Right…

I’ve been after a PVR for some time now but decided not to make a decision until the 9200T came out.
It’s now been around for more than a week and I’ve tried to read every posting in the main thread that Barry started, and now I’m hopelessly confused.

Now, to make matters worse, there ‘s more than one thread so I don’t know where to post my queries

In particular, there’s two things I’d like clarifying..

1. What EXACTLY is chasing playback? Suppose I’m watching a program, I get called away to the phone, so I start recording it. I’m on the phone for 10 minutes. I come back to my TV. I want to rewind to where I left off and carry on watching my program. While I’m watching, my PVR keeps on recording it.
That is what I had always thought of as chasing playback, and thought it was one of THE MAIN REASONS for getting a PVR, but I’m still not sure from all this discussion whether the 9200T actually performs this feat.
If it doesn’t, surely this isn’t a minor point that will hopefully be cured by a software download…. It’s a major deficiency !!

2. Is it REALLY true that it can take 30 minutes to load the EPG ? So if I’m about to rush off somewhere for the weekend and suddenly remember I need to record something, I can’t just turn it on, select the prog from the EPG and then go out. I have to turn it on and wait 30 minutes for it to load or else program it manually?

The bottom line is this: Apart from the bigger hard drive I'd like to know, as the average punter who just wants to record his favourite programs in true widescreen then replay them in widescreen, then probably delete them shortly afterwards...... why is the 9200T worth 60 quid more than the Fusion FVRT200 ?

1. In the scenario you state, you would not need to press record as the time-slip buffer is 2 hours (I think, depending on bitrate) for the channel you are currently watching. You simply have to rewind the buffer and continue watching where you left off.
The missing feature that many are asking for is time-slip on a program currently being recorded i.e. if you get home half way through a film that you've set to record, it's not possible to watch it from the start.
2. Yes I'm afaid so at the moment!

All I can say about the price is that the unit is still new and isn't discounted yet.

Avoiding the terrible EPG of the Fusion is worth £60

As far as I'm concerned there two things on there own which makes the Humax worth £60 more (price difference may be more like £30 depending where you buy) than the Fusion 200 is the much better advert skipping features of the Humax ( http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board...114#post6036114 ) and that it has an RF Modulator which provides an easy way of distributing the PVR's output to other rooms in the house. Different users will have different priorities. There are features in the Fusion, e.g. better chase-play implementation which for some will make the Fusion worth more than the Humax.

Colin

Hi beachbum

I have owned a Fusion 150 (similar to the 200) and now have a Humax 9200T.

IMHO the Fusion is proberly easier to use and the picture/sound is fine.

The Humax is slightly more difficult to use (but may improve depending on future updates) but I love the picture/sound quality, the build quality, the fact that is runs cold and quiet and the better remote and now watch more TV because I really enjoy using it.

I believe that Humax will sort out the glitches and the fact that they give a two year warranty inspires confidence.

Guess which one I prefer?

Hope this helps

Roger

When you say the Fusion EPG is terrible...... surely nothing can be more terrible than taking half an hour to load ? !

If you're recording 2 programmes, live TV watching is still a possibililty with the Humax. I've found this useful several times already. Nice picture and build quality, the Humax. The software guts do need to get the problems sorted though...

I'd expect a Humax to outlive a Fusion.


One of the things that hopefully is being addressed.

I find the EPG can fill itself out in a couple of minutes. However to do this I have to go to each channel, leave it for a bit, then go to the next one on a different MUX.

I'll state up front here the only PVRs I have used are Sky+ and the PVR 9200T so I can only comment directly on these two and some will no doubt disagree with me.
Sky+ is the PVR every manufacturer should try to emulate then improve on. Sky+ though has the vested interests of News Corporation behind it and a revenue stream from subscribers which freeview PVRs do not.

To answer the 2 questions -
Chasing playback is also known as timeslip and can be performed by the 9200T - It refers to the ability to pause the channel you are on then start playing it at a later time. If there is a buffer set it can also be possible to rewind the channel you are on within the buffer (which starts when you switched to the channel).
If channel is changed the paused segment and/or buffer is lost.
The debate about the 9200T is the ability to have an enhanced chaseplay function where if you are recording a programme, you can go into the recorded programmes menu and see the programme listed as it is recording and select it to begin playback - the programme could catch up with itself if you say FF past ads. Sky+ has this functionality but the 9200T currently does not because the recorded programme does not appear in the list until it is complete.

In relation to the EPG - I think its fair to say that it should load within max of 5 - 10 minutes, if it takes longer then it suggests a problem with the box or possibly with your local transmitter. It is possible if you know when you are going to use the box to set the power to come on shortly before - the EPG will then be already loaded.

Whether or not its worth £60 more than the Fusion I can't say, but I have seen the build quality of some other units and the 9200T is a very solidly built piece of kit compared with the cheap plasticy feel of the others and the functionality available (albeit with a few bugs to be ironed out) is in my view a bargain for little over £200.
One feature which I particularly like and is lacking in virtually evey other freeview box (never mind PVR) is a display of the channel being watched on the receiver. If we could only get the same on every freeview box we could get rid of those annoying DOGs from the corner of the screen (but thats another thread altogether )

I have no idea about the Fusion; but I've got the Humax as my first PVR and I think it's fantastic. I've read all the posts daily and am fairly stunned by some of the criticisms. I put this down to the kind-of people on here being technically minded enthusiasts that want to stretch their equipment to the limits. They seem to do a brilliant job in identifying and feeding back niggles to the manufacturers. And I hope they succeed in getting some things changed. But a niggle for me, seems to be a "show-stopper" for some of them; such is their experienced desire for a perfect product.

