Indigita AVHD IEEE 1394 Hard Disc Drive - Page 4

Not as easy as just adding Mpeg2 encoder. Besides compressing you need to turn into transport stream. This complicates things.

Does the Sharp's version of TVGOS do the scheduling via firewire, or is that done by a part of the Sharp menu GUI?

I believe in the RCA Scenium TV's, it is done through the TV's menu gui - part of which is a setting that designates a 'default recording device' (you can select firewire).

However, if there is a version of TVGOS (and not a TV's seperate menu gui) that allows you to select 'record to firewire', then there is hope for us Samsung folks that Samsung will upgrade to this version via new firmware.

TVGOS in Sharp gives a choice to set recording to Ilink device. It will record to whatever device is selected in firewire menu. If DVHS is selected then it records to DVHS. If AVHDD is selected then it records to AVHDD.

Ok, $20.

Point is, why have a device that can only do half a job? It will be years before analog is gone (if ever completely). There is very lettile 'digital' material there now compared with analog.

Poor management decision again.

I guess the issue is complicated by that fact that in many countries, digital transmissions are only available to the consumer to record in analogue form.

So even though digital satellite, cable and OTA are widespread, and analogue limited to OTA terrestrial in many regions, the output of cable and satellite boxes is still analogue in many areas.

The only way of recording these digitally is to use proprietary DVR/PVR devices.

(The US is lucky to have mandated Firewire support and CableCard. Many areas don't and are far more limited in recording options. It will be interesting to see if and how HD-DVD and BluRay recorders are interfaced / integrated in these regions.)

CKNA,

where do u setup this TVguide recording device, i mean in TV guide setup it only has VCR setup, i can see this HDD fine if i click "iLink".

thx

Analog will be gone sooner than you think. While cable has no hard cut off date, they will start shutting off analog very quickly next year. Analog is waste of bandwith. In space of one analog channel they can put 2, 3 HD channels in Mpeg2 or even more using Mpeg4.

Agreed, the 9/11 report & commission has stated this week they need some of that bandwidth for first responder communications. You will see the FCC start moving this conversion faster.

What, two or three years from now?
and how do you know that? It's a lower level tier that many can only afford (depending on how the cable operator prices their services). I wouldn't be too sure about that. More than you think don't really care about digital anything and can't/won't bother with digital channels. Cable needs all the subs they can get.

Well, i just love this RCA 2160 on my Sharp, although the shapr desn't have the RCA menu for live TV pause, FF, FW, but i just press the record botton if i want the program to be live paused, then i can do just a TiVO does, play that's just be recorded, FF, FW, it just works like what RCA HDTV is supposed to work with this DVR, anyway, i have 3 2160 stacked together, guess that 480G should be enough for a while :-)

So your Sharp can see & record to all three?
Does the sharp let you pick the RCA DVR to be receorded on.
Please refresh me, what Sharp model?
edit: DU5?

Are these DVR2160 units from HDtoystore in fact the real thing? I saw that Indigita has started selling there units on there website for about $399.

What do you mean real thing? Are they the Indigita product?
Yes,
Are they 100% identical? No

Other than the DVR case itself, the RCA is nicer imo, the cooling fan also helps on the RCA model.
I am sure the software may be very similar if not identical other than the product id code.
Remember, the controller chip has features that can be enabled or not within.
Did all the clone brands enable these within the unit? I really do not think we will ever find this privileged information.

What I meant to say was if it was in fact the real RCA DVR2160 unit that other dealers are selling for $400? I ordered one this morning and wanted to know if I was getting the actual RCA unit.

Yes its the real thing.
I would also say that I bet not many are selling at them high prices and or they do not even have any.
Even ebay lastnight one new sold for under $100 shipped. One also sold for $140+

Interesting...I may have to buy another then. I heard these units work quite well with Mitsubishi DLP and LCD units. Thanks for the quick reply and assurance.

