UPC DVR Reviews / Questions / Help

Murt_

I presume that you can get 5.1 sound out of this DVR? I've one of those big old PACE boxes for the last few years and its a useless piece of kit.

My DVR is due to arrive next Thursday. Can someone post a picture of the box and its connectors?

Cheers

murpho999

belmulletman wrote:

If you want to jump back to real time, just press the UPC button and it will drop you back in to the real time broadcast.

Hope this helps, as the fast forwarding things was doing my nut until i found this out!

Thanks Belmulletman, that has worked a treat. Makes life a lot easier.

murpho999

Eamo71 wrote:

That's me paraphrasing waht my mate told me... maybe I picked it up wrong...

I don;t think they expect people to instantly switch ... but over time with the improved HD service a lot of the mediabox standard customers will probably jump to the HD one. So I guess if you want your 3 tuners the HD box will be the one for you...

Very interesting. No doubt you can switch to the HD box in the future but I am sure there will be a cost. Extra installation charge and monthly subscription!!

Is there any chance that the info in the press pack can be scanned and a link posted?

Thanks!

Alun

Murt_ wrote:

I presume that you can get 5.1 sound out of this DVR?

There is a coaxial (i.e. not optical) digital sound output, but it's stereo only. Nobody broadcasts anything with 5.1 sound anyway AFAIK.

elderlemon

Doe's anyone have the DVR and Nick Jr. Mine (Nick JR) is no longer working since the DVR was installed - Says I haven't subscribed to the channel. NTL office people say its the box, the engineer who came out says its not. Can someone confirm that they are getting Nick JR ok.

thanks.

DingDong

elderlemon wrote:

Doe's anyone have the DVR and Nick Jr. Mine (Nick JR) is no longer working since the DVR was installed - Says I haven't subscribed to the channel. NTL office people say its the box, the engineer who came out says its not. Can someone confirm that they are getting Nick JR ok.

thanks.

Very strange mine is the same. My other pace DTV box can get it no problem. I'll look into it for you.

Murt_

Alun wrote:

There is a coaxial (i.e. not optical) digital sound output, but it's stereo only. Nobody broadcasts anything with 5.1 sound anyway AFAIK.

Hmmm, thanks Alun. Sky+ & SkyHD allows 5.1 audio as far as I'm aware. Ok, I'll be upgrading to the UPC HD option as soon as its available. I can't imagine they won't have 5.1 with that... hopefully.

patrickmooney

Nick Jr. is missing for me too.

Alun

Murt_ wrote:

Hmmm, thanks Alun. Sky+ & SkyHD allows 5.1 audio as far as I'm aware. Ok, I'll be upgrading to the UPC HD option as soon as its available. I can't imagine they won't have 5.1 with that... hopefully.

That's got nothing to do with the physical connection which is quite capable of transmitting 5.1. You could send 5.1 down it, IF it was available from the program providers which it generally isn't AFAIK. The same would be true for HD broadcasts, i.e. you'll get whatever the program provider provides, and if that's 5.1, then presumably that's what you'll get otherwise it'll just be stereo.

belmulletman

Nick Jr. gone for me as well!!

Mr Velo

belmulletman wrote:

Nick Jr. gone for me as well!!

Awww, no Lazytown for you guys tonight then

Eamo71

elderlemon wrote:

Doe's anyone have the DVR and Nick Jr. Mine (Nick JR) is no longer working since the DVR was installed - Says I haven't subscribed to the channel. NTL office people say its the box, the engineer who came out says its not. Can someone confirm that they are getting Nick JR ok.

thanks.

yep NJ is not working for me...

Eamo71

Paddy_Fowler wrote:

Awww, no Lazytown for you guys tonight then

yeh but the yung wans aren't happy about it though....

Vikings

Had it 'installed' today. First off only half the channels which I should have had were available. There was no Sky Sports or Setanta/Nasn which I had paid for, rang them up and was told they could do nothing until morning so hopefully that will get sorted in a couple hours time.

The broadband that was also 'installed' at the same time does not work, we were told the engineer would come back to look at it - not a chance. Maybe tomorrow.

