UPC DVR Reviews / Questions / Help

belmulletman

Ok,
Thought I'd start a specific thread for anyone who has questions about the UPC DVR from current owners (or, if someone has one and is havin problems maybe we can sort it out here!)
Also, people can post there thoughts / impressions of the box / software.

Anywho, i'll post my thoughts on it in a couple of days once i've had some time with it...

B.

Alun

The bug where you couldn't access "My TV Agenda" from the EPG page appears to have been fixed BTW. My software version now is 3.2.0.6 .. can't remember what it was before, but I seem to remember someone saying it was 3.2.0.1? Anyway, good to see they're busy!

BTW anyone notice the background image when you go to the Menu page? It says "Instellingen" which is Dutch for "Settings"!! I wonder how long it'll be before that's spotted

belmulletman

my box has always been 3.2.0.6... and that "bug" is present... unless they updated today...

Alun

Hmmm .. that's weird. I remember when they installed the box yesterday that the bug was there, and just now I happened to select "My TV Agenda" from the EPG page (not really thinking) and it worked! I was surprised, since I remember reading about the bug on the A4 sheet that came with the box, so did it again to confirm what I saw.

Maybe they updated the box but didn't update the software version number?

patrickmooney

I've love to see a way to return to first channel, akin to the yellow button. When you are browsing, I used to LOVE that page up and page down to jump the 100s and the yellow to return to 101. When in the tv guide, it's also difficult to jump channels.
Had anyone been able to add tv channels as favourates? I've only been able to add radio stations. Also there is no longer any epg info for radio that I can see.

belmulletman

wow... they noted the bug on that sheet... i didn't even look at it... probably should have!!

i know there's a few other quirks i've spotted, but can't remember them off hand... will have to wait till i get home this evening to see...

belmulletman

patrickmooney wrote:

I've love to see a way to return to first channel, akin to the yellow button. When you are browsing, I used to LOVE that page up and page down to jump the 100s and the yellow to return to 101. When in the tv guide, it's also difficult to jump channels.
Had anyone been able to add tv channels as favourates? I've only been able to add radio stations. Also there is no longer any epg info for radio that I can see.

I've not tried it with TV stations, i must though to see. i've done it alright with Radio... and ditto on the yellow button thing, that was a handy feature alright!

elderlemon

Can't get subtitles to stay off. Someone switched it on for BB1 - I go that that channel, press i and switch subtitles off. All is ok until you change channel - when you go back to bbc1 they are on again. Pain in the ...

Alun

elderlemon wrote:

Can't get subtitles to stay off. Someone switched it on for BB1 - I go that that channel, press i and switch subtitles off. All is ok until you change channel - when you go back to bbc1 they are on again. Pain in the ...

They're on by default for all channels that have them. Follow the instructions on the single sheet of A4 that came with the box to default them to off.

elderlemon

what sheet of paper? I got nothing with the box except for a power cable.

---- never mind. Found it in settings.

Alun wrote:

They're on by default for all channels that have them. Follow the instructions on the single sheet of A4 that came with the box to default them to off.

Alun

elderlemon wrote:

what sheet of paper? I got nothing with the box except for a power cable.

---- never mind. Found it in settings.

It was a single sheet of A4 entitled CUSTOMER INFORMATION.

Alun

Alun wrote:

Hmmm .. that's weird. I remember when they installed the box yesterday that the bug was there, and just now I happened to select "My TV Agenda" from the EPG page (not really thinking) and it worked! I was surprised, since I remember reading about the bug on the A4 sheet that came with the box, so did it again to confirm what I saw.

Maybe they updated the box but didn't update the software version number?

Replying to my own post here .. it seems that selecting "My TV Agenda" from the EPG screen only works if you either have nothing in it or only reminders. If you have at least one timed recording in there it doesn't work and you get dumped back to the programme you were watching.

flogen

I assume the answer to this was 'yes', but did the engineers take your old NTL box away or did they leave it (or even ask if you wanted it or wanted them to take it?)?

patrickmooney

Interesting observation. I was recording a programme earlier and watching live tv. I proceeded to both pause and rewind live tv without fail, thus where the twin tunners come into play. Now I wonder how Sky+ allow you to record two shows and watch live tv? Three tuners?

murpho999

patrickmooney wrote:

Interesting observation. I was recording a programme earlier and watching live tv. I proceeded to both pause and rewind live tv without fail, thus where the twin tunners come into play. Now I wonder how Sky+ allow you to record two shows and watch live tv? Three tuners?