Yes, sharp recognize all of them in chain, u just pick which one u wanna use, yes mine is 37D5U, i was talking with Mike from sharp to see if sharp will ever make a nicer firmware to include some new menus to command this thing. But anyway, i'm fine with it even now.

I suggest everyone who has firewire port HDTV get one when it's still available for that price.

Hi Bxz,

A couple of questions:

Are you able to watch a different TV program, while the AVHDD is recording?

Can you leave the TV in the "standby" mode while the AVHDD is doing a timer recording?


Thanks.

Tony

How long has it taken hdtoystore to ship the dvr2160? Thanks

mark

Mark
HDToy store just uses a distributor that has about 30 locations around the country.
You will see it within just two-three days.

Looks like I will get it next day here in Houston. Has anyone found a way to get content off of the drive and onto a IP network yet?

U have to watch the same program in order to record, it doesn't have its own tuner, since the recording command is sent from the TV, i think the TV has to be on.

I see. Thank you.

I received a replacement Motorola 6412III this morning, and started playing around with different firewire options. For what it's worth, I successfully recorded MAX-HD from the Moto 6412 to the RCA 2160 via my Mits 52628. So, in effect, I just doubled my disc-based HD recording capacity. I'm going to add my JVC 5u to the chain and see if I can dump from the RCA to it.

It doesn't only have to be plugged in, it has to be turned on? And you can't watch other sources while it records? Wow, if that's the same for all manufacturers (hello Mits!), that's a dealbreaker and a really stupid decision.



On the other hand:




If I had cable, maybe this wouldn't be such a bad device to have . . .

You do not have to have the TV on to record. The TV does have to be on the source that is to be recorded though.

Mark

Unless u use the TV guide do scheduled recording, then u don't have to turn on the TV. I tried and it works very nice, assume u have setup ur TVGOS on ur HDTV.

I bought the 2160 to go with my new Mits 52628. I also purchased my 2160 from HD Toystore. With my Mitsubishi 52628 I can set it up recordings in a variety of ways. Same time every day, same time every week, etc. Not quite the same as the season pass that TIVO has but clearly functional. The new Mitsubishi tv's with Netcommand 5 enable you to watch any input while it is recording. You can also watch a previously recorded program while recording. I don't think last year's models could to that.

I have used the TV guide service to set up recordings as well as the Netcommand 5 native feature. It works exactly as expected. I just record HD OTA content. I have an upgraded DirecTivo for non-HD programs and complement this with the 2160 for HD OTA recording.

I am considering buying at least one more 2160 to get more capacity. The price is hard to beat. BTW, when you set up the recording, you tell it which 1394 device you want to use. Pretty simple. Since the 1394 devices can be daisy chained, I wonder what the max number of 2160's might be?

Regarding getting the content onto a PC, I plan to try using my Mac powerbook with a large USB hard drive as a DVHS to archive data from the 2160. Then I can attach the hard drive to my pc and see if VLC or BeyondTV 4 can play the files. Should work I think. I did try attaching my PB to the tv and it was recognized as a DVHS. I recorded a short program to my PB internal hard drive and could play it back through the tv. Since the PB is only passing the transport stream from the hard drive to the tv, it doesn't require much processing power. However, my powerbook cannot play the file back on its screen. With VLC it tries but has excessive jumpiness etc. Not at all viewable.

If I had an old firewire equipped mac, I would build my own 2160 clone and have unlimited drive capacity. Since the mac is only running the Virtual DVHS program which passes data streams to/from the drive, it doesn't have to be very powerful. Too close to Christmas to buy anything else right now but I can't resist checking prices of the mac Cubes on eBay. I think that would make a cool looking addition to my media devices.

So many fun things to try and not nearly enough time.

Mike

The Mits 1080p has TWO ATSC/QAM tuners. One big plus with this model. Too bad there were more minuses............

This will (should) work with the Samsungs' and Toshibas' also.

And that is what sucks about buying these damn TV's. Had I known that the newer models had the dual tuner capabilities I would have opted for the 52628.