Hi.

I noticed from the Argos website yesterday that the HDMI version of our Vestel boxes had finally become available on the web. It was only for the 250GB unit, and only for 'home delivary'. This morning, this has changed to the 160GB version (on offer at £99.99), and again available for home delivary only. Does this mean the HDMI units are finally on sale ???

I might ring Argos Customer Services this morning, to see what exactly is being sold.

Regards,

Tim.

Hi again.

Further to my post yesterday, I am just updateing the post.

If I had looked more carefully at other threads on the forum, I would have noticed that some have already bought the units. They are not advertised as being available for reservation, nor can Customer Services tell what stores have what stock. However, apparently they whent out to stores about a week or so ago.

I had bought another non-HDMI box only two weeks ago, but having gone to a local store, they said they would swap this for me. In addition, I had some Christmas money given to me to use to get a second box.

The local Argos had only one 160GB version, but three 250GB versions (both units on offer though). Hence I swaped/purchased the 160GB machine, and one of the 250GB boxes.

What was confusing, was the hardware revision noted on the units. The small label on the side of the boxes specified that the 250GB hardware was the T825 revision discussed elsewhere on the forum. The 160GB version, however, specified a T826 hardware revision. Thus it appears there are now either two different hardware versions, or a later revision not in all boxes. Both though, had a firmware version of 1.7. It will be interseting to see if this is the most up-to-date version, or like the initial release of the non-HDMI boxes, a very early version. Is it G2 I wonder?

Anyway, it looks as though all Vestels efforts will now be directed at these boxes from now on. I too wonder if that means the last we will see of a new firmware version for the T816 units. Argos may not have wanted to advertise the fact they have the new boxes in store, in order to move the older units they already have.

Regards,

Tim.

Nutty Timbo can you give us some feedback on the 250GB version, I am considering buying one of these units but need some feedback about how they perform, eg picture wise does the HDMI make any difference, is the unit stable (no crashes) how is it to use especially the series link feature, you know the usual so would you mind doing a kind of review on the unit?

GG (sorry to be such a nuisance!)

Good point about Argos . Could very well be true, and the new catalog (out end Jan?) will not have any T816 boxes, like when the T810 was dropped in the current catalogue.

v1.7 is most likely one of the early versions, given the number, but still the latest DTG approved version. Bearing in mind that the T816 was on v1.9 back in February. Looking at all the timeframes, the T810 had a 12 month life cycle, whereas the T816 is under 6 months, following a hefty development cycle where v3.7 was reached before release (I'm not sure why early boxes were shipped with v2.4). Therefore we might deduce that the T825 has been released 6 months early, especially given the software has not been in development for more than 3-4 months. Although having said that, the T825 software is most likely just an extension of the T816 software. In the future I won't be buying any Vestel boxes until bug-free software is actual shipped with them, since updates cannot be relied on.

I've no idea about the T826. I haven't really spoken much with Vestel lately - well, I have a bit, but it was one way .

I've just been looking at the *analogue tuner* Wharfdale DVDR24HD160 as a way of offloading some programs off my increasingly full Sky+ box. (advertized as HDMI upscaling)

Anyone comment on what this machine is. I guess it's also a vestel - older one with analogue tuner?

I also had to go through 6+ numbers/emails before finally getting to someone who confirmed it has RGB in. Don't know if that's true etc but I wanted to get argos to state that before buying.. in case it doesn't (required by me for sky+ offloading..)

So.
* any idea if this model is any good for this purpose (freeview nice, but TV already has it, have sky, multiple DTT boxes, media center with DTT etc so it's not necessary)
* Does it really have RGB in
* What's disc recording quality like?

Thanks
Nigel.

Can you double check that? I'm "reliably" informed that there is no such thing as a T826, so it must be a T825.

Also, T825 owners best keep an eye on http://www.dtg.org.uk/retailer/download_schedule.pl in January for a possible OTA update.

In the meantime, bugs in the T825 v1.7 software may now be reported, but please keep reports as informative as possible, with step-by-step guides on how to reproduce the bugs, where appropriate. I'll will pass these onto Vestel, but a volunteer is required to moderate the bug reports and mark them as fixed, when/if they do get fixed, since I have no plans to buy a T825 in the immediate future.

Mine is marked 1050T825WHARFEDA....etc., Sw V.1.7.

Interestingly today I decided to pickup a "cheap" dvd recorder to offload some stuff from sky.

I reserved this
533/5811 Acoustic Solutions DVD80RW300 DVD Reco 1 £59.99 +*
rder with 80GB HDD.

debated getting the hdmi wharfdale, but I don't have an HD TV, also considered 160Gb drive, but since it was >>dvd writing<< with some editing I wanted (already have sky+) didn't bother

When the item came out it had this code, but was actually a Wharfdale dvdr400f. Still an 80Gb drive, but WITH FREEVIEW. This is *not* what was advertized but looks a STONKING deal to me...

One minor point - on the web/catalogue this item was *not* marked as "excluded from 30 day guarantee", yet this was printed on my receipt. Naught and IMO invalid since it was only AFTER paying ... But no real worries there...

Now 59.99 seems a pretty good price to me since the closest item is http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Produc...RDER+160GB.htm at £150 albeit with added HDMI and a 160Gb rather than 80Gb disk

Very happy. Need to see how I get on, but first impressions are that it's quick & a good unit. The remote is a bit of a mess but that's typical (something sky have SPOT ON for sky+...)

FYI item was http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/st...0RW300&x=0&y=0

In your 2 posts to this thread you are talking about various DVD/HD Recorders. Do you realise that the subject of this thread is a HDD Personal Video Recorder and does not have a DVD drive in it. As such it would be of no use archiving programmes from a Sky.

By the way you must have missed the bit about "this product is excluded from our 30 Day Money Back Guarantee" under Additional Information.

Anyway enjoy your DVD/HD Recorder.

Colin

this is the post I found -
Is a manual available for the wharfedale?
Is it region free?
It is a HDMI DVD recorder with Freeview?

pah I'm getting confused about which thread is which
http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...d.php?t=708373

I think you want the DVD thread, if you're looking for the Argos substitution deals for Acoustic/Wharfedale DVD/HDD recorders.

That makes three of us now, planetf1, yourself and myself

Colin