But for the average punter (me, and possibly you) this is a great peice of equipment. Within a few days of using the Humax I disconnected my VCR probably to be used no more.

As for cost; I'm used to buying DVD's so that I can watch a film when I want to and not be bothered with dozens of tapes, the hassle of setting a VCR based on a paper TV guide and so on. Now I reckon the Humax will have paid for itself within a few months, as I can record a dozen decent films a week, watch them when I want and save £££s not having to buy DVDs.

The chase play works fine. I couldn't care less if a programme I'm recording can't be wathced until its over. There's up to 160 GBs of other stuff to watch.

And I've not experienced any annoyance with the time it takes to populate the EPG. I've got about 14 channels in my favourites and it takes a couple of minutes. If you're going to use the full Freeview supply of channels (dunno what that is, probably over 40 channels) then that's probably gonna take half an hour. But if you want your EPG to populate the shopping channels then that's your call.

If I leave my 9200 on BBC1 the EPG is fully populated within 5 minutes, 10 tops.

There is the odd occasion where a channel will tak e longer to fill but it's rare. i don't know why others are having so much trouble maybe I'm just lucky.

BTW the Fusion EPG is terrible, really, it is.

A novice wants to know: Why is 9200T worth 60 quid more than FVRT200?

!60gb Hard drive ? Cam slot? you may not want TUTV now but in the future you may, build quality seems better, nosie, you can archive to a PC and it's cheaper than a topfield by about 60 quid. But thats for another thread

Ref post #4. Re-transmission of the RF output to be picked up by TV's in other rooms is very attactive. As a newbie, can you advise what equipment I would need to do this. Recommended makes and/or suppliers would be useful. Thanks

No equipment needed, just plug an extension aerial lead into the RF output and tune it in on another TV. If the local TV hasn't got a scart input then you may need an aerial splitter too.

It's just like VCR's used to be (many recent products do not have a modulator in the aerial pass through.)

Recommended make: a good quality co-ax lead such as that used for satellite aerials. If you are buying a long lead, a specialised shop that supplies aerial installation firms may well be able to supply a large reel of co-ax for not much more than the local shed charge for a few metres.

Aerial splitter if needed: get a good quality one- some are awful!

Thanks JAK99. I was hoping there might be a way of re-transmitting the output at RF (i.e. wirelessly) to be tuned in by other TV's but on reflection I suspect this could be a source of interference all round the neighbourhood.

Dave

No, it won't!

You're just connecting an aerial lead in just the same way as folk connected up their VCR's and so on (Betamax, VHS, Spectrum's, Commodore 64's.... could go on!)

It ISN'T an (illegal) RF video sender that broadcasts analogue TV at higher power on the TV band that can be recieved through an aerial in another room or next door, it just requires a length of wire from the Humax aerial out to the TV, then tune in the Humax on the TV. It may need the output channel changing if Five is broadcasting on an adjacent channel in the same way many VCR's did when Channel 5 started broadcasting

Another way is to get a modern (legal) Video Sender that sends the signal to be received by a dedicated receiver that plugs into the TV's scart socket. These can work quite well but each TV needs its own little receiver to pick up the 'broadcast.'

That's what I had in mind. Just to send from Main TV/Hmax in living room to an analogue TV in the bedroom.

Thanks, everyone, your answers have been really helpful.

From what you all say, the chasing playback function works well enough for my needs.

On the subject of the time taken to load the EPG, I notice some of you say the unacceptable time taken is to "fully populate" the EPG. By this, I take it you mean now/next programmes for all channels load up quite fast, but the next 7 days may take some time?

If thats what you mean, then it's probably not much worse than my Sony IDTV, which can take several minutes to get as far as next week's programme information.

No, it loads up all of the first channels info before starting to populate the next one. So the 'now' information takes 30 mins to populate across all the channels. It really is quite slow.

Given that they still don't have the EPG working properly in the 8000T, which apparently doesn't have enough memory allocated to hold all the data I wouldn't hold my breath awaiting a solution.

Price difference between 80GB and 160GB Hard Drives is only about £13, and I wouldn't have TUTV even if they were paying me to watch it.

That's fair comment but rather immaterial unless you can get a 160GB PVR for £13 more than an 80GB one (which you can't). The CAM may or may not provide access to services other than TUTV in the future or TUTV may expand their offering. It certainly provides an element of future proofing in any case.

It has plenty of memory and can store a full 7 day EPG, it just doesn't save it to the hard disk it's stored in RAm so when you power down it's lost.

Humax have said this is something they are going to look at in the 9200.

Only if you are unlucky, mine takes about 10 minutes to fully populate and doesn't use a one channel at a time approach.

I set my 9200 to turn on15 minutes before I get home and the EPG always has everything listed when I turn on my TV.

The 8000T since the last software update no longer holds 7 day EPG for all channels. If you are on BBC1 it holds 7 days for BBC1 and BBC2 but ITV Channel 4 & 5 etc only have at most three days in advance. You can get round it by switching to ITV and it fills that up for the 7 days, but you then lose the end days of BBC1. Thread on Radio and Telly Forum detailing problem