Hi,

Having gone thru 3 DVR80 'B grade factory reconditioned' units, all being faulty on arrival from ebuyer, I am thinking that maybe its just better to pay the extra and go for a newer unit.

It seems that Tesco and Asda etc rebrand Digihom as there own etc, so who is selling them at the moment? I presume from reading previous posts that the T825 platform is the one to go for rather than the T810?

Any other budget models worth considering? We dont record that much, but just want twin tuner and a decent digibox EPG implementation etc as its primary function is as the main digibox.

Thanks Anthony

Why not buy from Argos?

Just purchased Digihome DTR160 from Argos £95
I'm assuming it's the latest model ?.

Hi,

Got a DTR160 T825 v2.7 from Argos. There is still some picture dropout, not as bad as the PVR80 T810, but noticable.

Signal meter jumps between medium and good; never seen any picture drop out on any other digi boxes in the house, inc one that is normally hooked up to the aerial feed currently feeding the digihome box.

Anyone else experienced this?

Anthony

A PVR needs a better signal than a digibox as you are feeding two tuners. So I would check your aerial and cabling is up to the job.

Strictly speaking, that isn't true - a PVR shouldn't really need a better signal than any regular Freeview box. It's just the tuners on the Vestel units are a bit crap, and need a strong good quality signal. Most other PVRs are not so greedy signal wise. So, concerning dropout, "medium/good" on the tuner gives the game away - "good/very good" would make things more stable. The only way to remedy this situation (without choosing a different make of PVR) is to improve/optimize your signal/cabling/routing.

Regarding some earlier posts... Yes, the Digihome DTR160 from Argos will definitely be the latest and a T825, since Argos didn't sell a 160Gb Digihome model in the previous catalogue. And yes, a T825 is preferable over a T810 (you will be lucky to find a new T810 now, as the T825 has superceded that and the T816).

Thanks Futaura,

I already have a good aerial installed and a dist amp, but will play about to see if I can get some more gain without killing the S/N ratio. I like the Digihome box, but not sure I can put up with picture dropout when other boxes work fine with current signal.

Anthony

You may find the situation improves with time. I have had three of the T816 versions of these PVRs and they have all given picture dropout and freezing frequently during the first few days of use but then the occurences reduce in frequency over the following few weeks.

Colin

I'm not sure you are correct that other PVRs do not require a better signal than a single tuner. The most basic observation is that the signal is reduced/quality diminished by the need to feed two tuners.
Have a look in the other manufacturer forums and you will see similar comments about signals. With people posting solutions ranging from feeding the tuners from seperate aerials (!) to reversing the order of the tuners.

My new (last week) DTR160 does not have picture dropout and is infact better than a single freeview box previously used.

Only complaint is PVR is somrtimes slow to respond to the remote.

Most (non Vestel) PVRs do tend to have a single aerial input, and the signal will be amplified internally before being passed to the second tuner. Obviously, there is going to be more of a signal loss between the two tuners on Vestel units because of the physical loopthrough on the back, but generally the loss is negligable. It's no secret that the tuners on the Vestels are not that good compared to others, and has been a regular complaint since the T810 days. I remember the tuners on my old Sagem 6240T were very good in comparison to the Vestel, with 92%-95% signal quality on all muxes (unfortunately that was about the only good thing about that PVR ).

Hi - sorry to jump into this thread. I guess the Argos PVR160, £95, is better value than the Ebuyer Grade A model http://www.ebuyer.com/product/136094, £78 ?

Just looking for a good budget 2xchannel record at once.
Cheers.

Hi, I am regular ebuyer cusrtomer and happy with them generally, but had 3 of these graded DVR units from them, all faulty or missing bits (like the remote!). They were ok about collecting them and sending a new one but after 3 I got tired of it and went and spent £95 in Argos for the latest one. Not worth the hassle, I dont think the graded ones are really checked.

Assuming you mean the Digihome DTR160 at Argos for £94.99 then yes it is better value than the Ebuyer Digihome PVR160 for £77.55. The PVR160 is only single record and the DTR160 has more features including Freeview Playback.

Colin

Thanks, yes I did mean the DTR160.