I’m trying to get a digital tv recorder for my parents for Christmas, but can’t decide between the Thomson DTI6300 (from Comet) and the Digihome DTR80 (from Argos). The features on the Thomson one look a bit better (eg. series record) but I’ve read a lot of stuff on the internet saying they are unreliable, and regularly freeze, crash or miss recordings, and that they’re very noisy. I’m not sure if these people have just been unlucky and have faulty ones, or if this happens with most of them. I’ve not read anything negative about the Digihome one, but then it is a much more obscure brand so probably less people have them.

So if anyone has either of these boxes, could you let me know whether you recommend them, and whether you’ve had any problems with picture quality, crashes, noise, missed recordings etc. Also, doe anyone know if the Digihome DTR80 has series record?

Thanks

I have both a Thomson and a vestel T816 (Digihome is a clone). Both work very well.
The Thomson does have a fan which goes all the time even when the unit is in standby. It would be too noisy for say a bedroom but compared to a Digifusion some people would say it is silent. It has an inbuilt mediaguard decoder so with a suitable card OK for Tutv or Setanta. You need to delete all the pre-stored Tutv channels if you are using it as a Freeview receiver. The updates for this receiver are controlled by TuTv not the manufacturer. The screen menu's displays coloured TuTv channels at the bottom of the picture for selection all the time even if you do not subscribe. The PVR has a built in modulator which allows the PVR signal to be fed via aerial. The box only has a couple of lights on the front.
The Vestel T816. does not have a fan and is silent in use. It has picture in picture function. Its whats on menu has a moving red line indicating the current time line. It is a Freeview only receiver and does not display TuTv in its menu. The PVR does not have a modulator so a scart or phono socket is needed to feed the TV. The front display consists of a channel number and a scrolling text display that can be altered. In standby it displays the current time.
hope you find this useful.
Both PVR's give good playback video and sound when used via a scart socket. I found a high pitched whistle was present on the RF modulator output from the Thomson.

How do you rate the software reliability of these two PVRs. It's always useful to get a view from someone who has both units so less bias. I own a T816 and am reasonably happy with it's reliability but it is prone to freezing picture occasionally. The Fast Rewind is rather unpredictable and I have had occasional failed recordings though these in some cases have probably been due to lack of Accuarate Recording signals from the broadcasters. Mine doesn't have Series Record which I believe the Thomson has. Reading the threads in the TUTV forum I get the impression that the Thomson has many more software bugs than the Vestels units but that could possibly be simply that it generates more forum activity. It does appear that TUTV are continuing to support the unit with software updates though progress in solving bugs seems to be very slow. Vestel on the other hand don't seem to be making any attempt to produce OAD updates for their T816 units.

Colin

I have an old Digihome (originally "record one, watch one" only, the new versions can record 2 channels simultaneously) and a T816, which is what the DTR80 is. I've haven't got the new Thomson but I've had previous Thomsons and Digifusions. The Digihome clones are the most user-friendly, extremely so in fact.

As for the series record, none of the T816's currently have it, I think we are waiting for an over-air update but no-one knows when, if ever, it will come. I wouldn't let that put you off, as long as one is not too gaga, ie, forgetful (I'm bordering ) it's easy enough to use the Search function to find progs a week ahead and set them to record.


I have found this a dang nuisance, but now I always remember, during Play, to press the << once for x1 (this pauses for a moment before rewinding, that's where the 'bottleneck' occurs on mine, I think), wait a second, then press it again, wait a second, then you can ping-ping-ping up to <<32.

parthena

don't completely understand what is happening to mine when I fast rewind. It seems to scroll back OK and the revesing timer seems to be accurate enough but when I press play it seems to jump forward quite a lot from the point I appeared to have rewound to. If you just uses x1 does that work accurately for you allowing for the pause before it starts counting backwards. I'm referring to the T816 of course. Does your T810 also behave poorly on fast rewind?

Colin

It's immaculate, which I keep forgetting as I swap between machines and I find myself operating the << very gingerly on that one too, unnecessarily.

p.