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Archive for November, 2009

HDTV Satellite Receiver Nanoxx 9800HD

November 29th, 2009 zou

Sharp, Sharper, Nanoxx! This advertising slogan pops up on German manufacturer Nanoxx’s website and with good reason as our tests will show. But one thing at a time. When Nanoxx asked us a few weeks ago to take a closer look at their new 9800HD, naturally we said yes. We’ve already tested a variety of Nanoxx HDTV receivers and were impressed each time.

We were quite excited when the delivery truck dropped off the package with the receiver at our test conference call centers. The 9800HD managed to earn its first plus points while we were unpacking it; as has been typical with Nanoxx, they stuck with an elegant and above all slim design.

At just 30×6.3×22cm in size, it easily fits on any TV stand or in any living room cabinet. Its discreet silver/black color combination is inconspicuously elegant and it has an easy to read blue colored alphanumeric display.

The front panel comes with six buttons used to operate the receiver in lieu of the remote control plus a seventh Standby button that is illuminated in blue while the receiver is in use. Two CI slots capable of working with all the popular modules, such as Irdeto, Nagravision, Cryptoworks or Viaccess along with a card reader for Conax, X-Crypt, DG-Crypt, Firecrypt and Crypton can all be found behind a flap on the right side of the front panel.

When you take a look at the rear panel and all of the connectors on the new Nanoxx receiver, you would have to ask yourself, “did they forget anything?” If you look closely, you’ll see that every possible interface is available and usable.

Of course the most important of these would be the two satellite IF inputs for DVB-S and DVB-S2 that also sport looped-through outputs. The 9800HD can be connected to a TV or projection conference calling system using the HDMI interface, the three RCA jacks for YUV, an S-Video jack, a CVBS jack as well as two Scart connectors.Exceptional audio is supplied by optical and coaxial S/PDIF outputs.

Communicating with other devices can be handled via the two USB jacks (Type A and Type B for linking to an external hard drive or a PC), an e-SATA interface as well as an Ethernet interface.

There’s even a good old RS-232 interface available that can be used to upload/download channel lists. It’s all topped off with a main power switch, something that you unfortunately don’t always find on other receiver brands.

The included remote control is just as elegant and sits nicely in your hands. The buttons are ideally labeled and after only a short time getting to know the remote you’d be able to operate every function blindfolded. All of the buttons are easy to reach and easy to depress.

The detailed, fully illustrated user manual printed in English and German will answer any questions you might have regarding the operation of this new Nanoxx receiver. The manufacturer gets a nice pat on the back for this effort.

Everyday Use
After the receiver has been connected to the satellite antenna system and the TV and it has been turned on for the first time,the Installation Assistant immediately appears.

It is a very helpful tool when setting up the receiver for the first time.For the OSD  (on-screen display) language,25 choices are available including English,German,Turkish,Russian,French,Arabic, Italian,Portuguese,Spanish, Danish,Dutch, Polish, Czech, Swedish, Norwegian,Finnish,Greek,Serbian, Hungarian, Croatian,Albanian and Farsi. All in all,a very international receiver.

The next step involves setting up the local time zone and whether daylight savings time should be turned on or off. Once this is taken care of, the receiver is then matched up with the existing antenna system. 153 European, Asian and American C and Ku-band satellites have been preprogrammed into the Nanoxx all with relatively up-to-date transponder data.

The Nanoxx concept sees to it that the satellites are set up and activated during the initial settings phase so that later on during a scan only those satellites that can actually be received will be available. The user simply checks off all of the satellites that his system is set up for.

Each satellite has its own configuration menu in which numerous parameters can be set up. In addition to a variety of useable local oscillator frequency (LOF) values, there are also LNB settings available based on the SCR standard.

Manual LOF entry lets you set up other LNB’s such as those for the S-band. Natu-rally the Nanoxx 9800HD also supports all of the DiSEqC protocols: 1.0 for multifeed antennas up to four satellites, 1.1 for the expanded version for use with up to 16 LNBs, as well as 1.2 and 1.3 (USALS) for motor control and naturally also the SCR standard (Unicable).

Before the installation assistant permits a channel scan to be started, the final set up step involves deciding how incoming signals should be routed to the two tuners. This could be separate cables with identical switches, separate cables with different types of switches or a loop through connection between Tuner 1 and Tuner 2.

Don’t worry, at first it seems complicated but the proper choice almost happens by itself; Nanoxx blends in connection diagrams that makes it much easier for the user to make the right choice. For those who don’t have much patience, Nanoxx offers instead of a channel scan a preloaded channel list for Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

It not only carries the advantage that all unwanted channels have already been done away with and that all of the remaining channels have been sorted, it also saves viewers in these countries a lot of time since in the end all they want to do is get to watching TV as quickly as possible.

The receiver stores the selected options thus completing the initial installation. Before the owner of his newly purchased receiver actually gets down to using it, there are a few recommended additional settings that can be handled via the main menu.

By pushing the menu button on the remote control, the Main Menu appears with the current TV image minimized to a small window in the upper right corner of the screen.It was designed especially for high resolution TVs and is thus sharp and easy to read. It is divided into seven sub-menus (Installation, System Settings, Channel Settings, Child Protection, Games, Multimedia and Conditional Access.

The installation menu will only be needed again when looking for new channels or when new satellites need to be added; everything else was already taken care of in the initial installation. Here you will also find a variety of other options that, for example, would allow you to reset the receiver to factory settings plus among other things load one of the preprogrammed channel lists.

In addition to a variety of language choices (subtitle, teletext, audio language, etc.), it is also possible to change the video output signal. The 9800HD supports PAL and NTSC in 1080i, 720p and 576p resolutions. There’s also an automatic mode that matches the resolution to each transmission resulting in optimal picture quality. Naturally, the receiver can also automatically recognize and take 4:3 signals and either display them with black bars on either side of the image on modern 16:9 TVs or zoom in on the image.

Also worth mentioning is the Video switching option. This option essentially keeps the current channel image on the screen until the new channel is ready to be displayed. This has the advantage of making it appear that the already short channel Magazine switching time of about one second is even shorter. It’s nothing more than an optical magic trick, but it looks really good!Even the on-screen display can be adjusted a variety of ways; for example, level of transparency and display time. Another useful feature is the Lip-sync option. In cases where the video and audio of a signal are not quite 100% synchronized, this feature lets you match them together.

As practical as the pre-pared channel list is, we here at TELE-satellite are especially interested in the Channel Scan menu  that was the next step for us. The Nanoxx 9800HD comes with four different modes. The first is the automatic scan. In this mode the user only needs to select a desired satellite and choose between ALL, NIT, Fast, Free, TV or Radio. These choices can be set up individually for as many satellites as needed. Owners of DiSEqC motor-ized systems can thus select all receivable satellites for an automatic scan and sit and enjoy a DVD while the receiver takes care of the work. Through all of the different search modes it’s also possible to scan a satellite like ASTRA 28.2 east with all of its encrypted channels only for those channels freely receivable, while scanning ASTRA 19.2 east for all channels and HOTBIRD 13 east only for radio channels. It doesn’t get any more user-friendly than that!

Manual scan mode lets you search on one transponder. The well thought out and logical operational concept of the Nanoxx receiver can only be appreciated when you see it for yourself. For all you DXers out there we want to point out that of course a manual scan with PID entry is also possible.And while we’re on the DXer subject, they would be very happy with the third scanning mode, namely Blind Scan. We’ve all seen this prob-lem before: new channels are always being added, old ones removed and symbol-rates are constantly changing. If you want to keep your channel list as current as possible, you either have to refer to the up-to-date chan-nel lists from www.SatcoDX.com or you simply use the Blind Scan feature of the 9800HD. This feature lets you scan a user-defined frequency range for all active transponders, identifies the symbolrate and FEC and reads all the avail-able TV and radio channels into the receiver. Since this type of scan can take much longer than a simple scan of a preprogrammed transponder list, the Blind Scan on the one hand can be limited to a single polarization while on the other the scanning steps can be adjusted between 1 and 4 MHz in an effort to speed up the overall scan. If you want to use Blind Scan to search a DTH position such as HOTBIRD at 13 east, 4 MHz scanning steps would be sufficient.If you are searching for SCPC signals, then 1 or 2 MHz scanning steps are recommended.

In general, the larger the scanning steps, the faster the overall scan. An automatic scan of HOT-BIRD at 13 east needed 7 minutes and 33 seconds to be completed and managed to find1232TVand421radio channels. A Blind Scan required 17 minutes and 52 seconds during which 1344 TV and 455 radio channels were found.We also wanted to test the capabilities of the Nanoxx 9800HD tuner and were pleasantly surprised with the results: SCPC reception was possible starting at 2.0 Ms/sec and very weak signals such as those on NILE-SAT at 7 west and ASTRA 2D at 28.2 east were also easily handled by the receiver; it was able to present an interference-free picture with C/N values starting at 4.5 dB. Once all the basic settings have been taken care of, the 10,000 possible channels that can be stored need to be freed up of any unnecessary or unwanted entries. This is handled by the Channel Settings menu. From here channels can be deleted, renamed, moved or transferred to one of the Favorites lists.

It is also possible to delete a group of channels with the push of one button plus you can transfer channel data, system settings and timer entries to an external medium so that this data can be worked on using an Editor program on a PC. After wards, this modified data can be uploaded back to the receiver via its USB interface.After the channel list has been edited to your liking, a push of the Exit button takes you out of the main menu and the 9800HD switches to the first receivable channel. After each channel change an informative Info bar appears that provides information on the current channel including language selection, teletext, encryption, subtitles, etc. as well as programming information on the current and upcoming programs. Even signal strength and signal quality is displayed in the form of bar graphs. A push of the Info button displays an expanded EPG view of the current program as long as this data is made available by the provider.

A second push of the Info button displays detailed reception information on the current channel.As is typical with almost every receiver on the market, and the Nanoxx box is no different, the channel list appears with a push of the OK button. It is very clearly laid out with HD and encrypted channels easily recognizable thanks to cor-responding symbols. There are also a number of sorting methods that in the end will make it very easy to find the channel that you want. You can sort alphabetically, by frequency, provider and HD or SD.As we already mentioned, the channel switching times of the 9800HD are quite fast within the same transponder and also between HD and SD signals. During our tests we were impressed with the integrated upscaler. Its job is to convert SD signals in such a way that they can be shown on larger TVs with a sharp and high contrast picture in higher resolution. If automatic resolution has not been activated, a dedicated button on the remote control switches between the various resolutions so that the best picture quality can be achieved.

The more channels that can be received, the more important it is to have a decent electronic programming guide (EPG) since in the end the user wants to maintain an overview and always be kept up to date on current programs. To that end, the Nanoxx comes with two different EPG modes: a single channel view and a multi-channel view in table format. Which of these is more useful will depend on the user; both functioned perfectly in our tests. The data was correctly sorted and above all quickly displayed.Timer entries can also be handled directly from the EPG as can recording set-tings. For example, you can dictate whether the record-ing should end up on an external USB or e-SATA hard drive and also in what sub-folder it should be stored.Up to 40 timer events can be set up and these can be one-time, daily or weekly recordings.

