Of course is it a tax - you don't have to view a single BBC programme to be liable - you just need to have a TV receiver or watch live television via another method from within the U.K.

The BBC has millions of non U.K. viewers many of who watch via local cable or satellite services as part of a license arrangement. Many of course also view by their own freesat or other satellite boxes.

Those viewers in Belgium Netherlands and Ireland are part of a contract with BBC World Wide, overspill always happens.

No you do not have to pay, no one is forcing you to have a television.

You are also liable if you watch live television from a PC.

It is not a tax. I'm not getting involved in a debate around the license fee.

This was a thread about the echostar box.

I myself am tempted by the box. But £349 is steep.

The TV license fee is a tax on the viewing of Live TV. You do not need a TV licence if you only watch programmes on BBC iPlayer that have already been broadcast on TV.

Another niggle that I have discovered is that using the iPad application to access the Slingbox the lower part of the screen is cropped. This is best seen when watching BBC News or similar station with a banner at the bottom of the screen. No adjustment seems possible other than making the picture fill the iPad screen which still leaves the bottom banner missing.

anymore new owners out there yet?

also how are you guys getting on with your boxes now you've had them a couple of weeks?

i am still thinking of buying one but want to hear from more owners before i part with £350, i will only be using it as a pvr so for that price it has to be the best pvr on the market before i part with my cash, so i was just wondering if there are anymore new owners out there that wouldn't mind giving their views.

i am assuming these boxes are reliable when it come to recording because i haven't read any complaints yet.


Thanks

Can the remote be programmed to work your Tv's volume/on off , this would be a very good move by Ecostar if it does. I think all pvr remotes should have this universal function.

yes according to the manual it can do.

volume up and down
mute
tv on/standby
tv source tv/av

hi can any owners tell me if the hds-600rs suffers from the following problem like the humax hdr does.

when you are watching a programme on the live buffer, say you are watching 10 mins behind live tv, when the programme actually finishes in real time, does the box then jump to the live broadcast while you were still watching 10 mins behind live tv. or does it just carry on letting you watch the programme till the end without interruptions like it should do.

please note- this is only while watching from the live buffer, not whist watch a live recording.

Hi
I decided to take the plunge.
The box feels good overall, HD epg and all that.
Unfortunately it is a real let down. I have a very good installation, which shows high signal quality on other boxes. With this I'm getting considerably less.
The other worrying thing is there are many many missed recordings, with no explanation, they are just missing. Series links are not being added.
I took photos of what was to be recorded in scheduled recordings, and then checked the library, about half. Always the BBC channels.
ANy ideas. or dud box?

My view is that Slingbox have the missed boat. Or should that be caught the wrong boat? The original idea was a good one in its time but that time has passed. Now with the maturity of the all the on-line TV catch-up services such as BBC iPlayer it is more or less an obsolete system. Would you rather try and watch something from a well supported server farm able to pump video out at a half-decent speed or rely on what you may get from the upload speed over a home broadband connection?

i too decided to take the plunge yesterday.

so far there are a lot of things i like about it but a few i dont.

likes are-
great looking interface and very fast.
very user friendly, a child could use it its that easy.
remote is a bit lightweight but it is well laid out and comfortable to hold and use.
remote signal is strong and can be used at wide angles.
picture quality excellent on both hd and sd.
if you try to record something is sd it lets you know if its available in hd.
live rewind and live pause work well.


dislikes are-
a couple if schedules recordings have disappeared from the schedule, but i have made four more recordings this afternoon with no problems, i am just trying out series link now. it made back to back recordings earlier without any problems.

in the library it doesn't tell you which channel you have recorded something from.

also it doesn't mark a programme as watched once you have watched it.

according to the manual there should be an autoscan option in the tuning menu but there isn't, so if i want to rescan for channels i have to do a factory reset.

when in use the box is pretty noisy, there seems to be a mixture of fan and hard drive noise, the box is quite noisy even in standby it constantly buzzes, it only fully shuts down when set to ultra low power mode but that disables the sling features which is not a problem at the moment because i am not using them but when i do in the future i don't want the box making a noise 24/7. when i first picked the box up and felt how lightweight it was and of only half decent build quality i just knew it was going to be noisy, there just wasn't the build quality there for it to be silent, if you compare it to a humax hdr you will know what i mean, but the john lewis returns policy is that good i new i wasn't taking a big gamble, even if i decide i don't like it in six months time i can just return it for a full refund, its a new policy they started in february.


youddiph,

when you first set your box up did it automatically do a software update, mine did.
do you find your box noisy, even if my recordings lost from the schedule turn out to be a one off, i still think i will have to return the box because of the noise, which is a real shame because i really like it a lot it is so fast and easy to use, the problems i have had up to now are only minor but i hate noisy equipment so it may be going back anyway. i too have lower signal strength than my sky box but i don't think it is causing a problem as there are no break ups and picture quality is great.

whist making the above post my series link for countryfile failed.

Sorry box is silent. Have swapped the box extacrly same issue.
I'll try taking off autopadding as it good be te box doesn't know how to handle broadcast signals to start and stop.

hi, are you saying you have already swapped your hds-600rs box because it was noisy and now you have a silent one.

do you have the autoscan option in the tuning menu?

my series link for the antiques roadshow has just failed as well, it has shown up in the library as starting at 7.59pm but duration 00.00

No both were silent. Both antiques road show and Indiana jones are recording, land girls hasn't finished recording and won't stop when I press to stop the recording and will not delete. Something is wrong with these boxes.

I have in the tuning menu
Services
Manual Scan
Regional etc
Viewing mode

same as me, according to the manual we should have an autoscan option, for obvious reasons.

did any of yours do a software update shortly after setting them up?

i have software version 112R whats yours?

For the missing programes when you try and re-add it says "insufficient resouces" ky?

I have 116R very odd

i have just checked for a sofware update and it says non available. mine only updated last night and im still not up to date.

Try the Internet option

I tried reinitialise hard drive to see if it could stop the continuous recording... Now the planer lists "awaiting information"
Was there any beta testing?

good idea but i cant as i am just borrowing a friends wifi.