ePVision PHD-VRX speculation thread - Page 6  

From the press release am I to infer the unit will launch without a "finished" EPG, and "incomplete" multimedia playback functionality, with those and maybe more advertised features "promised" for an unspecified later date firmware release?

When have I heard that before from a CEM?

Looking at the quick start guide, it seems that the VRX can't accept a 1080i input from either HDMI or component, and can't output 1080i to the HDMI port.

I'm glad to hear the PHD-VRX is finally about to be released. I hope it has a very good ATSC tuner that is not subject to amplification issues like the CM7400. The previous epVision boxes all had very good tuners with no problems using a preamp. And hopefully it will indeed have 2 RF inputs as indicated such that you can successfully integrate OTA antenna and cable connections without having to use an A/B switch. Similar to TiVo. Or possibly even connect 2 different antennas if necessary. But will it eventually use an internet connection for EPG, or is it PSIP only?

Let's hope the product and the documentation are disconnected from each other. I miss the 480i also. ED but no SD? Not logical. If it truly can't accept or send 1080i some will be returned.

I'd have to believe it uses the same chipset as the 8VX, which does 1080i and despite the documentation, can do 480i over both component and HDMI.

From what I read on outputs hdmi and composite only I would have to purchase a newer tv for the living room to use.

Got two it would work with in camper or bedroom. Living room tv has component only.

Do they make a hdmi to component converter I could also use an component to hdmi converter on the old tv......And the surround system

Search for HD-Fury. There may be others that are less expensive, but depending on your TV (especially if it's an older Mits RPTV) the HD-Fury may be the only device that will work properly with it.

I just got a respond back from the sales.

Price will be $229, pre-reg coupon will be $30. They will have it available soon. I hope this can replace my Tvix 6620N when it comes to recording.

With the coupon, it come in at $200, that will end up being a pretty good price as long as they don't get wild with some ridiculously high shipping charges.

Maybe they will have some good prices on USB hard drives.

Two more wall warts will need a home also.

Updated response from sales support told me the VRX box will use a Nutune dual tuner, which is supposed to be a very good tuner for ATSC OTA reception. I believe the previous 8VX box may have also used a Nutune tuner, and it indeed was a very sensitive tuner.

Has anyone received their discount coupon yet? I registered a few years ago when I sent in my suggestions, I am not sure if there is any way to check and see if that is still valid.
Also, I am not very well informed on computer accessories. Would something like this http://www.walmart.com/ip/Hard-Drive...sures/15222296 be what is needed to attach to the product?

Speculation: that would be a possibility. I have a Seagate FreeAgent 1TB that worked with my ZAT/BV-980H. I have not used either device in months.

It has an external power supply and USB cable. It was designed as a backup device.

As for the coupon issue, your guess is as good as mine. Maybe there will be a new web page & pictures.

I sent a wish too: allow clock to be off when the unit is in standby. I have enough clocks. Who knows.

4. That's nice.
5. No so nice, but not bad. I guess writing to a PC with NTFS is a no go.
6. Internet time is on the CM-7400 and TViX. Without a PSIP you need a manual time setting.
7. Local time has a bad reputation if you are saying OTA PSIP.
10. So much for Q1.

Just another day in paradise.

Using the network time setting is considered "best practice" on the TViX, as it causes the box to completely ignore PSIP time data, which in turn prevents faulty station clocks from breaking your timers.

The biggest complaint I saw regarding the DTVPal when I researched it was that all of the "alternative" clock settings were subordinate to the PSIP data, meaning that a station's time would always override the manual clock if PSIP time was available at all. The TViX doesn't have this problem, and the PHD-VRX will have to work the same way to be successful. You can also set the TViX clock manually or by selecting a single station with reliable time data, but since using the network option is essentially 100% reliable, there's no reason to use the other settings.

It's too bad that this box seems to be doing some proprietary fiddling with the recordings. The TViX records the station TS without alterations. Although it shares the PHD-VRX's inability to use CC data, it's still possible to extract the captions from the TS file and place them as a SRT on the DVR's HDD, and then the captions will work. If the PHD-VRX is going to strip the CC data from the file completely, then even that method won't work.

If it uses the ATSC PSIP time signal, I would think it would have to be able to "lock" onto one, specific channel's time (my old, later firmware, DTVPal CECB does that. In fact, I'm using it presently, and the time is the same across all channels).