PVR
Nanoxx with its 9800HD has remained with their external hard drive concept and for good reason. Today’s external hard drives are not nearly as expensive as they used to be, come with plenty of space and can be easily car-ried around from one place to another. For our test we used a Freecom 2.5” hard drive. It comes with the advantage that it doesn’t need an exter-nal power source; it receives its power through the USB interface. The Nanoxx 9800HD can record up to two programs at the same time (SD and/or HD) on the hard drive while a third program is either watched live or played back from the same hard drive. Even hardcore couch potatoes will be satisfied with all the different possibilities. Thanks to the inte-grated time shift function, a telephone conference call from your mother-in-law can no longer interfere with your evening TV watching mood: the program is simply paused and then restarted at the point where it was stopped at the end of the phone conference calls conversation without missing a thing.

Numerous PVR functions performed correctly during our tests no matter how hard we tried to derail the receiver with multiple recordings, timers and time shifting. The receiver did whatever we asked it to and reliably recorded all of our selected programs. We all know that providers don’t always follow their own broadcasting schedule so it’s nice to know that the 9800HD can automatically extend the recording time of a program by a user-defined amount of time.There’s also a special version of Haenlein’s video editing software from www.haenlein-software.com. This lets you edit both SD and HD recordings on your PC.And let’s not forget the media function. This is the control center for the play-back of all the multimedia content on the hard drive; it too functioned perfectly during our tests. Similar to a data manager, it presents a clear overview of all the data. To that end, the Nanoxx supports not only its own recordings, but AVI (XVID), JPEG photos and MP3 music. During playback there are a number of playback speeds available.

The receiver can also remember where a playback was stopped so that it can continue from the point it was stopped the next time playback is started. To uti-lize the PVR functions all you need is any external USB or e-SATA hard drive formatted in Microsoft FAT32. Most hard drives are shipped from the factory in FAT32, otherwise the manu-facturer offers a free for-matting tool through their web site.

Network
Slowly but surely, more and more manufacturers are including Ethernet connections network security devices on their receivers, Nanoxx is no exception. Thanks to the ability to link to a local network or the Internet, the possibilities are endless; receivers without a LAN connection can only dream of what it would be like. The connection is set up very quickly; the 9800HD utilizes DHCP and can automatically detect all the necessary parameters directly from the router or DSL modem network security hardware. For more experienced users a manual configuration is also available. Once the receiver is connected to the home network, it becomes possible to access the hard drive connected to the 9800HD from the PC via FTP. This makes it easy to further process recordings on your PC. The receiver itself prof-its from the Internet connections: a connection with the Nanoxx FTP server can be made directly from the receiver. There you will find current software as well as channel lists for Germany, Austria and Switzerland. And best of all: Nanoxx can expand this by offering more channel lists and other useful features that the user can upload to the receiver with the simple push of a button.network security software updates have never been this simple! The desired image data is marked and downloaded from the Internet directly to the receiver’s menu with the push of the OK button. The days of using USB sticks or null modem cables to link to a PC are over, even though the 9800HD still offers these methods.

Streaming
An especially interesting feature and typical Nanoxx is Manual Scan Every possible LNB setting is available Channel list editing standbythe ability to stream recordings between two different devices on the same network. Who hasn’t experienced this before: your laying comfort-ably in bed and want to finish watching the documentary you had recorded a few days ago in your living room. With most receivers that meant you had to get up and go back to the living room to finish watching it.Not true with the Nanoxx! It can create a link with the receiver in the living room, access then data directly from there and then play-back the recording on the receiver in the bedroom. An absolutely excellent feature!

Additional Functions
To top it all off, the Nanoxx 9800HD comes with a variety of other practical features that we briefly want to touch on here: there’s a PIP function (picture-in-picture) that lets you watch another chan-nel during lengthy commercial breaks and also makes it easy to switch between these channels. The Mosaic function dis-plays the current program from 4 or 6 channels next to each other in a minimized format that gives you an overview of what’s playing, for example, on your favorite channels. And to guarantee that you’ll never be bored, the manufacturer also included two video games that can help pass the time during commercials. The Zoom function magnifies a highlighted portion of the video image and teletext pages can also be displayed.

PC Software
The user can download a variety of useful programs from the manufacturer’s website www.nanoxx.info including a channel list editor and a media player that can present recordings directly from the receiver’s hard drive on a PC.

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Pioneer DVD Recorder DVR-57H DVR

November 20th, 2009 zou

This confuses me that the digital video recorders is not involved with the mainstream consumer. Every person I know who spent 10 minutes with one of the gems that are instantly addicted. This has the function of the VCR, digital cable box user friendly, and a computer brain. As far as I can tell, only two things are preventing the DVR Systems from making it big: price and permanent storage.

In the performance department, my old-school VCR holds but one advantage over the DVR System: that pesky but oh-so-transferable videotape that I can file away or loan to my mom when she misses this week’s episode of Angel. (Yeah, my mom watches Angel what of it?) If you’re not that into TV, you may not care that the DVR lacks permanent-storage capability. Then again, if you’re not that into TV, would you ever buy a DVR? Those of us who are into TV want permanent storage. That’s why we did a little dance of joy when we heard that combination DVR DVD recorders had finally arrived.

Pioneer has introduced two recorder/hard-drive com bi units: the 80-gigabyte DVR-810H and the 120-GB Elite DVR-57H that I received for review. Both units come with TiVo Basic service installed, which I’ll delve into more fully in a moment.

First things first: Setting up the DVR-57H is a breeze, although you might suspect otherwise when you see how many manuals come in the box. Relax. Pioneer is just being thorough, explaining the many DVR, recording, and optional networking features. A nice, condensed setup pamphlet tells you how to connect the player based on your existing components. I connected my digital cable box to the DVR-57H, which I then connected to my TV.

The player is a progressive-scan DVD player and consequently offers a component video output to connect to your display. However, the highest quality input is S-video; if, like me, you’ve got a digital cable (or satellite) box with a component (or perhaps DVI) connection, you won’t be able to pass that signal through the DVR-57H to your display. The player has both optical digital and stereo analog audio outputs.

Next, you connect the machine to your phone line with the supplied phone cord (a splitter is included), and you connect an IR or special serial cable that lets you change your cable/satellite box’s channels from the DVR-57H’s remote. The small remote fit comfortably in my hand, but it lacks backlighting, which is hard to forgive when you think about how often you’ll use it in the dark.

Once everything’s hooked up, the intuitive TiVo onscreen interface walks you gently through Guided Setup, which tells the unit how you receive your signals, which channels you receive, etc. Finally, the DVR-57H calls a TiVo server to download the program info. Once this is completed, you’re ready to watch a DVD or TV show. You can immediately enjoy TiVo functions like pausing or recording live TV and setting up manual recording, but you have to wait four to eight hours before you can set the unit to automatically record selected programs, as it takes awhile for the unit to fully download the program guide for the first time.

TiVo Basic is a scaled-down, free version of the TiVo service through which you can enjoy the user-friendly TiVo interface, view three days’ worth of programming info, pause and record live TV, and record shows from the program guide with the touch of a button. What you don’t get is a search function that lets you find a program by title, genre, etc. You have to scroll through the program guide hour by hour, channel by channel, to find a show that you want to record. You also don’t get the Season Pass manager that lets you set the DVR-57H to record multiple episodes of your favorite shows. Take heart, though. All of this functionality can be yours if you upgrade to TiVo Plus, which will run you $12.95 per month or $299 for a lifetime subscription—and that’s the lifetime of the unit, not you. The upgrade also gets you 14 days’ worth of programming info, the ability to add time to the beginning or end of a recording to ensure that you don’t miss anything, and other enhanced recording functions. Trust me, once you’ve tried the Plus service, you’ll never go back. The only TiVo Plus function that I wasn’t crazy about was TiVo Suggestions, in which the DVR automatically records tons of programs that it thinks you might like. Personally, I don’t want my TiVo to think for me. It’s just a bit too Terminator for my tastes. Happily, you can turn it off.

You didn’t think I just glossed over that whole S-video dilemma, did you? Sadly, it’s not something you can ignore if you plan to integrate the DVR-57H into a higher-end home theater system. While the player’s component video connection to the display helps your DVDs look great, you’re still getting S-video from your cable or satellite box to the DVR, and you’ll see a step down in the image quality of these programs as a result. My husband’s highly technical description was that the picture looked “gooey.” Sure, you can run the DVR-57H into your display’s S-video input and your set-top box into its component input, but then you won’t be able to pause live TV, and you’ll still have to watch whatever you’ve recorded through a lower-quality connection. If you’ve got a more-basic setup with a smaller TV or you’re looking to fill a void in your family room as opposed to your theater, the S-video output will likely be fine.

Lest we forget, this one-box solution is also a DVD player/recorder that can play back and record DVD-R/-RW discs—and it can do so while you continue to record content to the hard drive. As a standalone DVD player, it’s a definite success, its performance akin to that of its Elite brother, the DV-47A. The unit passes PLUGE through its interlaced component, S-video, and composite outputs, which is good because the picture is a bit dark out of the box, so you’ll want to make some adjustments to your display. Resolution ranges from 485 lines through the S-video output to almost 500 lines with a progressive signal. Our waveform monitor revealed only slight high-frequency roll-off through the S-video and interlaced component connections; there was a tad bit more through the progressive component connection.

The DVR-57H features Faroudja’s DCDi chip and Pioneer’s PureCinema 3:2 pulldown circuitry. It did a fine job with both the film and video modes in the Snell & Wilcox Zone Plate test on Video Essentials, and I didn’t see any stair-stepping or combing artifacts in Video Essential’s “Montage of Images” or our Apollo 13 torture test on the DTS Demo Disc.

As a recorder, the DVR-57H transfers material directly from the unit’s internal hard drive to a DVD-R or -RW disc. In addition to the TV content, you can transfer content from a VCR or a camcorder to the hard drive and then burn it to a DVD. The TiVo user interface is burned along with the program material, which lets you access the material in a familiar way, even when you put the disc in a non-TiVo-equipped DVD player. The burning process couldn’t be simpler: The menu tells you what’s on the hard drive, how much room it would take up on a DVD, and how long the record process will take (an hour maximum). The beauty is, you can watch live TV and record stuff to the hard drive during the burning process.

The DVR has four recording-quality settings: Extreme (Fine), High (SP), Medium (LP), and Basic (EP). With programs that were recorded at the Extreme setting, you can only fit an hour’s worth of content on one DVD; the Basic setting allows for about six hours of content, but the picture quality is virtually unwatchable. I’d rather pay for more discs and archive at the High or Extreme setting than suffer through the poor video quality of the Medium and Basic settings. It’s worth noting that, if you’re trying to record something to the hard drive while you watch it and you set the quality setting to Basic, it doesn’t just record at Basic it also displays at Basic. According to Pioneer, by the time you read this, a software upgrade will be available that will improve the video quality of the Basic and Medium settings.