Just glad we hadn't cancelled the eircom or sky yet! Might just wait and see how this pans out, if its not sorted and sorted soon the retentions department will have to do some convincing!

rogue-entity

Ordered the DVR, and a replacement remote for the old Pace box. Remote arrived yesterday, Engineer should arrive on Thursday morning to install the DVR. *crosses fingers*

rogue-entity

Engineers arrived nice and early today to install the DVR.
Took about 15 minutes so to install, and all the basic channels were working. It took about 2 hours before the sport and movie packages were activated. So far, the box is working great compared to the Pace decoder in the other room. My only complaint so far.. the DVR functions dont work.

I can watch the channels fine, though it took a while before the box recognised the movie and sport packages as being subscribed, before that, I would have to press left or right, use the guide, or manually enter the channel numbers to watch them. Now I can flick though them using the Ch+/- buttons.

But any time I try to enter the Digital Video Recorder option from the menu I get a message saying "the media box is busy" or "at this time you cannot watch a programme you recorded and record at the same time" and it backs back into the menu once I press OK.

Customer care have said its probably stuck in the provisioning system..
Anyone else had this problem??

belmulletman

Have to say, i've not had that problem.... mine just worked... i've my fingers crossed for ya that it'll sort it's self out!

rogue-entity

Im the second person in Waterford with one of these boxes.
I've been told they tried to send a "dehit" to the box, but it took half an hour to go through their system, so they suggested the DVR is probably caught in their provisioning system.. waiting for activation or some lark. She also suggested there might be some issue with the City Code/Activation Code..

So far I have tried unplugging it for 30 seconds to reboot it, and still no joy. The box still gives me one or the other of those error messages and I cant use any of the DVR features.

Edit: Has anyone else noticed how hot the box gets or is it just me? I put my hand on top, and its quite hot.. when I looked at the bottom, I can see a fan, but the fan doesnt spin when the box is running.. anyone else notice this.. or is it just me?

belmulletman

Hey Guys...
Has anyone noticed that the guide isn't currently going past Tuesday??
I noticed this last thursday, but thought it might fix it's self...
I know this is wrong, because last week when the xFactor finished, i was able to set it up for the following week...
I've tried refreshing the network and all that jazz but nout seems to be working! anyone got any suggestions?

Alun

belmulletman wrote:

Hey Guys...
Has anyone noticed that the guide isn't currently going past Tuesday??
I noticed this last thursday, but thought it might fix it's self...
I know this is wrong, because last week when the xFactor finished, i was able to set it up for the following week...
I've tried refreshing the network and all that jazz but nout seems to be working! anyone got any suggestions?

Just checked mine and it's the same Mind you the old one always seemed to have problems with weekends .. maybe the person at ntl: who feeds the hamster is on holiday

The tax man

Same story here too. Hopefully it's just a glitch that will be sorted on Monday.

rogue-entity

Well.. NTL agreed that that the unit they sent me, was faulty, they are gonna replace it for me the day after I get back from the UK which is nice.

I assume from the complete lack of responses to my queries, that I am the only boardsie that has had this problem with their DVR, and can assume then, that the new DVR I will get should work properly.

BendiBus

belmulletman wrote:

Hey Guys...
Has anyone noticed that the guide isn't currently going past Tuesday??
I noticed this last thursday, but thought it might fix it's self...
I know this is wrong, because last week when the xFactor finished, i was able to set it up for the following week...
I've tried refreshing the network and all that jazz but nout seems to be working! anyone got any suggestions?

I'm waiting for you guys to get the bugs to be ironed out before I sign up

Is it still possible to set the machine to record based on date/time/channel even if the EPG is kyboshed?

murpho999

Well I have the same problem with the EPG today, only 3 days now whereas it was for 7 days.

Also, in the last few days I have had problems with the mini guide.
Sometimes it doesn't start at all and other times when it does work I cannot switch it off. Only way to clear it is to switch box off and back on again.

Hope it's just a glitch, will call them on Tuesday if it's still not working.

Is anyone else having this problem with their mini-guide?

belmulletman

Right... i phoned NTL about the guide, or lack there of, and told her that it wasn't just me that anyone i've been talking to (both on here, and a few of my mates have the box as well), has the same problem...
So she went ahead and booked for someone to come out to me to look at the box!!! I know... i was like, WHY? the box is fine, the problem is obviously on your (as in NTL) end, and the guide info isn't been fed to the new DVR units.
ANYWHO, so she went ahead and booked it for some reason! hopefully it'll be fixed before thrusday as i wont be able to get home to for the guy to come and look at it!!

