Freeview HD PVR - Digital Stream DHR8205U

professorhat

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Updated to include new features from the December 2010 4.02 Update. Another update is due in March 2011 with even more improvements requested by the Digital Stream community.

In a similar vein to Digital Stream DHR8205U. In my mind, this should represent a review in addition to the one WHF have conducted (to be found by clicking on the link above!) and provide more of an overview of living with the box than WHF can possibly provide for very obvious reasons (if you don't know the reasons, just think quickly about how long WHF have the box in and how long I'll have it in my flat [;)]).

Clearly these opinions are all my own and are based at this stage on owning the box for just under 3 weeks. I will continue to post more observations as I see them, which includes opinions on any updates released for the box. I'll also include major differences between this and the Philips and why I kept this one and sent the Philips packing!

First and foremost, I can confirm the box transcodes Dolby Digital 5.1 sound over the optical connection where it's available. In the current December update, it can't do this over HDMI unfortunately.

A quick video that I've put together of the responsiveness of the remote control can be seen here, since this is something that has been criticised in a few reviews on this box. Hopefully the video will demonstrate that these criticisms are unfounded thanks to the July update which has specific code to fix these issues.

Let's start off now, and let's definitely start with a few pictures - as we all know, everyone likes pictures, and they do help to convey what it's like for me to use the box. Here it is in my rack, firstly in standby. You can see the date and clock (as usual with my pics, just click on them to see the original, much clearer, full versions!):



And then, after switching the box on, once loaded (which takes a slow, but not dreadful between 15 - 20 seconds to actually start - see the video link posted at the top), we can then see the channel in the display:



Here you can see the first of the small niggles that others have picked up on - the number of lights is a possible concern for those wanting to watch in a dark room and it can also be quite loud compared to the Philips when the fan is on. However, the fan only comes on as and when required since the August update, so as long as it's kept in a reasonably well ventilated area, this shouldn't affect viewing too much. I rarely notice it.

Next, we have the general usage of the box. First off, here's the remote control:



I'm not 100% sold on the remote, but neither am I anywhere near saying it's bad. Most things are fine, but some of the buttons (for example Media which gives you access to your recordings) could be bigger and in a more prominent position. However, it's not a bad remote in any sense and perfectly usable. I have a Harmony remote anyway, so again, this isn't crucial to me, but I used this remote for a week before I got round to updating my Harmony and I had no issues. I think given time, everything would become second nature.

Once you get going, the menus and interfaces are very clear and easy to use. Unfortunately I didn't record the setup process, but it's very simple to get going assuming you have a good signal - a simple channel search, save the channels and you're away. Once watching TV, pressing the Info (i) button brings up basic information on the channel and pressing it again brings up the full description from the EPG. Pressing it again (or the Exit button) takes you back to normal TV.



Press Guide and the EPG comes up. Although this takes a few minutes to populate during the initial setup when I first setup the box, since this process has completed, unlike some reports which suggest otherwise, I've found it comes up instantly populated. Unlike the Philips, the EPG is slightly transparent allowing you to (just barely) see what is happening on the channel you were watching in the background. The sound also continues (again unlike the Philips) meaning it's easy to quickly check the EPG but not get lost as to what's happening in the programme you're currently watching. I personally prefer this over the PIP view some other boxes use (like the Humax) - it lets you hear and still just about see what's going on in the programme, but also maximises the screen for what you currently want i.e. the EPG. All together, it's very much more slick than the Philips offering:



As you can see from the options, page Up/Down can be controlled through the Channel Up and Down buttons on the remote, and the EPG itself can be skipped 2 hours using the Skip Forward and Skip Rewind buttons, and by 24 hours using the Green and Yellow buttons, as well as moving generally around using the directional buttons. Since the December update, you can now also jump directly to a channel in the EPG simply by entering in the channel number and pressing OK. As with watching normally, pressing Info (i) on a programme brings up more information.



