To record 2 shows at the same time and watch a previously recorded would be most benifical.

dratcliffe

Totally agree with you Bs and in the same order as well.
But these are big changes and I know it will be awhile before if ever they will be available.
In the meantime I would like to see enhancements to the interface.
Most of my sugestions are not complicated and could be easily implemented and they would actually fit very well with any of those three big features list.

Have you looked at how bad the character typing machine looks like when you are in the favourites modify list?
It's awfull.

Have you looked at how bad the character typing machine looks like when you are in the favourites modify list?
It's awfull.

I don't own the 530 yet. I decided to wait. I will most likely be picking one up next week. It really was not a big deal for me to wait since it is Summer.

Totally agree with you Bs and in the same order as well.
But these are big changes and I know it will be awhile before if ever they will be available.


I was conversing with a High level tech support fellow the other day when getting the unit activated, and he mentioned that as soon as they were done with the lastest software update (he didn't mention when that would be?) that they would be going full force on dual recording and name based recording and "other cool features". So it sounds like it might be sooner than later.

dratcliffe

I don't own the 530 yet. I decided to wait. I will most likely be picking one up next week. It really was not a big deal for me to wait since it is Summer.

Not to cause a ruckus, but is some person in charge not going to give BSmitern a good old tonuge lashing?...he does not yet own a 530 yet he has posted in the owners only forum.

I've noticed other people getting it good for doing that! :confused:

Taking "Name Based Recording" a step further, I think people would REALLY like it if it was similar to Tivo's "Seasons pass" feature. The way this works is you define your favorite shows, and whenever they are on they are automatically recorded regardless of channel/time, but its smart enough to only record a given episode once. Additionally, if 2 new episodes of your favorite show has a scheduling conflict, it will automatically shuffle things around and try and find one on another channel/time and resolve the conflict.

That is a good feature of the Tivo machine. I would like to see NAME recording as well, mainly because that's what I'm used to with my current PVR, but it also makes more sense. Sometimes shows are pre-empted, and the DVR would be smart enough to recognize that the show is not on, and will not record it (if it is a weekly timer event).

The DVR LIST has sort options, but I noticed that they were not static. In other words, once you leave the DVR LIST, you lose the sort setting. It always goes back to sorting by date instead of name or duration.

I don't think the TV picture is necessary while inside the DVR LIST. That only consumes space on the screen reducing the number of entries a person can see. I have that now with my current PVR and find it useless. When I go to the DVR LIST, I'm going there to play something that I've previously recorded. I'm not interested in anything else at that point.

It would be great if the TIMER EVENT contained the Names of the shows, instead of just the station - NBCSPO, etc. That does not give much user friendly information as to what show is being recorded. Unless you have the days, times and channels memorized, it's difficult to know what is coming up to record. A couple of times I forgot that I already selected a show to record and selected it again on a time shifting channel out west. I got two copies of the same show.

The TV Guide would be excellent if you could search it by show title. IE: Get a complete listing of every occurance of a particular program for that entire day on all channels.

Not to cause a ruckus, but is some person in charge not going to give BSmitern a good old tonuge lashing?...he does not yet own a 530 yet he has posted in the owners only forum.

I've noticed other people getting it good for doing that! :confused:

Other people who had the machine and returned it and then continued to complain as well as other people asking questions which should be specifically asked in the future owners post. Hey, if no one wants me to post in there, fine. I was simply trying to contribute to the thread. Or I could just say, yeah, I own one...sure...

Dratcliffe, I think BSmithern's post are of value. For one; this isn't a 530 owner's only thread. Secondly, it is good to have somebody who has used both Bell and Star Choice hardware. We are all here to make out TV watching experiences more enjoyable.

If you have an issue with anybody's posts, it's best to either use the "report bad post" button (the yeild sign to the left) or send a PM to one of the moderators.

Now, let's get back to figuring out what we'd like to see added to the 530! :D

I would like to see the reciever itself be capable of volume controll, like the old 921's.
This would make it alot easier to get all components at optimum levels and be able to turn
all up or down or mute all at the reciever level. soft mute would be great too!
Maybe one set of outputs for vcr that stays at standard output as well as anything on hard drive.
Is this even possible with digital/optical outputs?

Some sort of variable control, on 'all' sound outputs, definitely sounds like a good feature to add...

Though, for me, the ability for you to use it to sync all your a/v components to the same levels, means more than using it as a reciever level volume/mute control...

Because of the way our 530 is being used with our home theater system, I can not speak specifically about this unit but I have always been annoyed with the volume 'blast' when switching back to a 401/305 *C reciever from the DVD player or other component...

The reason the 530's ouput levels (and the 401's before it) have not been problem with our home theater system is because DVD player and 530 audio goes to seperate speakers, DVD 6CH to the a/v reciever, and 530 analog to the TV... Of course the 530 digital audio has been wired to the a/v reciever for 5.1 when watching HD movies... We do it this way because, imo, our DLP's speakers are good enough for most TV fare... Because so little is broadcast in 5.1, it hardly seems worth firing up the 'big' speakers just to watch the news...

However in the bedroom where both are wired directly to the TV, switching from the DVD back to the 305 can be fairly dramatic... Hey, it can even wake up a wife who fell asleep before the end of the movie :rolleyes:

So irrespective of 57 comments about price, it would still be a nice feature to see in future units... Even if it was only a limited dB change just to allow level balancing between components...


Here is another 'sound' improvement suggestion...

How about some sort of volume 'equalization' algorithm to deal with the sound level differences between channels...

Getting tired of ramping up and down the volume when switching channels...