Has anyone else phoned, as she said i seemed to be the first person on the system who'd reported it! if the guide isn't working properly for ya, give 'em a call, as the only way i can see this getting sorted is if enough people complain about it!

Eamo71

murpho999 wrote:

One drawback I have found also is that if you are watching a program and half way through you decide to record it, it only records from the moment that you press record, and does not save the part you have already watched. You can do this on Sky and is handy, especially if you think that a program you are watching may be interesting to someone else in your house. With the UPC box you will miss the start.

OK maybe I'm being thick here but let's say you were 15 mins into the programme and decided somone else in the house would be interested in viewing it... Could you rewind it to the start and then press record. I'm under the impression that it buffers live programmes from the start of transmission...

paulm17781

Eamo71 wrote:

OK maybe I'm being thick here but let's say you were 15 mins into the programme and decided somone else in the house would be interested in viewing it... Could you rewind it to the start and then press record. I'm under the impression that it buffers live programmes from the start of transmission...

I don't *think* this works either which is a pity, I tried to rewind something that was near the end and it only allowed me rewind to the point I started watching.

WellyJ

paulm17781 wrote:

I don't *think* this works either which is a pity, I tried to rewind something that was near the end and it only allowed me rewind to the point I started watching.

Thats because you have to be on the channel for it to buffer.

If you change to a channel and try to rewind its not gonna work.

murpho999

Eamo71 wrote:

OK maybe I'm being thick here but let's say you were 15 mins into the programme and decided somone else in the house would be interested in viewing it... Could you rewind it to the start and then press record. I'm under the impression that it buffers live programmes from the start of transmission...

I had thought of this as well and tried rewinding to the start after 10 minutes and then pressing record but it only records from the live transmission. It doesn't make sense as the beginning of the program is already in the unit's memory. Sky+ does this for you no hassle, and is a nice feature.

I do wonder if NTL actually tested and compared a Sky+ box before releasing their own, after all, a box that only records one station, has no series link and other functionality lacking is just not good enough when you consider that they have had about 3 years to look at Sky's product!

paulm17781

murpho999 wrote:

I had thought of this as well and tried rewinding to the start after 10 minutes and then pressing record but it only records from the live transmission. It doesn't make sense as the beginning of the program is already in the unit's memory. Sky+ does this for you no hassle, and is a nice feature.

I do wonder if NTL actually tested and compared a Sky+ box before releasing their own, after all, a box that only records one station, has no serious link and other functionality lacking is just not good enough when you consider that they have had about 3 years to look at Sky's product!

I'd agree, I was expecting this to blow Sky+ away. Sadly it is typically NTL and does what it is meant to (record, pause) but gives you very little else.

Eamo71

murpho999 wrote:

I had thought of this as well and tried rewinding to the start after 10 minutes and then pressing record but it only records from the live transmission. It doesn't make sense as the beginning of the program is already in the unit's memory. Sky+ does this for you no hassle, and is a nice feature.

I do wonder if NTL actually tested and compared a Sky+ box before releasing their own, after all, a box that only records one station, has no serious link and other functionality lacking is just not good enough when you consider that they have had about 3 years to look at Sky's product!

Yeah I tried it shortly after posting and it didn;t work. i know it's annoying that the NTL box doesn;t have some of the features of Sky plus but I still like it a lot. I reckon the HD box will address those issues. Here's hoping anyway.
BTW Murpho I don't have a scanner to post that press pack for you. Sorry.

murpho999

Eamo71 wrote:

Yeah I tried it shortly after posting and it didn;t work. i know it's annoying that the NTL box doesn;t have some of the features of Sky plus but I still like it a lot. I reckon the HD box will address those issues. Here's hoping anyway.
BTW Murpho I don't have a scanner to post that press pack for you. Sorry.

Well the box is a lot better than the old Pace box,so that is a positive.

However, after a week of use now, I am somewhat disappointed with the product. Apart from the features missing that Sky have had for ages, I find the whole system to be a bit fiddly.