Setting up a recording is as easy as you would think it should be - simply highlight the programme in the EPG, press OK and then choose either Reserve Single to just record that instance of the programme, or Reserve Series to record the whole series (if of course the programme is part of a series). This makes it easy to setup a recording of anything, and especially for instance difficult programmes such as Match of the Day, which in the past have been tricky for me with the Play TV on the PS3 since the time it is shown each week varies, and the PS3 only allows for weekly repeat recordings at the same time. Fantastically, now I can just choose to set a Reserve Series record on it and I don't have to worry about it for the rest of the football season! Admittedly the Philips offered the same theoretical functionality for this, though it did have serious issues when a programme was on both HD and SD channels as can be seen in the thread for that box. Ultimately, with the DS, now after over 4 months, I feel confident that I can just leave the DS to record, whereas with the Philips I felt the need to constantly check everything I really wanted was actually going to record, negating the Series Link functionality.

The same of course goes for things like Formula 1 and even series of films, like the current showings of James Bond in HD on ITV HD:



Clicking OK on the The Spy Who Loved Me and choosing Reserve Series, then Apply means any future Bond films will also be recorded [Y]. The clock next to the programme in the EPG shows this is something which is scheduled to be recorded:



Next, there is the Schedule button - very simply this shows you in a nice, neat format what is set to be recorded. You can see three views, All, Single and Group - very simply Single shows only single instances of recordings, Group shows Series Link recordings and All, of course, shows everything.

Single:



Group:



All:



Pressing the Media button brings up recordings you have already made.



(NB - the above is an older screenshot and with the December update, programmes are no longer listed with the .trp extension, improving the feel of the box and making it less "geeky"!).

Unfortunately, the file naming and storing convention is not as good as the Philips tried to be (in my opinion) whereby a series of programmes is stored in its own folder, though in reality on the Philips, this actually resulted in a number of folders being created with the same name and your recordings being spread out all over the place!

However, despite this, it works just fine here since the date is attached and, unlike the Philips, you can rename files, create your own folders and move or copy recordings into these folders. There's also lock functionality to ensure recordings can never be lost. With all this available through the white Func+ button, you actually have much more control over your recordings than you ever had with the Philips box, and thus the DS wins here again:







Click Menu on the remote and you'll see the main menu through which everything can be accessed:



Media, Guide and Schedule take you to (hopefully obvious [:D]) sections already discussed above. Preferences takes you to various settings available on the box, including settings for the skip buttons and the amount of buffer in the Time Shift and Power Management:





Other menus here include the ability to setup a Favourites list, plus getting full information on the disk layout and signal information:







The great thing about all of these menus is, other than when you perform a channel scan (either Full or Update), you still have the transparency effect showing you the picture as well as the sound from the channel you were watching when you pressed the buttons, even if it's something you have recorded. It doesn't sound like much, but to me, it really confirms Digital Stream really thought about people using this box in real life, and most of the day to day functions reflect this. It's this (along with the slick menus and lack of bugs!) which really set this box apart from the Philips for me.

Finally, there's a few additional features. The main one for me is PIP (Picture in Picture) which is fairly unique to the DS compared to other Freeview HD boxes. This can be accessed directly from the PIP button on the remote, or you can press the white Func+ button on the remote, choose PIP option and switch it On (I use this as I have a button on my Harmony remote dedicated to the extremely useful white Func+ button). You then get the ability to have another channel in the top right of your screen (HD channels can't be selected here though, and it won't be fully available if you're recording since it requires the secondary tuner), but it's a feature which may well come in useful during sporting events or advert breaks i.e. if you're waiting for something to happen - whilst waiting, you can watch another channel or a recording on the main screen whilst you keep an eye on the other event in the top of the screen.





You also have the Search facility in the EPG. Although this is available in other boxes (though notably not the Philips), this is again accessed by pressing the Text button (or again, through the white Func+ button if you prefer) when in the EPG:



From this screen, you can type in a word using the number keys much like a mobile phone, to search the entire EPG for. This can be immensely useful, as shown in the screen shots below, where I was able to pick up all instances of the Belgian Grand Prix practice sessions, and the F1 forum which occurs after the main F1 race on BBC red button and set them all to record, just from searching on the word "formula" (as can be seen from the descriptions at the bottom of the screen):











At this point, can I just say, thank you - you've stuck with me through a lot and I'm grateful [:)]

I suspect most people have maybe read the first couple of paragraphs, skim read the next few paragraphs and never got this far. So if you have, you must be interested in this box (or you've paused because of the smiley!) and hopefully my passion to inform has helped you decide on whether you like it, even if it's to say you don't. That's ultimately what this is all about - whether you like the Digital Stream box or not isn't really important to me, what is important is that you're getting an accurate representation of what it can offer from an actual user and you can make your own mind up from that.

