ePVision PHD-VRX speculation thread - Page 10  

My TiVoHD did cost $500 in 2009 when I purchased it and first saw mention of this upcoming product and considered the Channel Master DVR. I used my one time lifetime transfer and transferred lifetime from an old TiVo Series 1 to a second TiVoHD, purchased used at a cheap price later that year. The rudimentary DVRs like this haven't exactly set the world afire, Sony, LG, Dish, Channel Master and possibly a couple of others I might have forgotten have tried to establish a market for rudimentary DVRs and failed. Now PrimeDTV, whoever that is might try again, good luck.

The last I checked I could purchase a TiVo Premiere with 500GB HD and lifetime for $475 as an existing TiVo subscriber. If I do buy another DVR, I can't convince myself this product is worth consideration, the premium of $150 to $200 for TiVo with lifetime is easily justified. The best that I can recall, neither TiVoHD has ever missed a recording through some fault of the TiVoHD, a couple of recordings have been missed or partially missed because of sports running over but I usually have that taken care of. TiVo just works reliably day after day, month after month, year after year, this type of product won't likely make anybody happy with their $150 savings.

I will agree this box is a much better shot than the Channel Master DVR at $350 to $400, it is a complete joke compared to TiVo with the savings it offers.

I haven't ever seen any big fees from any satellite company or cable company, most use a DVR as a loss leader in my experience. I subscribed to DirecTV for about 12 years and had Comcast a couple of years, DVR fees were a great bargain making using any third party DVR unattractive. If you are going to use cable with your own DVR, you don't get a break from the cable company for doing so. I am not sure where you come up with your position. You can't use one of these with satellite so that point is absolutely meaningless. If you have a cable company that won't treat you well, move to satellite, deals abound to get new customers including deals on DVRs.

In my opinion, that really leaves OTA as the only possible cost savings coming from using something like this. As I mentioned before I have compared paying the necessary premium required to have TiVo to using something like this and for me, the premium is an easy choice. I cut the cord in 2009 and the best decision was to use TiVo, it still works and the other options at that time have turned out to be pathetic. In 3 years a comparison of having chosen TiVo to choosing something like this will look just the same is my prediction, in hindsight the smart choice will be clear. Fortunately for me, the smart choice was clear ahead of time.

I don't know about the others, but the Sony was far from being a "rudimentary" DVR...

Really? Looked pretty rudimentary to me compared to TiVo and flopped rather pathetically on the market and quickly disappeared.

Yes it did leave the market after a short time. But the reasons did not include being a "rudimentary" DVR. You have obviously never used one. I used three of them for about 5 years. I still own two. And I had three Premier XL's since December. I can tell you (from experience) that although there are some features the TiVo has that were not available in the Sony's, the Sony's also had features that are not available in the TiVo's. If not for SDV, I would still be using the Sony's today.

The Sony DHG with 30,000 hours on its HDD still sells for $250 on eBay. And still works with a cable card and has two rf inputs. Stopped production, yes. Disappeared, not even close. The VRX will suffer due to no cable card, but I can't predict its future. That will depend on the feedback. You never know.

The DHG's biggest launch problem was only 1 tuner, that combined with the rather large MSRP (around $1500 as I recall). Add to that the inability to archive content to either PC, DVHS, external hard drive. These shortcomings caused myself to avoid the unit at launch, hoping for the never to materialize 2nd gen unit with 2 tuners and either firewire or ethernet capability. Only 5 years later did I become nostalgic and obtain a brand new unit listed one ebay. I currently have several tivos, the 250, pc tuners, mits 6000, zenith 230, lg 3410, and a comcast DVR. The tivo's are by far the least "rudimentary" devices. Thats my 2 cents.

I guess if you're comparing the Sony (of 2005) to the TiVo's (of today) it does pale a bit. But let's remember that the Sony's were recording HD in 2005 with their single tuner. I believe the Tivo Series 3 (HD) wasn't released until sometime in 2006?

Those dates sound about what I remember, though come on, wasnt it clearly a big need for dual tuners? People were bitching about the Zenith 230 / LG 3410's single tuner for a long time before the Sony was released as I recall.

The sony is still a very nice unit, so is the 3410. (Too bad the software implementation on the 3410 kinda sucks)

I also have the DHG and LST-3410a and a bunch of other stuff. I like stuff. But we can we go back to speculating on the VRX and stop throwing gasoline on a fire started by someone with no dog in this hunt?

I could be pissed that there is no internal HDD. I can't fix that. But maybe I can get used to it. Somewhere "DVR" became equal to ".ts file creator." I don't like that, but it seems the industry is moving that way. Even with the Funai MDR515H I can select a title to play, not a file. It might be a fine line, but that's what generates profits and stops returns.

