of boards asking "which is better A or B?". All the A owners wade in with "A obvioulsy" apart from the three A owners who had a bad experinece and go for "I wouldn't touch A with yours!". Then the B owners wade in with the counter argument. Then a handful of neutral observers add in "I've heard A is good for X,Y,Z but has a problem with A,B,C while B is good at N,M,O but I've heard it isn't much good at U,V,W - but I may have misunderstood"
I agree with your sentiments here Cliff, in terms of the sort of redundant "mine's best" arguments that arise (but not in the validity of who could and should comment). However, I have no axe to grind in all of this at all, and I'm surprised that people could have taken my original post that way. I actually believe there's very little to separate these machines, and was just trying to make the the statement concerning their surprising similarities.
I agree with your sentiments here Cliff, in terms of the sort of redundant "mine's best" arguments that arise (but not in the validity of who could and should comment). However, I have no axe to grind in all of this at all, and I'm surprised that people could have taken my original post that way. I actually believe there's very little to separate these machines, and was just trying to make the the statement concerning their surprising similarities.
It seems to be my day for being misunderstood...
Like you jon I agree with Cliff sentiments. Anyone trying to find any value in this thread will apreciate your balanced views on the topic by the way - I think it just went off in a tangent by mistake but I respect responses like rhubarbes to that. I am sure this and the mirror thread on the Toppy section has been useful to Idalek certainly.
I didn't realise I was going to cause such a "heated debate". I was just hoping that owners could point out any benefits / problems with either machine that I may have missed. I think, for the most part, they have. Thank you for that.
Unfortunately, I've been spending the last few days comparing the relative benefits of Bosch vs. Beko. Whilst the Bosch is cheaper and slightly more efficient, the Beko has more fridge shelves and a greater storage capacity. However, both are noisy, the picture and sound are rubbish and chase play isn't even mentioned in the manual. Rubbish or what? Mind you, neither of them run hot...
Unfortunately, I've been spending the last few days comparing the relative benefits of Bosch vs. Beko. Whilst the Bosch is cheaper and slightly more efficient, the Beko has more fridge shelves and a greater storage capacity. .
Which tends to like Bosch products, I don't know about Beko. Stated capacity is unreliable.
I've been living with the 9200t for, i guess, 3-4 months now.
Absoultelty reliable and no desire to customise with taps.
Even the 20 prog limit is livable - however!
My biggest issue is becoming archiving material.
I don't have the time or the knowldge pull content from the humax to my PC.
This is absurd to me as it was a major factor in my buying decision.
But jumping through the flaming castrating hoops of hell seems to be the order of the day if you want to pull content from the humax to your pc .
And this cack handed nonsense seems unlikely to be resolved by any software fix.
So, if (and I don't know the answer to this) the toppy is even slightly more accommodating when it comes to pulling your recordings to your pc, I would go for it.
My HD is now 95% full of stuff that i haven't got time to watch right now but which I don't want to loose.
Yes I know I could by a DVD recorder and pump it all off in 1:1 time but that's not the point.
In a nutshell - the USB link on the Humax is not worth the time of day - discount it in any buying decision.
I've been living with the 9200t for, i guess, 3-4 months now.
Absoultelty reliable and no desire to customise with taps.
Even the 20 prog limit is livable - however!
My biggest issue is becoming archiving material.
I don't have the time or the knowldge pull content from the humax to my PC.
This is absurd to me as it was a major factor in my buying decision.
But jumping through the flaming castrating hoops of hell seems to be the order of the day if you want to pull content from the humax to your pc .
And this cack handed nonsense seems unlikely to be resolved by any software fix.
So, if (and I don't know the answer to this) the toppy is even slightly more accommodating when it comes to pulling your recordings to your pc, I would go for it.
My HD is now 95% full of stuff that i haven't got time to watch right now but which I don't want to loose.
Yes I know I could by a DVD recorder and pump it all off in 1:1 time but that's not the point.
In a nutshell - the USB link on the Humax is not worth the time of day - discount it in any buying decision.
The Hummy is less than ideal for archiving purposes, I must agree. The eLinker program could be improved significantly, however, if the rumours are correct, Humax won't be improving it - seems like they do not have the department and the expertise to develop software applications. It looks like the USB link is for uploading MP3s and JPEGs to the box rather than for downloading recorded programmes.
The USB2 transfer speed is a real joke (only managing roughly 15Mbit/s which sounds like a USB1 speed...) BUT I think the Topfield's USB link is also roughly around this speed too? (Can someone confirm?) In real terms that is 1Gb per 10 minutes transfer at the very best and a film recording is roughly 3Gb in size... so a whole disk transfer is going to take time.
I know no other PVRs with USB/Ethernet/PC transfer facilities. Does anyone else?