The recorder’s ease of use does come at the expense of some of the flexibility that you’d find in a standalone recorder. You can’t set your own chapter breaks (the machine automatically inserts them in five-minute increments) or determine a recording’s exact starting or stopping point. It burns exactly what the hard drive recorded, including commercials. You also can’t add content to a half-empty DVD-RW disc, so you should wait until you have enough content to fill a disc before doing a burn. If you add the Home Media Option, you can network the DVR-57H with other Series2 TiVos in your home to share content and access the hard drive via the Internet, but you can’t burn a program that was transferred from another TiVo unit to the DVR-57H.

All in all, there’s a lot to like about the DVR-57H. It’s a great DVD player, it handles its DVR and recording duties well, it’s convenient, and it’s not intimidating to use. The flexibility and connection issues might concern hard-core archivists and videophiles, but overall it’s a great solution to the permanent-storage hurdle on the road to mass acceptance of the DVR.

As for the price hurdle. . .well, that $1,800 price tag might cause more than a few mainstream consumers to stumble. If you’re willing to give up 40 GB of drive space, you can enjoy the same features in the DVR-810H for $1,199, but that’s still pricey for the average consumer. In all other respects, this device seems perfectly suited to the mainstream audience, an audience that loves TV, recording, and above all else simplicity.

Highlights
• A 120-GB TiVo DVR
• DVD recorder is very easy to use but lacks flexibility
• Great DVD player

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Dish Network Satellite TV

November 14th, 2009 zou

When you make a decision to sign up for Dish satellite TV service from Dish Network,you make decisions that you want the best.That includes the best programming,the best entertainment package,the best Dish television technology, and of course the best customer service. Dish Network superior customer service comes from the philosophy that everything that it does should be focused on giving it’s subscribers the best television experience possible, and all of the programming, entertainment packages, and technology follow from that one idea. Find more information about Dish Network Specials !

Dish Network’s entertainment packages are all designed with the idea that there should be as much of a variety of programming as possible in order to appeal to as many viewers as possible. In essence, with an entertainment package from Dish Network, there should never be a complaint about nothing being on. That’s because each entertainment package from Dish network Satellite TV has a variety of programming for children and adults including comedy, movies, cartoons, education, sports, entertainment news, real news, home shopping, home improvement, and much more.

While Dish Network Satellite TV offers an economy entertainment package and High Definition Television entertainment packages, the vast majority of subscribers will be most interested in one of the more mainstream entertainment packages. These Dish Network.com packages include the Classic Bronze 100 Package which has 100 of your favorite channels. The Classic Silver Package doubles the offering with an additional one hundred channels, and the Classic Gold Package adds yet another 50 channels for a total of 250!

It’s worth noting that the Classic Silver 200 and the Classic Gold 250 Packages are both built off of the package below them. This means that if you sign up for the Classic Bronze 100 or Classic Bronze 100 Plus Packages and decide to upgrade, you won’t have to worry about losing any of the channels that you’ve come to love. Learn more about Dish Network Deals now!

If you love movies,Dish Network Satellite TV also provides the option of signing up for America’s Everything Pak which consists of America’s Top 180 Entertainment Package plus movie packages from STARZ!, HBO, Cinemax, and Showtime. That comes to a total of two hundred and ten TV channels and is a great package for anyone who loves a wide variety of movies of a variety of genres and a variety of eras.

If you happen to live in a bilingual household, Dish Network Satellite TV can also provide a variety of entertainment packages that include thirty Spanish language channels and varying numbers of channels in English. It’s a great way to keep up with your favorite programming in both languages and maybe even improve your skills with one language or the other.

Dishnetwork television programming in up to nineteen other languages is also available. Take your pick from Korean, German, French, Hebrew, Urdu, Farsi, Ukrainian, Russian, Japanese, Italian, Greek, and more. Other additional programming that Dishnetwork Satellite TV can provide to customize it’s entertainment packages includes Seasonal Sports Subscriptions,Regional Sports Networks, local channels, and SIRIUS satellite radio channels.

Dish Network’s technology also makes it a great choice for the most convenient satellite television experience possible. The Electronic Program Guide makes is easy to sort through the enormous number of channels available from Dish network Satellite TV in order to figure out what you want to watch. Additional technology like Dishnet satellite receivers with built in Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) are also available to make it easy to catch all of your favorite programs even when you aren’t at home to watch them when they’re aired.

With the current Dish net TV special deals and offers, it is time to switch. With all of this great programming and the great technology to go with it, there’s simply no substitute for Dish Network. Compare current Dish TV Special to offers from Direct TV (Directtv), Comcast Cable TV and the other Cable TV providers and Satellite TV companies. The Dish Network Deals currently available are fantastic. Considering the current Dish TV discount offers, there has never been a better time to switch. Start now.Get more from your TV, order Dish Network today!

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Panasonic DVR/DVD Recorder DMR-E95H

November 12th, 2009 zou

I have a confession to make: I never took offense at having set the clock on the VCR. I set myself. I set my mother. I’m even known to sneak into my friends and manage their homes while they sleep, taking joy in the knowledge that they can finally live the VCR to the actual potential function so I’ve put the blinking 12:00 out of suffering.

A lot of people aren’t like me (in more ways than I can count, actually). They don’t enjoy exploring their electronic devices; they’d prefer the gear jump out of the box, connect itself to their TV, and be as invisible as possible. Thanks to certain giants in the DVR industry, these people now expect their electronics to figure out what they should watch, too—which is a tad too Orwellian for my tastes.

The DMR-E95H isn’t designed for these people. It doesn’t value simplicity over all else. It caters instead to the more-advanced user who knows his or her way around a DVD device and will gladly exchange a bit of simplicity for greater functionality.

Without a Guide
Don’t get me wrong, though. The DMR-E95H isn’t terribly difficult to use. My review sample showed up without a manual, and I was able to set it up and figure out most of the basic operations just by exploring the onscreen menus. Exploring is the key, though, as the menu structure isn’t as cleanly organized or novice-friendly as the TiVo interface, the defacto standard in the Security DVR business. When the manual finally showed up on my doorstep, I was less than impressed: This 64-page wonder is thorough, to say the least, but it’s not the most organized or straightforward document I’ve seen.

I ran cables from the unit’s highest quality outputs—component video and optical digital audio to my receiver. The unit has both RF and A/V inputs to connect your antenna, cable, or satellite feed. I ran S-video and stereo analog cables from my Motorola HD cable box into one of the Panasonic’s input sets, which provided a better-looking picture than the RF input. The audio quality was fine but a couple of decibels lower than my cable box’s direct output.

Upon powering up the unit, you’re taken to the TV Guide On Screen setup page. Earlier Panasonic DMR models lacked this user interface, which downloads up to eight days’ worth of program material without requiring a phone or Internet connection (the TV Guide interface will not work with a satellite receiver). Once this setup is complete, you can immediately watch TV or a DVD and manually record content. However, you need to turn off the unit overnight so that it can download the programming info. Panasonic says that the initial download process can take up to 24 hours, and they aren’t exaggerating.

In my case, the DMR-E95H repeatedly failed to download the TV Guide info from my Motorola DCT5100 cable box. Some online searching revealed that other Panasonic DMR-series owners had the same problem with certain Motorola cable boxes.When I tried it with the non HD digital cable box in my bedroom, it downloaded the info without incident, but I never successfully downloaded it through my primary box.

If you find yourself in a similar predicament (there are an awful lot of Motorola cable boxes out there), you have two options. You can go ahead and connect the DMR-E95H to your cable box and live without the TV Guide On Screen programming info; however, you’ll have to manually set the timer to record future shows, as opposed to simply highlighting the desired programs in the grid. You also can’t enjoy the user interface’s other conveniences, like the ability to set daily or weekly recordings of the same show (no first-run-only option, though) or utilize the various search parameters (search by title, genre, scheduled recordings, etc.).

The other option is to split the cable signal from the wall, running one into the cable box for daily viewing and one directly into the Panasonic for recording. The obvious drawback to this approach is that, when viewing the signal through the DMR-E95H, you won’t get all of your cable channels. I only got the non-encrypted cable channels the main networks and a few other local stations. The plus is that you now have a two-tuner setup: You can watch one thing through the cable box while you record something else on the DMR-E95H.

Neither is an ideal solution, as you’re forced to decide what matters the most to you: the TV Guide On Screen interface or access to your entire channel lineup. Where’s the CableCARD when we need it?

Edit Away
The DMR-E95H has four drives: DVD, HDD (hard disk drive), and SD and PC card slots. You can switch between drives via buttons on the front panel or remote. Regardless of which drive you select, the DMR-E95H plays the TV signal when you’re not utilizing the drive’s specific function—i.e., watching a DVD or viewing photos from a memory card.

Using the SD/PC slots is a straightforward affair. Simply select the drive you want to use, insert the card or PCMCIA adapter in the slot, and hit the remote’s Direct Navigator button to pull up the images. (I originally hit the play button, and an onscreen note kindly told me to try the Direct Navigator button instead how’s that for user-friendly?) Transferring photos to the hard drive, a DVD, or even another memory card takes just a few steps.

When you put a DVD-RAM disc in the disc tray, the functionality of the HDD and DVD drives is basically identical. You can record live TV (the hard drive doesn’t automatically back up the TV signal; you must hit the record button), watch one recorded show while the DMR-E95H records another, or watch an in-progress recording from the beginning. You can access all recorded content through the Direct Navigator. Hit the Time-Slip button while you’re watching a recording, and a window appears in the bottom right corner that shows you what’s currently playing on live TV. The only difference between the two drives is the amount of storage at your disposal: 160 gigabytes on the hard drive; 4.7 or 9.4 GB on a single- or double-sided DVD-RAM disc.

Where the DMR-E95H stands out is in its editing features. Want to remove commercials or insert chapter breaks before you watch a recording? Want to transfer multiple family videos from your digital camcorder via the FireWire connection, edit them, and then combine them into one playlist? These processes are a little time-consuming but not difficult, although I did have to refer to the manual at this point.

Last but not least comes archiving. DVD-RAM isn’t the most compatible format on the block. If you wish to burn content to the more-universal DVD-R format for permanent storage, the DMR-E95H provides several options. High-speed recording lets you burn the disc quickly (4x to 32x, depending on the DVD-R you use); I transferred a 45-minute recording in less than 10 minutes. You can continue to watch TV and record to/view content from the hard drive during this process, but you can’t switch drives, and it only burns content in a 4:3 screen shape. You must remember to turn this function on via the setup button before you record any programming.

If you want to preserve a letterbox aspect ratio (which the manual claims is lost during high-speed dubbing), choose the normal-speed process: It burns in real time at XP, SP, LP, EP, or FR (flexible recording, which automatically determines which mode to use to fit the program on the disc). When you choose a lower-quality setting, you can store a lot of content on one disc. During a normal-speed burn, the DMR-E95H inserts manual chapter breaks (overriding any that you inserted), and you can’t perform any other operations during the process.

To play the DVD-R on another machine, you’ll need to finalize it. Unlike other DVR/DVD recorders on the market, you can burn multiple items to the DVD-R during different sessions, as long as you wait to finalize the disc until it’s full.