For those who have both OTA and cable, the VRX meets one major need. For those who want to have every TV show archived it makes that easy. If it meets more needs the sales will be good. I hope so. Bottom line is that it's a fee-free DVR and that counts a whole bunch to a lot of people.

Any speculation if the VRX can be a DNLA server? It does say "HD Media Server". If so, can two be in the same network?

Is there a minimum size for the external USB memory?

+1

I believe the range is 2GB-2TB for the USB storage.

Connecting external USB storage devices
1. To record TV shows, plug USB 2.0 support Hard Disk Drive (HDD) or Flash stick with the size from 2GB up to 2TB. PHD‐VRX will record TV shows on the first USB device plugged in no matter which USB port is.

Thanks y'all. I have this dream of getting a bunch of 8Gb USB drives and saving special shows. I still play my S-VHS tape of the special when NBC changed the peacock.

What types of Multimedia Formats do you think this will support?

Maybe start a list of what the general consensus thinks it should support?

Could firmware updates expand future formats?

First, I see no indication that firmware updates can be done via the internet. That sucks.

It probably makes .ts files with a file name derived from the PSIP. That would be the minimum. Since I have no PSIP, the best I can expect is channel, time and date. With the PViX the time is the END of the title, like a computer file. No mention of naming titles. I know there are various formats, but that's above my pay grade. Hmmmm. If it can record two titles at the same time, I hope the channel number is included. Until someone has a unit we will have to wait. Seeing that there is already one update on-line, we know they do provide updates. But so did the BV-980H (one).

Didn't I see a downloadable firmware file on their website?

You did. The instructions are TBD. Not that stopped me from downloading and expanding it. All I could observe was the letters "linux" in one file name. It's so much easier with the internet. It can find the time so it's not a stretch to look for updates.

I am quite exited about this product. From the specs it is everything I want, especially now that the indications are that it may also be able to play files that are available on my home network through the use of a media server (serviio is my favourite). As I have stated in an earlier posting the external HDD is not an issue, I have been using an external HDD on my Bell Sat TV PVR for more than two years now without any issues. Here in Canada the OTA EPG sucks big time so I will probably have to rely on manual programming. I therefore will be eagerly awaiting for the promised "minimum fee" service or alternatively the eventual ability to create my own EPG.

I wonder if it will record from any other input (component?)???

As long as we are wondering ...
I wonder if the USB will be powered when the unit is in stand-by. If it's not I wonder how long it would take for a 2.5" USB powered external HDD to spin up and start recording when the unit comes on for a timer recording or if it powers on a minute early like the Maggies do.

Since the VRX records raw TS files to an external drive with no encryption, it's probably impossible for it to obtain DLNA certification. DLNA devices must employ DTCP to be accepted into the program, AFAIK. A DLNA-certified DVR might not need to encrypt ATSC recordings, but it would have to support other files with protection, and I haven't seen any indication yet that the VRX can play such content.


Why do you always call the TViX a PViX? It will be harder for people to find the AVS topic about it for comparison purposes if you don't refer to the box by its name.

Here I go quoting myself. That just feels weird.

What I am trying to ask is what files this machine will play from network connected storage, PC or USB drive that were created by something other than this device.

Video formats: AVI, MPEG, WMV, DivX, MP4, H.264/AVC, MKV, RM, MOV, XviD, 3GP, and FLV etc...
Audio formats: MP3, WMA, WAV, RA, M4A, AAC, AC3, MP2, and OGG etc...

It has the hardware on the back, plus HDMI, but nothing stated about copy protection or resolution. It would be a major security issue if the inputs don't have or care about HDCP. My AVR has two HDMI outputs. It would be amazing if I could feed one into the VRX and record it. It is major speculation.

You're probably right about the DNLA issue.

I have a post-it on my monitor with TViX on it so I won't make the error again. Maybe I should use M6620N?

On the specs page, I see:

Audio
AC-3 Audio Decoding: Yes
Digital Multi-Lingual: Yes
BTSC Stereo/SAP Audio: Yes

Video Processing
MPEG-2 SD/HD Decoding: MP@ML, MP@HL

I wonder: why no Dolby Digital (it shows on the unit) and why no MPEG-4 (the real near future). Time to apply my 75% rule on documentation I guess.

AC-3 is Dolby Digital.

As for MPEG-4, it's a major shame that the ATSC standard wasn't redevelopd and delayed to implement AVC instead of MPEG-2, but it's too late now. There's no way that broadcast TV is going through another "digital transition" to adopt a new encoding standard, since all current ATSC tuners would become just as useless as analogue NTSC ones are currently. As a result, MPEG-4 support is of limited use to a box that's designed to record OTA TV; it's only necessary for playing external files, such as content transferred from digital camcorders. The VRX's AVC support was just confirmed by morc258 a few posts above this, so it will be able to play external files in that format, assuming you have some to play.