Am I the only one who has problems with changing channel by keying in the 3 digit channel number? I find if you do not key all 3 numbers in quick enough (ie 1 second) that you get 'channel unavailable' and then it goes to channel 101.

Also, the rewind function can be fiddly too. Whenever I rewind, and then press play, it doesn't seem to play back from where I want but jumps about 10 seconds ahead. It can be very hard to get it to play from the exact moment you want.

Hope you're right about the HD box, as they really need to offer something more than Sky have if they want to win over customers.
No problem about you not being able to scan the pack!

Eamo71

murpho999 wrote:

Well the box is a lot better than the old Pace box,so that is a positive.

However, after a week of use now, I am somewhat disappointed with the product. Apart from the features missing that Sky have had for ages, I find the whole system to be a bit fiddly.

Am I the only one who has problems with changing channel by keying in the 3 digit channel number? I find if you do not key all 3 numbers in quick enough (ie 1 second) that you get 'channel unavailable' and then it goes to channel 101.

Also, the rewind function can be fiddly too. Whenever I rewind, and then press play, it doesn't seem to play back from where I want but jumps about 10 seconds ahead. It can be very hard to get it to play from the exact moment you want.

Hope you're right about the HD box, as they really need to offer something more than Sky have if they want to win over customers.
No problem about you not being able to scan the pack!

Yes you hav got be quick changing bthe channle number LOL. This is somthing my missus is trying to wrap her fingers around (besides my throat as usual! ).

rewind and play doesn't seem to be causing me any problems....how fast are you rewinding there are four different speeds, yes?

I think the USP on the HD box will be entry price as opposed to technically blowing away Sky's HD offering. There will however be three tuners. And I'm sure by that stage we'll have series link and so on...
It will be interesting to see how compressed the HD signal is. Sky defo comporess its HD signal. Compare BBC's HD world Cup coverage to Sky's. The beeb's HD was much better.

tapsdub

Was just wondering if anyone is experiencing any freezing issues
with the new DVR ?

While flicking through the channels it seems to freeze / lock up
and the only way to reset it is by switching off at the mains.

This has happened on average once a night since the install.

There is nothing recording at the time and no download messages appear.

Any ideas ??

silvine

When is the HD box coming out? Any idea on pricing?

elderlemon

Nope, I've got none of that and I've had mine for almost a month. You might think about getting it replaced as it sounds like its duff.

tapsdub wrote:

Was just wondering if anyone is experiencing any freezing issues
with the new DVR ?

While flicking through the channels it seems to freeze / lock up
and the only way to reset it is by switching off at the mains.

This has happened on average once a night since the install.

There is nothing recording at the time and no download messages appear.

Any ideas ??

belmulletman

tapsdub wrote:

Was just wondering if anyone is experiencing any freezing issues
with the new DVR ?

While flicking through the channels it seems to freeze / lock up
and the only way to reset it is by switching off at the mains.

This has happened on average once a night since the install.

There is nothing recording at the time and no download messages appear.

Any ideas ??

Mines' locked up a couple of times, but only when i've been doing stupid stuff with it (flying through the channels, then hitting the guide button, and realizing i meant to hit the menu button, and exiting out and what not)... but that's only happened maybe twice over the past few weeks, so i know it's my own fault!

belmulletman

Actually, Tax man or DingDong, do either of you guys know where we can log bugs / issues found? or could you guys' note it to someone?
the one thing that really bugs me, and it's noted above, is when you go to change the channels, if you don't do it fast enought, it reverts back to 101!! WHY? (on a side note: I freaking HATE RTE1!! most stupid channel ever, i mean we back our TV license, but yet we are subjected to Ad's everywhere, and sub-par programmes they've bought in, and even worse Irish made shows!)
If you enter one or 2 digits and decide "actually, na, i'll stay watching what's on now".., surely it should stay on the channel you were just watching? PLUS, it seems like it's set to about 2 or so seconds to accept a channel input, this needs to be increased, at least another second to second and a half of what it's currently set at!...

cheers guys... hope you can help!

Eamo71

Hi all,

Anyone having any trouble tuning in your DVD player to the UPC remote. I have tried the codes provided and the other option in the manual and to no avail.
My DVD is a Toshiba SD360E.

