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New DGTEC PVR


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Anyone seen or heard about the new PVR advertised in the latest Bing Lee cattledog?

http://www.binglee.com.au/

Current Catalogue

Twin tuners, 200gb HDD USB2 $799.......

Can't find any info anywhere, not even the DGTec homepage

Cheers

JD

check this from the dba newsletter.

http://www.dba.org.au/newsletter/IB-JunJul...ll.asp#PRODUCT4

theres been a thread on this one already.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Bought the 80 gig version seems to work really well !! transfers files easily and quickly via usb 2 to laptop just need to work out how to watch them or burn for later watching , any ideas? noisy fan is only problem i have seen so far , that i can live with for the price .. :blink:

Paul

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Guest Gizmomelb

Paul,

try downloading and editing the files with VideoReDo, it's a commercial program but the demo lets you save video up to 30 or so mins in length; and is the best and easiest video editor I've come across for editing MPEG2 SD or HD files on PC.

Gizmomelb

PS: I'm considering one of these PVRs for my wife, as she doesn't like using the PC based PVR (too fiddly and it crashes). I wonder what the insides of one of these boxes looks like/is running?

Also I wonder if the 80GB can be swapped out and replaced with a bigger driver? $300 extra RRP for the 200GB drive seems extortionate considering the actual price difference is about $80 for an equivalent PC drive.

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Guest Gizmomelb

Paul,

any comments you've got on the operation/usage of this unit would be greatly appreciated, especially comments on:

the remote control (layour, usage, range etc.)

timeshifting (can you pause/playback while the other tuner is recording)

playback of video when also recording

dual tuner recording

etc.

many thanks in advance,

Gizmomelb

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Hi there,

DGTech products have been notoriously unreliable & the attitude of the company has been nothing short of disgusting in regards to the way that they treated their customers. I had one of their boxes that failed in under 24 hours & they wanted me to send it away to be repaired. Once bitten twice shy.

This appears to be a copy of the much loved TF5000PVRt & putting in a bigger HDD & giving it a cheaper price may trick some people into buying it. At the end of the day the Topfield is still the king & DGtech is still going to be just another footy. My advice would be to avoid it like the plague.

The company doesent seem to support their products well they just bring out a new model when the old one has problems & forget about the suckers that have the dodgy machines. Units that I have seen lately have been made in China, Malaysia & god knows where else. I think they just source the cheapest available at the time.

I agree with the comments above. I hear Dodgytech & I aslo start to feel sick. It may be worth other customers who have been stung also posting their experiences to stop others getting burnt by them. The company & products are CHEAP & VERY NASTY!!!

BUYER BEWARE.....

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Guest Gizmomelb

I'd say it's Hard Disk, I don't think there are many Hi Def PVRs available at the moment, and certainly not for this price! :blink:

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I'm a bit interested in this box (sorry to all the DGTEC haters out there), as all reports from owners of this box seem to be fairly favourable, and although I'd like the Toppy it's still priced above what I can comfortable spend at this point.

Does anyone know if the noisy fan reported by Paul D above is a typical problem with this box, or was Paul just unlucky?

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I'm a bit interested in this box (sorry to all the DGTEC haters out there), as all reports from owners of this box seem to be fairly favourable, and although I'd like the Toppy it's still priced above what I can comfortable spend at this point.

Does anyone know if the noisy fan reported by Paul D above is a typical problem with this box, or was Paul just unlucky?

Hiya gremlin ,

The prob with the fan is that it is probably overkill on dgtec's part. It seems to be pulling to much air through the unit , sounds no different to most computer fans I have heard ,just a little annoying when sound volume is down

low.

Paul

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DGTech products have been notoriously unreliable & the attitude of the company has been nothing short of disgusting in regards to the way that they treated their customers. I had one of their boxes that failed in under 24 hours & they wanted me to send it away to be repaired. Once bitten twice shy.

Any gear that fails that fast is effectively DOA. Under Australian consumer law, whoever you bought it from MUST refund your money.

I have successfully gotten refunds on a few occasions when I've bought equipment that's failed in the first week, and the response has been "send it away for three months to be looked at".

The legendary one was my Panasonic TV, which I bought at great expense and which failed within days. Panasonic came and took it away, sent it to Hills Telefix, and that's the last I saw of it for - and I'm not kidding here - nearly six months. By that stage Hills were making all sorts of excuses ranging from "we're waiting on a part from Japan" (the set was made here in Australia!) and "it's in bits on the bench and we still don't know what is wrong with it." A phone call demanding to talk to the general manager or else I'd go to Consumer Affairs did the trick. A new TV rolled up at my house within an hour - and 15 years later, it's still perfect. Presumably they gave me the "manager special" model :blink:

But I digress...

The company doesent seem to support their products well they just bring out a new model when the old one has problems & forget about the suckers that have the dodgy machines.

Sounds like a company we know... Wintal, anyone? Or Strong?

This is one of the reasons why digital TV won't get mainstream acceptance in this country until the big names step in with gear. Well intentioned as they all might be, these cheapie companies rebadging generic east-asian products either can't (Strong) or won't (Wintal) do after-sales support and necessary firmware updates - which wouldn't matter if the things worked properly in the first place. But they rarely, if ever, do.

All that said, the Wintal turned out to be a great buy - not thanks to Wintal, mind, but thanks to Digenius and Grobi in Germany, whose unwitting "support" has gotten the Wintal PVR to a very solid and reliable state indeed.

