Bought a Digihome DG250DTRA08 from Tesco (£78). Seems to be working perfectly, and it recorded two different programmes whilst I was watching a third - wasn't sure it would do this.

I guess pigs will be flying before the USB port is enabled by Digihome. So, is there any other way of getting it to work - or of getting at the hard drive to copy out material to a PC?

Many thanks for any suggestions.

John

I just took mine back, only had it a day before it started to go wrong. All my planned recordings and library dissappeared! I dont know why these new ones still have bugs that the same old topup tv ones had. Also the skipping on live tv.

Do you mean watching a third channel, or watching a previous recording?

So far only the Humax and Topfield have allowed you to watch a third live channel.

I think Jam2000 means skipping watching Live TV, even when nothing is being recorded.

My neighbour returned his to Tesco after 2 days and on my recommendation, bought a DTR80 from Argos instead, which does not stutter or skip, even though he is using the same ariel setup.

Ah, well in fact, I wasn't actually referring to the skipping problem. I was asking if this machine is capable of viewing a third live channel in the manner of the Humax and Topfields, even though 2 other channels are being recorded. He may well be simply playing back a previous recording.

Or on reflection perhaps the third programme the OP refers to is the overnight download 'channels'; I'm not entirely sure how these are represented or accessed. I didn't realise at first that this is a TUTV machine.

Regarding my original post.

I set the Digihome to tape two programmes that were on at the same time. I then switched to my TV and watched the live programme that I was interested in and that was broadcasting at the same time.

My TV is a four year old Sony, not flat screen. The aerial goes into the Digihome and then onto the TV. Nothing special.

I do get an occasional screen freeze. It is momentary, and so infrequent it really isn't a problem.

Set it to record a range of radio and TV programmes yesterday and through the night. All recorded fine. I added a three minute 'guard' time to beginning and end of the recordings and that also worked fine.

So far, I am more than happy with the machine. Time will tell, but fingers crossed, I think I shall be keeping it.

If all Digihome, and all the other cheap machines were always as bad as some posters suggest I guess people like Tesco would eventually stop stocking them - but they aren't, at the moment! Certainly forums for all sorts of equipment seem to attract more than their fair share of problems in search of solutions. Difficult to find out where the balance really is at times.

Hope this helps.

John

PS !! Cannot see how to edit messages.

Just for information, in case it's relevant to the recording and watching options, I haven't subscribed to the 'Top-Up' or Sentana offers that came with the machine.

And for absolute clarity, the two programmes being recorded and the live TV I watched were all at the same time.

John

To Edit you click on the 'Edit' icon displayed next to the 'Quote' icons. But it is only available for a limited time after posting.

Colin

Thanks for the clarification, it's quite a revelation. I wonder if the Thomson machines do this.

Be a total devil - just hit record in the EPG to set your schedule, no padding

parthena

I can't see much advantage in adding guard time to Accurately Recording controlled recordings. Accurate Recording without padding will be adequate if the broadcasters get it right and the PVR responds correctly. If the broadcaster gets it wrong they usually do this in a more drastic manner which would not be overcome by a small amount of padding. If the PVR gets it wrong likewise. One of the prime benefits of Accurate Recording in that playback starts at the real start of the programme. Using padding nullifies this benefit. Having to scroll through padding on every recording to find the real start is a waste of time and effort IMO.

Unfortunately the above advantage of Accurate Recording has been sabotaged by ITV by them adding the adverts from the previous programme to the start of many of their programmes.

Colin

Isn't johnworcs1 simply saying that he was using the TV tuner to watch the Live TV programme? i.e. the PVR had nothing to do with this.

Colin

And the live TV you were watching was a different channel to the two being recorded? Just for 100% clarity .

One TV with a single Freeview receiver, linked to one Digihome with two Freeview receivers. One incoming aerial serving the two machines.

I guess maximum receivable programmes at one time is three.

I recorded two, and watched a third.

What more could I want or expect?

Yes. Three different programmes.

John

2 Digihome and 1 Tiscali+ PVRs connected to DTV = Record 7 channels (yes, seven, the Tiscali can do 3 at once) and watch another

parthena

I think the doubt arouse because I think that PTD thought you were saying you were receiving all 3 channels using the PVRs tuners. This is in fact possible on some PVRs namely the Humax and Topfield provided the channel being watched is on one of the same MUXs that the two channels being recorded are on. This is of course not possible on the Digihome or any of the Vestel PVRs whether using the TUTV software or the Cabot/Vestel software.

Colin

Colin,

Thanks for your explanation. I can now see why the original queries arose about my post.

However, I would likely struggle to find three programmes I wanted to watch/record at the same time - let alone many more! So for the moment I guess the Digihome is my near perfect solution. Near perfect, as I need to tone down the rather saturated colours it produces - guess I'll have to do that via the TV.

John

Doh! Thanks, I should have allowed for that.

Reality is restored.

If I forget I'm recording 2 channels and try to watch a 3rd, will the Digihome come out with a HAL-style "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that", or just stop recording one of them? I thought it would be good not to find out the hard way.

Neither, it just blinks a bit and ignores your channel selection unless it happens to be the other channel you are recording. You can use PR+/- to switch between the two for simplicity. The recordings will end when due unless you manually stop one of them.

There's only one occasion where you get the type of warning you suggest: as you return from the epg, where it's completely unnecessary.

Thanks PTD. Due to a 3-way clash last night, I ended up recording 2 channels with the PTR while watching a 3rd through the TV's internal analogue receiver. The PTR did... interesting things to the signal on its way to the TV.

Yes, it might be possible to avoid this by splitting the aerial feed seperately to the PVR and TV, instead of looping it through the PVR to the TV, but maybe not worth the bother bearing in mind how infrequently this is likely to happen.

Out of curiosity, would that half the signal strength to each device, or can they both draw a full signal from one aerial?

Yes it halves the strength to each device, so you need a good signal to start with.

If you use a 2-way splitter/booster (e.g. Philex 2 Way Aerial Booster - cat nr 534/6147 @ Argos, £9.79) will give you up to 14db boost on both outputs.