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DVICO TViX R3310?

62K views 428 replies 36 participants last post by  rantony 
#1 ·
#152 ·
I loaded up beta firmware v1.8.2 last night and tried a few of the new features. All the changes I've tried work quite well with a few exceptions that I'll mention below. And there's one change that's absolutely terrific, also mentioned below. Overall, this is a very good upgrade except for one complaint - they changed the yellow-orange highlight color to red. Red is harder to see and doesn't look as good as the previous yellow-orange color. If anyone who can do something about it is reading this, please change it back, or make it selectable by the user.


Since I haven't used all the functions yet, I'll only give my impressions of the functions I have used:

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2. Add the FAVORITE CHANNEL function.

- At the GO-TO channel list pop-up, you can add or delete the channel by ADD/DELETE button on remote.

- You can edit the channel order in the FAVORITE CHANNEL LIST by CH +/- button on remote

- To change between registered favorite channels : “REPEAT” button

- To change between all scanned channels : “CH +/-“ button

I had no problem using this and creating a favorite channel list. It works a little backwards from how I had hoped, though. In Phoenix we have about 38 digital channels of which I'm only interested in about 17. I put the 17 channels in my favorites list and I can cycle through them with the Repeat button. However, all 38 channels are still accessed with the CH +/- rocker and are listed in the program guide. I'd prefer if only my favorites were in the guide and available with the CH +/- rocker. In other words, make the default controls work just on the favorites and make it so you have to do something special to see all the scanned channels.

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5. Speed up the channel zapping speed with information window.

Nice improvement. In the previous firmware, you had to wait for each channel to tune in before you could skip to the next. This same thing works in the program guide - I can now skip between channels in the guide without waiting for each channel to tune in. I also like the wider info banner at the top of the screen when you change a channel.

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6. Channel list pop-up window will appear according to numbers, when you press numeric key on the remote.

If I press "1" on the remote, I get a popup list with all the channels that start with "1", e.g. 10-1, 12-1, 12-2, 15-1, then I can select one of those.

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9. Improve the EPG update window when selecting the channel in the EPG pop-up.

I mentioned this under item 5. I can now skip between channels in the guide without waiting for each channel to tune in.

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[Multimedia Player/ Others]

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1. Add PREVIEW WINDOW at the file browser.

- You can enable this function by SETUP -> SYSTEM -> PREVIEW

I tried it, but it's not too useful for me. Most of my movies are in VIDEO_TS folders and in order to see the preview, you have to navigate down to the video_ts.ifo file. It's actually faster to just play the movie. Also, the box locked up a few minutes into playing a preview. Everything froze, except I could still power it off using the remote. I powered it back up and it worked fine.

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5. Add the current time display on the upper-right corner.

Nice. I had it get the time from over the air. One minor nit: The times displayed after midnight show the hour as "00" instead of "12". For example 12:05 AM shows as 00:05 AM. I think this is normal in many parts of the world, but in the US, we show it as 12:xx.

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15. Support image wall-paper function at file browser.

- Make sure that image should be 1280x720 resolution and rename it tvix.jpg, then place that file at the folder you want.

- This function will be disabled when PREVIEW window is activated

This is GREAT! Now I'm able to use Guy Kuo's Movie GUI Builder and have the polished look of a graphical background including the DVD artwork and movie synopsis for each movie. This is very slick. However, I've had the box lock up a couple times upon bringing up some of these images.


Functionally, this beta is a big improvement and I'm going to keep using it unless the lockups I mentioned become too frequent.


-Rob
 
#153 ·
Just a couple [hopefully] helpful comments.


I spend too much of my life living in hotels. Right now I travel with a DVD recorder but will soon upgrade to the TVIX R3310.


The station time/date settings, for automatically setting the recorder's clock, are often wrong. So disable this feature and set it manually.


The best program guide I've found is TitanTV.com. It gives you two weeks into the future. I have two profiles, one for home and one for travel.


I believe that TitanTV.com also feeds some EPG's, but I'm not sure how that works.
 
#158 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by otacool /forum/post/16982770


That's a big setback. But the feature says:

1. Supports the DVB-T DUAL TUNER (T441 or T341).

- Recording one channel while watching the other channel


If it is for the same CPU, then R-3310 should be speedy enough for simultaneous playback and separate recording.

Are they referring to HD with DVB-T? Edit: Yes, they are.
 
#160 ·
It is a bad decision for DViCo not to use a more powerful CPU (in order to save a few bucks?). That singles out RX3310 with all other brand PVRs for the limitation.

Anyway, I loaded the new v1.8.2 Beta firmware. It improves quite a lot:

(1) The tuner is tuning much better. The signal seems significantly stronger than using old firmware. I easily got all channels with v1.8.2 Beta.

(2) The record list is another huge improvement to me.

(3) The manual recording operation seems more user friendly.

------------------------------------------------------------

I wish they can fix/enhance the following issues:

(1) remove the red dot while recording. the dot can be displayed with information.

(2) show the program rating in the guide or program information

(3)changed back the yellow-orange highlight color from red. Avoid red if possible unless it is a warning or sth bad.