Units that I have seen lately have been made in China, Malaysia & god knows where else. I think they just source the cheapest available at the time.

While I have no love for the Malaysian products I've suffered through as they gradually fell apart (almost all of them Sony!) I have been very, very impressed with the build quality coming out of China these days. My Pioneer DVD writer and DVD player have been absolutely 100% flawless, and all the other smaller Chinese-made gadgets I have have never once given me any trouble. The Wintal PVR is built in China too - but no hardware issues here! The only hassle has been with the firmware, and you can't blame the Chinese for that :P

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Sounds like a company we know... Wintal, anyone? Or Strong?

This is one of the reasons why digital TV won't get mainstream acceptance in this country until the big names step in with gear. Well intentioned as they all might be, these cheapie companies rebadging generic east-asian products either can't (Strong) or won't (Wintal) do after-sales support and necessary firmware updates - which wouldn't matter if the things worked properly in the first place. But they rarely, if ever, do.

I don't know where you get the impression that Strong can't do after-sales support and firmware updates, their Australian agents in Melbourne do fantastic support, VERY fast updates and turnarounds and they have even written a supplement to the (dreadful) manual that actually makes sense. IMHO they offer the BEST after-sales support of any company I have ever dealt with.

How many complaints about their support have you seen in these forums in the last 12 months? I don't recall any.

Sure, the product (5390) has had a few minor glitches, but these have been rectified quickly and effectively.

Kudos to Strong Australia from me!

Cheers,

David.

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I don't know where you get the impression that Strong can't do after-sales support and firmware updates, their Australian agents in Melbourne do fantastic support, VERY fast updates and turnarounds and they have even written a supplement to the (dreadful) manual that actually makes sense. IMHO they offer the BEST after-sales support of any company I have ever dealt with.

How many complaints about their support have you seen in these forums in the last 12 months? I don't recall any.

Sure, the product (5390) has had a few minor glitches, but these have been rectified quickly and effectively.

Kudos to Strong Australia from me!

Cheers,

David.

Around 8 months ago Strong Australia (AGENT) was bought out by Strong Head Office and the Australian division is now fully run by Strong so there is no middleman, etc. I must admit since the inception of Strong in Australia, they have been sensational in their after-sales.

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Hiya gremlin ,

The prob with the fan is that it is probably overkill on dgtec's part. It seems to be pulling to much air through the unit , sounds no different to most computer fans I have heard ,just a little annoying when sound volume is down

low.

Paul

Thanks Paul, I'll have to venture into a retail outlet somewhere and have a listen, although any fan noise isn't probably going to not be noticeable in the typical noisy shop environment.

I'm another one with a trusty Strong 5200 that hasn't missed a beat the entire time I've had it, and I've also found strong support to go out of their way to assist when I had an issue that turned out to be reception related and not the box. Just looking for something now that has recording ability, hence the DGTEC.

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Either nobody has any interest in these units or being 'footys' they are already back in the factory awaiting repair. It doesent look like they are going to set the digital TV world on fire. :blink:

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Either nobody has any interest in these units or being 'footys' they are already back in the factory awaiting repair. It doesent look like they are going to set the digital TV world on fire.  :blink:

Heaps here in Victoria .. J'b has bucket loads of them,retravision has them and warehouse sales has them.

For what its worth , considering all the knockers out there dgtec offers what they call a 123 warranty on the unit,

one month money back

two year parts and labour

3 months replacement

as long as they honour this i'm quite happy.

As yet no problems i cant live with , maybe i'm just not as fussy as some :P

and no i'm in no way connected with dgtec ..lol

Paul

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I'm a bit interested in this box (sorry to all the DGTEC haters out there), as all reports from owners of this box seem to be fairly favourable, and although I'd like the Toppy it's still priced above what I can comfortable spend at this point.

Does anyone know if the noisy fan reported by Paul D above is a typical problem with this box, or was Paul just unlucky?

Hi Gremlins,

I recently got a DG-SD80PVR and it does have a noisy fan, though the unit seems to remain quite cool, compared with the Teac DV-B400 I have, which even in standby is like a heater!

The fan is really the only issue I have, though it would be better for me if it had a SCART RGB output as well.

Interested if anyone has the best way of converting the files and burning to DVD?

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I saw this box out there - does look a pretty solid piece of work. Does worry me though what lurks under there under its smart looking demeanour.

Interestingly talking to the sales guy about it. He said he'd been talking to the LG sales rep who said they had a new LG HDPVR that should be out in a month or so. The sales guy strongly suggested that would be better option worth waiting for. He thought the LG was a Humax effort. Which is probably a good thing as theve been making pvr's for a while now so should hopefully get it right without too many cock ups.

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Hmm, yes I got one of the 200GB ones for my birthday :P .

However, I am a bit dissapointed as it has a number of significant problems :blink:

1) You cannot tune in 'radio' services. You can on the Teac PVR!

2) You cannot tune in video services without any audio such as some on the d44 channel here in Sydney.

3) There is no signal strength indication of any kind.

4) Needed 2 scans to enter in ABC2 service for some reason.

5) Unit wakes up to do a timer record but does not shut itself down afterwards.

6) if you are watching a channel and the timer record starts, it will switch to that channel rather than using the other tuner. Have to start up PIP to resolve.

Some things are good though such as Pitcure quality, PIP, mp3 playback etc.

I would take a look at other options before putting your money down on this one!

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