Argosy 320GB Divx Harddrive - €182.45 delivered

boy_wonder

One of the lads in work was telling me that Maplins (town and blanch i think) are doing a 320Gig HD for €120. Sounds good to me!!

BendiBus

Mine has arrived too. Only thing is I don't seem to have gotten a SCART lead! Not a huge problem as I've loads of SCART at home anyway.

One of the lads in work was telling me that Maplins (town and blanch i think) are doing a 320Gig HD for €120. Sounds good to me!!

Last time I looked the HV355U (this unit) but with an ATMT badge was €286 (or thereabouts) in Maplins. Maybe it's a regular 320Gig HDD in Maplins for that price.

godtabh

BendiBus wrote:

Mine has arrived too. Only thing is I don't seem to have gotten a SCART lead! Not a huge problem as I've loads of SCART at home anyway.

Dont think it came with a scart, Mine didnt

godtabh

boy_wonder wrote:

One of the lads in work was telling me that Maplins (town and blanch i think) are doing a 320Gig HD for €120. Sounds good to me!!

This is a media player HD and I would say the other one is just a bog standard HD

the corpo

aye, no scart in mine either, ah well.

the cables with it seemed a little cheapy too, i thought. unit looks smart enough though

the corpo

aye, no scart in mine either, ah well.

the cables with it seemed a little cheapy too, i thought. unit looks smart enough though

the corpo

what happened there?!

edit: doh, never mind

Raiser

basquille wrote:

Ah, i see. Always read that those scart to adapter connection suffers a tad in terms of picture quality. If it's a standard scart connection, might be worth picking up a gold-plated one (presuming it's not gold-plated).

the corpo wrote:

aye, no scart in mine either, ah well.

the cables with it seemed a little cheapy too, i thought. unit looks smart enough though

The video source [Argosy unit] is all bog-standard wiring with bog-standard solder [lead + tin] throughout. the scart/AV/component cable is normal cabling and the TV has all standard wiring with plenty more lead and tin solder throughout - aint no way in hell that gold plating one tiny part [ie. the viewable scart connector surface] of the whole route between file and viewable picture is going to make a damn bit off difference [in this mans opinion anyway.....]

Disclaimer: Not trying to be a smart-arse, in fact I once Q'd up, paid for and tested a fcuking expensive gold-plated scart cable - before returning it the next day when I realised it was $hite. - Damn marketeers with their pretty packaging and mad claims......;)

Basq

Didn't arrive here yet (Sligo)!

OfflerCrocGod

kearnsr wrote:

This is a media player HD and I would say the other one is just a bog standard HD

Yes it's just an external HDD but what's really weird is that they are selling a 320GB on right next to the 120GB (I thought it was 250GB....) for just €10 or so more - may as well go for the bigger one tbh.

tical1

Got mine yesterday, had a quick play around but couldn't get any video's to play on my TV.
All i did was format the drive to NTFS, load some dvd and .avi files on to it.
Connected it to the TV, powered it on and it comes up with the Argosy wallpaper and 'NO DISC' on the top left of the screen.

Anyone else have this problem?

BendiBus

Mine has worked great.

I reformatted to NTFS too. Loaded a few avi's and mpg's and they worked no problem.

godtabh

why did you reformat it?

Basq

Anyone else waiting on this... or is it only me?!

godtabh

basquille wrote:

Anyone else waiting on this... or is it only me?!

Do they have post out in Sligo?

Get on to interlink and ask them whats the story!

hansov

Sorry I was away and not able to contribute. Mine arrived in Lucan on Tuesday - it seems to be great. Loaded two DVDs onto it last night and it worked away. I would also like to know as kearnsr said - "why did you reformat it?"

hansov

kearnsr wrote:

Do they have post out in Sligo?

Get on to interlink and ask them whats the story!

But I am sure that he has the same problem as I had (and maybe the rest of you had as well) - no tracking number.

Mr E

kearnsr wrote:

Do they have post out in Sligo?

Ouch.

Basq

kearnsr wrote:

Do they have post out in Sligo?

Quiet you! ** bitch-slap **

If i don't recieve it by tomorrow, i'll putting a call into IBOOD (whose phone number is listed on the T&C's PDF on the website).

godtabh

basquille wrote:

Quiet you! ** bitch-slap **

I was only extracting the urine!

