Freeview HD PVR - Digital Stream DHR8205U

professorhat:

No probs, I'm glad it's helped - having spent a while being frustrated by the Philips / Pace box, I felt these things were useful to pass on so others don't have to go through the pain.I have been told by others that the pictures don't show how good the on screen GUI is either and were pleasantly surprised when they received it!

One other thing, if you do buy the box, ensure you've got a USB stick / hard disk so you can update the firmware from the MIT website - it seems quite a few are still coming with the original firmware which has the sluggish EPG issue. To update, ensure the USB disk is formatted as FAT32. Some people are finding certain sticks aren't working in that the DS unit doesn't recognise it - the Kingston USB DataTraveler has been used by a few of us though so this should definitely work.

 

Thanks prof. My humax box with hard disk is beginning to act up so i need a new box and could not decide between freeview and freesat. I was leaning to freesat bacause of the capability for so many extra channels in hd but i am concerned at the lack of channels being added. This review has made me reconsider and at £200 will save me a few quid if i buy it

prof, i have just read the review of the digi stream that you provided the link for. In it the reviewer states that a fix has now been applied and it will output 5.1 sound from HD channels.

Your review stated that it would not do so through an HDMI cable and than an optical cable is required. Is this still the case or can it now output 5.1 through the HDMI?

 I connect my digi box with an hdmi cable directly to the amp so that might be problematic. If i select my tv input on the amp i will get picture and no sound and if i select my optical input i will get sound and no picture! Would you recommend running the hdmi cable from the digi box to the tv, rather than the amp, and the optical to the amp? Hope that makes sense! cheers.

No worries - yes, you can still only get 5.1 sound from the optical output, not the HDMI which only provides stereo. It's been requested to get 5.1 through the HDMI but we haven't heard back yet if it's possible. From what I've read, the internals of the Humax (which can do 5.1 through the HDMI) and the Digital Stream (DS) are quite similar so remain hopeful it will be implemented in the future.

In the meantime, if your amp can't be programmed to accept video from HDMI and audio from optical (as mine is at the moment), then your best bet is as you say, to connect directly to the TV via HDMI and then plug the DS into the amp using optical. You only get 5.1 on some broadcasts from Freeview HD channels (i.e. BBC HD and Channel 4 HD at the moment though hopefully ITV HD will join in providing them soon), but I still think it's worth it for those.

Thanks prof. Can I ask you a couple more things, first, what home cinema amp do you have? I have the onkyo 607 and i suspect i might be able to get the amp to output 5.1 through the optical at the same time as sending video through the HDMI. I am not sure how i could watch what comes through the HDMI and listen to what comes through the optical at the same time though as i can only select one or other for input at the same time. I will check it out though.

 Secondly I have looked online and cant fins if the digi stream does 1080p or not. Take it it does?

I use the Onkyo TX-NR905 - I'd be amazed if you can't set one of the inputs to take video from HDMI and sound from optical on the 607 as it's a must for Sky HD users (where 5.1 is only available through optical as well).

It will indeed output 1080p - I personally have it set to 1080i so my TV does the de-interlacing, but it's down to how good your TV is at this compared to the DS and personal preference.

I have checked and i can set up my amp to accept 5.1 from the optical while getting video from hdmi. Also checked with lewis' and they have the boxes in store so i can fet one and can return it if i cant get reception although according to the freeview site i should be able to. I think i will pick one up on thursday.

One more question though prof, and please excuse my ignorance, I do not have a usb memory stick and have never used one. Is it a usb memory stick flash drive that i need and what sort of memory size should i get? I probably will not use the memory stick other than for transferring downloads to the box. thanks.

Good stuff - hope you get on okay with it - JL is a great place to buy because of their no quibble 28 day (or is it 30?!) return policy.

For the USB stick, yes, it's just a standard USB memory stick or flash drive. The current size of the files you need to upload are just under 14 MB so any size stick will be fine. I'd probably get a 4 GB one at the minimum though since they cost very little these days and smaller sizes aren't really any cheaper. Probably best to get it from JL at the same time since, as mentioned, some sticks don't seem to work, so if you get that issue, you can return it. I use the Kingston DataTraveler and this works just fine.

out of curiosity prof, why did you go for the digi stream over the humax? price ? or was there not much in it performance wise?

Originally it was because the Humax wasn't released when I traded in the Philips and the Digital Stream was the only viable alternative. It had just had the update which improved the EPG speed which was my main complaint previously (I demoed them both before buying the Philips, unaware of all the issues it was going to have).

I did go back a couple of weeks later and have a play with the Humax to see if it was worth swapping again - it's a great box but I saw the PQ was pretty much identical and I personally preferred the user interface of the Digital Stream e.g. I prefer the EPG, the Media and the Schedules list to be full screen with a transparency effect rather than having a small TV screen as this uses up quite a lot of room - when I'm looking at these screens, this is what I want to see, not the TV picture.

Also, I'd heard of horror stories from people about Humax taking 9 months to deliver an update to fix an issue on one of their other boxes and, having just come from a very similar situation with the Philips box and knowing that Digital Stream had already provided two very worthwhile updates for its box in a matter of months, I decided it was the better box and have stuck with it. And very happy I am too!

In case you haven't seen, I've done a little guide (link) on how you can transfer any SD recordings you've made from the Digital Stream to your PC which will hopefully be useful to some people.

Got my digital stream box today. I am impressed with the way it looks and the way its made but i have to return it. Nothing to do with the box but i live in a flat with a communal aerial getting HD from the Blackhill transmitter in Glasgow which recently changed the way it sends out its HD signal. There is a section regarding this on the freeview  site and it states that certain aerials in flats with a communal aerial will filter out the HD signal or reduce it so the filters in the aerial will need to be changed to stop this happening. When i checked after installing it i was getting 16% signal strength and the same for quality which is useless.

The only way i can do it is to write to my property manager and that could take weeks to get sorted so unfortunately it has to go back. I would prefer freeview hd to freesat so i will wait until my property manager has sorted it and then i will buy another one. Hopefully they will still be available. v disappointed.

Sorry to hear that - hopefully it all be sorted soon by your property manger.

Prof, thanks for all this. You've convinced me and I've just ordered one from John Lewis. 

Let us know how you get on!

Received and installed the DHR8205U yesterday, and downloaded and installed the updates, and so far very pleased.

I haven't really had time to explore it yet but there is one issue - when watching (CRT) TV with the box as the tuner the screen format shape / size seems to have a mind of it's own and needs to be reset with one or more presses of the 'Wide' button. