Right, time to whine. But before I do so, note that this product comes highly recommended, especially seeing as it’s R1000 cheaper than the other versions. It also seems to have the delays/lag reported with the prior models sorted out: definite PRO.
Dear Multichoice: your brand new PVR, the HD-PVR 2P, previously discussed here, is beginning to warrant a run-in with a sledgehammer.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s great having access to the HD channels, and the ability to record multiple hours, pause live TV etc. is, as per your advertising, frikkin awesome (not sure you used those exact words, but that’s the gist of it).
I do however seem to have a few issues with it. I realise it was rushed to market just in time for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, and may therefore have a few bugs to work out. Well here’s a thought: work them out already!
News24 – great to read the news at leisure on the telly. Unfortunately, 50% of the time the decoder crashes when exiting News24. It’s gotten to the stage where I will not access the service when something is busy recording as it usually means I need to reboot upon exit, thereby disrupting the recording of said show.
Series recording – not yet available. Fair enough: given the whole rushed-to-market thing I’m sure it’ll be available eventually. But the current alternative, time-based recordings, has the occasional habit of going haywire. Example: Lost. I set up the PVR to record Lost every Monday evening on Series. It records fine. Many times though when I check the next day it gives me a message that all future recordings were cancelled. Ummm… no they weren’t. Not by me, not by my missus, and presumably not by my 4-month old (she’s not exactly au fait with remotes yet).
That seems to have resolved itself lately. Now that error has been replaced by each episode of Lost (and every series set to record), for the next three weeks anyway, being listed individually. Fine, not a problem. But does mean that it’ll only record for the next three weeks? What happens in week four? Hmmm?
Last issue: the remote sucks. It is next to impossible to press ‘Play’ without accidentally causing the PVR to either Rewind or Fast-Forward. Fix the knoppie. I could go and buy a replacement remote (I see there’s a different brand that works perfectly as it has a slightly different button layout), but, quite frankly, if I’ve paid R2000 for a product I’m not forking out for a new remote too. Aight?
Whew! I’m done.
Other than that? It’s awesome. Clearly the above whines are software bugs (well, except for the remote thing), and will presumably be sorted out soon. Just thought I’d use this platform to hurry the process along…
[...] used this PVR for just over seven weeks I figured I’d list the few faults I have come across. Head here to read about them. var a2a_config = a2a_config || {}; a2a_config.linkname="New cheaper MultiChoice HD-PVR [...]
Can I use this in Oz
The PVR? I have no idea…
I bought the PvR for the world cup and…sort of in the middle of the world cup. So not that much time has gone by….Well my remote looks like it has gone to the better place in the sky.
The middle Play Fwd Rwd button doesnt Fwd or Rwd anymore….
I read on some post that one guy was told by Game – its not covered by the warranty?
Will have to go speak to Makro and find out.
Well I have not had issues except the remote…well we will see…
What was the outcome in the Makro vs the remote battle? Keen to know in case mine decides to pack it in. And by pack it in I mean get thrown against the wall next time I press Pause and it decides that it would rather Rewind…
I was one of the earliest adopters of HDPVR, during their pre-olympic launch I bought one. For more than a year and a half the software was rubbish. I was incredibly slow.
The latest software update enabled series recordings, and speeded up response tremendously.
BUT there are still issues that I see:
When I wake the unit up, it just sits there for about 15 seconds unresponsive but still working.
Sometimes I can hear the harddisk switching on and off in a few minute intervals. (this probably means mine is on its way out?)
Series recordinds are great, but for crying out loud make it easier to stop these records. It is the must unintuitive well hidden function to cancel your series recordings, and if you chose something that has multiple episodes per day, well then you could have pages of recordings within a week.
Series recordings now bring up the issue of why there aren at least a single level of folders in the records window.
When you record a series, it should go into a folder not litter your play window with all those episodes.
Otherwise I have seen major improvements in the software but yes it begs the question, most of the PVR bugs have been worked out about 4 years ago, why did they re-introduce them into the HDPVR and why cant they fix them faster.
I dont have a problem with the buttons on the remote, I actually like the flick feature, but my remote is not overly sensitive or maybe im not a brute
Old article, but I still agree with most of the points here. Thought I’d share my thoughts as well:
I still have the old 1110 (SD normal decoder) wired for XtraView and noticed the following missing features:
1. TV Guide: I can’t see Categories anymore. With the previous decoder I was able to go to the TV Guide and select “Movies”, “Sports”, etc… Now there’s no way to see what Documentaries will be shown tomorrow, for example.
2. Volume on SPDIF output: When the language is set to “Surround Sound”, the volume on the PVR doesn’t set the volume out for the home theatre. Irritating: I now have to mute two devices! However, if the language is set to anything else, the volume button actually reduces the volume everywhere. Very strange…
3. Banner disappearing: There’s a setting to change the timeout period for the banner. With the standard decoders, the banner will be displayed once you’ve “interacted” until you push “exit” on your remote. (IE: Browse through channels without changing – left and right buttons after pressing ‘i’) Now, if you don’t push any button for x seconds, it’ll disappear. I’ll still be reading the massive description for a movie when everything just disappears!
There’s also a couple of just plain dumb things that irritate me. The only one I’ll mention is: if the PVR was built with HD functionality, why isn’t the “UI” in HD? We get these crappy pixelated fonts and icons in all it’s 1080p glory. Why? A 100px x 100px JPG or GIF file is smaller than 20kb, for crying out loud. Changing the banner font depending on the resolution can’t be that hard?
Anyway, further than this, the ability to record and watch HD is brilliant. I just don’t use the banner anymore. The TV Guide and auto tuner reminders will have to work for now.
I must admit: I haven’t had the issue with the remote as yet. It works perfectly for me.
@Gabor – I agree with you on the folders for series recordings – that would help a lot! Got pages of episodes for individual series recordings.
. That can’t be good for a remote!
I agree that a lot of the software bugs seem to be resolved. I’m currently experiencing a few remote issues, but that’s probably got something to do with my toddler’s obsession with carrying the remote around the house and pushing all the buttons
@William Agreed with the banner disappearing (on my HDPVR-2P as per your decoder too) – that’s a new issue I’ve recently discovered where it disappears while I’m reading descrtipions, etc.
Overall things seem fine with the PVR2P now… expect the aspect ratio settings – up until last week everything was perfect (watching on a 16:9 screen, with 4:3 content in original aspect, i.e. black bars down the side – I don’t like the short and fat look, as I see that in the mirror everyday anyway). Since last week however my PVR is further squashing the 16:9 shows, so bars still appear above and below the image on a 16:9 TV – not correct! I now have to select “TV Display: 4:3″ on the PVR settings to get 16:9 to appear correctly. So basically I have to lie to my decoder
to get it right. It was fine, why did they need to mess with it?
The News24 crashing error seems to have been resolved.