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Bell 9241 HD PVR vs Shaw 630 HD PVR

10K views 4 replies 3 participants last post by  peano 
#1 ·
With the new Shaw 630 HD PVR being released this week, it would appear that Shaw Direct has a viable alternative on its hand.

If you've had first hand experience with BOTH the Bell 9241 (or 9242) and the Shaw 630 please post your thoughts.

What I'd like is for folks to post

What they like and don't like about the 9241
What they like and don't like about the 630
What PVR they like better and why

If you don't have first hand knowledge, please don't post. If you'd just like to learn more see existing threads in the Bell and Shaw Direct forum.

Thanks
 
#2 ·
I have used both now, that being I own a 9242 and I was at my friends local electronic store yesterday and he is a Shaw Direct dealer and has a demo 630 hooked up as of last saturday. Now I will evaluate Shaw first.

As a side note I have never been a Shaw Direct customer and I did not test all the features of the 630. Now this is the best receiver that Shaw D has offered and in my opinion they should have skipped over the 530 to begin with. The duel tunner recording does work and work well which will make alot of S.D. customers happy. The guide is very nice and a big improvement over the 530 as well as a quicker scroll through the channels. I did not try out the name based recording so I can't comment on how that works. I would say over all this is a great unit and really does offer customers a valid choice over just Bell or cable. The one thing I hope they offer is the ehd function and I think alot of S.D. customers will agree.


Onto Bell. I personally own and use a 9242 and even though Bell now uses the 9241 I say that the 9242 is the personal best receiver Bell has offered. I really don't now why they switched to the 9241. I have never used my 9242 as a duo receiver. I like to have a receiver on each tv rather than share them, so the 9241 would be ok if they only offered pip which I use alot on my 9242. I really like the ability to swap tunners. I should note that Bell uses Echostar equipment(Dish Network) so the 9241 is suppose to be a vip612 and the 9242 is a black vip622. Now Bell should have brought in the larger hard drives in my opinion. Why not have made the 9242 a vip722 which offers 55hrs of HD recording vs only 30hrs. Same with the 9241 offer it the same as a 722k how hard would that have been? I do very much like the ehd feature on Bell which I believe that the 9242/9241 will allow for up to a 1.5tb ehd. this is a very handy feature to have as 30hrs of HD can fill up fast. Also the ability to programme the pvr via smart phone is also a great feature. Maybe im a little biased but I have always believed that Echostar makes the best equipment in all of north america.


Final thoughts: I think that the Shaw Direct 630 will make a lot of people happy and will probally have the few missing features that Bell now offers very soon, and is also a great alternative to Bell as I know people that don't like Bell but hate cable more so now they have choice. As for Bell we will see what the 9252 brings if/when it surfaces. My pick is the 9242 for the tunner swap and I still like the echostar user interface better + ehd.
 
#3 ·
I'm sure it will take a while for this thread to get going so Blackloz thanks for the early feedback.
 
#4 ·
I currently own the 630 and in the past have owned the 9242. I never bothered with the 9241 but have used its equivalent - the ViP612.

I would rate the 9242 as the best.......somewhat moot since it cannot be purchased anymore. But only because of PiP, two supplied remotes and the OTA tuner.

I am still running it through its paces, but so far the 630 has performed admirably. It is very responsive and the HDMI works through my AVR without any problems. Since the 630 has a laptop style external power supply it runs very cool and is virtually silent. I do not hear the fan at all.
The very small size of the receiver itself is another bonus.

Those are my first impressions. I will follow up with a more detailed post once I gain more experience with the 630.
 
#5 ·
After using the 630 for several days and trying multiple recordings it appears as if the firmware is full of bugs or I have a defective receiver. Noting that others here have experienced the exact problems as I have, I am leaning towards buggy firmware.

The 630 occasionally locks up with frozen video yet audio continues. The remote does nothing. Only a reset fixes it.

Setting multiple timers caused my unit to lose video and none of the programs shown in the PVR list would play.

I really wanted the 630 to work as advertised but mine certainly does not.

So the Bell 9241 wins the contest at this point in time IMO, until SD can write decent firmware.
 
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