Having been a long time, very happy user of two Digifusion FVRT Freeview PVRs, I recently took the plunge and purchased a Grundig GUFSDTR500HD. Really don't see many comments on this box on the forum, so I thought I'd give a quick post.

So far it's performed perfectly. I've done a power off test during recording and it just wakes back up and carries on recording, putting the two separate segments in the library with start and stop times of each bit. Hasn't put a foot wrong so far. Series link and accurate recorinding have worked a treat, which is a real boon during these footie and Wimbledon schedules (the Digiufsions being pre Freeview+ and actually using a separate 14 day EPG).

Why did I pick the Grundig? It was on offer at Costco who have a no quibble return policy. So if it was a pup, easy to return and could then have tried out a Foxsat HDR. There seem to be a few foibles with the Foxsat though which is what put me off that box.

I'll check back occasionally, so if anyone wants to know more about the Grundig, please just ask. So far, I have no complaints.

Fan noise seems to be a problem for some users.
Any comments on this?

The unit goes into proper low power shutdown after a while (30 minutes?) and there's no noise then. When you press the remote to switch it on, there's a few seconds delay whilst it wakes up again - at this point you can just hear the fan running as the unit "wakes up" and it takes a few seconds before it becomes properly online and available to do anything with. This cycling of the fan also happens when it "wakes up" to make a scheduled recording. In a normal lounge/sitting room, you really wouldn't notice it, unless you have very sensitive hearing. We don't notice it when watching the TV. If you were using it in a bedroom, then I guess it would be more noticeable.

Now I should temper this statement a little. The Digifusions (and I have two in the room) have cooling fans and hard disks that are constantly running. So there's always a bit of background noise which probably masks the "new" noise that occurs as the Grundig wakes up. If we only had the Grundig, then you'd notice it more. But I don't think it's anywhere near as bad as the whirring and clanking that used to occur in the average VHS video recorder/player (how quickly we forget those comforting mechanical notes....). Over the years, some members on the Digifusion forum have found the fan/disk noise particularly troublesome, to others it's just a steady background hum. The design/location of the fans in the Digifusions is such that a poorly/overly tightened fixing on the fan can cause slight misalignment resulting in excessive noise and a quick slacken/retighten of the securing screws can work wonders. Also some people just seem more senstive to the particular frequencies that the fan runs at.

Is the Foxsat HDR fanless then?

No - I'm a big fan of the Foxsat!

hi all
any one know if it is poss. to make the font bigger in the info boxes thanks

Other than getting an even bigger TV screen, I don't think so. The Grundig is relatively easy to use, the downside of which means that there's little to configure or play with.

There's also very little posting activity about these boxes. Would love to know if there's any kind of hidden/engineering menus.

Would also like to see a firmware update to fix some of the bugs. I was starting to think my bax was more or less stable since installing a power switch to do a nightly reboot and getting rid the second Ch4 and Ch4+1 which I suspected may have been causing some of the failed recordings. After a couple of weeks of pretty stable use, apart from a couple of refusals to wake up from standby, last night I get another failed to record due to unexpected internal error. Fortunately we were watching a prior recording on the box at the time so the error popped up on screen and I was able to set the programme to record on the ITV4+1 channel.

I think it's more stable when not using the box! Ours failed recording 2 channels whilst on live pause, it told us we had to exit live pause, but the pause light carried on flashing (annoying at best) and failed to record. We've also had quite a few missed recordings & locked up box, one occasion all our recordings went to the previous programme, only once not come out of standby. Sticking with it for now; shame as much nicer box than the foxsat.

Had this box for five months now. Generally gives good results but it seems to have a few anomolies built in.

1. When switching on from full standby, the indicator light goes to blue, then off, then red, then blue. If you are not aware of this, and hit the power on button again during this sequence, the box will lock up, requiring a power down reset.

2. Occasionally, and apparently randomly, when watching live TV ( not recorded to my knowledge ), the picture will repeatedly disappear / reappear. The sound is not affected and remains. Switching channels up/down or down/up restores normal service. Recorded programs have never displayed this behaviour.

3. The box does lock up quite regularly, but apart from the start up saga, I have not noticed a regular pattern or patterns. Sometimes it locks up with both blue and red indicators showing.

4. When playing back an ITV HD recording, if you use the skip forward function ( not fast forward ), the audio level returns at a much lower level. Use of the pause button restores it to the proper level. Don't skip through BBC HD so not sure if this would be the same.

5. Occasionally, when switching on, there are no programs, and EPG says no information available, as though you have a loss of signal. However if you check in the menu, both tuners report good signal strength and quality. Power down reset required to restore.

6. Long time since there was an update. Last one seemed to be for i player ( Which I do not use, nor want ).

In spite of all of the above, when working, the box delivers a good picture. No way of reporting these problems to Grundig without paying them for your service. 0870 number !!!!!!!!