Sky+ has two tuners that enable you to record two programs at once but you cannot watch live TV (except for one you are recording) whilst doing this.

With Sky you can watch 1 program whilst recording 1 other but not 2.

My understanding of NTL is that you can only record 1 program at a time, which I find a bit annoying.

Also, I understand that NTL does not have a 'series link' like Sky has.

This is an extremely handy feature as it records a whole series for you. I know on NTL you can schedule it for daily/weekly/monthly etc but if the next broadcast of the series is at another time to the previous one then the NTL DVR will miss it whereas the Sky box will record it.

I do not understand why NTL box does not have this considering how long Sky+ has been on the market and how long NTL have had to develop the product!

rockal

Is it possible to record 2 programs at same time by using a DVD recorder and DVR.

Alun

murpho999 wrote:

I do not understand why NTL box does not have this considering how long Sky+ has been on the market and how long NTL have had to develop the product!

I don't think it's purely a matter of an extra bit of software. The information to make series link work also has to be in the EPG somewhere, and I don't know how this happens in reality. In Sky's case do they have to manually construct this information from the basic EPG information it receives (where from?) or does it get it as part of that EPG information. I don't think it's quite as simple as just linking programmes in the EPG with the same name either .. you can get situations with episodes being repeated before the next episode is broadcast etc. which would screw things up.

elderlemon

well at its simpliest a series link is just a repeating record - record from this time to this time every tuesday until this date. That's the simple way and doesn't take into accout changes in programming schedule etc but it would work for a lot of situations. This is just a software change and is easy to do.

The harder way is to tag each program with an ID and when you want to record a series it scans the epg for this id number. that way it adjusts to programming schedule changes. This assumes NTL are putting in this kind of info in the first place - I doubt very much NTL are at this level (yet) but its the only way to bring in this kind of service.

Me I'd take the first one now and wait for the full blown series link to come in later.

patrickmooney

On Sky re recording two channels at once, it makes sense that you are locked on one of the channels in order to do so. I see the Virgin+ box has 4 tuners. 3 for TV, one for data. Plus it's HD. I wonder if the new HD box when it's released will have simliar specs.

belmulletman

patrickmooney wrote:

I've love to see a way to return to first channel, akin to the yellow button. When you are browsing, I used to LOVE that page up and page down to jump the 100s and the yellow to return to 101. When in the tv guide, it's also difficult to jump channels.
Had anyone been able to add tv channels as favourates? I've only been able to add radio stations. Also there is no longer any epg info for radio that I can see.

Hey...
If you want to add TV channels to your Favourites, what you need to do is... Press "Guide". Once that screen appears, press the Yellow button. You'll see all channels listed there with there respective category. jump to the channel you want and press the Blue Button to add it to your favourites. (Tip: you can type in the channel number to jump directly to it, this can be done in the normal TV Guide as well)

So, when you specified your Favourites, when your watching tv, press OK to bring up the mini Guide and press the Blue Button to switch to Favourite mode. in this mode when you press CH+ or CH- it will just between the channels you've specified as being your favourites. to go back to Normal mode, press the Blue button when the mini guide is up!

Hope that helps.

patrickmooney

Excellent stuff. I like the tip about typing in the channel number in the TV Guide! Nice and simple!

patrickmooney

Does anyone know how to get out of a hung "please wait" screen. I had set up several recordings yesterday, non where affected. But the parents hit "on demand" by accident, which never loaded. The "please wait" screen remained ons screen from 3pm - 10pm, no button would remove it. They ended up having to move into the second room and watch on the old NTL Digital box. Funny. I unplugged and it was fine when it came back. But not a good first day experience for the parents. Another strange behaviour, if you reboot during a record, it will not continue recording when it comes back up.

PauloMN

If you order a DVR from NTL, do they take your existing box back?

Will probably get one, bit miffed at the €49 charge for existing customers but free for new subs bit though.

Alun

patrickmooney wrote:

Does anyone know how to get out of a hung "please wait" screen. I had set up several recordings yesterday, non where affected. But the parents hit "on demand" by accident, which never loaded. The "please wait" screen remained ons screen from 3pm - 10pm, no button would remove it.