(4) Big wish: make it possible to record one channel, while playing a prerecorded program
 
#161 ·
DViCo didn't choose the R-3310's CPU power "to save a few bucks." You can get all the CPU power that you want for general HT applications in an HTPC. The point of media streamers and stand-alone PVR boxes as alternatives to HTPCs is that they are more energy efficient than general-purpose computers for specific dedicated applications. The basic idea is that you don't try to do everything in one box. You can easily add more boxes if you need more functions--they're all networked so that the media are all universally accessible and they're all independent and low powered so that you don't burn 100+ watts just to record or play back one TV show.
 
#162 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by TPeterson /forum/post/16982861


The requirements are not actually the same for recording + viewing and recording + playback, since the latter needs more I/O port activity. However, it may still be possible, since DViCo says that they're still working on it. Just don't hold your breath.

I/O port activity (disk reading) is time consuming especially when the disk speed is low. However, it should not be CPU intensive. Almost every other brand PVRs can do this, and DViCo cannot. This (to me) is a serious design flaw from engineering point of view. If I know this cannot be done, I would not buy this model.
 
#163 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by otacool /forum/post/16985177


Almost every other brand PVRs can do this {record while playing previous recording}....

To be clear here, what other brands of HD PVR are you talking about? The one that I know of (HD TIVO) has a totally unacceptable power draw in my opinion, since it consumes more power in "standby" than the TViX consumes in full operation and is therefore not even as good a solution as my HTPC. Do you know of others? What is their power consumption?
Quote:
Originally Posted by otacool /forum/post/16985177


If I know this cannot be done, I would not buy this model.

I suggest then that you refrain from purchasing (or return it if you already bought it with the misapprehension that it would perform record+playback) because it may not ever have that feature.
 
#164 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by TPeterson /forum/post/16985435


To be clear here, what other brands of HD PVR are you talking about? The one that I know of (HD TIVO) has a totally unacceptable power draw in my opinion, since it consumes more power in "standby" than the TViX consumes in full operation and is therefore not even as good a solution as my HTPC. Do you know of others? What is their power consumption?I suggest then that you refrain from purchasing (or return it if you already bought it with the misapprehension that it would perform record+playback) because it may not ever have that feature.

The TivoHD (cable or ota), Moxi (cable only), and DTVPal DVR (ota only) can all record two different channels while they simultaneously play a third, previously recorded program.


For someone living in VA, the DTVPal DVR costs about $1.77/mo in electricity. The TiVo and Moxi both cost about about $2.60/mo to run. I don't have a problem with spending $2.60 of my $140/mo electrical bill on such a useful appliance, but I know there are others that disagree.
 
#165 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by TPeterson /forum/post/16985435


To be clear here, what other brands of HD PVR are you talking about? The one that I know of (HD TIVO) has a totally unacceptable power draw in my opinion, since it consumes more power in "standby" than the TViX consumes in full operation and is therefore not even as good a solution as my HTPC. Do you know of others? What is their power consumption?I suggest then that you refrain from purchasing (or return it if you already bought it with the misapprehension that it would perform record+playback) because it may not ever have that feature.

I am talking about the capability to record and playback at the same time, not about power consumption. So far I know these brands can do: Dish PVR, TiVo, DirecTv PVR and viewsat 9000 HD (a FTA satellite receiver, but also has a ATSC tuner to receive OTA channels). I don't know which cannot do except Tvix box. I am not sure if the less powerful CPU makes TVIX significantly power efficient.


I have to admit, when I made my order, I took this playback capability as granted. I still like to keep my R3310, because of its other unique features and price. Also, I don't want to be charged restocking fee and shipping fee to return.
 
#166 ·

Quote:
Originally Posted by bfdtv /forum/post/16985505


I don't have a problem with spending $2.60 of my $140/mo electrical bill on such a useful appliance, but I know there are others that disagree.

As I already said, you can count me among those who (not "that") disagree. I aesthetically abhor appliances such as the TiVo that consume power needlessly and my electric bill is about $80/year.
 
#167 ·
To me, over $3000/year electricity bill, the additional power consumption by DVR is almost nothing. I am addicted to TV. I don't want to watch commercials. That is the main reason I record program and then watch the prerecorded ibecause I can skip commercials. Unfortunately, the time to record the programs, is also the time I am free to watch TV. So, playback function is big deal to me.
 
#168 ·
I just reverted my R3310 back from v1.8.2 beta to v1.5.4 release firmware. I loved all the beta's new features except for the frequent lockups. I have two R3310s and they both do the same thing with v1.8.2 beta - the box locks up in the middle of watching DVD backups (VIDEO_TS folders). It seemed like it would happen once every other movie or so, but tonight I had it lockup twice during the same movie. It was just too painful to keep re-booting the box.


The feature set of v1.8.2 is a big improvement, but the lockups are intolerable. Please keep working on it and let me know when a more stable version becomes available.


-Rob
 
#169 ·
v1.8.2 beta - Broke My Heart too.

(1)I am doing scheduled recording with (repeat) everyday option. The recording sometimes is missed, and sometimes is terminated earlier than the end time. This happens very frequent. With V1.5.4, these never happen.

(2) It is easy to be locked up

(3) Many times, I lose audio on HDMI, and video on A/V. Have to reboot to recover.
 
#173 ·
TPeterson,

Quote:
(BTW, it's called "MyQ&A" because only you and DViCo can see your posts. When the rest of us follow the above link, we just get the Main MyQ&A page)

Ahso. It's interesting, when I go back and look at the main 'My Q&A' page, my posting shows up and is listed as having 7 hits. Would those be internal TViX people reading the post?


-Rob
 
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