Freeview HD PVR - Digital Stream DHR8205U

[eggontoast]

I've read from someone on the beta test group that it's not possible due to a hardware limitation I'm afraid.

That's a damn shame, a real oversight IMO

Strange that you should find such a marked difference, but I guess it all comes down to your TV - on mine, although 576i is a tiny bit better for SD sources, the difference is so marginal I just use 1080i for everything so I don't have to keep changing.

I agree that 1080i is the best compromise setting and gives the best performance out of all the settings.

Would it be worth buying a remote with macro / sequence functionality (e.g. the Logitech Harmony ones) so you can just have a button assigned to a macro which sends the correct sequence of buttons to change the resolution to the correct SD setting and another to change back?

Yes I have a one-for-all x-sight I just haven't got around to setting it up yet.

Not sure if this has been mentioned anywhere else but if you use the 'power saving' standby mode it disables the RF pass through ??? that is just ridiculous.

 

[professorhat]

Not sure if this has been mentioned anywhere else but if you use the 'power saving' standby mode it disables the RF pass through ??? that is just ridiculous.

From what I understand, this is a necessary evil to meet the EU standby consumption mandates of running at less than 1W in standby mode - I believe most other PVRs have the same issue, though the Philips does offer it I think - but then that's about the only thing it's got going for it from my experience!

 

[RodhasGibson]

Not sure if this has been mentioned anywhere else but if you use the 'power saving' standby mode it disables the RF pass through ??? that is just ridiculous.

From what I understand, this is a necessary evil to meet the EU standby consumption mandates of running at less than 1W in standby mode - I believe most other PVRs have the same issue, though the Philips does offer it I think - but then that's about the only thing it's got going for it from my experience!

Hi Prof,Just to mention,that the Sony that I have,has two standby modes.Mode 1 = no pass through Mode 2 = pass through enabled.I am very pleased with the performance and ease of use btw.Have not tried iplayer yet but I didn"t buy it for that feature anyway.

 

[professorhat]

Thanks for confirmation on the Sony - yes similar to the DS (and most other PVRs I believe) which also has a normal standby and power saving standby - in normal standby, pass through works, but it uses more electricity when in this mode.

 

[eggontoast]

From what I understand, this is a necessary evil to meet the EU standby consumption mandates of running at less than 1W in standby mode - I believe most other PVRs have the same issue, though the Philips does offer it I think - but then that's about the only thing it's got going for it from my experience!

I didn't know that, thanks for the info

 

[Anonymous]

Update on Faulty Units. I had to go to John Lewis, God Bless-em, to to exchange the second fauly unit. MIT seemed to be convinced the HDMI fault was with my equipment, because they had not had that fault before.The third unit is working fine.

I think ,I was just unlucky. It does what I need from a PVR i.e. easy set-up and simple to use. I will not use all of the features provided and I have no problem with the handset. At the end of the day I still think it is best PVR for the money.

 

[professorhat]

Yes, John Lewis are great, so good that you bought from them! In actual fact, your normal first port of call with faulty kit should be the retailer as they are the ones you have the contract with. This could have been complicated by the swap MIT did for yours, but fortunately John Lewis have great customer service so I'm glad that wasn't the case and you're happy now.

On the other hand, I'm a bit concerned by MIT's response - have you contacted them since to say you've exchanged the unit with the retailer and everything is now fine, so it clearly wasn't an issue with your equipment? I think it's worth doing if you can spare the time, so they know this is a genuine fault and (a) can hopefully look into the fault and track what caused it and (b) won't fob some other poor user off who might have the same issue in the future!

 

[eggontoast]

Just a quick question, when turning the DS on my TV does not switch to that HDMI input I have to manually select it, is this normal?

 

[professorhat]

Just a quick question, when turning the DS on my TV does not switch to that HDMI input I have to manually select it, is this normal?

Sorry for the late reply - since the Digital Stream is not HDMI CEC equipped, it won't supply the switch signal to automatically switch inputs I'm afraid. If this is an issue, you could look at a Logitech Harmony remote which can be setup to send the correct commands so that the it will automatically set the TV to the correct input when you choose the Digital Stream.

 

[eggontoast]

Sorry for the late reply - since the Digital Stream is not HDMI CEC equipped, it won't supply the switch signal to automatically switch inputs I'm afraid. If this is an issue, you could look at a Logitech Harmony remote which can be setup to send the correct commands so that the it will automatically set the TV to the correct input when you choose the Digital Stream.

Not really a problem I was just more curious than anything.

However, good idea Batman Boy Wonder will re-program his remotes on off button. Cheers

 

[Anonymous]

I have to applaud digital stream for their customer service. I reported the problem with the internal clock and my unit was exchanged within a couple of days at no expense. So far the replacement's clock is working correctly. Very impressed. Little annoyed that I have lost a episodes of 'spiral' which I had not got round to watching. I appreciate you can copy to USB however I didn't have a usb with the required hard drive capacity. In any case excellent service.

 

[professorhat]

I have to applaud digital stream for their customer service. I reported the problem with the internal clock and my unit was exchanged within a couple of days at no expense. So far the replacement's clock is working correctly. Very impressed. Little annoyed that I have lost a episodes of 'spiral' which I had not got round to watching. I appreciate you can copy to USB however I didn't have a usb with the required hard drive capacity. In any case excellent service.