That's funny, I've just tried it on mine and the 'back' button got me back out of it quite reliably. ISTR that I tried it when I first got the box too and then it timed out after a while with a message like "No interactive services available" or something like that.

patrickmooney

Yes the back button should work, but for some reason yesterday it wouldn't. Only way to fix was an unplug.

Psygnosis

Do they take your old box back?

Alun

Psygnosis wrote:

Do they take your old box back?

If you want them to. Of course, if you keep your old box as well as the new DVR, I'm sure they'll charge you for a second connection, however much that costs. When the installers rang me to confirm my booking, they asked me whether I wanted to keep the old box or not.

paulm17781

I got mine installed this morning but apparently there is a problem with the provisioning system and I can't watch anything. :mad:

If there are problems there are problems but it is still quite irritating.

belmulletman

Hi All,

Here is my take of the UPC DVR. I've had it since Tuesday and recorded shows and messed with it for a few days.

So, to get started, the box it's self. Well, it's considerably bigger than the old little Pace box, but that's completely understandable. it's about the same size as my old Philips HDD/DVD recorder, so about the size of a standard DVD player. I do like the display on the front that show the channel and programme you are watching. It's a nice touch. There's loads of buttons on the front of the unit to control most features. The remote, is fine. it's a standard remote, and to be honest, i rarely use standard remotes as i have Logitech Harmony that i use. On that note, the harmony 525 works perfectly with it. The box was already built into the Logitech software so i just had to add it to my system.

Right, so now for the system it's self. I have to start by saying, it's not the most elegant system, and is a little fiddly, BUT, it works. It is a bit of a bummer that you can't record 2 programmes at once, but you can record one while wathcing another, or while watching one you've recorded before.
The Guide, while it takes a little to open (when i say a little, usually between 4-6 seconds, so not an overly long time and to be honest, about the same as the Sky Guide if you ask me) actually works. It goes 7 days in advance (e.g. today being Saturday, i can set-up shows to record this day next week). the show summary is good. while in the guide, to jump to a specific channel, just type the channel number in and it will go straight to it, which is handy.
The "mini guide" (what was browse) only shows what's currently on, and what's on next. while I do miss being able to see what's on a specific channel without entering the guide, the fact the guide actually works now, makes up for that.
Playing back recordings is not a problem, hit Menu -> Digital Video Recorder -> My Programmes and select what you've recored and it plays. the recording keeps all the programme info and even the subtitles (which is nice... NB. this only works for shows you selected to record through the guide and not shows you've set to record manually)
The quality, is the same as what was broadcast. it's like the way Sky+ works, as in, it captures the digital bit stream as opposed to recording it analogue and compressing it down. There is a noticeable bug that i've found. if you're in the "Guide" and go to "My TV Agenda" it'll just drop you back to the channel you were viewing. To access "MY TV Agenda" (this is what shows you what you've set up to record) you must go through the menu, Digital Video Recorder and select it in there. while it is a bug, it's not a big deal, and is something i'm sure is easily fixed with an upgrade.
Setting up and "advance memo" (ie. a custom recording for daily, weekly or monthly) is not a problem, i've done this and it's worked flawlessly.
If you turn the system off, it'll still record the programmes no problem.

Pausing, Rewinding, FF live TV is not a problem and works perfectly. the Rewinding part only kicks in after viewing a channel for 30 seconds, and if you change the channel, it's reset and start again. which is fine. I've used the Pause feature more than anything else and is REALLY handy and works well.

So, what else is there to say. The system works well, and does what is says on the tin. I'm sure it can only get better with updates and new features (Series link is one i definitely want to see!)

If anyone has any specific questions that i might be able to help with please ask away and if i can answer i will.

If i think i've anything i've left out of this i'll add it later. but to date, it's been a good experience, and one that'll hopefully get better!


B.

patrickmooney

Does anyone know of a central email address to fire bugs into UPC for this DVR. I've uncovered quite a few, it's nice putting them here, would be better if we could submit them directly to UPC.

belmulletman

patrickmooney wrote:

Does anyone know of a central email address to fire bugs into UPC for this DVR. I've uncovered quite a few, it's nice putting them here, would be better if we could submit them directly to UPC.

What sort of bugs have you found?
I don't know an email off hand, but i'm sure someone does!