Seems a good deal to me. Does anyone here have one?

From reading around various forums it seems that this model might have a few issues around series record and occasional slowness - can anyone advise on this?

I would appreciate any comments on general reliability and how noisy (or quiet!) it is. Also, is it possible to manually pad you recordings as on my current PVR (an old Digifusion that is on its last legs) this is a must to avoid missing bits of programmes.

Thanks in advance,
Rich

I got myself one of these today (I tried the Sagem that argos sell and wasnt impressed so I took that back and got the DTR160). It is the quietest PVR I've known and you cant really tell its running. It only makes noise when recording or playing back otherwise the hard disk is dissabled. So far had no problems with it but its only been 12 hours!

p.s. Dont go for any of the Whafedale box of similar spec that argos sell - I ended up taking one of those back too.

The Digihome PVRs and the Wharfedale (non-Top Up TV) PVRs are all made by Vestel. Depending on the hardware and software versions they may have slightly different features but are basically the same.

Colin

I have a Digihome DTR0207 and a very similar Durabrand (Asda). Both very good.. easy to use. Wife has a Topfield which was expensive and not easy to use and quirky.

Thats why I thought it was strange that I found the whafedale a lot worse. They did have different software versions though.

Is this unit more reliable/ quieter than the 250GB Sagem they are also selling?

I tried the Segam 160GB they sell and that was a no go. Really loud and clunky. Also ever so often the screen would flash on recordings.

I probably assumed incorrectly that you had one of the first Wharfedale T825 units released in late 2007 with software versions 1.7 for HDMI models or 2.8 for the non-HDMI models. The 2.8 software has been continued in the Digihomes. Hence my comment that they are basically the same. If you had one of the later LP/CI Slot Wharfedale models then you would probably have had additional issues associated with using the Low Power mode. See the post here. The Serial Link issues (see post here) apply to all the T825 Vestels.

Colin

Thanks for all your comments. I took the plunge and bought one yesterday.

First impressions are that its a great buy for £79.99 (with a £5.00 voucher at Argos at the mo too). The picture through RGB doesn't seem as sharp as my old Digifusion but otherwise its far better.

Haven't tried the series link yet and I understand that might be problematic but probably wouldn't use it too much anyway.

Oh yeah, and it is whisper quiet too which is good!

Just over a week with the box now and it seems a pretty good box but does have some problems...

I've learnt not to use the EPG search function as this seems to make the box hang a few minutes later.

Also I'm avoiding the series link altogether as I've read this can cause problems.

One thing that's bugging me is when you record a programme, watch and delete it, the box records any repeat of that programme and there doesn't seem to be a way to stop this! Does anyone know of a work around to stop this?

Cheers
Rich

I got one of these for my mum on Saturday, after she got too fed up with her old TUTV box freezing all the time.

Two issues we've noticed so far...

In the EPG, the radio channels are misaligned by two. So Radio 1 is labelled on channel 700 but its programmes actually are listed against 702. We recorded The Archers (which was showing on 706 instead of 704) and it worked fine. Just seems the actual numbers in the EPG are out by two.

Second problem is that it kept freezing every 5 mins or so during evening viewing. Exactly what the TUTV box was doing, so I decided to check the connections.

It turns out whoever had set up the TUTV box had put the scart connector into a socket that can't accept RGB. The box was outputting in RGB. It was also in a scart socket on the TV that was outputting itself back to the box.

I sorted those issues and no freezing has happened since.

But the radio channel issue is a big annoyance! Maybe I haven't explained it too well, but if you view the full EPG (press the guide button) and jump to channel 700 you'll see what I mean.

The radio channel mis-alignment was caused a few months ago by the BBC removing one of the interactive channels from the EPG. This caused the display to be out by one.

Why its out by 2 I'm not sure.

Glad your happy with the unit.

Bill

Hi
My one is the same 2 numbers out



I had a TUTV box for 2 days and returned it to asda, it also kept freezing. But i have had NO trouble with the Digihome dtr160 from argos. well apart from the misaligned EPG
john

A warning to anyone living in Borders transmitter areas, the Digihome DTR80 and DRT160 may have issues with recording any channels other than the BBC1 MUX.

See thread @ http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...=927300&page=3

I've had this box for a while and am quite happy with it, although it has some odd quirks.

One is that viewing the timers lists takes an age if you have lot in it.

Also, using the 2 minute jump function on playback will sometimes jam the unit up if you are recording, so it's better to just fast forward.

I've noticed it re-records SOME things that are repeated, but not all. No idea why this occurs!

Anyway, not a perfect box, but it does the job, especially when you get used to it's quirks.