Omega Owners Forum
Chat Area => General Discussion Area => Topic started by: Turk on 09 March 2009, 01:36:32
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My current box is about 3 years old and seems to have glitches on some channels, usually TMF and 4Music, along with a few others.
If I move the box, it settles down. This may be the scart leads, but boxes are so cheap these days, buying new leads won't be far of the price of a new unit.
I was wondering if they have improved over the last few years, and if so, are any units better than others or are the boxes on sale these days pretty much the same as my original FreeView box ?
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Avoid AstraTEC boxes the TV in the bedroom had one of these i replaced it 4x in the end comet made me swap for a different make (Grundig) :y
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They probably even do them with hard drive recording these days.
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http://www.richersounds.com/productlist.php?cda=productlist&sgroup=FREEVIEW
Few options here, just seen one with 160gb hard drive and then theres the fresat option, if you have a sky dish on the wall might be worth considering. :y
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Humax 9200T or similar
or Topfield 5800
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The newer ones (cheap freeview boxes I'm talking about) seem to be less reliable than my old almost bombproof Nokias that I have scattered around the house. Problem with the old boxes is they are just to damn slow.
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Humax 9200T or similar
or Topfield 5800
Or do it properly, and get a Media Center
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The newer ones (cheap freeview boxes I'm talking about) seem to be less reliable than my old almost bombproof Nokias that I have scattered around the house. Problem with the old boxes is they are just to damn slow.
Most are cheap shit that is why, the Nokias are very clunky and slow, also can lock up but do see to be reliable but definately 1st generation, as were all the Ondodgy boxes, the first generation Sony IDTVs (like the one I sold Albatros) were almost a second generation but not quite, quicker than the Ondodgy boxes, better quality but still not fast. The same tuner escaped into the very rare VTX500 Sony Ondodgy box but it wouldn't run the Ondodgy software properly, but was the best performing of the Ondodgy boxes.
The next real generation would be the first PVRs and Freeview boxes such as the Pace DTVA, Pace Twin and Humax 8000 these were quicker and had more features, support for encryption was either non-existant or switches off, definately more robust to interfearance and a lot more power.
The new TV I suppose is 4th generation.
Very quick text, hop around BBC Text reading all the news in a few minutes, caches everything. Also even more resilient than the older tuners.
However along with the decent IDTVs, the PVRs and a small number of decent standalone boxes (eg TVonics) most of what is left is real crap, these £15 £20 boxes are pretty bad, they do work but don't expect miracles, nor a long life.
With PC are Nebula still the recommended brand?
BTW With Freesat nothing can touch the Humax HDR at present.
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BTW With Freesat nothing can touch the Humax HDR at present.
We have a Humax Freeview+ PVR 9300T. It couldn't be easier to use :y. My only gripe is that it's noisey ie the hard drive spinning. :(
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The newer ones (cheap freeview boxes I'm talking about) seem to be less reliable than my old almost bombproof Nokias that I have scattered around the house. Problem with the old boxes is they are just to damn slow.
Most are cheap shit that is why, the Nokias are very clunky and slow, also can lock up but do see to be reliable but definately 1st generation, as were all the Ondodgy boxes, the first generation Sony IDTVs (like the one I sold Albatros) were almost a second generation but not quite, quicker than the Ondodgy boxes, better quality but still not fast. The same tuner escaped into the very rare VTX500 Sony Ondodgy box but it wouldn't run the Ondodgy software properly, but was the best performing of the Ondodgy boxes.
The next real generation would be the first PVRs and Freeview boxes such as the Pace DTVA, Pace Twin and Humax 8000 these were quicker and had more features, support for encryption was either non-existant or switches off, definately more robust to interfearance and a lot more power.
The new TV I suppose is 4th generation.
Very quick text, hop around BBC Text reading all the news in a few minutes, caches everything. Also even more resilient than the older tuners.
However along with the decent IDTVs, the PVRs and a small number of decent standalone boxes (eg TVonics) most of what is left is real crap, these £15 £20 boxes are pretty bad, they do work but don't expect miracles, nor a long life.
With PC are Nebula still the recommended brand?
BTW With Freesat nothing can touch the Humax HDR at present.
Yup, having a Media Center though, I have little need to upgrade the Nokias, as they rarely get used. In fairness, the Nokias are quick enough to switch on and channel flick, but forget any interactive stuff!
It would take an awful lot to tempt me to give up the Media Center - 1Tb of disk space, and probably the world's best upscaler - you have to look twice to see the difference between freeview BBC 1 SD and freesat BBC HD (there is a difference side by side, or checking one after the other, but its not particularly noticable). But I know when I do want freesat HD, I just need to plug a card in :). And the whole thing is quieter than my previous Pioneer HDD/DVD recorder (Analogue one)
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Added to that, whilst I would concede that the XP MCE needed someone in the house with PC experience, Vista MC is much more robust.
