What are your thoughts on the Sagem please cos i could be tempted

There are some threads on the Sagem here:

http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=124

Looks even worse than the philips box, didn't think that was possible.

I've been reasonably satisfied with my Pace HDT8520 since the last software update, the box generally seems to do what it's supposed to do.

However, having said that, last night I set it to record Foyle's War on ITV3 as I wouldn't be home when it started. When I came home and went to play it, the box was actually recording the same programme twice. I was able to select either recording to watch the same episode from the start. In the planned recording screen it was only listed once.

Weird or what? .

mine has done that before, Philips said it was down to the EPG not the box.

aaaaaaaaaaaaarrrggghhh! I was series recording Only Fools & Horses from BBC1 and then found yesterday's had the dreaded red triangle unplayable recording. Not had that in a long time

Ill whisper this so it doesn't hear me, mine playing ball bar the odd stutter every hour or so

I get the 'stuttering' on the ITV mux. It seems that instead of getting the chunky pixelation that many boxes have when there is interference the Phillips seesm to freeze the picture which manifests as stuttering. Hopefully when the DSO has completed on Crystal Palace this will go.

I got the stuttering on the box but after full DSO and a power up box has never missed a beat and recorded everything. It seems it needs full signal and perfect reception to work properley (EPG faults nothwithstanding tks ITV) but also get ajoining transmitter ok so have a standby itv to fall back on!!

Mine isn't much different after DSO, the signal strength indicator moved up about 1cm and the signal quality was at full anyway. Pre DSO power was 10Kw post DSO power is 174Kw.

Other freeview equipment in the house showed massive gains and my daughters years old 15 quid durabrand asda box never misses a beat and her indoor aerial it's pointing at the floor lol

It is never going to be perfect ... but the picture is nice and so is the sound when it works properly. All these boxes seem to have problems.

Better the devil you know .....

One thing that continues to confuse me is, when I bring my box out of standby, occasionally it comes straight on tuned to the same channel that was on when I switched it off. But more often than not, it comes on with the Philips logo and I have to wait a short time for the box to display the channel.

Does anyone else suffer from this?

Hi


If the box is recording, even though it appears off, it is of course actually on recording, so when you bring it out of standby it comes on immediately, because it was already on. At other times it is off, so you see the Philips screen as it starts up.

Most PVRs/DVD recorders behave in the same way.

Regards

Phil

Thanks for the explanation Phil. I will check if it's recording the next time it comes straight on. Can't say I've noticed before.

Hi


Also it will turn on around 15 minutes before it is due to record to wait for the signal to start. I also noticed the Philips/Pace didn't really switch off for some minutes after putting it into standby either, so would come back on immediately.

Regards

Phil

To be honest I disabled the facility for the box to go into standby automatically because of so many reports of problems in this area.

I see that Phillips are still pushing the 7.21 version of software out as an OAD so I guess they really are not going to release any future updates.

I switched on my box last night ay 19.15 and it went straight on to Ch51, ITV HD. The box was "NOT" recording at the time nor was it due to record anything.

Today I switched the box on at 15.00 and the Philips name appeared and I had to wait for the channel to appear.

The above explanation you gave Phil doesn't seem to apply.

As the box doesn't consume much power in normal operation why not leave it on all the time? saves a lot of hassle and only costs a few quid a year more in lecky.

Thanks for the advice Secret-Squirrel. However, I think I prefer to switch it off and save the few quid a year. I pay enough to the electric supplier as it is. Look after the pennies and the pounds look after them self, so they say. In my experience you look after the pennies then spend the pounds on something else.

Really not happy with this box now. For ages I've put with the constant picture break and stumbling and last night when I tried to start watching a programme on chase play, the box had a hissy fit and turned itself off.

Turned it back on and all of my recordings has disappeared from the library and when I went to record something else, the box told me that the hard drive was full.So then, I had no choice but to reset it to factory default.

Tried again watching a programme on chase play today and still it was playing up. It was refusing to play when I pressed the play button and refusing to stop fast forwarding.

Only reason I've kept hold of the box is that it upscales the pictures nicely, I'm just tempted now to put an extra LNB on my satellite and use that instead. Funny thing is though, the satellite was cheap as chips from B+Q for £50 and already it's more reliable than the £200 Freeview box

I had the Humax 500GB Freeview HD PVR for a few months but I got Sky HD 1TB for the Formula 1 because I am a huge Formula 1 fan.

My mum and dad now have the Humax 500GB Freeview HD PVR and it is great.

I don't have one but you should also take a look at TVonics Freeview HD PVRs.

They have 2 models which are both the same inside but have diffrent cases.

From what I have seen and read on the Internet I have actually been very impressed with TVonics because they have really improved the 2 Freeview HD PVRs and they now seen to work well and you can connect then up to the Internet and get those Freeview IPTV channels such as I think Connect, Steam and Vision, CCTV, one of them shows Sports Tonight.

And I think you can also get Racing UK via subscription on the both TVonics Freeview HD PVRs.

Tvonics also have a deadicated thread right Here on Digital Spy in the Freeview PVR forums. And they actually have people from TVonics posting on there with lots of useful information and help. They also have videos on You Tube that are very helpful and useful.

So personally if you are looking for a Freeview HD PVR then the only ones to consider are the Humax HDR Fox T2 500GB or TVonics DTR500 HD and TVonics DTR-Z500 HD.

Some PVR's wake up every few hours to update the guide data.

On Panasonic machines it says "GUIDE" on the front display when this is happening. Perhaps the Philips Pace one was doing this?

My one recorded Avatar twice last night both times in HD and sometimes records a part of a film from the +1 channels.

Often also when I turn it on it wakes up, says Philips and then goes off. Pressing standby again makes it then come straight on.

Automan.

It's a thought but it doesn't apply in my case. The Philips PVR does wake up occasionally to check for upates but all that happens is the white top light comes on then goes out. It doesn't explain why some times when I switch my box on it goes immediatley to the channel it was previously tuned to and at other times it takes a while to tune in to a channel.

I often get duplicate recordings on the Philips too. Philips blame the TV companies for sending out identical recording signals for repeats. I happens mainly on Ch5 with repeats on 5USA for me.

Humax does the same so it is a Ch5 issue....

I took it up with Ch5 and they said they would look into it. Clearly they haven't bothered at all. They couldn't give a stuff