ePVision PHD-VRX speculation thread - Page 3  

All their web pages load just fine for me.

Thanks again for posting videobruce. Since I do not care about cable the only upgrade that I would like to see is the internal drive option. For now the external USB drive serves my immediate needs since I have a 1TB available for the purpose. However, I am sure the unit will not be choked to record two channels at the same time with the internal hard drive in place, and that would certainly have been on my upgrade list.

Sounds like they are still having problems with the EPG. I'll wait..............

Hi videobruce. Looks like CM may have some problems with the CM-7400. I haven't added my one star review yet, but I want to take the box to UPS first. I think that will mean I have only had it for 18 hours. It was enough.

I figure I will wait for the PHD-VRX. Maybe you could get the thread name changed? The EPG, unless it is internet based, will probably be a risky thing. The lack of an internal drive isn't good, but who makes a black external drive? The CM was going to support eSATA, but USB will work for now.

Yes, the BV-980H is "rough", but the main fault is lack of anything being done to correct the problems. It's been a while. The CM has already had one update, and that was possible over the internet. WiFi really matters.

So I wanted to let you know I'm around and waiting. We both know TVGOS isn't going to last forever and Sony doesn't telegraph their moves so we never know what they are doing, if anything. Good luck.

Joe

email sent to Allen.

Like I said, I sent the email to ePvision. Is there a lottery on what month it ships?

Biggest problem for me was the manual recording issue. I could live with wrong channel numbers and too-warm box, but I do a lot of time shifting. The manual recording is a bad thing. It might be a cable thing, but it might not. All in all, it took me 18 hours to send it back. My review is on Amazon.

I inputted my name for the coupon whenever the unit does actually ship and left some comments on how their is a huge market for an OTA DVR and that so many others have dropped the ball.

Allen replied back and ask for some insight as to the issues that the 7000, 7400 and Brightview have had. I told him some of my personal issues with the devices I've had experience with along with referencing Amazon.com reviews of the listed units.

We'll see how it all works out in the coming months...

Have they provided an updated estimate in regard as to when the PHD-RVX will be released?

The email reply:
"
Hi Joe,

Thank you very much for your email and sorry for the late reply. For this model, we really want to focus on PVR function and hope to done right in the first release. We certainly will update our web site regarding more information about this product and hope to ship out very soon.

Thanks again for your email and have great holidays!


Sales Team, Allen
ePVision.com

"

He seems nice. I'm afraid to call. Peggy might answer.

Dat's Funny

You should not skip all commercials. Google for "Peggy Commercials".

Also sent them an email about some of the issues listed above with similar responses. Allen also mentioned that they are also planning on a user programmable EPG, which will be implemented after the 3rd party solution. Sound like they have their product road map sorted out. Just hope that they have enough spare capacity hardware wise to support the road map. If this is an indication of what their customer support will be it surely is a product to look forward to.

"I'm not too old to find you, son".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmeOP...eature=related

Ext2 will be a little bit faster due to their not being a journal to maintain.
It also means it is less resistant to file corruption.
Its too bad he really didnt answer the question about the lack of NTFS.
I bet you a cup of coffee they simply are not willing to license a proper driver and pay the money,
which is ironic since they are willing to spend the extra money on the questionable utility of the switching hardware.

He also seemed to avoid some of your other questions, but at least he answered.

Can you ask him for a pic of the inside of the unit?

I wonder if they just took their switcher hardware, grafted a tuner to it and wrapped the pvr software around it to make this new product?

I really wish these manufacturers would take their time and fully bake these CE products before asking the public to beta test them for the manufacturer.
I guess the money is just too tempting, but if the product falls flat on its face, it can cause people to never, ever consider another of that manufacturers products again.

While you're there, "He also sent preliminary pages of the owners manual, but it was too large to attach it so here are pics of the pages;", maybe he can place it on their web site and we can download it. The docs for the CM7400 are on-line.

Ext2/3/4 are open source and included in the Linux OS they are using.
It doesnt cost them anything to license those filesystems.
God only knows why they dont use ext3 since its been the default filesystem for years, unless they are using some ancient kernel?

To include NTFS write support they would have to license something like Tuxera's drivers,
which would cost them some money, but really is a necessity.

What are they gonna do when they get calls from folks who cannot see any of their PVR recordings on their Windows/Mac computer?
Remember external HDD only so people will be hooking the drive back up to the PC.

Now I understand why no device drive formatting to ext2.
They do not want responsibility for those poor individuals who format a large capacity drive to ext2,
which had a NTFS filesystem with all their taxes, email, photos/videos of their kids growing up.....

I wonder if they are gonna point users to d/l and use one of the crappy windows ext2 utilities to create the partitions on the recording drive?

Very short sighted and poorly thought out IMO.

Yes-NTFS is a Microsoft proprietary/undocumented filesystem, but third parties have either licensed Microsoft IP or reverse engineered the filesystem and offer commercial drivers for embedded devices and alternative operating systems, which they obviously charge for. These guys decided to not license the IP required to read/write NTFS.

Ext3 is basically Ext2+Journal which makes it more robust and less likely to corrupt files in case of extreme events.

If the device could format a hard drive itself, it would be very easy for a non-technical user to hookup one of their drives they have used to hold their cherished memories and important information, and the device would have to prompt the user to format the drive in order to use it. People have a nasty habit of clicking yes/OK without actually reading what it says or understanding what they are agreeing to. It would be very easy for someone to inadvertantly wipe all of their important data.

OTOH-not providing the user the ability of the device to format the drive will require the user to (1) go out and find a utility which can create ext2/3 partitions on the drive, (2) install the software onto their computer, (3) then go ahead and delete their existing (NTFS) partiition and re-format as Ext2. The manufacturer can deny any responsibility for when folks lose data. Something along the lines of "Oh-so sorry. We cannot help you. YOU went out of your way to find the software and then YOU went ahead and decided to re-format the drive to use with our product. YOU should have had a backup........"

Either way, customers will be pissed off when they realize they have lost data. Mark my words. It will happen.

Licensing a proper NTFS driver would solve these problems and also provide convenience to the user and be a selling feature instead of a manufacturing cost.
Maybe they think the choice of Ext2 makes it more difficult for people to access the transport streams on the drive, but all it can record is in-the-clear content, so what is the point? I doubt they are using it as a poor mans form of content protection. They have gone out of their way to not provide the ability for the device to create Ext2 partitions since every Linux distro includes this functionality out of the box. I mean the amount of programming required to prompt the user to select a partition name size and click OK amount to all of what about 20 lines of code?

Look at Tvix devices. I have had a Tvix 5000 since ~2006 and using its tuner it can record to NTFS formatted drives.
It can also read/write Ext2/3 but that is not the default.
It is really easy to pull the drive and hookup to a PC and edit the recording with VideoReDo...

This device has fail written all over it to me, but time will tell and hopefully I am wrong.

Thanks, and thanks for the thread name change. I have a lot of free time to be a cable beta tester. Don't forget that.

From the pages and comments that you have posted my understanding is that the unit does allow formatting of a dedicated PVR USB HDD. (point 3 in Allen's response above) To my mind this is not different from any other HDD recording system. It is only when the user would like to create partitions or access his recordings from a PC that he will have to put in a bit more effort. (which I believe 90% of Joe Six Packs will not care about)

So you run down to BB and pickup a 1TB WD USB drive. You plug it into what?

No product. Maybe 2012 is the year. Adding the HDD is usually a one-time event. Daily operations are more significant. Of those, we have no knowledge.