But wait there's more! If you're not familiar with the Search facility (as I wasn't really), here's a couple more examples of how useful it is. Pressing the Yellow button at the point of searching the EPG gives you the option of searching by Genre:



Clicking OK on Movie will quickly bring up all movies that are available to record during the current 8 day EPG session from their description.



The same goes for sporting events or any other genre as defined by the EPG. Pressing the white Func+ button again allows further options such as sorting all events by Name rather than Date:



And there it is. I hope this has been useful to you all! I welcome comments!

**UPDATE - 07/09/2010**

Having used the box a bit longer, here are some other useful features in operation:

Archiving Recordings:

With a 160GB USB hard disk drive (or larger) you can archive SD recordings and, as from the December 4.02 update, HD recordings can also be archived (though HD ones are encrypted). The hard disk needs to be specially formatted by the box meaning the only easy way to view them is on the Digital Stream, but it does mean you have the option of backing favourite programmes up, or keeping them on another box to ensure they're not deleted / free up space for other new recordings. You can also copy these recordings from the USB drive to your PC fairly simply using a Ubuntu boot CD - see

Next, go to the menu, choose Others and then go to Disk, choose Format Disk and select the USB disk - be careful as you don't want to choose HDD1 which is your internal disk!



Once this has completed, go to your Media list, find the recording / recordings you want to move or copy to the USB disk and select them all using the green button (if it's just the one recording, just highlight it). Then press the Func+ button and choose Move to or Copy to.



Choose the USB disk and then browse to where you want to put them (e.g. you may have created folders on the USB disks in the same way as you did on the internal disk) and then click OK to move them.





Once this has finished, you're all done! Some people have put in request to DS that smaller hard disk sizes could be used (e.g. so USB pen drives could be used).

Padding Recordings

So far, I've been using the standard recording facility where you just highlight a programme in the EPG and reserve it. So far, this has worked fine on the DS, but it relies on a system known as Accurate Recording (AR) which is reliant on the broadcasters Now and Next information. So if this doesn't update correctly, you could find the beginning or end of a programme is not recorded as happened a number of times on the Philips box. With the DS though, if you don't want to rely on this system, you can manually adjust a recording so that the recording starts and finishes at a time you specify. This will remove auto-tracking of the recording in the EPG though, and you can't use this for Series Link either (if you amend a Series Linked recording, only the first instance will be changed - all others will remain using AR). This limits its use a little, but it is nice to have the option though if you are recording something critical that you really can't afford to miss the beginning or the ending of. And it has been requested to improve on this in the next update i.e. to not use AR, but allow padding to be used on any recording (i.e. just a single instance or via Series Link), but also still track the programme via the EPG so if it gets rescheduled, the recording won't be missed. Hopefully this will be implemented soon to give greater choice - as I say, I've had no issues with AR so far so I'm not sure it's strictly necessary for most folk.

To do this, the easiest way is to setup a recording normally using the EPG. Once this is done, go into the Schedules list using the dedicated remote button or going through the Menu, and then find and highlight that scheduled recording:



Click OK and the Edit Reservation window will come up. Scroll up to the Start Time and click OK again and options to adjust the start time will come up. Adjust this so that the recording starts a few minutes before it is scheduled to:



Click OK and then repeat the above for the End Time so that it finishes a few minutes after it is scheduled to:



Click OK and you can then see the programme schedule has been updated for the new times:



Now press Apply and a warning will come up indicating that smart tracking will be disabled. Click Yes to continue:



Finally, you can now see the schedule has changed to start at the time you indicated, and the duration of the recording has changed to show the extra padding you've given it.



