Before I purchase.................

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tin

05-05-2008

Originally Posted by KennyT:
“I agree that, if Freeview was a 'stable service', then the PVR manufacturers should be able to do a reasonable job "out of the box". However, things like SL/AR are still being worked on by everyone and I'd rather have something like a Toppy where many people can provide solutions and I can pick and choose the one I like (ie MyStuff CTs and ABM support) rather than depending on one supplier that may or may not get around to doing an OTA upgrade (once Matsui-ed, twice shy)...

K”

Disagree with that, I don't think any PVR should be affected by how "stable" freeview is. Now if a channel wishes to transmit the wrong programme description or wrong times in series link info there's nothing a PVR could be expected to do but record/not record what it's being instructed to do. But to throw a fit/crash/do odd stuff is easily avoidable, simple validation of the data coming in, and ignoring if it doesn't make any sense is all that's required. Sounds to me like the bad old days when invalid stuff coming in wrote all over the memory space of other apps and the OS.

Agree on the OTA thing though (although not the matsui - talking matsui PVR?), although I still do think for the very premium price of the toppy it should also be best of breed out of the box, THEN you can add teh taps to do special stuff.

KennyT

05-05-2008

Originally Posted by tin:
“Disagree with that, I don't think any PVR should be affected by how "stable" freeview is. Now if a channel wishes to transmit the wrong programme description or wrong times in series link info there's nothing a PVR could be expected to do but record/not record what it's being instructed to do...”

But with a Toppy (and a pair of TAPs), you can have pre/post buffering enhanced by bookmarks at the AR points. So, despite ITV's best "efforts" in recent times, you can still get all of a prog recorded...

Quote:
“Agree on the OTA thing though (although not the matsui - talking matsui PVR?)...”

Nah, just a plain Matsui Freeview STB, which I was faithfully promised would have a 7-day EPG via an OTA update "soon". Never happened.

K

glenmcfar

06-05-2008

By a strange quirk of fate there is a Matsui STB upgrade being broadcast from tomorrow.... could be for your model.

Glen.

KennyT

07-05-2008

Originally Posted by glenmcfar:
“By a strange quirk of fate there is a Matsui STB upgrade being broadcast from tomorrow.... could be for your model.

Glen.”

Donated my DTR1 to the local charity shop some time ago!

K

glenmcfar

07-05-2008

I might now. I just upgraded the firmware on my Durabrand STB and now its got a dodgy Teletext Extra EPG. Half the page is taken up with adverts for TopUpTV - glorious!!!!

Glen.

tin

07-05-2008

Originally Posted by KennyT:
“But with a Toppy (and a pair of TAPs), you can have pre/post buffering enhanced by bookmarks at the AR points. So, despite ITV's best "efforts" in recent times, you can still get all of a prog recorded...”

Yeah the toppy may succeed with taps and alternative source of information but that's not the point I'm making.

There's NO reason for a box to get confused by what's transmitted (and crash, basically) other than to just record at the wrong times if the wrong times have been transmitted. It's not right to say the freeview service is not stable - it's normally whatever box's interpretation of what it's receiving. The programming of the box should ignore anything the box doesn't understand as valid which it appears is not the case with any of them.

Originally Posted by KennyT:
“Nah, just a plain Matsui Freeview STB, which I was faithfully promised would have a 7-day EPG via an OTA update "soon". Never happened.

K”

Ahh... mine went back to the shop pretty quick

solved the no upgrades problem!

KennyT

07-05-2008

Originally Posted by tin:
“Yeah the toppy may succeed with taps and alternative source of information but that's not the point I'm making.

There's NO reason for a box to get confused by what's transmitted (and crash, basically) other than to just record at the wrong times if the wrong times have been transmitted. It's not right to say the freeview service is not stable - it's normally whatever box's interpretation of what it's receiving. The programming of the box should ignore anything the box doesn't understand as valid which it appears is not the case with any of them...”

Oh, I've not had any crashes. Mind you, following the advice on the Toppy website, I downgraded the firmware on my new box pretty smartish and left all the series recording and automatic recording in safe hands (ie. MyStuff and ABM!)

K

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