Thanks,

E71

belmulletman

Eamo71 wrote:

Hi all,

Anyone having any trouble tuning in your DVD player to the UPC remote. I have tried the codes provided and the other option in the manual and to no avail.
My DVD is a Toshiba SD360E.

Thanks,

E71

Correct me if i'm wrong, but i though that "dvd" button was for Dvd Recorders only and not for standard DVD Player controls!?

Eamo71

belmulletman wrote:

Correct me if i'm wrong, but i though that "dvd" button was for Dvd Recorders only and not for standard DVD Player controls!?

Hmm the codes in the manual seem to be for DVD players...

does DVD player/recorder not mean both???

murpho999

Eamo71 wrote:

Hi all,

Anyone having any trouble tuning in your DVD player to the UPC remote. I have tried the codes provided and the other option in the manual and to no avail.
My DVD is a Toshiba SD360E.

Thanks,

E71

It definitely works with DVD players and not just DVD recorders.

Have you tried doing the search funnction where the box looks up the code for you?

Eamo71

murpho999 wrote:

It definitely works with DVD players and not just DVD recorders.

Have you tried doing the search funnction where the box looks up the code for you?

yes it says the UPC button should flash but mine doesn;t. I wonder if I am doing something wrong...

Simon201

Ok seeing as mine finally arrived the other day though not without problems (check 'another irate customer' thread) here is my review.

Its a bit higher than a standard dvd player but not quite as wide. It looks ok, has a sometimes handy display for the channel and the program being watched.
Quality seems good, I cant detect any difference between recorded and live transmissions. Normal 'pixelating' occurs on fast moving pics though.
The main guide is quite good, comes faster than the old pace box ie, it never shows that 'gathering data' message that used to show. You can scroll down through the channels much faster. In fact you can now hold the 'down' button and it will continously scroll. (pace box didn't - very annoying you had to keep pressing on and off the button)
Setting a prog to record via the guide is very easy. Little more complex to set a prog manually though.
Choosing and watching your programmes is a breeze. When you've come straight from using the old video for many years it's reminiscent of using CD's for the first time without the joys of rewinding etc. Brill.
Remote control works nice. Works with my TV straight out the box as well!
Connections wise, there is two scart outputs (well I presume they are both outputs, there doesn't seem to be any provision for inputting some kind of video.
Sound - there is the digital coax socket (no optical - there's another few quid I had to spend in Maplins for a small converter box!) and standard analogue phono outputs.
There are two other sockets - an ethernet socket and a usb 'A' female socket. These dont seem to have any function. I tried connecting the ethernet to my modem but there didn't seem to be any result. (connecting to my PC(Mac) the ip address showed in my connection settings but I couldn't connect or do anything with it. I'd like to know if anyone has found the usb to useful for anything.
I dont have a standalone DVD recorder so I made a test recording with the scart output to my Mac (via a digital camera in 'pass through mode') and burnt a DVD. This works ok (aside from the writing to PC hd which can take a lot of space and the encoding to dvd time), and is of course in real time and has gone through an analogue connection. It would be kind of handy to output the actual mpeg 2 files to archive or edit on a PC. I even (shh! dont tell NTL!) took out the hard drive and connected it to my Mac and a PC running windows. It showed up under connected devices but wouldn't appear as a readable volume.
Bugs/Cons wise - some of the programmes I've recorded don't show the programme info. Like I've The 4400 from Saturday on Sky 2 which showed info and then The 4400 from Wed which doesn't show any info.
Yes as others have said it's a bit annoying you cant record material from the buffer. My mates Philips HD recorder has a neat thing where you can look at the buffer as a timeline type thing, choose in/out points and then save to HD. Also it just keeps buffering whatever channel you choose. UPC model doesn't or resets even if you go to the guide.
All in all I'm reasonably happy although never having used the Sky+ box it all depends on everyone's requirements.

Alun

Simon201 wrote:

There are two other sockets - an ethernet socket and a usb 'A' female socket. These dont seem to have any function. I tried connecting the ethernet to my modem but there didn't seem to be any result. (connecting to my PC(Mac) the ip address showed in my connection settings but I couldn't connect or do anything with it. I'd like to know if anyone has found the usb to useful for anything.