Manually Setting Up Recordings

Using the above method, new recordings can also be set without using the EPG, by going into the Schedules list and clicking Yellow to manually add a new recording. This is useful for setting up a recording you know is going to happen in the future, but hasn't yet shown up in the EPG e.g. in the below, I'm setting a recording for something which I know will be on 24th September at 8pm for an hour on Channel 4 HD. Pressing Yellow, brings up the New Reservation window:



Highlight the Service and click OK, then choose the channel you require e.g. Channel 4 HD and click OK:



Next highlight the Start Time and click OK. Set the time and date appropriately and click OK e.g. 24th September, and a start time of 19:55 to give 5 minutes padding before the programme is scheduled to start:



Once done, the End Time will automatically amend to finish 2 hours after the new Start Time. If you need to amend this though, highlight End Time, click OK and amend accordingly e.g. set to 21:05 to allow 5 minutes padding after the programme is set to finish:



By default the Title Name of the recording will set to the channel name - you can change this by highlighting it and clicking OK, then press Red to delete the existing name and then type a new name using the number buttons as indicated, then click OK:



Everything is now setup, so just click Apply.



The listing will now show up in the Schedule:


**UPDATE - 06/01/2011**
The box has now been updated twice since I've owned it, once in August and once in December and more updates are coming, the next one due in March. Updates so far have improved the stability of the box so it's now rock solid, without missing any recordings for me so far. Digital Stream have also listened to its customers, by looking at a wish list the users have put together on another forum and have started implementing these in the updates provided so far (two features which I requested have been implemented), which just shows how good the customer service is now. We'll also have access to BBC iPlayer from the box through the red button just as soon as the BBC begin transmitting the necessary MHEG data at some point early this year. All in all, this really is one of the best Freeview HD PVRs available at this time.
 
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Anonymous

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excellent and relevent review Prof.

am in agreement, can now see what you mean and those the menu seems pretty slick compared to the HDT8520. like you, I've had PLAYtv (the slickest menus i've seen) and was using the EPG search feature often, so it's great to see the DS also having this feature. It's certainly one feature I'd love to see on my 8520, maybe it'll come in a future update?!
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on a shallow note, not liking the box's/remote's look, at least the 8520 wins something in a comparison lol.

also, can the DS record two channels whilst watching a third like the Philips? can't understand how it does it with only 2 tuners but it mosdef does! last night i was watching BBCHD whilst it recorded (and stored correctly) something on ITV1HD and FIVER at the same time!
 

daveh75

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butch01:
also, can the DS record two channels whilst watching a third like the Philips? can't understand how it does it with only 2 tuners but it mosdef does! last night i was watching BBCHD whilst it recorded (and stored correctly) something on ITV1HD and FIVER at the same time!

Some receivers have the ability to decode multiple streams, provided the channels occupy the same mux (mulltiplex). So in your case last night, as BBC HD and ITV1HD occupy the same mux, one tuner was able decode/de-mux both streams while the other was free to decode any other channel, Fiver in your case.

Its not a common feature, because it's hardware/software dependent, but there are a small number of receivers out there that can do this.

Its not limited to just Freeview PVRs either, some satellite receivers have the feature too...For instance, the Humax HDR, and i also have a linux based sat receiver that has twin tuners and i've had 6 channels simultaneously recording while watching a 7th on that.
 

professorhat

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butch01:also, can the DS record two channels whilst watching a third like the Philips? can't understand how it does it with only 2 tuners but it mosdef does! last night i was watching BBCHD whilst it recorded (and stored correctly) something on ITV1HD and FIVER at the same time!

Thanks - yes the DS can record two and watch a third - it's all down to the way Freeview is broadcast. Effectively, channel broadcasts are separated into what is known as a MUX and each tuner in the box tunes into one of these. As long as two of the channels you are watching / recording are on the same MUX, you can therefore record or watch three channels as effectively two of the channels are only using one of the tuners, leaving the other one free to do whatever it likes. Since the HD channels are all broadcast on the same MUX, this means it's perfectly possible to record one of them, record another channel and watch another HD channel all at the same time (though in your instance above, if you'd tried to watch something like Film4, you would have found you couldn't since this is transmitted on a different MUX).