Transfers have gone OK for me. When the duovision thread was started late October we did some tests to check how easy it was to transfer recordings and how fast it was. As a lot of people were asking about what this was like in real life before buying - anyone remember. It was then that we realised that transfers were quite slow. Slow in relation to your expectation of high speed USB2. nwhitfield has helped to explain why it is possible to have USB2 on toppy and humax packaging but not necesserilly mean that its operating at the highest speed rates within that standard. Basically if you have in your head that USB2 high speed is what you should be getting, transfer speed is disapointing; I havent actually spent a lot of time transfering long recordings but I'm sure if I did I would still be disapointed. But for what I do its fine to be honest.
I did notice that one of the files Humax have sent to Korea engineers does have this USB2/USB file transfer speed listed as something to look into rectifying if possible.
Would anybody care (maybe that should be dare) to venture an opinion as to which would be the better PVR to use with an AV receiver's upconverting video switching circuits? My AV receiver is a NAD T752.
I have 92GB of recordings that I have transferred from my 9200T to my PC. There are 74 files with no extension. I need to put a .mpg extension on the end of each to be able to use them with my networked DVD player and wonder if there is a way to batch process the files. "cmd" doesn't like it as there are gaps in the file names, and the fact that there are no extensions to the files is making it think there are no files there at all.
Yeah, yeah, I have heard of the Reelbox, but have yet to hear from an owner... I would like to get a review from a Reelbox owner and find out some more info from first hand experience.
I have 92GB of recordings that I have transferred from my 9200T to my PC. There are 74 files with no extension. I need to put a .mpg extension on the end of each to be able to use them with my networked DVD player and wonder if there is a way to batch process the files. "cmd" doesn't like it as there are gaps in the file names, and the fact that there are no extensions to the files is making it think there are no files there at all.
cmd can cope with spaces - you just need to know how... put the filename in quotes (") would be my suggestion...
Thanks for the link to Flash renamer, just what I needed.
I do have a ReelBox, son. What did you want to know?
1, I know it is based on Linux. How does it perform as a 'consumer' device (does it instantly turn on and off - or do you have to treat it like a computer - and wait for ages?)
2, What is the EPG like? How good is the nagivation and selection of programmes to record, etc?
3, What interface does it use? Is it a bespoke GUI or does it use Windows MCE or MythTV or similar? How good is the interface?
4, How good or easy is it to transfer files off the machine for archiving? Are the files in TS format? Is it possible to transfer video files on to the box for viewing (eg. if I had a few MPEG2 - or MPEG4 video files and want to view them on the device?)
Just some questions... more to come...
Also why have you not requested a forum section in DS? Is there a specific forum site for this Reelbox?
1 It works fine as a consumer device. I was a bit worried about this too. But you just turn it on, takes about 30 seconds to boot Linux and the HDD. You get a splash screen and then it goes by default to the channel you were last watching.
2 I just use now and next but I'll explore later for you.
It is desiged to be a network streaming device, yes. This means that you can view TV on a remote PC via the ReelBox and you can play files on the TV from a PC using Samba, CIFs, I think. Don't know about MPEG4.
Why haven't I requested a section? I didn't want a lot of pre-release speculation and dissing that went on on the Inverto and Panny threads. Wouldn't have minded the banter that became the 9200T thread or the Toppy threads but I guess there wouldn't be the interest at £549 to generate much traffic in a DS section.
When people see what it can do though.........
Bear in mind that mine is a satellite version. the DVB-T tuners are here but on test as we speak, working well by all accounts.
I've just completed a comparison between the Humax PVR-SMART (your 9200T) and the Topfield MP. I've compared both as they come out-of-the box. I own both - bought the Hummy about 3 months ago, and the Toppy about a week ago. The post/thread covers many of the issues that are important to most users and includes many technical finer points like no S-Video on the VCR Scart on the Toppy, resumption of scheduled recordings after power failure etc etc.
Comments
I agree with your sentiments here Cliff, in terms of the sort of redundant "mine's best" arguments that arise (but not in the validity of who could and should comment). However, I have no axe to grind in all of this at all, and I'm surprised that people could have taken my original post that way. I actually believe there's very little to separate these machines, and was just trying to make the the statement concerning their surprising similarities.
It seems to be my day for being misunderstood...
Like you jon I agree with Cliff sentiments. Anyone trying to find any value in this thread will apreciate your balanced views on the topic by the way - I think it just went off in a tangent by mistake but I respect responses like rhubarbes to that. I am sure this and the mirror thread on the Toppy section has been useful to Idalek certainly.
I'm starting to take offence now. If you've been a prat it's all your own doing - you don't have to use it as another excuse to bash me.
I didn't realise I was going to cause such a "heated debate". I was just hoping that owners could point out any benefits / problems with either machine that I may have missed. I think, for the most part, they have. Thank you for that.
Unfortunately, I've been spending the last few days comparing the relative benefits of Bosch vs. Beko. Whilst the Bosch is cheaper and slightly more efficient, the Beko has more fridge shelves and a greater storage capacity. However, both are noisy, the picture and sound are rubbish and chase play isn't even mentioned in the manual. Rubbish or what? Mind you, neither of them run hot...
