Magnavox 537, 535, 533, 515, 513, 2160A, 2160, 2080 & Philips 3576, 3575 - Page 543

Some people find automatically recording a program via selection from an integrated program guide overwhelmingly easier than setting timers manually and coordinating cable box timers with DVR timers for the many programs that the DVR cannot tune itself. Others find the much higher HD quality of the cableco's PVR is worth the monthly fee. Some object to most cable boxes' inability to output to a DVR's inputs anamorphically so as to minimize loss of quality on the DVR and the DVDs it burns (forced letterboxing).


If they were, Pioneer wouldn't have discontinued marketing its line, which had mostly far superior editing features. e.g., thumbnails saved instantly to HD instead of slowly only to DVD, auto-preview, various choices of DVD title screens with 3, 4, 6 or 8 titles per screen, VR mode (lossless) copy to and from HD & DVD (true backup of HD), counters during editing for much higher cut precision, skip stacking, automatically not displaying unused space on a DVD as a title, a single key to toggle between play and pause (pause button is a toggle on a Pioneer), a single keypress to return to reverse from pause, 1X reverse play, and 5 keypresses instead of 9 to enter an "S" twice in succession.

I don't know what I'd do without mine, but I sure wish we could expect new models that incorporate the many wishlist features.

And others find that the even higher quality of less compressed over-the-air HD programming makes it worth paying the monthly fee (or the one-time lifetime fee) for a TiVo. It all depends on how much you want to pay (and how you want to pay). The Magnavox and Philips units are great for what they are, but there are always other options available.

Not at this price-point and it has been indicated several times that funai doesn't want to add anything that will raise the price. The progressively larger HDD's in the units are a consequence of falling OEM HDD prices. Everything else has been a firmware addition -- no additional parts.

The $500 million patent lawsuit settlement between TiVo and Dish Network (formally EchoStar) probably has something to do with it.

TiVo Inc. owns U.S. Patent 6,233,389 which is entitled “Multi-media Time Warping System.” This patented technology allows television users to simultaneously record and play (“time-shift”) television broadcasts using what is commonly known as a digital video recorder (DVR). A DVR allows users to fast-forward, rewind, pause, and replay a “live” television program while it is playing on the television set. TiVo’s patent covers various features essential to the working of a DVR.

TiVo is actively involved in lawsuits against Microsoft, AT&T, Verizon, and others. Motorola recently sued TiVo claiming a company they bought many years ago has patents for the same technology, and those patents were awarded 2 years before TiVo came into existence, and 5 years before the TiVo patents were awarded.

Against this legal battleground, it's not surprising people like Sony, Pioneer, Panasonic, et al, have withdrawn from the HDD-DVR consumer market in North America.

i guess Santa will be busy this Christmas bringing us all backup 515s...

I wish we could convince them to continue stocking at least one model - I can see why they might not want to continue development, but surely keeping one 'active' model in the US market would be useful for the company, if only in terms of spin off. I would never have purchase a Funai on my own, but my positive experience with 2160A *(x 4)led to a purchase of the newer 515 (which I love), and might have convinced me to try other products . I remember when Sony , at the end, only made one beta, but they kept the option open for several years, thus extending the viability of the brand. Perhaps keeping one model in production should be added to our wish list (or moved to the top) . If they wont give us a next generation recorder, maybe they could be persuaded to at least not kill it off completely. If that fails, are they producing international models that might work as line in recorders? I'm less interested in the tuner than I used to be, but HDD recorders are an integral part of my entertainment 'life' now and it would be very difficult to not have an option to buy a new one, as the older legacy models start to show their age.

Also, I guess this means I have to start finalizing!

Ah, haven't checked it in a while. Figured you'd be on top of our Numero Uno wish. Wonder if Walmart is worth lobbying, too, or if this is an unrelated decision.

I hope Funai reconsiders .. it seems a shame to kill the 515 in its Prime, and since it is the Only One left, presumably it would be worth keeping on the assembly line, if only for the right to claim total global market domination! I have never had a problem with mine, but I should add, this is the only one I have that is not used with the internal tuner - it's just a logistical reason - I wasn't able to daisy chain it in its current location, so it has a dedicated Motorola set top box and the 515 out feeds a panny recorder. When/if I reorganize, I may try the tuner to see how it's working, but for me, the Line In/out capability far exceeds the tuner requirements, given how much cable co has cripple most of our signals. It is very handy to be able to record QAM, so I have one older 2160a recorder set up for that, daisy chained to a second, while the (split coax) 515 is solely reserved for box-generated cable fare. I may put one of those older ones in storage for 'emergency' but definitely (I can't believe I'm saying this) would consider buying another 515 (or two).

If I read the manual correctly, regarding the mag 515, we get 1 hour of recordable dvd disc time if OTA recording was done in HQ mode? And two hours if OTA was done in SP mode?

Are these numbers the same for VCR dubbing, or do we get more time in HQ mode since the source was likely 480i?

Then again, that being the case, is there any point in recording to the HDD using HQ mode if the source is 480i, S-video?

so if I read those properly (which I may not be doing), we can likely get two-hours of HQ RTR onto a single-layer DVD, or is it two hours of SP per single-layer disc?

cool - thanks for your help

I've been thinking of grabbing a couple 515's just for that purpose. My 3576 and 3 2160's are still working flawlessly under fairly heavy use for timeshifting but I'd be crushed if one of them died and I couldn't get a replacement.