HD channels seem the worse... always having to turn down the volume when switching from HD channel to SD...

Getting tired of ramping up and down the volume when switching channels...

Join the club. It was the same with BEV receivers. I have my unit hooked through my Sony receiver and some of the volume levels when changing channels blow you out of your seat. How about when an HD channel goes from DD 2.0 to DD 5.1? Yikes!

I would record on both tuners from 8:00pm to 1:00am Sunday trough Friday 95% of the time... this renders this pvr ABSOLUTELY USELLESS as while i am recording i cannot watch... What am i supposed to do watch 30 hours of recorded TV on Saturday ? This settles it for me.
Bell Expressvu 9200 here i come.

P.S. All or nearly all of the features in this poll are allready available on the Bell 9200. The ones that are'nt are confirmed coming soon to the Bell 9200 (external hard drive add on and named based recording are confirmed coming).

The only one that is'nt is the "external DVD burner" wich is usselless anyway:
The average Hour of HD is 6 to 8.5gigs depending on bitrate so what are you going to do with a 4.7gig recordable media... abosolutely nothing is what. What you need is BluRay but that's not out yet and with the format war on the horizon, not a good investement of 1000$ for something that might (hopefully not) wither away and die like the BETAmax.

My suggestion is: don't bother waiting for features that will most likely NEVER COME and move to the 9200 which has those features TODAY!

Dratcliffe, I think BSmithern's post are of value.

I didn't say his posts were not of value he does have good input.

But he did just mention in this thread that his is not yet an owner. So that is why my reply was in this thread. I didn't say he should not post in this thread - just the owners thread. And the only reason for that is because most everyone was giving some chap, that goes by dks, a hard time for posting in the owners thread after he had returned his unit.

So once again I get a tounge lashing because someone feels I posted in the wrong place (but might I point out that no one, except I and even then it wasn't a tounge lashing, talked to BSmithern about posting in the owners group when he is not an owner!!).

-----------------------------------------

"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it, or who said it, no matter if I said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your common sense." --Buddha

dratcliffe,

Dks got jumped on because he was an owner and then returned the product and every single post was a complaint post. People were tired of hearing him complain. If he decided to move onto something else, fine, that's his choice.

My suggestion is: don't bother waiting for features that will most likely NEVER COME and move to the 9200 which has those features TODAY!

Thanks for the suggestion, but we are all aware of what is going to happen with the 530 and what the 9200 is all about as well. No thanks to BEV. Been there, done that, I don't care if the 9200 washes my dishes as well.

When the 530 was being designed, the only potential competition was Dish 921.
The Feature request thread was examined and over 85% of what that box did NOT deliver was included in the DVR530.
Now, we have the 942, and the 530 will respond accordingly.
But with a view to what features have real value and are appropriate for the SC customer base.

Perhaps the US designed 942/9200 works in their market, but Canadians and the market here will always be different.

Similarly, the Bell and SC demographics are quite different as well.

95% of Primetime TV is US content! How does the Canadien Market differ from the US except watching the NHL (on strike) and Canadian Idol (summer show) ?
If anything the Canadian market has more content (all of the US content + the Canadian one) requiring an even more performing device. Wake up and smell the coffey!
The only way the DSR530 is going to adjust is: The DSR5XX? coming in 2010...

dratcliffe,

Dks got jumped on because he was an owner and then returned the product and every single post was a complaint post. People were tired of hearing him complain. If he decided to move onto something else, fine, that's his choice.

One thing I don't do is lie. Every deficiency that I shed light on in regards to the 530 machine is the truth. I think we should stop knocking each other down in the gutter just because we disagree on some things. I'm here to talk about the DSR530, not to talk about personalities or he said she said. Who gives a damn? It's my opinion and it's likely not going to change until the 530 changes, regardless of how many good intentions strangers have towards StarChoice. Go to the Dr. Phil site if you want to psycho-analyse everything I say.

I haven't moved on to something else. I'm still using my 3 year old Standard Def PVR waiting for these fixes to take place on the DSR530. My goal is to get a machine that works - that's all that there is to it. As they say, "That's the bottom line." If the DSR530 fixes are applied and they work, then yippee!!!!

Only one or two more weeks for the awaited fixes and the verdict. :p

Join the club. It was the same with BEV receivers. I have my unit hooked through my Sony receiver and some of the volume levels when changing channels blow you out of your seat. How about when an HD channel goes from DD 2.0 to DD 5.1? Yikes!

Yeah it's bad enough putting up with volume jump when the show you are watching goes to commercial, The Good, Bad & the Ugly on Action earlier this evening comes to mind... still would be a novel idea having some sort of volume limiting system at the reciever level to deal with this regardless of source...

One thing I don't do is lie. Every deficiency that I shed light on in regards to the 530 machine is the truth.

I didn't say it wasn't. I don't lie either. I simply stated the truth:

You bought the receiver.
You returned the receiver.
People in the thread called you on your posts because you continued to complain.

I personally don't care what your posts contain. I was just stating a fact. I don't believe that I said one thing about your posts in that thread.

There's the pot calling the kettle black! You seem to do enough complaining yourself BSmithern, and I think your continual sarcastic and rude comments towards me are total topic drift and should not be permitted. Talk about abuse! There is absolutely NOTHING in your post regarding the 530 machine. At least I am talking about the DSR530. That's what this forum is about isn't it? Stop trying to dictate what people are and are not allowed to say. Lots of people praise the 530 over and over again but you don't jump down their throat. Think about it.

Are you trying to win brownie points from someone?