The box has a built-in cable modem. If you connect a PC to the Ethernet socket, you'll get an IP address allocated to it by DHCP (192.168.100.x) and if you point your browser at 192.168.100.1 you'll get into the cable modem's status page. Not much to see, since if you don't have BB set up through it then it won't have connected, but an interesting way to idle away a few minutes You can see information regarding the IP and MAC addresses of the cable modem and the box itself in page 2 of the Diagnostics menu (Main Menu | Settings | Diagnostics).

I've not tried the USB port, but I'd imagine it's also for the cable modem.

rockal

If I turn mine upside down, I can cook eggs! This thing is a mini furnace.

Sir Oxman

I got wangled to go back to NTL (I have UK Sky+) with the news of this new DVR. It suits me to have a DVR utilising an EPG for Irish channels.
They wrote off my previous outstanding bill, 3 months @ 9.99 for Digital select + 3 months free Setanta package + free install

Setup was a breeze, took about 5 minutes.

Box looks okay, display at front showing channel and programme is quite nifty.

The software and epg is about 1 billion times better than the previous, utterly horrible NTL Pace box.
EPG loads quickly, navigating is not the crossfingers and pray it doesn't freeze horror it was before.
You can 'zoom' into the EPG increasing the fonts size as as ever the NTL EPG has very small font size.
You can specify to browse through EPG by channel (which Sky doesn't allow) I like that.

Channel you are viewing is shown in top right corner, not that damn City Channel.

Downside is only one recording at a time and series link is a big miss for this box.
You cannot specify a a point in your recording which you would like to start viewing unlike Sky+
Recordings screen doewsn't indicate status of programme - viewed or not.
Your recorded programmes cannot be sorted in anyway unlike Sky+ and there is no multi-copy function for copying to DVD.
There's not much to set settings-wise, simple subtitles on or off systemwide, language, TV screen size, RGB/Standard, volume.
DVR settings are basic, pad the beginning and/or end of programme or not.
Manual recording is straightforward and you can specify the usual.

Browsing the EPG and general speediness of the system is hugely improved - I don't think I've ever come across a worse STB than the old NTL Pace one.

Remote is very good.

You can specify favourite channels as before to minimise browsing the epg while viewing.
A small graphic to the left of the EPG shows you signal strength for the particular channel you're browsing.
A loss is the ability to go beyond now and next whilst browing the epg watching TV.

Overall, a much better system than before, a decent enough DVR.

Big losers to Sky+ are the series link, dual recording, and limited now/next info and 7.50€ monthly charge for DVR functions (Sky+ just got rid of that charge...)

The box itself seems a little hot underneath where the vents are, I haven't heard a fan at all and don't know if it has one at all.

Alun

delah wrote:

A small graphic to the left of the EPG shows you signal strength for the particular channel you're browsing.

Do you mean the little blue bar to the right of the now/next mini-guide? If so, that's an indicator of how far you are time wise through the program you're watching, not the signal strength. There's also an indicator there that the program has subtitles or not, and there's space for an icon that represents whether a program has dual-language sound (not that that ever happens here AFAIK).

Sir Oxman

Alun wrote:

Do you mean the little blue bar to the right of the now/next mini-guide? If so, that's an indicator of how far you are time wise through the program you're watching, not the signal strength. There's also an indicator there that the program has subtitles or not, and there's space for an icon that represents whether a program has dual-language sound (not that that ever happens here AFAIK).

really? I just assumed to be honest, well that's erm, sorta cool;)

Ta for that.

The tax man

belmulletman wrote:

Actually, Tax man or DingDong, do either of you guys know where we can log bugs / issues found? or could you guys' note it to someone?
the one thing that really bugs me, and it's noted above, is when you go to change the channels, if you don't do it fast enought, it reverts back to 101!! WHY? (on a side note: I freaking HATE RTE1!! most stupid channel ever, i mean we back our TV license, but yet we are subjected to Ad's everywhere, and sub-par programmes they've bought in, and even worse Irish made shows!)
If you enter one or 2 digits and decide "actually, na, i'll stay watching what's on now".., surely it should stay on the channel you were just watching? PLUS, it seems like it's set to about 2 or so seconds to accept a channel input, this needs to be increased, at least another second to second and a half of what it's currently set at!...

cheers guys... hope you can help!

I reckon you'll need to get in touch with Thompson to answer those sort of questions.