(Not the usual technical query!)

Can anyone please advise me of a Vestel T835 or T7650 model where the box is all black i.e. the sides and top as well as the front panel.

Thanks

Hitachi T835 boxes are all black - gloss/piano black casing and front panel. No hint of grey, unlike some models which look black in photos. The other models which I've seen in the flesh are Bush and Ferguson models and these are not all black. Going by the photo of the Digihome unit on Amazon, it looks to be a gloss black front panel, and matt black casing - same goes for Curry's Logik model, Agora and Technika models by the look of it, but maybe somebody else can confirm because it is hard to tell from photos.

I've not seen any of the retail T7650 models in the flesh, but IIRC I remember somebody else commented that the Bush is dark grey rather than black. The Logik looks black all over, but does have either a white or silver stripe running along the bottom of the front panel.

see above

I have a Technica T835 from Tesco which is all black. The plastic front panel inset is gloss black. The front panel surround which extends backwards by about 2cm and is slightly tapered has a slightly metallic finish which with light at certain angles appears dark greyish. The main metal case is semi-gloss black.

Colin

I should add that, AFAIK, there have been only 2 different types/colours of the metal casing which applies to both the T835 and T7650 - high gloss piano black (as per the Hitachi) or a more matt black in comparison which does still have have a slightly shiny/metallic finish as Colin says.

Many thanks for the replies. The all piano black Hitachi is just what I am looking for as a refurbished T835. Am just a bit concerned though as the pictures of these on eBay seem to show the top of the casing as the dull grey colour i.e. different from the front panel. Is it possible that the Hitachi T835s as originally sold by Comet and Argos have different casings from each other?

Yes, sorry, you have a good point there. I was thinking only about the Argos models, so the HDR165, HDR255, HDR325 and HDR505. Avoid the 320HDR10 and 500HDR10 Comet models as I think those have silver or white fronts - certainly not black like the Argos models. They may well have the matt black casing too. Other than the colour the most obvious way to spot the different from a photo is that the Argos models just have a single button (power) on the front panel and a smallish Hitachi logo on the left, whereas the Comet models have a row of three buttons and a whacking great Hitachi logo on the right.

That said, the Argos models are more prolific than the Comet ones, so most on ebay for example will be Argos models. Some of the listings are using stock "photos" from the www.hitachidigitalmedia.com which have a computer generated feel and not 100% realistic (the red LED display is larger in reality than pictured, for example). This photo shows a more realistic likeness of the Argos models, where you can see the reflections in the high gloss finish.

Thanks again for the clarification. Have taken delivery of my Hitachi T835 HDR255 and the piano black finish is just what I was after. Picture quality just as good as my old T825 which was excellent. Not tried record yet but do have 2 final questions:
1. The S/W version is 4.8. Is it worth trying to upgrade this? In particular should it wake up reliably to record from low power setting.

2. With the T825, my aerial lead was connected directly to it and in turn a RF cable connected the T825 to the TV. Is this the recommended setup for the T835 also? There is a mention on Futaura's web site of no need for a loop through cable but I am not sure what this means.

Unfortunately, v4.8 is one of the complained about software versions which generally becomes very sluggish and unreliable. On the flipside, I guess your HDR255's previous owner must have received the v4.6 and v4.8 OADs, since I think they had stopped making the HDR255 model before those software versions were released. So, it's possible the previous owner returned it because they thought it was faulty, when in fact it was the v4.8 software's fault. If that's the case, then hopefully that means your HDR255 did not suffer a hardware failure at all. Of course, this does mean that you should really update it to v5.2 for best results, but by all means see how you find v4.8 first.

Your T825 had 4 aerial sockets, and physically 2 tuner units inside - the output from one tuner was fed to the input of the second tuner using a little cable, which is what my site refers to. The T835 just has single input and output sockets with the two tuners integrated on the mainboard.

So, to answer your question, it depends on your viewing habits. Yes, you can connect the RF out of your T835 to your TV as you did before, but while the T835 is in low power standby, the amplification in the tuner circuit is also off, so the RF out signal level is only a fraction of what it is normally. This means that you possibly won't get a good signal on your TV when the T835 is off. If, however, you plan to watch TV mostly on your T835 and not on your TV's internal tuner, then that's not an issue. If it is an issue, you could passively split the aerial cable before it reaches the T835 sending one output to the T835 and the other to the TV.

Tried the link on your site re adaptor but it leads to a blank page at ImageShack. Can you tell me how to do the update please.


Presumably turning off the low power mode is also an option and would replicate the T825 position i.e. the clock would remain on.

The image link still works fine here - try http://imageshack.us/a/img99/9978/co...14fp5twgp5.jpg. A ready-made lead can be bought from http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Scart-to-S...-/390582983881 but bear in mind that if you don't have a computer with a serial port, there's the added complication of involving a USB->RS232 lead to attached to the SCART->RS232 lead.

Yes, I guess you're right about low power mode - the advice is generally to leave it on because it helps performance -wise, but with it off performance will probably still be better than your T825. However, probably low power off will be a big problem with v4.8.