In Need of Resolution
Underneath all of those recording, editing, and archiving functions lies a DVD player begging not to be forgotten. The DMR-E95H navigates through DVD menus quickly, and it didn’t have trouble reading any discs I fed it, be they DVD-Videos, DVD-RWs (even though the manual says it won’t read them), or MP3-encoded CD-Rs. The player also reads the DVD-Audio format; however, in an antiquated move, it only allows for two-channel audio playback, down converting multichannel tracks. It doesn’t read Kodak Picture or other photo CDs. The player passes PLUGE in both the 480i and 480p modes.

Using Video Essentials’ resolution chart, in 480i mode, the player exhibited very little roll off until the highest frequencies; however, in 480p mode, rolloff was more of a concern. Using the Avia Pro resolution tests from 1.5 to 6.5 megahertz, the DMR-E95H starts an almost-immediate, albeit gradual, rolloff at 1.5 MHz. Although it doesn’t reach the –3decibel point until just over 5.5 MHz, it drops quickly after wards (–6dB at just over 6 MHz). The 6.75-MHz circle showed noticeable banding, further evidence that the player can’t resolve the finest details in progressive mode.

To test its processing, I called up VE’s Snell & Wilcox Zone Plate test. With film-based material, the DMR-E95H instantly picked up the 3:2 sequence, but it never locked onto the video-based signals. Actual demo material supported these findings: The rooftops and Colosseum shots in chapter 12 of Gladiator weren’t completely free of stair-stepping, but the player was above average in its handling of this scene. Likewise with the diagonal lines of the building in Armageddon’s opening sequence and the ornate European buildings in Bourne Identity. Video-based material, on the other hand, exhibited numerous jaggies. Even though the player’s processing is solid with film-based material, if your display has a good processor, you might want to keep this player in 480i mode to enjoy the improved resolution.

Stay in Control
In case you were wondering, the DMR-E95H does have an automatic clock setting for those of you who believe in an automated world. But you know what? It also has a manual setting for all of us tweaks and geeks.

I’m not knocking automation. It’s just that, when things are completely automated, there’s no room to experiment and play around with your gear. The DMR-E95H strikes a good balance between logical, easy use and flexible, enhanced functionality, not sacrificing too much of one for the sake of the other. If you want more control over the content you’re recording and archiving, you’ll appreciate everything that this device can do.

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TiVo DVR DVD Recorder Humax DRT800

November 8th, 2009 zou

Since the arrival of the DVD recorder several years ago, reviewer types have speculated about just what would have to take place for the DVD recorder to gain mass acceptance and replace the VCR in people’s homes. Obviously, price needed to drop way below the original four-figure mark, but what else? Ease of use? Naturally, but how easy is easy? Features? Maybe. VCRs aren’t exactly feature-laden them selves, but that doesn’t stop everyone from owning one.

Humax has wisely decided to hedge their bets and offer all of the above and then some in their first DVD recorder. The DRT800 includes a DVD-R/-RW recorder, a progressive-scan DVD player, and an 80-gigabyte hard drive that uses the TiVo Series2 interface. Not a bad call. People already love DVD and TiVo; rather than buy two separate boxes, why not just spend $499 for this unit and get DVD recording and a media server in the deal?

Slow and Easy
We’ve reviewed quite a few TiVo-based DVR System in the past, so I won’t detail the various steps in the setup process. Suffice it to say, it’s a breeze: Between the included “Start Here” connection pamphlet and the onscreen user interface, everything is clearly detailed.

It’s worth noting that, while setup is straightforward, it’s not quick. It takes about an hour to complete TiVo Guided Setup process. You give the device the necessary info about your system and signal source, and it contacts the mother ship to configure your settings. You can’t use the DRT800 until it’s done not even as a basic DVD player. So, don’t pop the popcorn before you set this thing up.

Component video and optical digital audio are the highest-quality A/V outputs from the DRT800 to your display and/or receiver. But, as is typical with the current crop of recorders (for copy-protection reasons), S-video is the highest-quality input to the DRT800 from your cable or satellite box. As a result, the quality of recorded material will be lower than if it had been input as a component video signal or better, especially on a big-screen HDTV. While this might be a frustration for the enthusiast who has paid more than a grand for a recorder, it’s a bit more forgivable in a $499 device that’s geared more toward the average viewer with an average-sized TV.

Performance Matters
If I were reviewing the DRT800 as a standalone DVD player, it would score high performance marks. Through our Philips PM5662 waveform monitor, using Video Essentials’ frequency sweep test pattern, the DRT800’s resolution was excellent in interlaced mode, showing only a slight rolloff at the highest frequencies. In progressive mode, the resolution was slightly diminished at higher frequencies but still quite good. The Avia Pro test DVD showed that the progressive signal doesn’t drop to the –3-decibel point until about 6 megahertz, although it drops dramatically after that, reaching –6 dB at 6.5 MHz and showing noticeable banding in the 6.75-MHz circle. While the DRT800 may not be able to resolve the finest details, it has plenty of resolution to satisfy a DVD enthusiast.

As for its processing abilities, it picked up the 3:2 film sequence in VE’s Snell & Wilcox Zone Plate test very quickly and had little difficulty with real-world film-based signals, like the complex rooftops in chapter 12 of Gladiator or the ornate buildings in The Bourne Identity.

Unfortunately, the player’s processing of video signals is below average; it created a lot of jaggies and combing artifacts with both test discs and real-world material. Now, in a standalone player, I’d downplay this, stressing that it’s more important for the player to handle film-based signals, as that’s what you’re probably going to watch the most. Unfortunately, this is also a DVR through which we’re expected to watch video-based TV signals on a daily basis. In progressive mode, I noticed way too many artifacts during average TV watching, especially sporting events. Likewise with video-based DVD bonus material and video that I transferred from my digital camcorder to the hard drive via the FireWire connection. The combing was distracting, so I ultimately turned off the progressive scanning.

Is this a fatal flaw? Given the DRT800’s price point, I don’t think so. My screen is more than 55 inches diagonally. When I mated the player with a 32-inch display—perhaps a more-realistic screen size for the DRT800’s target audience the artifacts were still evident but less distracting. The average consumer looking to step up from a VCR probably doesn’t care that much about or even plan to use progressive scanning. If  TiVo’s popularity is any indication, they care about being able to pause live TV, fast-forward through unwanted content, and find and record their favorite shows quickly and easily.

The DRT800 gives them this—for the standard $12.95-per-month fee. Unlike some previous TiVo based DVD recorder, this one doesn’t feature the free TiVo Basic service that offers basic DVR Systems functionality and a three-day program guide. You must subscribe to the standard TiVo package.

Like all TiVos, you have your choice of four quality settings, which affects how much content you can fit on the hard drive or burn to a DVD: best (18 hours on the hard drive/1 hour on DVD), high (27/2), medium (55/4), and basic (82/6). To provide a better-looking picture for daily viewing, the DRT800 shows all live TV at the best setting, even if you’ve selected a lower setting as your default for recording.

Record Time
OK, so the big moment has arrived. You’ve recorded something to the hard drive that you want to keep permanently or perhaps loan to a friend. The DRT800’s DVD-burning function is as straightforward as it gets. When you select “Save to DVD,” your hard drive’s content appears on the screen, with a percentage beside each program that tells you how much space it will use on DVD-R/-RW. You can select multiple programs to burn on the disc; as you add them, the DRT800 tells you how much room is left on the DVD and puts an X beside any program that won’t fit. Then you enter a name for the disc and hit “Begin saving to DVD.” That’s it. The recorder burns and finalizes the disc, so you can’t add more content later. (Even with a DVD-RW, you can’t add content to an already-used disc; you can only erase the disc and start over.)

While the disc is burning, you can still record to the hard drive and watch live TV or any previously recorded hard-drive content. The front-panel display keeps you informed of the recording’s progress. It really couldn’t be easier or less intrusive.

Of course, in exchange for that simplicity, you lose some advanced functionality. You can’t edit the content, insert your own chapter breaks (they’re automatically inserted every five minutes), or combine multiple programs into one title before burning it to a disc. The recorder burns exactly what the TiVo recorded (commercials and all), be it from your cable or satellite box, external VCR, or camcorders.

Now Serving
The icing on the cake is the Home Media feature, which is now free with all TiVo Series2 DVRs (it used to be a $99 option). Using a USB port on the DRT800’s back panel and a USB-to-network adapter, the Home Media feature lets you download the daily TiVo program-guide updates via your broadband Internet connection, transfer a show from one TiVo Series2 box in your house to another one on your network, and access your computer’s MP3, WMA, and JPEG files, all through a wired or wireless network. You’ll need to download software from TiVo.com to every computer (either Mac or Windows) that you want to access through your DRT800.

My home network consists of a cable modem and a Belkin router with Ethernet ports, so I needed to purchase a USB to Ethernet adapters (about $40). When I plugged the adapter into the DRT800 and ran an Ethernet cable to the router, the DRT800 immediately noticed that I had added the adapter and asked me if I wanted to change my settings. As it does with everything else, TiVo walks you through the process of setting up the network; what you don’t get from the onscreen menu, chapter 7 of the owner’s manual clearly explains. I was enjoying content from the iTunes and iPhoto folders on the Mac in my office in about 10 minutes.

Also through TiVo.com, you can remotely schedule recordings for your DVR, should you realize when you’re away that you’ve forgotten to set the device to record something. You can do this even if your DRT800 is set up to receive its updates through your phone line, but it can take up to 36 hours to register the request; through a broadband connection, my request appeared within an hour.

With the DRT800, Humax might just have found the perfect blend of price, performance, features, and usability to usher in the DVD-recording era. I’d like to see improved progressive-scan performance and advanced editing features; however, as a value enthusiast, I can’t deny how many worthy features the DRT800 offers for such a reasonable price. I can in good conscience recommend this recorder to anyone who’s looking to finally put their VCR out of its (and everyone else’s) misery.

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ReplayTV SONICblue RTV4000 PVR

November 7th, 2009 zou

At first glance, this appears to be yet another review of yet another PVR. Sure, this PVR looks a little cooler and seems a bit newer, but take a closer look at the back panel. There amongst all of the inputs you’d expect to see is an Ethernet connection. ReplayTV DVR and new owner SONICblue have pushed the PVR to the next level: the Internet.

SONICblue has come out the door swinging with the RTV4000, and they don’t care who they hit with their fists of fury. The Internet connections that used to just download channel and show listings now also enables you to trade shows (or anything else you record) with your friends. This would be lawsuit number one. The movie studios and TV networks are having a collective heart attack at the prospect of people recording copyrighted material, sending it to their friends, and storing it indefinitely. As if that weren’t bad enough, the Commercial Advance feature lets you skip commercials. To the entire Dish TV audience, this could be the greatest idea since channel-surfing. However, all the networks see is their viewing audience skipping over their sole form of income with nary a button pushed. This would be lawsuit number two.