I got on to ibood about mine and they gave me the dutch tracking number. Ask for that and see if Interlink have a reference for it.

hansov wrote:

Loaded two DVDs onto it last night

How did you load the dvds on to it? I know nothing about videos except maybe how to rip a dvd in to avi or what ever. Did you copy over the vob file or something?

Basq

kearnsr wrote:

I got on to ibood about mine and they gave me the dutch tracking number. Ask for that and see if Interlink have a reference for it.

Will do.. as i rang Interlink at lunch time and said there's nothing they can do without a tracking number. As you'd expect but i thought possibly if i gave the name and address of who it's being sent to, they could detect if it was in their system.

kearnsr wrote:

How did you load the dvds on to it? I know nothing about videos except maybe how to rip a dvd in to avi or what ever. Did you copy over the vob file or something?

With regards ripping DVD's, use DVDShrink (or something similar) to rip the VOB / IFO files from the disc onto your hard drive.

godtabh

basquille wrote:

With regards ripping DVD's, use DVDShrink (or something similar) to rip the VOB / IFO files from the disc onto your hard drive.

the vob/ifo has all the surround sound stuff images etc. The box allows you to ouput digital surround sound so does dvdshrink allow you to do this still

Basq

kearnsr wrote:

the vob/ifo has all the surround sound stuff images etc. The box allows you to ouput digital surround sound so does dvdshrink allow you to do this still

As far as i know, the IFO would simply contain the data structure of the DVD - which would be where to start the DVD on insertion into a player (like a main menu) and information on playing 3-4 1GB VOB chunks as one continuous movie.

The VOB contains the actual video and audio but to play a full film, it would require you to individually click on each VOB file. Hence the need for the IFO but i presume the box would be able to interpret these.

Basq

E-mailed them with this at 2.48PM:

Dear Sir / Madam,

The Argosy 320GB Divx Harddrive (as reference in the order above) still
hasn't arrived with me in Ireland, with reports of other people on Irish
forums recieving it early in the week.

Can you please give me the tracking number you sent it off with and i'll
follow it up with Interlink Ireland.

Many thanks in advance.

And their customer service was on the ball.. they got back to me with this 40 minutes later:

Dear Mr. Basquille,

We sent your Argosy the 24th of January. I contacted the TNT and they told
me that your parcel is already in Dublin, so you will receive your parcel at
the end of this week or at the beginning of next week.

Kind regards,

Customer Support
iBOOD.com

godtabh

basquille wrote:

And their customer service was on the ball.. they got back to me with this 40 minutes later:

Push them a bit more and they will give you the tnt tracking number. **** all use as the site is in dutch but interlink might no more if you give them that number

blorg

kearnsr wrote:

why did you reformat it?

I presume it comes formatted as FAT (which is compatible with more operating systems) but he wanted the greater reliability/less restrictions of NTFS (only compatible with Windows NT/2000+)

Basq

kearnsr wrote:

Push them a bit more and they will give you the tnt tracking number. **** all use as the site is in dutch but interlink might no more if you give them that number

Will wait til Tuesday and if there's nothing, i'll e-mail them and demand a tracking number.

When i was on the phone to Interlink at lunch, the girl on the helpdesk said that if provided with a international tracking number, they can check what it was changed to when it was entered into their system.

But i'd expect it in the next couple of days.

godtabh

basquille wrote:

Will wait til Tuesday and if there's nothing, i'll e-mail them and demand a tracking number.

When i was on the phone to Interlink at lunch, the girl on the helpdesk said that if provided with a international tracking number, they can check what it was changed to when it was entered into their system.

But i'd expect it in the next couple of days.

I wonder what the story is. Its been in Dublin for over a week. Its not as if Sligo is a million miles away. I wonder is a priority thing i.e letting stock build up for that region before it delivers

Mr E

Sligo is not ready for that kind of technology.

Basq

TmB wrote:

Sligo is not ready for that kind of technology.

TmB banned for a week for being a smart-arse!

godtabh

basquille wrote:

TmB banned for a week for being a smart-arse!

Phew I got let of lightly by suggesting that sligo had no post!