Some boxes allow you to tap into this ability (like the Philips, Humax and DS) whereas others like the 3view currently prevent this - generally the thinking there is that only allowing the user to watch some channels whilst recording two channels and not others will cause confusion, so the feature is disabled. Personally, I prefer choice, so so prefer the Philips and DS way of thinking!
 
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Anonymous

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thanx guys, that explains that then!! so with a bit of mux/channel knowledge and forward thinking it makes the boxes even more flexible etc. bonus!

sorry for going off topic. I'll be getting back to the very troubled 8520 thread then!!
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Anonymous

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Hello Professorhat,

I am from Italy and since I cannot find a suitable product on our market I have been looking abroad for a twin tuner HD PVR that can export recordings and is possibly DVBT2.

I was going to get the Humax HDR-FOX T2 or the Digital Stream DHR8205U but the problem is that in Italy we use both UHF and VHF bands so most UK decoders won't be suitable for me including the one you reviewed I think.

Are you, or anyone else, aware of any pvrdecoder that has most of the features I am looking for?

Many thanks :)
 
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Anonymous

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Thank you for a very interesting and informative review.
 
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Anonymous

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You cant claim u can watch 3 channels at once - if u only have 2 tuners. It wouldnt hold up in an advert -it would be called misleading because the devil is in the detail - and they are too many restrictions as to what u can be watching/recording.

Nice looking PVR though - i was looking at getting one for the bedroom, before i plumped for a sky tv/broadband/phone bundle.
 

professorhat

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Thresholds:I am from Italy and since I cannot find a suitable product on our market I have been looking abroad for a twin tuner HD PVR that can export recordings and is possibly DVBT2.
I was going to get the Humax HDR-FOX T2 or the Digital Stream DHR8205U but the problem is that in Italy we use both UHF and VHF bands so most UK decoders won't be suitable for me including the one you reviewed I think.

Are you, or anyone else, aware of any pvrdecoder that has most of the features I am looking for?

Hi Thresholds - apologies, I'm afraid I can't really help on this.
 

professorhat

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So, at the end of August, a new update was released (on time as promised) and this has improved the following:

1. The fan now only switches on when required. As a result, with the box in a well ventilated area, it's now virtually silent in operation.
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2. There's now an option to choose 576i as an output resolution, allowing your TV to upscale and deinterlace the picture on SD channels if you desire (if you have a decent TV, this is a good thing). Previously, you could only choose 576p as the lowest setting meaning your TV could upscale, but the box itself was still deinterlacing the picture.



Unfortunately, there is still no Original selection, so if you want to use this 576i setting for just SD channels, you'd need to change the setting back to 1080i or 1080p when watching HD channels manually - this can be also done using the V. Format button on the remote, or if you have a Harmony, you could setup a macro to handle this. However, being able to do this is in a wishlist being compiled for new features wanted in the next update, and Digital Stream have demonstrated they want to hear what users want in new updates - given their responses so far and the excellent service so far from the company, I'm highly confident this will implemented in an update at some point along the line.

3. The promised picture controls are now available, allowing you to adjust the Contrast, Brightness and Saturation on the box. For some people, this may not be necessary as you can adjust these settings on the TV for your Digital Stream input. However if like me, you're running many sources into an AV amp via HDMI and then running a single HDMI to the TV (i.e. so all your sources run off the same input), you don't want to have to keep adjusting settings for each source since they all run from the same TV input and this is therefore a god send. With this, the SD picture can be improved nicely and I'm happy to see this feature has been implemented as promised.



This setting is accessed via the main AV Setup menu under Picture Control. Changes are made in realtime so you can adjust and see the difference it makes instantly, allowing you to find your perfect setup easily and then just press Save.

4. There's now an option to choose Pillar Box in the Display Format menu, meaning 4:3 broadcasts are no longer stretched, but displayed in their original format. This can be directly controlled through the Wide button on the remote control as well.



5. New recordings now have a NEW tag next to them so it's easy to distinguish recordings that you haven't watched / started watching yet.