You've clearly never owned either a Bosch or a Beko - how dare you! Be off with you now, and take those strange items called "opinions" with you...
Which tends to like Bosch products, I don't know about Beko. Stated capacity is unreliable.
I still prefer my Humax.
Absoultelty reliable and no desire to customise with taps.
Even the 20 prog limit is livable - however!
My biggest issue is becoming archiving material.
I don't have the time or the knowldge pull content from the humax to my PC.
This is absurd to me as it was a major factor in my buying decision.
But jumping through the flaming castrating hoops of hell seems to be the order of the day if you want to pull content from the humax to your pc .
And this cack handed nonsense seems unlikely to be resolved by any software fix.
So, if (and I don't know the answer to this) the toppy is even slightly more accommodating when it comes to pulling your recordings to your pc, I would go for it.
My HD is now 95% full of stuff that i haven't got time to watch right now but which I don't want to loose.
Yes I know I could by a DVD recorder and pump it all off in 1:1 time but that's not the point.
In a nutshell - the USB link on the Humax is not worth the time of day - discount it in any buying decision.
The Hummy is less than ideal for archiving purposes, I must agree. The eLinker program could be improved significantly, however, if the rumours are correct, Humax won't be improving it - seems like they do not have the department and the expertise to develop software applications. It looks like the USB link is for uploading MP3s and JPEGs to the box rather than for downloading recorded programmes.
The USB2 transfer speed is a real joke (only managing roughly 15Mbit/s which sounds like a USB1 speed...) BUT I think the Topfield's USB link is also roughly around this speed too? (Can someone confirm?) In real terms that is 1Gb per 10 minutes transfer at the very best and a film recording is roughly 3Gb in size... so a whole disk transfer is going to take time.
I know no other PVRs with USB/Ethernet/PC transfer facilities. Does anyone else?
I did notice that one of the files Humax have sent to Korea engineers does have this USB2/USB file transfer speed listed as something to look into rectifying if possible.
Would anybody care (maybe that should be dare) to venture an opinion as to which would be the better PVR to use with an AV receiver's upconverting video switching circuits? My AV receiver is a NAD T752.
I have 92GB of recordings that I have transferred from my 9200T to my PC. There are 74 files with no extension. I need to put a .mpg extension on the end of each to be able to use them with my networked DVD player and wonder if there is a way to batch process the files. "cmd" doesn't like it as there are gaps in the file names, and the fact that there are no extensions to the files is making it think there are no files there at all.
www.reelbox.co.uk Not the Avantgarde, the Lite. £549.
I wouldn't mind owning one if it is any good...
cmd can cope with spaces - you just need to know how... put the filename in quotes (") would be my suggestion...
But why type when you can use Flash Renamer, does it in an instant! Does alsorts of renaming... Try it: http://www.rlvision.com/flashren/about.asp
Thanks for the link to Flash renamer, just what I needed.
I do have a ReelBox, son. What did you want to know?
I know the Humax runs cool, but I'd never thought of keeping my milk in it :eek:
1, I know it is based on Linux. How does it perform as a 'consumer' device (does it instantly turn on and off - or do you have to treat it like a computer - and wait for ages?)
2, What is the EPG like? How good is the nagivation and selection of programmes to record, etc?
3, What interface does it use? Is it a bespoke GUI or does it use Windows MCE or MythTV or similar? How good is the interface?
4, How good or easy is it to transfer files off the machine for archiving? Are the files in TS format? Is it possible to transfer video files on to the box for viewing (eg. if I had a few MPEG2 - or MPEG4 video files and want to view them on the device?)
Just some questions... more to come...
Also why have you not requested a forum section in DS? Is there a specific forum site for this Reelbox?
2 I just use now and next but I'll explore later for you.
3 It uses DVR which you can real about here. It is a tad modified from base.
http://www.cadsoft.de/vdr/
4 I haven't tried moving files. As yet I only have three recordings on the HDD. I'll have a look in the RCC software later. You can get the management software here:
http://www.reel-multimedia.com/english/entwickler/d-tools.html
It is desiged to be a network streaming device, yes. This means that you can view TV on a remote PC via the ReelBox and you can play files on the TV from a PC using Samba, CIFs, I think. Don't know about MPEG4.
Why haven't I requested a section? I didn't want a lot of pre-release speculation and dissing that went on on the Inverto and Panny threads. Wouldn't have minded the banter that became the 9200T thread or the Toppy threads but I guess there wouldn't be the interest at £549 to generate much traffic in a DS section.
When people see what it can do though.........
Bear in mind that mine is a satellite version. the DVB-T tuners are here but on test as we speak, working well by all accounts.
Let's start a new thread to discuss about the Reelbox...
But a quick question; when is the DVB-T version coming out?
DVB-T soon as the tuners ar approved by the devs and Reel Multimedia get some NIM's in.
If you're interested, go here
Phil.