Mr E

LOL
Sorry Brian, just pulling your leg.

Basq

[start worried rant]

Package still hasn't arrived from iBOOD so e-mailed them to get a tracking reference.. they e-mailed back with the following response:

Dear Mr. Basquille,

Thank you for your response. It's strange that you still not received your
parcel. Here I give you, the tracking number from TNT; 3SVQXXXXXXXXX

Keep us in touch.

With kind regards,

Customer Service iBOOD.com

The X's are various digits and numbers which make up the full reference number. Tried the reference number on the tracking function on the TNT sites - both Irish and The Netherlands. Both shown as 'not found'.

Phoned up freephone TNT and the very nice woman on the phone said that's not a valid tracking number - and to tell them (iBOOD) that it should be under the barcode on the airway bill and it will either begin in GD or GE and end in WW.

This does not fill me with a great deal of confidence in iBOOD who either gave me a completely incorrect tracking number, or are pulling the piss? E-mailed back iBOOD with this and i am worringly awaiting a response from them:

Dear Sir / Madam,

I contacted TNT in Dublin and they said that particular tracking number (3SVQXXXXXXXXX) you gave me is not a valid TNT tracking number.

Their tracking numbers typically start with either 'GE' or 'GD' and end in 'WW', and it should be on the airway bill underneath the barcode.

So look for a code on the airway bill under the barcode with the format:

GE_______WW
GD_______WW

That's the code i need. Please get back to me ASAP as i'm very anxious over the status and wherebaouts of my package!

Not at all happy, and majorly worried at this point! :eek:

[/end worried rant]

the corpo

i;d try and find a phone number ibood and give them a call.
i've had a few dealings with them now and they seem like a decent bunch.


on the subject of the drive, how is everyone finding it now?

it's playing 90% of the things i throw it, but won't entertain some divx's for no discernible reason.

anyone found any probs with codec compatibility?

Raiser

the corpo wrote:

i;d try and find a phone number ibood and give them a call.
i've had a few dealings with them now and they seem like a decent bunch.


on the subject of the drive, how is everyone finding it now?

it's playing 90% of the things i throw it, but won't entertain some divx's for no discernible reason.

anyone found any probs with codec compatibility?

Won't play most of my Dexters or Heroes - don't know what type AVI's they are.......sorry to be vague........:)

- But the main one that pis5es me off is that it doesn't like AVI's from my Canon Ixus 30.................

Anyone looked into seeing how to flash these to upgrade the ROM/Codecs....?

the corpo

how odd, it's played the entire series of heroes for me no problem

what it didn't play was battlestar galactica, though that's most likely cos they were HD quality divx's

Mr E

Use Gspot to see if the the movie has either QPEL (Quarter pixel) or GMC (Global Motion Compensation) encoding. If so, then many media players will not be able to handle it. (In 98% of cases, they're usually not used).

One other thing to check is if the bit stream is packed... use MPEG4 Modifier to unpack it (its just a flag in the header of the AVI). A packed bitstream can result in sound being out of sync with video.

(Having said that, BSG, Dexter and Heroes all play perfectly on my Freecom media player)

Basq

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGHHHH!

That's the sound of one slightly miffed iBOOD customer.. they got back to me with a parcel number (not starting in GE or GD, or ending in WW like TNT require). Phoned TNT about it - said there was nothing they could do as it wasn't a valid consignment number which was odd considering they said TNT in Dublin had reported recieving it. iBOOD also gave me a phone number for the depot they rang for the parcel number - it was in the UK (0044).

One of the reps i rang in TNT followed it up and rang the number. Turns out it wasn't TNT - it was Parcelline, which then was given to Interlink here in Ireland. Rang the number the woman gave me for Interlink, and was then told it was an international parcel number and i had to ring their international offices. Did that and found out they called to the door with it on the 31st January and just didn't bothering notifying their depot that no-one was there.

It'll be sent to my work address tomorrow (i'm staying there ALLLLL day)..

All this hassle and wasted about €7 calling between Interlink and TNT. Don't know who i'm madder at - iBOOD for telling me it was TNT, or Interlink for failing to leave a note saying they called or even notify their depot that the package was unsuccesfully delivered!