I'd still feel a heck of a lot more secure, personally, if it had manual time setting to always be able to fall back on.

Having a reliable clock was one of my prerequisites for buying a DVR at all. If the box is going to randomly update its clock incorrectly and record the wrong show, it's better to just keep using a VCR. At least those work. I'm glad to have a manual clock setting as a fallback option, but thus far I've had no problems using network time. Hopefully the PHD-VRX will respect the user option for time retrieval and not try to use faulty PSIP time as a last resort for updating its clock.

Strange. My TViX makes .tp files. The BV-980H makes .ts files. I understand there are conversion programs. Must be some setting I have wrong.

Files with TP and TS extensions are both MPEG-2 Transport Stream dumps. Nobody seems to know why the TP extension exists, but it's the same thing. The difference may lie in some of the file header information, which could be verified through a file comparison.

That makes sense. Thanks for the info.

Their decision not to recorded CC for anyone who wants or needs CC to be displayed, is idiotic! If certain people need or want CC while viewing something live, it is also almost certain that they will want or need it being available to see in a recording also.

I'll have the numbers in an hour. I have two different DVRs that work with digital CC.

It's not easy to have digital CC. If it was easy everyone would do it and have a button on the remote (like my Sony TV).

It can't be a space/storage issue. That would be insulting considering the recorder doesn't come with any.

Me neither. It took me 15 minutes to figure out how to enable it. I did learn the CC1 is English and CC2 is Spanish.

CBS 1080i 9:00 to 9:15 needed 1.840Gb without CC1. 9:30 to 9:45 was 1.808Gb. DD2.0 commercials could explain the difference. Source was cable, not OTA.

Rounding off, I have found 10Mbs for 480i digital and 20Mbs for 1080i. My external WD disk drive seems to run at 18Mbs. I found one hour of 1080i MPEG-2 needs about 8Gb as a .ts file. Just some info.

I think I may have an idea of where the problem lies. First, MPEG-2 video can be delivered in one of two ways, either through a Program Stream or a Transport Stream. The PS format is used for reliable data delivery methods, like DVD, where errors aren't likely to occur. The TS format is essentially a wrapper that's placed around multiple PS files and gives them robust error correction so that they can be broadcast over the air and still play with a reasonable level of reliability.

The PHD-VRX is likely being designed to strip the individual PS you want to watch out of the TS wrapper, rather than saving the entire TS. The benefit of this would be a potential reduction in file size of maybe 20% at most, or a little over 1 GiB saved per hour of recording time. The downside is that closed captions contained within the MPEG-2 Picture User Data are probably part of the TS, so removing the wrapper to save space also strips the captions. As such, Allan's response was probably just worded poorly. It's not that the PHD-VRX strips captions to save space; it strips the TS wrapper to save space, and the captions are a casualty of that process.

The only ways to fix the problem would be to either record the raw TS and not save any space or to rip the PS and CC data from the TS at the same time and save the captions to an SRT file automatically.

It may also be worth noting that the storage of PS data may be more problematic in another area, depending on how it's implemented. The robust error correction in the TS wrapper is what allows the picture and audio to resume perfectly synchronized after a momentary drop in signal strength or other transmission error/interference causes a program to have brief audio/video errors.

Without the error correction provided by the TS wrapper, the show would likely have serious A/V desynchronization after any interruption to its broadcast signal. If the PHD-VRX doesn't save the full TS data, it will need to be designed carefully to make sure that it's saving the PS data correctly. If it doesn't, it could potentially be saving corrupt files, and a DVR that saves desynchronized (but small!) files isn't going to be very popular. This is one of those times where controlled laboratory test conditions don't really help much. Hopefully this DVR will be tested in areas with poor reception to ensure that it still records shows correctly.

You obviously have far more knowledge of this issue than I do. I can only understand 50% of your post, and that is probably because I have the PViX and BV-980H. I had a CM-7400 for a few hours too.

But, and it's a real big but, I want to record HD 5.1 Leno tonight. I want to playback that recording tomorrow without any interaction with file types, protocols, or hardware issues. I wish there was a way to get that done without an EPG or really cool manual recording features, but that seems unlikely.

You can call me a consumer that wants a toaster with an accurate clock. If it works reliably, I'll take the toaster. It has a niche. So does my VCR-like Magnavox. In fact, all my stuff has its own niche, even my TiVo. I can't think of any device that makes everybody happy all the time. I do thank you for your information and hope to learn from it.