The law here is fuzzy and not like a teddy bear. Sony v. Universal (1984) gives home users the right to record what they want for personal use. Sending those recordings to friends wasn’t an option in 1984 (other than via snail mail), and here’s where the argument gets gray. The case against SONICblue claims that they’re contributing to copyright infringement and can be held liable. This is the same case presented against Napster. Napster lost. In this case, the difficulty with these arguments is that people are already allowed to do everything that the RTV4000 does just not as conveniently. VHS allows you to record TV shows, time-shift, save entire seasons, and so on (you can even send the tapes to a friend). Also, the ReplayTV technology supports Macrovision, so you can’t share copyrighted material (like copying a DVD). It isn’t an open forum like Napster, so you can only share with people you know, and they can’t send the same show to someone else. All these lawsuits have done so far is give ReplayTV more publicity than it could’ve hoped for.

The RTV4040 that I reviewed is the baby of the RTV4000 line. Its 40-gigabyte hard drive (you can get up to 320 GB) holds only 40 hours of material in the standard record mode. In medium mode, you’ll get 19.2 hours; in high mode, you’ll get 13.2 hours. The standard mode seems to give you around 240 lines of resolution, which is about the same amount as VHS and fine if your cable provider’s feed is extra noisy like mine is. The medium mode offers a substantial improvement, around 400 to 450 lines. The high mode closes in on 500 lines. My review sample’s 40-hour capacity was adequate for most of my viewing/recording needs. If you have a big family in which everyone wants to record something, then one of the larger units might be better for you. If your space starts to run out and there’s nothing you want to delete, you can very easily dump shows onto VHS or recordable DVD.

The RTV4000’s rear panel looks like a cross between a VCR and a computer. There are coax connectors for the cable/antenna signal and a passthrough, just like a VCR. There are two sets of ins and outs that use RCA-style connectors for stereo audio and video, plus one Y/C (S-video) in and out. The Y/C input is only enabled in the setup menu as part of the second input. There’s a D-Sub 15-pin connector that’s switchable via the onscreen menu to output either RGB or Y/Pb/Pr and is the only output that offers progressive-scan capability. The Ethernet plug is right above the Toslink (optical) connector for digital audio. You get a DB9 serial connector to control satellite boxes that have such connections and an IR Blaster hookup for satellite and cable boxes that don’t.

Setting up the RTV4000 was easy. After I hooked everything up, I plugged in the unit and waited for my time-shifting fun to begin. A few button pushes later, the PVR told me to “Please Wait” while it did its own thing for a few minutes. The conclusion of the setup procedure involves downloading the channel guide.This process is as fast as your Internet connections. Enter your ZIP code and what type of service you have (OTA, DBS, or cable). After a few tries (my cable provider is weird), I found the right listing and was ready to dive in to the viewing experience. For people who want to go more in-depth, there are further setup options for Internet modes, other sources, other RTV4000s on a network, and so on.

Using the remote takes at least two hands. If you have a universal remote, be ready to use it. The buttons you’d use on a regular basis are scattered all over the remote, and they all feel the same in the dark. Many are small and sit very close to one another. Backlighting could relieve some of this, but only seven of the buttons have it. I doubt you’ll use five of these buttons very often. I’ll give the remote points for aesthetics, as its color and design match the chassis fairly well.

Once you’ve mastered the remote (yeah, right), the RTV4000 is extremely easy to use. I’ve used the poorly named and now thankfully defunct Microsoft Ultimate TV, and the difference is night and day. The RTV4000 turns on and off instantly, and you don’t have to wait long for the menus to appear. Some have said that TiVo is easier to use than ReplayTV; I’ve found that ReplayTV is just more involved. There’s more to tweak and more options to play around with. Sure, for the average user, this may come across as harder to use, but, for us home theater folks, this added level of tweakability is a strong selling point. The program guide goes 12 days forward and one day back. You can select something to record from the guide either by a push of the record button (one push for one-time record, two to record that show every time) or by searching for the show and recording it. At MyReplayTV.com, you can set your RTV4000 to record from any computer on the Internet. You can also set up your own channels that feature every show by that name. Imagine, The Simpsons four hours a night and no commercials.

The Commercial Advance function works beautifully, by the way. The box comes with a disclaimer that says that Commercial Advance works about 80 percent of the time. That seems about right. For the 20 percent of the time that it doesn’t work, there’s a button that allows you to skip forward 30 seconds. If you want to watch one thing and record something else, you can. When the unit is on, the signal only goes to the RTV4000; however, if the unit is in standby mode, the signal is split so that the PVR can record one program while you watch another.

Don’t get your hopes up that you’re going to send last night’s South Park episode to your buddy in Omaha while you’re eating dinner. A 30-minute show recorded at medium quality is around 1 GB; so, unless you have an OC-12 trunk wired to your living room (and the five grand a month that you need for such a service), sending a show might take a while.

All ReplayTV PVR include many other features that are worth talking about. Check out Mike Wood’s August 2000 review or Rebecca Day’s January 2002 review of the Panasonic Show Stopper ReplayTV models for more info. If you haven’t stepped into the world of the PVR, you should know that it will truly change how you watch television. You might not watch more Dish  TV, but you’ll watch better TV (OK, I ripped that off from their slogan). The RTV4000 makes it easy and is well worth a look.

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HD Satellite DVR Digeo Moxi

November 5th, 2009 zou

DISH Network and DirecTV have poached a lot of cable customers using the allure of their premium HD DVR. Bigger storage, more robust features, a slick user interface, no cable company to deal with—it’s an easy sell most of the time. But what if you can’t or won’t do the dish and still want an enlightened HD DVR experience from digital cable? Digeo’s answer is the Moxi HD DVR. At its core, the Moxi is a high-end HD DVR that has a 500-gigabyte hard drive with a 75-hour HD capacity and the ability to add a ton of additional storage. On paper, the Moxi would be a compelling device even if this was all there was to it. But its DVR functionality is only the beginning. The Moxi is also a media hub that aggregates content from your home network and the Internet without bringing a full-blown media PC into your living room. Yep. Those newfangled widgets are inside. Let’s take a look.

The Moxi Model
As a sign of the times, Amazon.com is Moxi’s exclusive e-tailer.When you buy the Moxi directly through www.moxi.com, the Buy link hits Amazon. The Moxi HD DVR costs $799 up front, with no additional or recurring fees, ever. The only hidden cost is the fee for the Multistream Cable CARD, which is about $5 per month. The Moxi works only with Multistream Cable CARD, which allows you to record two HD programs simultaneously while watching HD content you’ve already recorded. You must be a digital cable subscriber, but you wouldn’t buy this if you weren’t. A “broadband Internet connection” that’s hard-wired to the Moxi’s Ethernet port is also required, and you need to hit Moxi’s Website from your PC to activate the HD DVR and your account.

By way of comparison,Comcast is charging me $16 per month for DVR service and an HD DVR. So my stock HD DVR has already cost me $382 over the two years I’ve had it. The other game in town for a premium cable HD DVR is the TiVo HD XL. It sells for $599. You still have the Cable CARD charge, and you have to pay TiVo for DVR service. Annual service is $129, and a lifetime service contract is $399. It does include 1 terabyte of storage for 150 hours of HD, and it also has an eSATA port for expanding storage. So a TiVo HD XL with a lifetime of service is $998 up front.

There are a couple of drags in being tied to Cable CARD, as both the TiVo and the Moxi are. You can get all of your premium cable programming (HBO, Showtime, etc.), but when you use Cable CARD, it currently excludes you from consuming any On-Demand content that your cable provider provides. It also eliminates Pay-Per-View (PPV) programming. No PPV is the biggest drawback for me. I never miss a big PPV boxing event, so this Moxi would not fit the bill to be the sole cable box in my house. Tru2way might change this down the road, and Digeo is already making plans in that area. But supporting Tru2way would require you to invest in a new Moxi hardware platform, so bear that in mind.

A final, temporary buzz kill is the Moxi’s incompatibility with switched digital video (SDV), which some cable systems use to conserve precious bandwidth. Digeo is in testing now and promises a summer rollout for SDV support. Check with your provider if your system uses SDV, your number of accessible channels could be limited until the Moxi update arrives.

Speaking of updates, Digeo rigorously tests and then pushes firmware updates silently to its boxes. Unlike a growing legion of CE devices, users don’t have to go through a process to check for updates and install them.

Scaling Storage
Comcast rents me an HD DVR with 30 hours of  HD recording capability, which is the best they had two years ago. While the box I rent from them has an eSATA port, Comcast won’t activate it. So to make space for new recordings, I constantly have to dump HD content I’ve recorded but haven’t gotten around to watching. If Comcast  has a newer and better DVR with expanded storage, they haven’t told me about it.

The Moxi ships with a 500-GB hard drive that’s good for 75 hours of HD (or 300 hours of SD material, however unworthy it may be). Better still, the eSATA port is active and fully supported. You can hang an additional 2 TB of storage off this port. Any additional storage adds to the 500 GB on board; it doesn’t replace it.Moxi  specs demand a hard drive “marketed or certified for DVR use” that spins at a minimum of 7,200 RPM and is at least 160 GB. Checking on Amazon, you can buy a DVR-compatible 500-GB drive for as low as $128, and a 1-TB drive is just under $200 (at this moment). If you’re keeping score at home, a Moxi that’s expanded to 1.5 TB is about the same price as a TiVo XL HD with a lifetime contract. When you connect storage, the Moxi formats it quickly, and you’re up and running with the increased storage seamlessly integrated into the scheduling and storage interface.

The Quick Start Is the Only Start
The box is a simple glossy black rectangle kind of like the monolith from 2001: A Space Odyssey laid on its side, with a lit, smoky-gray Moxi logo on the front. (Thoughtfully, the logo lighting is easy to defeat in the Settings menu for a darkened theater environment.) The only other buttons on the front panel are a nearly invisible black Reset button and a set of simple menu navigation buttons that I never used. The back panel has component video and HDMI outputs, as well as coaxial and TosLink digital audio outputs. I only used the HDMI output. In addition to the CableCARD and e-SATA ports, it also has a USB 2.0 connection.

Your mileage with your cable provider will undoubtedly vary, and we’ve all heard the horror stories. But Comcast was easy on me. They offered me a service call to install the multistream CableCARD at the earliest opening (10 days or so, around the impacted holidays) or said that I could pick one up at one of their offices. No guff whatsoever. My wife picked it up for me the next day while she was running errands.

The Start Up guide indicates a 45-minute setup, but it didn’t take me that long. The Moxi gives an ID number for your box, and then you need to go to your PC and hit the Moxi Website to register and activate it. The site e-mails you an eight-digit registration key that you then enter into the Moxi. Then you’re back on the phone with the cable company to activate the CableCARD, and you’re good to go. Again, Comcast was swift with this and offered no resistance.

The only other pertinent setup issues are choosing the video resolutions that your display supports and setting up the audio output. On the audio front, it’s simple: mono, stereo, or Dolby Digital (I chose the latter, obviously). On the video side, all the usual suspects are here: 480i/p, 720p, 1080i, etc. For my 1080p display, I selected 1080i and 1080p 24 (just in case; I don’t know of any native 1080p/24 coming over cable), which resulted in 1080i signals output at their native rate with proper timing. Further, when I checked 480i/p, 720p, and 1080i, the Moxi output all of the signals at their native resolutions. This allows anyone with high-end video processing in their surround processor, AVR, or display to engage it.