I went through this help file a few days ago when I upgraded to a HD cable box and everything worked out like Wojo posted (thanks). In my case, I use the Magnovox to archive my favorite programs on DVD, and it is perfect for this purpose. Only problem, which I believe Wojo noted, is that, between the Magnovox and my TV, the anamorphic widescreen doesn' display quite right. I still haven't tried playing the DVD's on one of my other players to see if the display issue is resolved.

I think if I wanted to tape a lot of programs for playback later, as opposed to archiving, I might go with a HD solution. Ultimately though, unless you set up something like a computer to burn to blue ray, you will have to archive to DVD anyway. This box will get you there.

Yes, I have been very happy with the converter I bought. Makes very nice DVDs. Not HD, but nice quality nonetheless.

ok, I'm lost on this one.
I recorded some HD OTA material (baseball game), saved it to dvd, and now, as I somewhat expected, when I playback the disc via my computer using either WMPlayer or Nero player, of course, the 1080i transmission is squished, visually (as it is now 480i).

What's the secret to having the magnavox 515 preserve that 1080i aspect ratio (not resolution, but aspect ratio) so that the file that was recorded in 1080i originally plays back in a 480i window with black bars top and bottom, preserving 16x9?
Can this only be done using the aspect control of the TV itself, or DVD's built in controls?

because the 515 converts everything to 480i, a TV with auto-source aspect will never display anything but 480i when 515 discs are concerned, correct?

for HD recording, I am only using over the air antenna HD. So, it's either 1080i or 720p when it hits the Mag 515. The manual says to select 16x9 Aspect it that is indeed the TV's aspect, so that's what I've done.
I can get anamorphic 16x9 on my tv using the tv's aspect ratio setting for material that was recorded from HD antenna, but what's the trick when playing back the same disc on a computer using Windows Media Player, for example?

Among the HD boxes I've used provided by Bright House, Samsung's and Scientific Atlanta's have no option to output anamorphic, which means 16:9 programs from their legacy outputs will always include horizontal bands. Only the otherwise awful Pace boxes had the option to output anamorphic, which does the compression that obviates black bars but necessitates the TV stretch horizontally to get the original aspect back.


My first HDMI to legacy converter just arrived Friday, and I only just hooked it up a few hours ago: LK-219414 from Wow Parts via Amazon. It came not only with RCA & S-Video but also HDMI cables. It works OK, but for such a little thing it makes a lot of heat.

The component to composite converter from Monoprice I bought some months back. Each of the 3 units it shipped me had/have problems. The first two went back for a connector defect and a total breakdown - I don't remember exactly any more. The 3rd which I kept does a horrible job with 1080p sources, making the color balance putrid and the gamma off the charts terrible. I don't use it. I found a plain old 9V digital video stabilizer is effective enough to strip the CP, which is all I need.

No. 1 on your list, the HDMI to RCA/S-video converter. Got it from an Amazon merchant. Works perfect but as mentioned it runs hot. I got it in July and it has no problem with copy protection.

BTW, the price is down in the $40+ range from the current merchant group.

Just to revisit a possible 515 OS software issue I detected and posted here about 5-6 weeks ago... I have BOTH of my 515s set to Manual Clock Set ON, and am using the digital Fox Network channel. The unit goes on at 11:59am and 11:59pm, looks for the time signal, and seems to keep absolutely perfect time. Both units' clocks are exactly in sync with my Scientific Atlanta STB clocks.

However, every 7-10 days (approximately), I hear one of the 515's HDD fan running while the unit is off. Sure enough, every single time this happens, the OTHER 515's fan is also running. Powering up each unit for ~30 seconds, and then turning it off, solves the immediate problem, as the fan shuts down.

My theory is that there is some sort of glitch in the 515s OS, and when the designated time set channel is somehow "offline" (no video signal? channel cannot be detected? time signal missing?), the 515 fails to complete the time setting procedure and, although the unit's power remains off, the fan remains on.

It's not a big deal, as I usually catch it within a few hours and shut off both fans, but the fact that it consistently happens with both units simultaneously makes me think that the units are mishandling a time setting signal glitch. Maybe Funai techs could be made aware of this, although it would probably be pretty damn hard to duplicate in a lab.

Again, a good option would be to set Manual Clock Set to OFF, and just reset the clock manually, as needed. Although using the Fox digital channel for time sync seems to work perfectly about 95% of the time. This whole thing may also be another customer affliction from that benificent cable provider, Blight House....

By not using Windows Media Player! LOL.
Playback of 2160/515 recorded discs on the pc can be viewed in 16:9 using the free VLC media player software. Setting the aspect ratio to 16:9 solves the problem. I haven't used WMC for dvd playback in years, and in giving it a quick look over, I can't find any setting to adjust the AR.

ah, ok..that's what I was looking for, thanks. there's no setting for 16x9 using nero's DVD player, either.

From what I've seen, on my 2160A I don't think it sets the aspect properly in the .IFO and .VOB files on disk. So I have to either

a. rip the disk and edit the files using ifoedit or vobedit, or

b. in the player force 16:9 playback, at least in VLC.

Note that I normally record at SLP so it is burned as 352x480 rather than 720x480 of the better resolutions, I don't know if that makes a difference.

scott s.
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