Glad things are now sorted

 

[Anonymous]

this is a really helpful site, but can anyone advise me on a recent problem with my ds ,

i did the march 2011 update today and now the hd recorded programs on the media section will not play, they start for about 10 secs, then stop and start again, any ideas on how to get them playing normally would be gratefully received.

julie

 

[professorhat]

Hi Julie,

I'm guessing you're the Julie who has reported this elsewhere (can't go into more detail due to WHF forum rules)? If so, it doesn't seem to be a widespread issue as only a couple of people have reported it so far in the last few weeks since the update came out. My advice at the moment would be to:

1. Report this to MIT tomorrow (when everyone is back to work) - click here to do this.

2. See what advice you get elsewhere. If you're not the same Julie, I'll feedback what I see into this thread anyway so people who are looking here can be updated.

 

[Anonymous]

Hi,
I am very happy with this system but am wondering if anyone has had this problem?

Occasionally when watching channels the screen temporarily flickers or blacks out, it only lasts a couple of seconds at most and then everything is back to normal and the picture is fine.

Was wondering if this may be a fault or if there is anything I can do that may rectify my problem.

Thanks

 

[professorhat]

Not one I've heard of before - this is just when watching live TV, or recordings, or both? Is there anything going on at that time which might interrupt the signal e.g. some other device connected into the TV / AV amp which is switching on?

 

[Anonymous]

Only noticed it with live tv up to now. Dont think there is anything to interupt the signal, would the box being close to my router make any difference? OR i also have a dreambox sat on top of it......maybe this could be causing the problem?

 

[Anonymous]

Hello Prof,

Thanks for your review and comments on the Digital Stream box, based on which I purchased the device a couple of weeks ago, and have been very happy with it

There's one thing I can't work out from the user manual, and wondered if you or any other owners could help me. I've managed to read memory sticks using the front USB slot, but I am interested in plugging in an external CD drive to view photos on CD, and I can't get it to work. I know the box supports external hard drives, but I can't find anything about external DVD/CD drives. I tried plugging it in, and the CD spins up OK, but I cannot find any pictures in the Media library (using the 'Media' button on the remote, the way I do with USB sticks).

The reason for this question is that our DVD player which we normally use for viewing photos has stopped working properly, and I'm trying to see if I can get around this by using our freeview box along with the portable DVD drive I use with my netbook!

Oh and apologies for no profile info or photo - I've only just signed up here.

Robert

 

[professorhat]

Only noticed it with live tv up to now. Dont think there is anything to interupt the signal, would the box being close to my router make any difference? OR i also have a dreambox sat on top of it......maybe this could be causing the problem?

Sorry, when I said interrupting the signal, I meant something else which is plugged into your TV (or AV amp) via HDMI and which, when turned on, might cause the TV to temporarily lose its connection and have to go through the HDMI handshake process again which would cause a loss of picture. It could be worth plugging the box into HDMI2 instead of HDMI1 (or some other HDMI port if 2 is in use) as I've seen reports of this solving the issue on some Panasonic sets (but worth a try on any set).

 

[professorhat]

Hello Prof,

Thanks for your review and comments on the Digital Stream box, based on which I purchased the device a couple of weeks ago, and have been very happy with it

There's one thing I can't work out from the user manual, and wondered if you or any other owners could help me. I've managed to read memory sticks using the front USB slot, but I am interested in plugging in an external CD drive to view photos on CD, and I can't get it to work. I know the box supports external hard drives, but I can't find anything about external DVD/CD drives. I tried plugging it in, and the CD spins up OK, but I cannot find any pictures in the Media library (using the 'Media' button on the remote, the way I do with USB sticks).

The reason for this question is that our DVD player which we normally use for viewing photos has stopped working properly, and I'm trying to see if I can get around this by using our freeview box along with the portable DVD drive I use with my netbook!

Oh and apologies for no profile info or photo - I've only just signed up here.

Robert

Afraid the DS won't read a CD drive (it uses a different type of file system for one thing). It'll spin up as the USB is providing power, but that's all it will do I'm afraid. Best bet would be to buy a larger external USB HDD and transfer all your pictures to this. The DS will read this just fine and you also wouldn't have to keep swapping CDs out!

 

[Anonymous]

do you still need an optical to output 5.1 or have they done an update yet to allow it to output through the hdmi cable?

 

[professorhat]

do you still need an optical to output 5.1 or have they done an update yet to allow it to output through the hdmi cable?

Hi there - still needs optical. It's been confirmed that a hardware restriction prevents 5.1 over HDMI for the Digital Stream, so this won't ever come as an update I'm afraid.

 

[dave_k]

Professorhat, thank you for your review. I bought one of these at the weekend based on this thread and am very happy with.

 

[professorhat]

do you still need an optical to output 5.1 or have they done an update yet to allow it to output through the hdmi cable?

Apologies for the misinformation! The new beta firmware has now proved that 5.1 is indeed possible over HDMI as it's working on mine as we speak! It would seem Digital Stream have managed to overcome the issues that made everyone report that it would not be possible, so excellent news as just HDMI to amp will be required once the latest update has been released (due end of June).

 

[professorhat]

Professorhat, thank you for your review. I bought one of these at the weekend based on this thread and am very happy with.

Excellent news, glad you're happy with it - another update due end of June which, as noted above, brings 5.1 over HDMI and Xvid/DivX media playback from USB drives as well as a number of bug fixes.

Feel free to post if you've got any questions.