Born in HD
Digeo makes much of the fact that there is nothing legacy about the Moxi HD DVR platform. On the hardware side, at its core, it’s a graphics-grade multimedia PC that’s built on a Linux operating system. And this makes sense. The Moxi is all about processing and crunching HD video streams. All of the Moxi’s graphics are rendered in HD, and it shows. I (almost) hate to keep beating the crap out of my Comcast box, but its graphics look like they were drawn on an Etch-a-Sketch compared with this.

And you’re never bored. A crisp live TV image or a recording that you’re playing back remains in the upper right corner no matter what you’re doing in the menus until you change channels or access different content. If you’re looking for greener grass on another channel or digging through your recordings, you’re not in a TV black hole while you do it. When Moxi info graphics occupy the bottom of the screen, the image scales back just enough to accommodate them. It doesn’t recede to anything that resembles standard def. The HD image gets a smidge softer, but not by much.

Perhaps another facet of having all this processing power is the Moxi’s HD image quality in general. It wasn’t possible to A/B this box with my Comcast box playing the same content, but my subjective impression when I viewed the Moxi on my front-projection system was that it had better clarity and pop with native HD programs. We’ve seen in DVD and even BD players that improvements in core video decoding and processing can improve HD image quality. And that could be happening here, FWIW.

If you’ve used Sony’s now renowned Xross Media Bar interface, it will be especially simple to understand the basic architecture of the interface. The menu lays out horizontally across the screen and expands vertically as you highlight different functions and filters. The power this wields in organizing your content and accessing your content is extraordinary.

The Moxi includes easy-to-find filters for Channels and Recorded TV (programs you’ve recorded). But when you drill down further, there are filters that show only Music, Kids, News, Sports, and Movie Channels. For in sufferables like myself, there’s an HDTV filter that excludes all standard-def un worhiness. Plus, it has a smart, dynamic Favorites filter that automatically populates with the 15 most-watched channels. The menu is extraordinarily clean and uncluttered. As a result, it’s fast. It takes just a few quick keystrokes to locate and use the Find and Record search function. It’s a snap to find shows and set up series recordings. You can base searches on Title, Keyword, or Category, and the Keyword searching is surprisingly shrewd. For instance, when I typed in “Eastwood,” Moxi not only found me a bunch of Clint’s flicks, it sifted metadata info and found an episode of The Late Show with David Letterman featuring an interview with Clint. My Comcast box doesn’t even offer a keyword search. The following is an example of the issues you can have when you search only by title. When I typed “David Letterman” into a title search on the Comcast box, it returned nothing. Zip. Nada. When I typed the same into Moxi’s keyword search, it found every scheduled episode of The Late Show with David Letterman.

Also impressive to me is the way Moxi displays Recorded TV. It groups series recordings together very logically, and you can even access them from the other filters. For example, all of my episodes of 30 Rock and Battlestar Galactica are sorted into folders that bear the shows’ titles, not simply by recording date. So it’s really easy to catch up on several episodes of one show, and you don’t have to bounce back out to a menu and peck through your recorded shows by date to find the next episode.

There are several other smallish refinements that sum and add to the grander Moxi experience. The Change Time Slot, which is accessible from any of the channel filters, lets you quickly look at what’s on, say, your HDTV channels or your Favorites three days from now at 3:00 a.m. The commercial-killing 30-second skip might be banished from some DVRs, but it’s alive and well here. When you press the OK key or any of the direction keys, the Flip Bar comes up and shows you current channel information and the next three upcoming programs on that channel. If you highlight the channel, you can scroll up or down and show the current and next three upcoming programs on other channels.

Navigating with the Moxi’s remote is fastest and cleanest in the shallower depths of the menus when the nav/direction keys and enter buttons suffice. Deeper in the menus and when other buttons are required, it’s a little clumsy to find the right one at times. The Live TV button is one I use a lot, and it was marooned up at the top right, away from easy thumb reach. By feel, the recorded TV playback commands are so similar to the nav/direction keys that I sometimes confused them. None of this was enough to mar the overall experience by a long shot, but the remote could still be improved.

Of Web and Widgets
Moxi’s Website lets you access your cable system’s program guide and schedule recordings from any PC with a browser. Real-time conflict management means you can see right away if any of your new recordings conflict with older ones. It kind of puts a hammer in your hand. No one at home knows that you’re scheduling new recordings, so you can sucker-punch your significant other’s favorite show (at your peril, of course).

The Super Ticker is accessible by one button push on the remote. Once the image scales to show the ticker on the bottom of the screen, you can scroll through sports scores, watch your stocks plummet, or catch the weather and all kinds of other breaking news. The cool thing is that it’s interactive. If you want the NBA, you can navigate directly to its scores—there’s no loop to wait for if you just missed your team’s score. What’s more, if your team’s game is in progress, you can lock the ticker on that game and stay updated, which I found very cool (and also crushing when I saw my Golden State Warriors tank games night after night). Moxi Net aggregates more Internet news content, like a larger-scale version of the Super Ticker. Digeo doesn’t supply the interface and graphics here, and it shows. It’s clunky compared with the homegrown features.

The Jukebox lets you store and access your music on the Moxi, and it also accesses fine tune Internet radio. The Photos feature lets you access your Flickr photos and any photo albums you are permitted to view. In a nice touch of consolidation, Moxi will manage your finetune and Flickr account info through its Website, a model that Digeo tells me will continue. As content sources expand, users won’t need to manage Moxi-related accounts all over the Web. By the time you read this, the Moxi will be updated to DLNA compatibility, which will enhance its ability to access music and photos over a home network.

I know what you’re thinking. Decent widgets, but what about a killer app for accessing movies and TV shows from the Net? TiVo’s got Netflix HD streaming and Amazon Unbox, so what’s the Moxi got? Right now, zip, and Digeo knows it. While nothing is finalized as of this writing, this is at the top of Digeo’s to-do list. And since it has a huge hard drive to work with, the Moxi won’t be limited to streaming. It can obviously store downloads, which are higher quality more often than not. But for now, it’s a black eye for the box in black.

Wish List
While the Moxi is loaded by any sane standard, I did jot down a few more to-dos for the home team. The first is Wi-Fi. Ethernet is required, so an optional accessory that eliminates the need for a hard-wired connection would probably be welcome. While another useful tool in this Swiss Army knife of a DVR is the Storage Info settings, it would be nicer if you could see how much recording space is left from the Recorded TV filter. Also, the smart Favorites filter is good, but why not get a little smarter and avoid displaying channels that you don’t subscribe to? How about iTunes compatibility? Now that the iTunes Store’s music is DRM free, there are 100 million iPod users who might like to access their iTunes library. Also, I’d like to see a traffic widget hit the Super Ticker or Moxi Net. My iPhone has that, so why can’t a guy dream? I can’t bring myself to say that I wish I could order Domino’s pizza over the Moxi, but it’s too damned funny to not note for those who care that “TiVo offers” the ability to order really crappy pizza through its box.

Conclusion
It’s frustrating to know that I probably haven’t done the feature set here justice. I focused on the areas in which the Moxi differs from the “DVR” I use and on the features I gravitated to most in a relatively short review period. While the Moxi can’t access On-Demand or PPV content, virtually everything else about it is superior, including its already massive and scalable storage and a user interface that’s light-years beyond. As premium as the Moxi’s feature set is now, I have no doubt that it will continue to evolve. If it sounds like I’m enthusiastic about the Moxi, I am. This was like being on vacation from the cable company DVR I use daily. Highly recommended.

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HD-DBS Receiver DISH Network

November 4th, 2009 zou

The press has complained about the lack of HDTV programs is too long. In fact, there are plenty of HDTV broadcasts now-enough to guarantee the purchase of  HDTV, anyway. You just need to know where to look. In certain areas, you can get most of CBS’s prime-time lineup,as well as various shows and movies from NBC and ABC. Almost anywhere in the country, there are at least two cable networks, Showtime and HBO, and one pay-perview channel that broadcast HDTV signals. Granted, there isn’t as much high-def programming as there is NTSC programming and you can’t get it from cable, but who needs cable when you can have satellite?

All of the necessary controls to run the Model 6000 DBS receiver can be found on its front panel.

DISH Network, a division of EchoStar Communications, is a direct-broadcast-satellite distributor and competitor of the other DBS company, DirecTV, which is a division of Hughes Electronics. The two coexist rather well. DISH Network’s current top-of-the line product, the Model 6000, is a DBS satellite receiver that can tune both standard-definition and high definition satellite programming. This does, however, require the use of two different, small dishes, pointed in two directions. Neither Dish TV is included in the receiver’s relatively low price of $499. One dish, the Dish 500, points south and receives DISH Network’s core programming from two different orbital locations at 110 and 119 degrees, while the second dish points east and receives HDTV programming from the 61.5-degree orbital location. An add-on module (currently available but not used in this review) offers terrestrial analog NTSC and digital ATSC (HDTV) broadcast reception when connected to a roof-top antenna. While the antenna requires signals to be actually transmitted in your local area, the satellite signal is available nearly every where.

On the software side,DISH Network offers hundreds of channels dedicated to your favorite cable programming and dozens of channels dedicated to music. In most major markets, you can even get local TV stations, as well. While DirecTV offers more sports programming, DISH Network offers as many or more movie channels and twice as many HDTV channels. OK, so “twice as many” means two more than the competition. DISH Network offers Showtime and HBO, a demo channel for retail displays, and a dedicated 24-hour pay-per-view movie channel. DirecTV offers only HBO and a second channel that displays demo material during the day for retailers and pay-per-view programs in the evening. Regardless, for high-definition-display-owning, non-sports-enthusiast movie lovers like me, the extra HD channels are a big bonus.

Connection options are abundant: dual A/V connectors with one S-video output, a component output, a D-Sub 15-pin output, an optical digital out-put, and a phone jack.

An additional bonus for high definition enthusiasts is the flexibility in output formats. While both regular and high-def satellite and terrestrial broadcasts can be output in the NTSC (480i) format, you can also output these signals in either of the HDTV formats (1080i or 720p). As is common, signals transmitted in one rate are up- or down converted to the designated output rate. The receiver has a non functioning menu setting to account for 16:9 or 4:3 displays. According to DISH Network, an automatic software upgrade should enable this function by the time you read this. There’s even a handy light on the front to let you know if you’re in the high-def or standard-def output mode.

The Model 6000 continues to impress with its arrangement of outputs. Dual audio/video connections with one S-video output allow NTSC signals to be sent to multiple places. As with other HD DBS receivers, these are dormant if you’re using the high-definition outputs, which can be a drag if you want to use the system in multiple rooms simultaneously or if you have a better-quality external video processor. There is an SD/HD button on both the front panel and the remote, which will toggle between the regular and high-definition outputs. Unfortunately, this isn’t easy to automate. I’d recommend leaving the unit in one mode or the other. Fortunately, you have the option of using either component (Y/Pr/Pb) or RGBHV (in the form of a VGA-style D-Sub 15-pin connector) outputs for high-definition signals, making the system compatible with all “HD monitors”. A simple computer-monitor breakout cable will convert the D-Sub 15-pin connector into an RGBHV signal. Note that the component connection outputs only high-def or upconverted standard-def signals, and it does so only when the receiver is switched to the HD mode. It doesn’t, at any point, output standard-def signals.