Windows 7, which I am typing on right now watching the Top Gear channel, as its whats on my desktop, seems to be equally robust, at the media center point (the OS itself could do with 1 or 2 fixes, but it is beta).
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BTW With Freesat nothing can touch the Humax HDR at present.
We have a Humax Freeview+ PVR 9300T. It couldn't be easier to use :y. My only gripe is that it's noisey ie the hard drive spinning. :(
The HDR you can just hear the HDD, Pace Twin uses a lap top drive and is very quiet
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Upscaled SD does look good but not as good as HD.
Is your TV 720P, 1080I or 1080P?
BTW some BBC HD is upscaled SD, and a lot is HDV sourced.
My TV is native 1080P and I use 1:1 pixel mapping on all 1080 sources, but I sometimes get a strange effect on 1080I - I might have a play on the settings on the TV, not sure if it is a I->P artifact or a motion clean up artifact.
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Upscaled SD does look good but not as good as HD.
Is your TV 720P, 1080I or 1080P?
BTW some BBC HD is upscaled SD, and a lot is HDV sourced.
My TV is native 1080P and I use 1:1 pixel mapping on all 1080 sources, but I sometimes get a strange effect on 1080I - I might have a play on the settings on the TV, not sure if it is a I->P artifact or a motion clean up artifact.
TV 1080P, Media Center set to 1920x1080.
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BTW With Freesat nothing can touch the Humax HDR at present.
We have a Humax Freeview+ PVR 9300T. It couldn't be easier to use :y. My only gripe is that it's noisey ie the hard drive spinning. :(
The HDR you can just hear the HDD, Pace Twin uses a lap top drive and is very quiet
Noise wise, I use Samsunf F1 Spinpoint drive - very quiet. I use AnyDVD to control DVD drive speed, as we know they are really noisy otherwise. AnyDVD has the advantage of making it multiregion as well :)
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ive got through 4 sagem boxes in the last yr, i think this ones on its way out as well. there just as crap as the programmes on there
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ive got through 4 sagem boxes in the last yr (cant decide if I mean year or your), i think this ones on its way out as well. there just as crap as the programmes on there
French shite, they used to make a load of Fax machines for BT. They were all shite as well!
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ive got through 4 sagem boxes in the last yr (cant decide if I mean year or your), i think this ones on its way out as well. there just as crap as the programmes on there
Most are cheap shit that is why, the Nokias are very clunky and slow, also can lock up but do see to be reliable but definately 1st generation, as were all the Ondodgy boxes, the first generation Sony IDTVs (like the one I sold Albatros) were almost a second generation but not quite, quicker than the Ondodgy boxes, better quality but still not fast. The same tuner escaped into the very rare VTX500 Sony Ondodgy box but it wouldn't run the Ondodgy software properly, but was the best performing of the Ondodgy boxes.
However along with the decent IDTVs, the PVRs and a small number of decent standalone boxes (eg TVonics) most of what is left is real crap, these £15 £20 boxes are pretty bad, they do work but don't expect miracles, nor a long life.
Oh dear - get a PVR they are all wellish made especially Humax Topfield and Tvonics, Sony buy in some rubbish and sell it for a premium, yet manufacture in the UK for another company with a different brand.
Sony sold CS made = rubbish
Sony made odd brand sold = good
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ive got through 4 sagem boxes in the last yr (cant decide if I mean year or your) (cant decide if I mean year or your), i think this ones on its way out as well. there just as crap as the programmes on there
French shite, they used to make a load of Fax machines for BT. They were all shite as well!
Think they are same shite as all the other cheap shite - un supported anyway
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if it wasnt for my sons, i wouldnt bother having a tv, my mums friend has never had a tv in her house and shes about 80 as well. and the tv licencing still check up on her after all these years( yes its year and not yours) ;D ;D
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if it wasnt for my sons, i wouldnt bother having a tv, my mums friend has never had a tv in her house and shes about 80 as well. and the tv licencing still check up on her after all these years( yes its year and not yours) ;D ;D
doesn't she get a free licence being over 70?
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Had a
Philips DTR1500freeview for yonks never a minutes problem :y
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Ok slightly off topic but while you knowledgeable folks are talking free view i need too have an loft Ariel installed (cant be arsed with magic eyes and such for the sky)...TV has free view built in.
Anyone recommend a sensibly priced item...external fitment is out of the question. >:(
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:D :o :D :o :D :o (((Techno-info-overload))) :o :D :o :D :o :D
Cheers mee deers :y
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i have a bush set top box with built in hard drive it records one program while you are watvhing another quite a good machine cost me one hundred and ninetynine pounds four years ago.good machine
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I rang up virgin today and sorted out a new box and got the broadband upgraded at the same time for free from 2 meg to 10 meg...So when that gets done next week for dad i`ll get me sky box back upstairs as my freeview keeps freezeblocking(aerials kwap).... :y