Aaahh..... I'm not alone! Most of those problems sound quite familiar. I like the box, I really do. Just feels like a bit more effort with the software could really sort some of the bugs. But that seems to be what most of the PVRs are like these days.

I would say our most common problems are:
1) Occasional odd behaviour coming out of standby. Sometimes it seems like it's ignored the remote and needs an extra press or two of the "on" button. About once a week we get a lock up during wake up - both red and blue LED displayed. Maybe related to the timing of pressing the on button - too infrequent to determine the root operator cause (if there is one).

2) Message - Failed recording due to an unexpected internal error. Seems like it used to occur most frequently when there were CH4 recordings in the mix. Removed the second CH4 and CH4+1 from the channel list (inspired by some of the Humax mutterings with duplicate channels causing issues) and I thought this was sorted until a failed recording on ITV4 last night. Oddly there was only one tuner active/required and it was the second of two consecutive programs (the second Benidorm) of which the first recorded fine - so no channel switch and no tuner contention. We've had nights when there's been a sequence of programs keeping both tuners fully active and switching channels between recordings and all worked perfectly. Just can't fathom this one.

3) Recordings that have run for hours. Mostly about 4 hours (guess this is the Freeview style default of didn't see the end of program so continued to record for an extra three hours just to be safe) but we had one program that was still recording the next evening - 22.5 hours and needed a power cycle to stop it. As this ties up one tuner, screwed up some of the scheduled recordings where both tuners were subsequently required on different channels. Not had this since installing a power timer for a nightly reboot and deleting the duplicate CH4 & CH4+1. Don't know if it was an EPG (end of program indicator) type failure, or just down to longer running of the box (fixed by nightly reboot?).

4) Recordings that have been very short. Not seen since a nightly reboot. Could also accept it might be EPG/accurate record issues - but not seen any complaints on the forum about the affected programs from anyone else.

5) I don't have an HD TV, just a nice old bulky Sony CRTV (which has a great picture with digital reality crreation) connected via SCART lead. Whenever the box wakes up ready to record, it momentarily grabs control of the SCART feed. Sometimes this blanks the TV for a second or two, other times it just screws up the auto screen format (switches between 16:9 and 4:3).

6) It's a bit disoncenrting when you first switch the box on and go to the guide and most of the scheduled programs suggest they're "Searching" rather than "Scheduled". Feels like the EPG isn't remembered or updated whilst in standby. But every now and again the fan on the box cycles up, so I assume it does some sort of low power wake up to check/refresh the EPG. But apart from the "failed to an unexpected internal error" it's not missed anything.

Shame there's no email/freephone to contact Harvard International and you have to pay to phone. Also their new www.thesupportsite.co.uk is pretty crap really - a classic example of form over function. No great info and actually some of the tips are for their Freesat receivers only and not the recorders, but this isn't clear, so could actually be misleading for the less technically aware i.e. Mr Joe Average Consumer.

Beginning to feel like a moaning old f@rt now. But as I said at the beginning, I do like the box and most of the time it works quite well. But I wouldn't recommend it to anyone else unless some of these issues get sorted. Might return it to Costco yet and stump up a wad of extra cash for a Humax HDR instead.

And another thing........

7) Though not really a bug, if navigating up/down the library using the P+ and P- buttons, it's easy to hit the blue button and delete an entry. Would be nice to have (at least as an option) a two stage delete requiring a different button to be pressed to confirm the deletion.

Mine does this - including actually on recordings, thought it (was worried) it may be the sat signal as we've been 100% freeview since now...and wondering if I made the right choice.


Ours has done that a few times, this morning it did it, then after a reset it didn't load up at all, so I had to reset again. VERY annoying when you want to sit down and relax in front of the TV and can't even watch it.

I'm thinking this box is going back, it's a shame as from a usability point of view it slaughters the froxsat from what I can tell.

Wife has just magic - ed a new one. She was watching ITV HD. Football started and desperate call from lounge " How have you stopped this from changing channel ?".

No matter what you tried, punching in channel number, pressing OK from EPG, or channel up down, the box refused to switch from ITV HD. Mystifyingly though, the info bar across the screen inducated that it had actually switched, and showed the new channel. Alas some idiot talking about football remained on screen. Power down required to restore marital harmony.


Unfortunately, I think I have had my box too long now, to try to send it back under faulty goods act. I would have thought that Grundig were aware of at least some of the box foibles, but so far have made no visible effort to update. I suppose by making it expensive to report problems to them, they can sit in a rosey glow of --- no complaints.... no problems. I for one will not be following up with a repeat order.

I wonder if grannygrunt is still as happy with hers ???

Yes, I've seen that too, but not for a while. Interestingly it was MrsA operating it at the time. So maybe it's a bug with "the wife" rather than the technology

LOL. Interesting observation. I will check my wife over for bugs, later !!!!!