Other connections include an optical digital output that offers Dolby Digital (5.1 or 2.0) or PCM (two-channel) audio signals that can be sent to your receiver/surround processor. The satellite receiver had no trouble switching between the two digital formats as I changed channels. Other systems have a slight delay that can trip up some surround processors. High-def programs, however, were noticeably softer than regular channels. According to DISH Network, Dolby Digital channels are output at a lower level to maintain the dynamic range supported by the format.

There’s also the requisite phone jack, which connects to DISH Network central, thus allowing you to order pay-per-view programs. Finally, you’ll find only one satellite input, as the satellite signals from the various LNBs are routed through a small external box, preferably located near the dish.

The receiver also has two module ports on back for upgrades: one can be used with the optional 8VSB tuner cartridge, the other to support future technologies as they emerge. DISHNetwork has already proven their commitment to customers in the past with the high-definition upgrade module that was available for DISH Network 5000 customers. While there’s nothing I can think of that you might need for now, it’s nice to know that the option is there.

Once things are connected, you’ll find the receiver fairly easy to use. The front panel provides all the necessary controls to run the system, so you won’t be stuck if you lose the remote. The handheld, multiunit controller, while not as intuitive as some, is still simple, once you get the hang of it. The remote uses the back panel’s UHF antenna to transmit RF commands, but it also works with the front panel’s IR receiver. The RF signal will go through walls and cabinet doors, which is great if the system will be used in multiple rooms, although I don’t recommend this. If you’re going to spend the money for the HDTV receiver, you might as well spend another $100 to $200 for a second receiver for the rest of the house. As I mentioned, it’s rather cumbersome to use this receiver for both SD and HD duty (you have to remember to push the button).

Depending on what mode you’re in, you’ll want to look for the aspect-ratio control. When displaying regular 4:3, standard-def images (upconverted or not) on a 16:9 screen, the receiver draws black bars on the sides of the image, which is far less annoying than the gray bars that many systems use, although the latter does help prevent uneven tube wear. Then again, you can add gray bars if you want. You can even crop or zoom in on 4:3 images to fill a 16:9 screen. The trick is finding the aspect-ratio button. A hint: Try the star key at the bottom left of the remote. This control doesn’t affect true high-definition signals. Unfortunately, there’s no adjustment for 16:9 signals that are sent to a 4:3 display. DISH Network official are hoping to have a software update that offers more control available by the time you read this.

Picture quality is what really matters, and in that regard the Model 6000 does very well. Regular and high-definition channels look crisp and clean, with bright and detailed images. Dark images show grain, noise, or what might just be compression artifacts, but not any less or more than the competition. Direct comparisons with DirecTV are admittedly difficult; we don’t know if the same source is being fed at the same level to both systems. I tried to match picture levels as best I could. Regardless, I’d say that you certainly don’t sacrifice picture quality with one system over another.

I would give DISH Network the nod for no other reason than that the Model 6000 doesn’t shift or squish the picture. This may seem an odd feature (antifeature?), but competitive DirecTV receivers have exhibited a retrace timing incompatibility that some displays can’t compensate for. The Model 6000 doesn’t seem to have this problem.

DISH Network has a definite success on their hands with the Model 6000 and has made a much-needed commitment to high-definition television. Save for a few ergonomic hang-ups that are also all-too-common on competitive models, the receiver provides an excellent way to tune-in a plethora of source material. This includes terrestrial analog and digital broadcasts, when used with the optional 8VSB tuner cartridge, and both standard- and high-definition satellite programming, when combined with the appropriate dishes. Because of the extra high-definition channels, flexible connections, and multiple output formats, you’ll begin to see the Model 6000 as a step above its competition.

Highlights
• Component (Y/Pr/Pb) and RGB connectors output 720p or 1080i
• DISH Network offers both Showtime and HBO
*DISH Network Model 6000 HD-DBS Receiver

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Humax TiVo DVR Satellite Receiver

November 3rd, 2009 zou

While the wife and I haven’t quite reached a peace accord on the matter of our abundant remote controls, one source of marital friction has recently been downgraded to a non-issue: When once we clashed over dwindling recording space on our HD DVR, Humax has now given us 250 gigabytes, the most in any TiVo, which is frankly more capacity than we know what to do with. The T2500 TiVo Series2 digital video recorder is the Korean company’s first consumer electronics product marketed in the United States, under their Humax USA brand.Although Humax is a major global manufacturer of satellite set-top boxes,this single-tuner recorder is not a DirecTV receiver, so you must provide it with a signal from either cable or a satellite box.

Blasting the Dish
Unless you’re lucky enough to have a cable or satellite set-top box with an RS-232 serial connection, you’ll need to use the included IR blaster to link the signal source and recorder. After connecting the T2500 to AC power and a phone line, followed by S-video and analog stereo inputs from my standalone Samsung DirecTV receiver and S-video and analog stereo outputs to my TV, I plugged the included blaster cable into the back of the unit, stringing both IR heads over and under my satellite receiver, straddling the point where it receives infrared remote commands.

Next, I followed the onscreen prompts to set up the IR blaster, trying each of the 10 preprogrammed codes for my Samsung box in turn, only one of which worked. One small issue that shouldn’t have been a surprise: The lag time of changing channels through the TiVo was added to the lag time of the DirecTV receiver, which meant that even a simple channel-up or -down took as long as eight seconds.

From there, it was a matter of manually checking off which of the hundreds of available channels I actually received—a tedious, time-consuming process that requires a handy printout of DirecTV channels or a Rain Man–like knowledge of the same. DirecTV makes no secret of their lineups, so why doesn’t TiVo just offer a Total Choice Premiere option for one-click setup? Rather than go through and mark every last one, I eventually took a leap of faith and just accepted all of the channels.

I also switched from dialup to a wireless broadband Internet connection the principal benefit of TiVo Series2 complaint boxes such as this for the necessary TiVo software updates. This not only freed up the phone line, but, more importantly, I noticed that related operations were much quicker this way, often completed in seconds instead of minutes. The Wi-Fi hardware I used the tiny Linksys WUSB12 Wireless-B compact USB adapter, which is included in the short list of supported broadband adapters was also quite stylish. After I quickly configured it on my PC so that my home network would recognize it, I plugged it neatly into the T2500 with the help of the included extension cable, due to the crowded rear-panel real estate.

The T2500 promptly informed me that I needed a system firmware upgrade as a final preparatory step, guiding me through the process onscreen while I did my part with just a few touches of the remote. I successfully made the always-on connection in a couple of minutes.

Dream A Little Stream
One extremely welcome bonus that has precisely nothing to do with traditional DVR operation is the Home Media feature set, which let me stream not transfer, despite the T2500’s awesome storage my computer’s MP3/WMA music and digital photos to this TiVo. I needed to download and install the free TiVo Publisher software on my PC. While locating and importing tracks and particularly images was somewhat inelegant in this new application, once properly loaded, it performed quite enjoyably.

I named my music and photo collections, and I could easily select individual files via onscreen menus. I could play photos as a slideshow, and all pertinent song info is presented as a screensaver, since all of the ID tags are carried over from the PC. In addition, TiVo proactively downloaded an assortment of recent pop-music tracks to my hard drive for free from TiVo partner BestBuy.com, and I was treated to a private exhibition of professional photographs courtesy of Nikon.

To the Net!
Users can schedule recordings online, as the TiVo Website offers the freedom to search TV listings (by title, description, or actor/director, plus an advanced search by category and genre), browse by channel, and set up a Season Pass, specifying recording quality and priority all with the ease of your computer’s mouse and keyboard interface. This is a good idea, since the process mostly involves clicking and dragging. You just need to set up a password-protected account at TiVo.com, and you can even request a confirmation e-mail of successful scheduling, including notification of potential conflicts. If you opt out of the e-mail, such messages still appear on the T2500.

It’s certainly not necessary to connect the T2500 to the Internet to take advantage of TiVo’s Online Scheduling, but it does improve the experience by providing much faster access to your changes as little as one hour before airtime, versus a 36-hour safety buffer if your TiVo still uses dialup. Scheduling directly via the unit itself is still considered the most reliable method. For example, TiVo Online Central sometimes listed programs not available as part of my selected channel lineup, which can lead to potential disappointment.

I poked around the online offerings, saw some new shows I liked, and grabbed them all, even setting up a Season Pass for another series while I was there. Sure enough, scant minutes later, I saw that my To Do List had been properly updated, with specific summaries in my Messages area; later, the T2500 recorded the programs without a hitch. One other major feature of TiVo Series2 is Multi-Room Viewing, the ability to watch content from one TiVo box on another box in a different room, if you have multiple TiVos connected to a wired or wireless home network. Alas, my insistent requests for a dozen T2500s, to properly test the networking, were met with polite stares.

Humaxed Out?
After days of recording around the clock, which led to some embarrassed explanations to my wife as to a couple of my hasty whatever’s on late-night selections (ah, Cinemax) and with TiVo Suggestions left on, I still felt as though I hadn’t made so much as a dent in the 250 GB at my disposal. I was most assuredly never asked to delete anything for the sake of space.

I captured the majority of my recordings at the Best quality setting, although I can’t say that I’m impressed with the image delivered by the T2500: Perhaps owing to the re-encoding of the previously digital satellite picture, compression artifacting was blatant on many soft textures, while blacks, in particular, revealed harsh geometric activity introduced by the encode/decode process. Bright scenes with little movement fared better, even at medium quality often displaying the subtle film like traits of the original program—so the T2500’s performance seems unfortunately tied to the characteristics of the content it records.

The Humax T2500’s true strength surely resides in its roomy hard drive, coupled with its support of the latest TiVo networking features, although a sharper picture would be nice, and component video/digital audio outputs might be worthwhile additions. Perhaps the ideal consumer here might be someone looking to finally take the TiVo plunge for an affordable $699, with up to 302 recordable hours to help him or her celebrate their new found TV independence. Hopefully, that consumer buys popcorn wholesale.

Highlights
• A nigh-incredible 250-gigabyte hard drive inside • TiVo Series2 hardware runs the latest software for advanced networking features

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HD Receiver DirecTV Tuner

November 3rd, 2009 zou

Connect to the future of digital TV,Whether we like it or not, digital video connection is the way of the future. Consensus of the producers to grow shows that consumers who have HD-capable displays that only have analog (Y/Pb/Pr or RGB) high-definition connections won’t be left out in the cold, which is good news.

However, while Hollywood may allow legacy equipment to remain in service, they prefer the potential copyright protection that’s available through digital signals. We enthusiasts like the opportunity to pass digital signals directly to the display without stopping along the way for an unnecessary conversion back to an analog signal.

Finally, several manufacturers have come out with new HD-capable DirecTV tuner to accommodate the growing number of displays with digital connections.

