- Average user rating: 3.0 stars out of 24 reviews Back to product review
- My rating: 0 stars
Full user review
-
2 out of 2 people found this review helpful
5.0 stars
"Crashes less than my Sony DHG-HDD250 did."
Pros: 2 tuners.
HDTV.Cons: Less than friendly user interface.
Summary: I'd been waiting for this product for a couple of years before it was finally announced at last years CES show. I don't mean this specific product, but I mean a 2 tuner over the air HDTV DVR from ANY manufacturer. I had been using the Sony DHG-HDD250 for a few years. It only had one tuner though, and it may or may not continue to receive the TV Guide after they shut down analog TV (There is a workaround for that, with a $40 set top box to convert the digital signal back to analog to carry the TV Guide signal to the Sony box). So I'd been anxiously awaiting the arrival of this product for quite some time. I'm still puzzled by the fact that there haven't been more manufacturers come out with a similar product. I mean, a BETTER HDTV experience than you can get from the compressed HD satellite signal, and for free! I'd think consumers would be clamoring for this, especially in today's economy. I blow plenty of money on plenty of stupid things, but I'll never understand why anyone would spend $40 - $80 (or more) per month on TV, only to get an inferior picture to what I'm getting for free on my DTVPal DVR.
Does crash occasionally.
Yes, this thing does crash every now and then. I've used it fairly heavily for almost 2 1/2 months now, and it has probably reset at random moments about 4 or 5 times during the time I've owned it. It has also froze up maybe 2 times, when it seemed that my only option was to unplug it and plug it back in. It's definitely done that once, maybe twice.
So, how can I give it 5 stars? Well, you have to understand that I'm rebounding from a love/hate relationship with a Sony DHG-HDD250. It only had one tuner, the DTVPal DVR has two. The Sony crashed routinely, losing it's time of day settings nearly every time it did. That would obviously screw up my programmed recordings. It would usually take from 1 to 3 days before it would get itself back on the right time, and there was no way to manually set it. The DTVPal DVR, while it does occasionally and randomly reset, has never failed to come back on with the proper time setting intact. So the only impact it has when it resets is that I lose a minute or so of whatever it was recording. It picks up and starts recording again where it left off, and there will just be two segments in my list of recordings instead of one complete show. No big deal compared to what I'm coming from.
Other reasons I give it a 5...
It's the worst one of its kind. It's the best one of its kind. It's the only one of its kind.
If you're looking for a 2 tuner DVR that will allow you to record Heroes and 24 in High Definition at the same time via free broadcast TV from your rooftop antenna, while watching The Simpsons that you recorded the night before, then it's this or nothing. So it gets 5 stars by default. Maybe that is the equivalent of the bobsled team from Jamaica winning the Olympics because no other country fielded a team, I don't know. I just know that I've been yearning for a product with the specs that this one has for a long time, so I'm happy with it even if it does come with a few quirks.
