Hi,

I wrote earlier to say how well my machine has behaved. On my recommendation my daughter also bought one.

After two days her recorder failed: wouldn't record, wouldn't show a picture even though the info box appeared for a moment to show what the current and next progamme on the selected channel was - all that did eventually appear was a black screen. The programme guide, library and menu would show - but they were no substitute for a programme!

I thought, shame, she got a dud one. It happens.

Today, my Digihome did exactly the same thing. Tried Tesco's phone support. But they gave up and told me to return it. Which I did and got my money back.

My daughter now has Humax 9200 - direct from Humax, and so far, she feels it is much better. It certainly gives a much better quality picture.

Me? I'm going to go 'upmarket' (?), and buy a Topfield.

John

I'm sure it's to do with signal problems. I've had the same problem with my Vestels within the past few days, UHF22 is a swine I set The Closer to record on More4 both on one of my Vestels and on my Tiscali+... I got 14 minutes of it on the first, the whole prog was fine on Tisc+ thank the lawd cos it was Part2 of a 2-parter.

Instead of producing the wonderful Vestel clones with a better tuner/receiver (whatever it is), I think it's out to grass

parthena

I agree , i have had the same problem with a digihome 80 pvr (changed three times) before i found the cause , assuming your antena is ok (i tried two new ones) you need to replace the down lead for some better screened satalite cable this will improve the signal quality which is your problem (if you do a system check you will find that on some channels the quality is going up and down this is compounded further when the second tuner is on (when recording) and will cause the box to lock up exactly as you discribe , unpluging the unit and then back in again will restore the unit (reboot) however you may need to delete the affected recording otherwise if you try to play it back that to can cause the box to become unresponsive .
I dont think the problem is limited to any one brand of unit and i do think a lot are returned (due to no real fault with the unit) and i also suspect that this is why some branches of one supermarket stock them and others dont anyway should you like any
further info then please ask . it looks as if we live in the same area i live in Drakes broughton
regards Dave location WORCESTER

ps other family members in shrewsbury and sutton coldfield also have the same units , and only the one in sutton coldfield has had the same glitch (twice) and each time i have been able to talk them through the problem and restore the unit . i would have no hesitation in upgrading to the new model

Yes, Drakes Broughton is close, and thanks for the offer of help - appreciated. However, both machines have been returned now so I cannot experiment.

My daughter lives in a brand new flat with built in aerial supplies so renewing cables is just not on.

I renewed my aerial and cables just last year.

I just do not understand how a machine can work faultlessly for a month and then suddenly not work at all because of signal problems. It might be that you are right. But having lost faith in Digihome, it would take a lot to persuade me to buy another one, especially if I had to go to the expense of having new cables installed in the hope that that might be the cure.

John

A friend of mine lives in a fairly new apartment block with wired in aerial and satellite sockets. She lives about 5 miles from the transmitter and can't even pick up Freeview. I suspect the contractors there have pointed the aerial to a relay, as they are in a valley. I leant her a booster, and it still didn't work


Recent weather conditions could play a part, as we have had high pressure and it can affect the reception.....see this thread: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...d.php?t=969104

Hi the above reply is again correct , although there have been great fluctuations in performance (much to the dismay of the sagem dtv box) thankfully the digihome units
have been able to cope , i think free view has been oversold to us and its performance leaves much to be desired (when it comes to reception) i wonder how long it will be before we see booster transmiters on top of our churches / hills etc like we have had with mobile phones. satalite seems to be a more stable platform when it comes to signal but the units seem to have a high rate of powersupply failures which cause some strange problems then a dead box and as the card system is heavily controlled its not as easy to just get another unit and get going again.

Anyway as i have said the problems are not just restricted to one make and in fact a lot of the other brands use the same electronics made by the same manufacture what
is a shame is that few if any are able to help the unwary consumer when he or she gets a problem and seem happy for there products to be returned to the retailer time and time again for a refund even though the product may have no fault as such !! when you look at the waste of fuel and time this causes its a wonder we buy anything at all given the stress of it all causes.

I'm within sight of the Crystal Palace transmitter, though not from the window inside which my TV/PVRs/DVDR are set up. As per Wolfbane's prediction, I only need an indoor aerial for perfect reception - until the signal starts playing up. As stated, UHF22 is the most frequent culprit but I've occasionally had problems with other Muxes as well.

So, it's only the "fly leads" (is that what they're called, the leads from PVR to TV and from PVR to PVR?) that I could upgrade. I'm now in the funny-lookin' (that's from Fargo, remember? ) situation of having 4 aerials perched on my TV and on top of each other so that each gadget has its own signal

parthena

I'm surely no expert when it comes to signals, aerials and cables. However, I have two TVs, one with a built-in Freeview and the other receives Freeview via a Logik add on box.

Neither have ever let me down. I can guarantee that if I select a Freeview program to view on either machine, I will be able to view it.

So, what's so special about PVRs that the sort of failure to receive programmes that I have experienced is put down to 'signals' or 'cabling' or whatever. What about maybe the machines have poor quality hardware or badly written software?

Is it always the signal carrier's fault and never the machine's?

If my TV can pick up a signal I expect my PVR to be able to do so. If it then cannot display that signal, I would put it down to a fault in the machine. On that, maybe over-simplistic logic, I returned the machines. I wouldn't buy another from that firm.

It is entirely possible, indeed I would say in view of what you have said previously that the problems you had were nothing to do with poor signal input. There are numerous reasons unrelated to signal strength but usually software related which can cause a PVR to fail to record or produce a display of live TV.

It is worth noting that the PVR you had uses the Vestel T845 hardware and was branded by Digihome and had the Top Up TV software installed in it. This software is completely different from that used in previous Digihome PVRs and other Vestel PVRs of various brands. It is not valid to use your experience as a reflection of the quality of other Digihome PVRs or Vestel PVRs in general. I think your experience is only valid as a reflection of the quality the Top Up TV software and maybe but unlikely IMO on the T845 hardware which has only been used for the TUTV software so far.

No criticism of yourself is implied in any of the above by the way.

Colin

Certainly no offense taken Colin. I think the points you make are fair.

Other Digihome recorders may well have sorted out the teething problems of a variety of hardware and software inputs from different sources. I guess the model my daughter and I had has yet to have all its problems exposed and sorted. However, to my mind, I think that should have been done through extensive bench testing, and some form of beta testing with actual users. OK, the price would have been increased and speed to market reduced. But a reputation lost is not easily regained. As I said before, I wouldn't buy another of that model, and I would be wary of buying any other from the same stable.

When I buy a piece of consumer electronics with such a relatively tightly specced purpose and using known components and software parameters, I expect it to work. My computers have failed me from time to time, but they've been subjected to lots of software and hardware interference from me. All I did with the Digihome was point the controller at it!

Vestel, and TUTV need to get their act together.

John

TUTV have been promising to get its act together since launch and have yet to produce a properly working firmware. I would strongly recommend anyone to avoid any product with the TUTV software. Have a look in the TUTV forum, but be brave as there are some very very passionate people in there!