:mad: :mad: :mad:

OfflerCrocGod

I'd blame the delivery company more then iBOOD tbh.

Basq

OfflerCrocGod wrote:

I'd blame the delivery company more then iBOOD tbh.

I suppose.. but iBOOD did have me on the phone to a puzzled TNT employee for 40 minutes trying to track a package which didn't exists.

I presumed from what i'd heard here that it was Interlink delivering it but everytime i contacted iBOOD, they kept telling me "they contacted TNT in Dublin".. "this is the tracking number from TNT" etc.

TNT were fantastic though.. very efficient, contacted the crowd in England for me and got the full story, then phoned me back. Interlink i'm definitely not happy with.

Mr E

Look on the brightside - you'll have a new toy for the weekend!

Basq

TmB wrote:

Look on the brightside - you'll have a new toy for the weekend!

That's true, Dave...

An absolute pain-in-the-arse to sort out!

Think i'll change my delivery address to iBOOD to be my work address if i ever order from them again - cos all the hassle could have been averted if Interlink simply left a note saying they called the 1st time.

savemejebus

interlink can be atrocious at times but on the bright side they're a million times better than DPD

/Hoping my ibood orders don't come in such a roundabout way

godtabh

I've had mine nearly two weeks now.

Cant believe what a mess it was for basquille but in fairness Interlink seem to be the weakest link in a weak chain that included ibood. I'm happy with them and would use them again but probably get it sent to work from now on!

hansov

Well basquille - did you get it? From all of us who followed your lonely crusade!

Basq

hansov wrote:

Well basquille - did you get it? From all of us who followed your lonely crusade!

Nope.. didn't even arrive on Friday! :mad:

Didn't bother ringing Interlink as i waited til 5.30pm in the office and thought their office might have been closed. But if it doesn't arrived by lunch on Monday, i'm phoning them.

Absolute disgrace of a company!

godtabh

basquille wrote:

Absolute disgrace of a company!

ibood or interlink

viboy

basquille wrote:

Nope.. didn't even arrive on Friday! :mad:

Didn't bother ringing Interlink as i waited til 5.30pm in the office and thought their office might have been closed. But if it doesn't arrived by lunch on Monday, i'm phoning them.

Absolute disgrace of a company!

I'm roughly in the same position ... finally got a response and tracking number from Ibood on Thursday, rang the number the gave me and got a consignment number. Was told to ring TNT, who didn't have a bloody clue what I was talking about. Was out of the offiice on Friday , so looks like I'll be ringing Interlink on Monday too.

Is +353 (0)90 64 20500 the number you're planning to ring them on ?

CHeers,
Sean

Basq

kearnsr wrote:

ibood or interlink

Interlink...

I'm willing to forgive iBOOD for mistakingly giving me the wrong parcel delivery company.

However, the fact Interlink called to my house and never even left a note or message to signify they were there - it was sitting in the depot for over a week with no attempt to re-deliver it or contact me until i got in touch with them. They then told me it'd be with me first thing Friday morning - and to top it all off, it never arrived!

I feel VERY sorry for whoever is on the other side of the phone tomorrow when i call them if it doesn't arrive.

viboy wrote:

Is +353 (0)90 64 20500 the number you're planning to ring them on ?

CHeers,
Sean

Yep.. when you ring that, you'll be put through to reception. Ask for the 'International Department' and give them your consignment number.

PS - i'm planning on e-mailing iBOOD when i finally get my hard drive and telling them for future reference, remember their parcel's are going through Interlink when dealing with Irish customers, not TNT. Will save future Irish customers harassing TNT and (like me) wasting almost 45 minutes ringing from TNT - Parcelline - Interlink.

killbillvol2

basquille wrote:

i'm planning on e-mailing iBOOD when i finally get my hard drive and telling them for future reference, remember their parcel's are going through Interlink when dealing with Irish customers, not TNT. Will save future Irish customers harassing TNT and (like me) wasting almost 45 minutes ringing from TNT - Parcelline - Interlink.

You might be better off suggesting to them that they find another courier. There have been other threads on here complaining about Interlink in the past. No matter how efficient a company is they're going to look bad if they hand over to a bunch of incompetents to deliver.