6. Other things in the new update are some bug fixes e.g. there was a bug whereby when watching a recording TV programme in chase play mode (i.e. the programme is still recording, but you have started watching it late by going to the Media list and selecting it). Previously, when the programme finished recording it dumped you back to the channel you were watching prior to selecting to watch the recording - this has now been fixed and chase play works as it should when a recording is finished. There were a few others to do with green lines with Sony TVs and Scart pins, but they didn't affect me previously so won't go into them here. A full list of things fixed and new updates can be found on the MIT website.

On a certain other forum (which I can't link here due to House Rules), there is a list of new things which have been requested from Digital Stream for the next update. The great thing is, DS keep an eye on this list and will no doubt come back at some point to say which can be implemented and when they can be, meaning we're getting a box which is going to improve all the time. At the moment, this includes:

1. Stop current recordings without completely removing the Series Link for that recording;

2. Convert current live buffer to a recording e.g. you start watching a programme and decide you want to record it - either the ability so you can rewind the buffer and then press record, or, better still, just give an option to record the whole show when you just press the record button;

3. iPlayer and other similar services to be added;

4. Ability to hide channels in the EPG and also to be able to switch to a single channel listing i.e. so you can see just what's on that channel for the rest of the day / evening, and then switch back to the normal listings of all channels for the next few hours;

5. Allow PIP to work when watching recordings e.g. so you can watch something recorded and have a live channel in PIP mode to keep an eye on something which is due to start;

6. Automatically create folders for programmes recorded in Series Link mode;

7. Backup the timer schedule list so that it's easy to restore when a reset to factory mode needs to be done;

8. Add the option for Original format to be chosen (i.e. to choose 576i for SD channels and 1080i for HD channels as discussed above);

9. Many more useful things - 30 in all at the moment, and the list grows as users of the box think of new things they want to add.

So all in all, things are just going to get better and better
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bay24

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Hi professorhat, are you still finding this box good to use? I have a v10 panasonic plasma comming next week and I will be needing a freeview hd pvr. I tried out a sagem box but it was so slow and kept crashing so I sent it back.
 

professorhat

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Yup, absolutely. Have only had one slight issue where, whilst watching the recorded highlights of the Ryder Cup I found that when I stopped and went back to play later on, it hadn't remembered my last viewing point. This has happened once before as well, but for the vast majority of things (and with a working Series Link feature, I've been recording a lot of things now!), it's been perfect. Thanks to the 64 speed fast forward feature, it didn't take long to find where I had got to though and this issue has also been identified by Digital Stream and a fix for it is coming in the next update due end of November. So the service from those guys on getting these little niggles ironed out is still top notch.

Very happy with it and it's now £100 cheaper than the price I paid at John Lewis (link - only 3 left at time of posting though!).
 

bay24

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That's great thanks for the heads up about the John Lewis price but because of the tv purchase not going to have the money for another month. I think the review you have done is great, I wouldn't even have considered this box if I hadn't read it and it could save me the £100 between this and the humax so thanks!
 

professorhat

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No probs, I'm glad it's helped - having spent a while being frustrated by the Philips / Pace box, I felt these things were useful to pass on so others don't have to go through the pain.I have been told by others that the pictures don't show how good the on screen GUI is either and were pleasantly surprised when they received it!

One other thing, if you do buy the box, ensure you've got a USB stick / hard disk so you can update the firmware from the MIT website - it seems quite a few are still coming with the original firmware which has the sluggish EPG issue. To update, ensure the USB disk is formatted as FAT32. Some people are finding certain sticks aren't working in that the DS unit doesn't recognise it - the Kingston USB DataTraveler has been used by a few of us though so this should definitely work.
 

bay24

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professorhat:
No probs, I'm glad it's helped - having spent a while being frustrated by the Philips / Pace box, I felt these things were useful to pass on so others don't have to go through the pain.I have been told by others that the pictures don't show how good the on screen GUI is either and were pleasantly surprised when they received it!

