http://www.catchoftheday.com.au/smallfish_...roducts_id=1527


Couldnt see a brand name or find anything else on the net about it either.


SSS_Hoon

I'd be weary of non-name brand products with digital tuners. The TV stations are still fiddling around with broadcast settings which can cause issues. Several name brands are having problems at the moment because of this exact reason, but they're actually trying to help their customers by communicating with the TV stations to find a solution.

So I think, you need a brand with good after sales support these days.

Doesnt say anything about the Tuners, other than that they are 'Digital', so my guess is they will just be SD tuners, not HD tuners.

If you want to get the shiznit in HD PVR's, then look no further than the Beyonwiz DP-P2. Twin HD Tuners and 320gb HDD, as well as this, it is the first HD PVR to feature AV inputs, to be able to record to its HDD, from external sources such as Austar/Foxtel and/or VCRs or whatever.

http://www.beyonwiz.com.au/

Retail is $999, but people from DTVForum have reported getting them for around the ~$800 mark. They were only released ~2 weeks ago IIRC, and now replace the DP-P1, which is identical, except only has a 200gb HDD, and no AV input. Read up over there, or on the Beyonwiz forum, for more info.

Good luck.

actually, it says they are twin HD tuners.

299 isn't a bad price, but a bit of shopping around may get it for 250 or so

the problem with the 'no-name' cheaper brands, is mainly the hard drive fails in a few months, or the power supply.
better to buy from an actual shop.

Good Guys has Homecast, Beyonwiz and Topfield - all good brands for PVR's.

Personally, I'm looking at the PAnasonic with DVD or BD burner... still have to check a few things out, but looking promising so far. pity about the price though.

i currently have the Panasonic DMR-EX77

but was after something cheap to do the olympics on for the missus.


Im really after something that can play xvid divx though.

The sarotech or dvico on paper look good but never actually seen one or know where in western sydney i can actually buy one from.

thanx for the imput guys, think ill give it a miss.

SSS_Hoon

Those Beyonwiz boxes are impressive, but why are they so damn expensive?
You could build a decently spec'ed PC, which is way more versatile and scalable, for about $500.
That's including a half decent home theatre style case.
Of course, you'd be using MythTV or something similar, not Windows MCE, which would ramp the price up.

Given that's the price for a single build (and I didn't shop around), surely the Beyonwiz systems could still be profitable at half the price?

champagne taste, beer budget.

the receivers and processor quality in the Beyonwiz is excellent, also the interface is tried and tested. a lot of the cheaper ones (such as LG, sharp, sony) have woeful interface and hard to use. What shat me off about the LG is that the timeshift is fixed at 1 hour.. My old crusty analog tuner PVR has adjustable (up to 8 hours) timeshift.

the video processing and encoding is a lot slower on the cheap models, and may not record full HD.