Saorview+

recyclebin

Just listening to Ray Darcy and a person wrote in complaining about buying a saorview box and not being able to record one channel and watch another. The listener was saying he should have just subscribed to sky to get what he needs.

I put this down to the listener not understanding what saorview approval means. The normal consumer does not know that recording is not part of the saorview standard and that it is just an extra offered by the manufacturer.

To clear up this confusion should saorview not launch a seperate certification for recording called saorview+. Each saorview+ box should have a minimum two tuners, a usb port and space for an internal hard drive. Series link should also be required in the certification for saorview+.

zg3409

A saorview+ box will still not be a replacement for Sky. The idea might help. The reality that to replace Sky's + feature people will need to buy both a Saorview + box AND a FreeSat+ box. The freesat crowd don't want companies selling Freesat boxes in ROI also complicates things as well as Saorview basically ignoring that UK channels exist and that people expect them. Anyone moving from Sky expects dual record, pause, series link, UK channels etc.

Se yes I agree. Indeed it would have been best if Saorview only ever certified a + box. In this day and age, buying a box for the main TV which does not record while watching another channel is very old fashioned. Buying a TV with inbuilt Saorview for the main TV without the pause and series link is not ideal.

It would be akin to Sky providing boxes that don't record.

The main problem is that no proper Saorview+ box is even available yet, no matter how much you are willing to pay. It seems the manufactuers want to sell non plus boxes first, then sell you a second box later.

They should probably set a minimum hard drive size in the specification to stop people flogging boxes with no proper storage capacity. People will end up filling up their boxes and become very unsatisfied especially as more HD content arrives. The minimum capacity anyone should be using is 500GB and ideally 1TB as it is so little extra.

People should hold off purchasing until at least August in case a proper PVR box is released. If you do purchase a box before then it can be relegated to the spare room or given to a friend.

watty

Recording is in the standard, but isn't mandatory. None of the existing certified boxes that can record have been certified as Recorders because they only meet the spec for non-recording Saorview boxes.

thetwangman

Presumably most people will get a new saorview approved TV at some point in the future which will mean that their cheap single tuner saorview box will then serve to very useful purpose of recording one channel while watching another on the TV (presuming the box has recording capabilities). So buying a cheap saorview box now will not be a complete waste of money as it will have a useful purpose in the future.

zg3409

thetwangman wrote: »

their cheap single tuner saorview box will then serve to very useful purpose of recording one channel while watching another on the TV (presuming the box has recording capabilities

We do not know if series link will work on these boxes currently being sold, as the series link information is not being broadcast. If they cannot do series link then there use will be limited. Also having to change sources from TV to external box etc. will be confusing to many. I agree not a total waste, but how useful for recording is not yet known.