One other thing, if you do buy the box, ensure you've got a USB stick / hard disk so you can update the firmware from the MIT website - it seems quite a few are still coming with the original firmware which has the sluggish EPG issue. To update, ensure the USB disk is formatted as FAT32. Some people are finding certain sticks aren't working in that the DS unit doesn't recognise it - the Kingston USB DataTraveler has been used by a few of us though so this should definitely work.

I had the do a similar update with with the sagem I had briefly so hopefully the stick I used for that will work! Thanks again!
 
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Anonymous

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Thanks prof. My humax box with hard disk is beginning to act up so i need a new box and could not decide between freeview and freesat. I was leaning to freesat bacause of the capability for so many extra channels in hd but i am concerned at the lack of channels being added. This review has made me reconsider and at £200 will save me a few quid if i buy it
 
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Anonymous

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prof, i have just read the review of the digi stream that you provided the link for. In it the reviewer states that a fix has now been applied and it will output 5.1 sound from HD channels.

Your review stated that it would not do so through an HDMI cable and than an optical cable is required. Is this still the case or can it now output 5.1 through the HDMI?

I connect my digi box with an hdmi cable directly to the amp so that might be problematic. If i select my tv input on the amp i will get picture and no sound and if i select my optical input i will get sound and no picture! Would you recommend running the hdmi cable from the digi box to the tv, rather than the amp, and the optical to the amp? Hope that makes sense! cheers.
 

professorhat

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No worries - yes, you can still only get 5.1 sound from the optical output, not the HDMI which only provides stereo. It's been requested to get 5.1 through the HDMI but we haven't heard back yet if it's possible. From what I've read, the internals of the Humax (which can do 5.1 through the HDMI) and the Digital Stream (DS) are quite similar so remain hopeful it will be implemented in the future.

In the meantime, if your amp can't be programmed to accept video from HDMI and audio from optical (as mine is at the moment), then your best bet is as you say, to connect directly to the TV via HDMI and then plug the DS into the amp using optical. You only get 5.1 on some broadcasts from Freeview HD channels (i.e. BBC HD and Channel 4 HD at the moment though hopefully ITV HD will join in providing them soon), but I still think it's worth it for those.
 
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Anonymous

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Thanks prof. Can I ask you a couple more things, first, what home cinema amp do you have? I have the onkyo 607 and i suspect i might be able to get the amp to output 5.1 through the optical at the same time as sending video through the HDMI. I am not sure how i could watch what comes through the HDMI and listen to what comes through the optical at the same time though as i can only select one or other for input at the same time. I will check it out though.

Secondly I have looked online and cant fins if the digi stream does 1080p or not. Take it it does?
 

professorhat

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I use the Onkyo TX-NR905 - I'd be amazed if you can't set one of the inputs to take video from HDMI and sound from optical on the 607 as it's a must for Sky HD users (where 5.1 is only available through optical as well).

It will indeed output 1080p - I personally have it set to 1080i so my TV does the de-interlacing, but it's down to how good your TV is at this compared to the DS and personal preference.
 
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Anonymous

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I have checked and i can set up my amp to accept 5.1 from the optical while getting video from hdmi. Also checked with lewis' and they have the boxes in store so i can fet one and can return it if i cant get reception although according to the freeview site i should be able to. I think i will pick one up on thursday.

One more question though prof, and please excuse my ignorance, I do not have a usb memory stick and have never used one. Is it a usb memory stick flash drive that i need and what sort of memory size should i get? I probably will not use the memory stick other than for transferring downloads to the box. thanks.
 

professorhat

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Good stuff - hope you get on okay with it - JL is a great place to buy because of their no quibble 28 day (or is it 30?!) return policy.

For the USB stick, yes, it's just a standard USB memory stick or flash drive. The current size of the files you need to upload are just under 14 MB so any size stick will be fine. I'd probably get a 4 GB one at the minimum though since they cost very little these days and smaller sizes aren't really any cheaper. Probably best to get it from JL at the same time since, as mentioned, some sticks don't seem to work, so if you get that issue, you can return it. I use the Kingston DataTraveler and this works just fine.
 
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Anonymous

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out of curiosity prof, why did you go for the digi stream over the humax? price ? or was there not much in it performance wise?
 

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