Sony, Zenith, and Samsung are a few of the first manufacturers to introduce HD DBS receiver that are outfitted with a DVI connection that has HDCP (high-bandwidth digital content protection).

These tuners can connect to the new crop of HD-capable displays that have the same input. The DVI interface allows the tuner to uncompress the compressed high-def signal and send it, along with the tuner’s interactive onscreen graphic, to the digital display while it’s still in digital form.

The only drawback is that the signal’s wide bandwidth makes it impossible for you to use any known consumer or professional recording device to make even an authorized recording. None of these tuners offers an IEEE 1394 connection, which would pass along a compressed digital signal that you can then record on a video hard drive, a D-VHS player, or an HD-DVD-like device.

All three tuners offer a complete suite of the necessary inputs and outputs. The Sony SAT-HD200 and Zenith HD-SAT520 are nearly identical; both are built around the same LG (Lucky Goldstar, Zenith’s parent company) chassis and therefore have the same connections.

I’ll refer to them as one unit, except where there are noted differences. Although it has similar outputs, the Samsung SIR-TS160 tuner, sourced from Hughes, has a different back-panel arrangement. We didn’t have a Hughes unit on hand for direct comparison.

All three tuners offer two basic A/V outputs, an S-video connection, component (Y/Pb/Pr) and RGB connections, a DVI jack, an RF-modulated output, digital audio, and other typical satellite connections. Sony and Zenith use an optical digital audio output, while Samsung offers a coaxial digital connection.

All three tuners include a switch that activates either the Y/Pb/Pr output or both the RGB and DVI outputs, but not all three outputs at once. Like many HD DBS receiver, the Sony and Zenith tuners force you to choose either the standard (composite or S-video) or high-def (Y/Pb/Pr or RGB and DVI) output.

You can’t send the DVI signal to your home theater  HD monitor and the composite signal to the NTSC set in your bedroom at the same time. The Samsung receiver, however, does and will always output a 480i signal from the composite and S-video outputs, which makes it extremely flexible for multiroom viewing (make sure that the displays all have the same aspect ratio) or for use with a standalone TiVo or ReplayTV hard-drive recorder.

The process of selecting the type of output is considerably different between boxes. With the Sony and Zenith models, you use a button on the front panel to select your output options. Sony adds this function to the remote for convenience.

The Samsung tuner’s only option is another back-panel switch that offers 1080i, 720p, or 480p/480i options. The switch’s location makes any kind of native output impossible but also keeps curious fingers from changing the setting.

Depending on which mode you pick, the receiver up- or down converts all signals to that output rate and activates the appropriate connectors. While this is simple and entirely appropriate for the vast majority of displays, the Sony and Zenith models add four additional output options, including native, hybrid 1, hybrid 2, and EZ DVI.

The native setting converts 480i signals to 480p and passes along 720p and 1080i signals directly to the display without conversion. The hybrid 1 and 2 settings are similar, but hybrid 1 converts all HD signals to 1080i, and hybrid 2 converts them to 720p. EZ DVI automatically detects the monitor type and converts all signals accordingly. Enthusiasts with multiscan displays (read: CRT projectors) may appreciate these tuner’ added flexibility.

All three units’ ergonomics are effective and intuitive, but the Sony and Zenith units have a slight edge. All of the remote controls are reasonably well laid out and provide proper controls within single-digit reach. Menu structures are attractive and reasonably intuitive.All three tuners eliminate my pet peeve about first-generation set-top boxes: They list analog and digital off-air broadcasts and satellite channel in the same channel list. No more switching inputs.

The Sony and Zenith models benefit from a front-panel display that indicates the current format setting and channel number, which is extremely handy. Samsung’s front panel has nothing more than a hard-to-see red light to let you know that it’s on. The latter tuner does add features like a Biorhythm chart and simple video games for kids.

I’m not sure why you’d need a Biorhythm chart, but the games are mildly amusing when there’s nothing worth watching on TV, which is a common occurrence. All three tuner allow you to select your display’s aspect ratio and modify formats that don’t otherwise fit. However, while each tuner strips gray bars into the unused space beside 4:3 images on a 16:9 screen (to prevent uneven phosphor wear on CRT or plasma displays), only the Sony and Zenith units provide a setting that eliminates the bars permanently.

These two tuners also offer an on screen feature that indicates when a particular satellite program is broadcast in true high definition. This indicator didn’t light up when I watched Joe Somebody on HBO’s HDTV channel.Presumably,HBO upconverted the program before they broadcasted it, but you could have fooled me.

The major differences between the Zenith and Sony tuners lie with the remote controls, although Sony does include a free DVI cable (worth $20). Sony’s remote, as I mentioned, can change the output-format option on the fly. You may not need this function beyond initial setup, though. You can also code the remote for a particular receiver, if you have more than one.

Unfortunately, none of the remotes provides discrete power-on and -off commands or aspect-ratio settings, which might make it difficult to program a macro-based remote control like the Philips Pronto or an automation system from Crestron or AMX.

I connected each box’s component high-def output to an Extron switcher, which was connected to our reference Runco DTV-991 CRT projector. According to signals from our HD test generator, the DTV-991 is capable of a full 1,920:1080i resolution. I made direct comparisons of the tuners’ signals by switching inputs and comparing the image quality. All three tuners looked excellent.

The Samsung’s picture was slightly more flushed than that of the other two tuners and seemed to make colors bloom somewhat. The Sony and Zenith tuners, which created identical pictures, provided a slightly sharper picture than the Samsung. This perceived detail may be due to the fact that these tuners have less color. Unfortunately, we have no way to know which box is accurate, although I’d venture to guess that all three tuners hover on either side of the line. In most cases, you can adjust the color level to some extent through your display.

When I used each tuner’s DVI connection with the Sharp XV-Z10000U projector, I noticed a slight increase in detail and clarity over the analog connection. Differences between tuners were even more difficult to see.

Comparing analog audio levels is considerably more difficult without a reference level, and comparing digital outputs is harder still. If you use an HDTV tuner, you should use the digital output, in which case your external audio processor will mostly determine the audio quality. If you’re using the analog audio outputs (get with the times), all I can say is that the Sony and Zenith models are a hair louder.

Tired of my current, first-generation RCA DTC-100 and its particular ergonomic hang-ups, I’m eager to get a new HD-capable tuner. I’m torn, however, between the options presented here. Samsung’s dual-output capability, which will feed both my main system’s HD-capable projector and its peripheral devices (VCR, PVR, etc.) and a second display, is enticing. For those people who don’t have a CRT projector, this is a good fit. For those who do, the Sony or Zenith tuner native outputs might be more useful, and these tuners’ ergonomic features are an excellent bonus.As the tuners’ street prices are likely to be very similar, choosing one over the other will depend on availability and brand preference.

Highlights

Sony and Zenith:
• Front-panel channel readout
• Native output rate

Samsung:
• Concurrent HD and SD outputs allows for extremely flexible installation
• Includes video games!

SIR-TS160 HD DirecTV Tuner $700
Samsung Electronics America

(800) SAMSUNG

www.samsungusa.com
Dealer Locator Code SAM

SAT-HD200 HD DirecTV Tuner $799
Sony Electronics
(800) 222-SONY
www.sony.com
Dealer Locator Code SNY

HD-SAT520 HD DirecTV Tuner $700
Zenith Electronics
(877) 9-ZENITH
www.zenith.com
Dealer Locator Code ZEN

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Samsung SIR-S4120R DirecTV Receiver/Digital Video Recorder with TiVo

November 2nd, 2009 zou

Where’s the DVR? Come to think of it, where isn’t the DVR?
Amazing but true, many TiVo and ReplayTV owners out there just see the devices as neat, little living-room boxes that record their television programs, and they simply don’t care about the technology inside. Thanks to steady improvements in digital video recorder technology, consumers don’t have to care if they don’t want to. Not to be like that weirdo in the mask and spoil the magic trick, but there’s a simple hard disk drive inside—in many cases, the same exact brand and model you have inside your PC. However, while computer-based “video capture” applications seem to have plateaued in terms of features and convenience (at least for now), the more user-friendly dedicated DVR hardware has undergone some interesting transformations, in and out of the home theater.

DirecTV Receiver/Digital Video Recorder with TiVo

Late to the game, Samsung has finally released their first DVR, an impressive DirecTV receiver with integrated TiVo recording ,a 100-hour (120gigabyte) hard drive, and an exceptionally sleek, slim form factor for a combination unit. After the initial run of 20,000 units was built in Mexico,the SIR-S4120R is now made in Korea, the Samsung motherland.

Connections are ample, if not stunning: one S-video out, twin sets of composite video/analog stereo outs, one digital optical audio out for any Dolby Digital signal that might accompany a movie, and a pair of USB 1.1 ports. All of the analog cabling is included—RCA, S-video, telephone, even a handy splitter for your phone line to accommodate the TiVo dial-up. The $4.99 monthly TiVo service fee applies but is automatically waived for subscribers to DirecTV’s top-end Total Choice Premiere package.

Chief among the SIR-S4120R’s features are its vast recording capacity—unique in the still-elite world of DirecTiVos, as some fans refer to them—and the two DirecTV tuner that allow you to watch/record or record/record two different programs at the same time. Why would I ever want to do that? Well now, this is the most access I’ve ever had to DirecTV here at Rancho Chiarella. I hope I don’t come off like one of those gushing “actual customer letters” read by Laurence, Danny, or Andy in the commercials, but I’m still reeling from the sheer quantity of channels available, many of which I’d never personally seen before. It’s a thrill I haven’t experienced since my first cable forays a quarter-century ago. My only not-really-a-complaint is in reference to the time it takes to surf them all.

Best of all, this abundant selection is a perfect complement to the super-sized hard drive and the pair of tuners. I invariably find myself drawn to VH1 Classic, recording on impulse a music video that I haven’t seen since college, confident in the knowledge that I can still record any other program that strikes my or my wife’s fancy. Deciding what to watch has become a happy challenge, but double the streams (two separate DirecTV feeds are required for full benefit) makes our choice half as difficult. Perceptible signal hiccups are rare, and the digital compression is modest and even forgivable in the DVD age.

The unobtrusive silver box offers more on its front panel than at first meets the eye, with a door to hide the access card and a subtle up/down/left/right disc surrounded by guide, DirecTV, live TV, info, and select buttons. There are also indicator lights for power and record, plus a standby button. (The unit never completely shuts off, but the soft, omnipresent fan noise isn’t a real problem.) These on-unit buttons provide a generous measure of control, should the remote ever go missing, but this particular unified, ergonomic remote is colorful and remarkably uncluttered, a breeze to set up, and a real pleasure to use. The DirecTV and TiVo screens are standard fare, which (for those folks who are unfamiliar with these popular technologies) are largely icon-driven, distinctly stylized, and yet always clear and concise.

As far as the SIR-S4120R’s timing is concerned, if Samsung’s strategy was to hang back, observe, and apply what they learned in order to create an ideal television-watching companion, then I can only say that they’ve succeeded wonderfully.

SIR-S4120R DirecTV Receiver/DVR with TiVo $499
Samsung Electronics America
(800) SAMSUNG
www.samsungusa.com

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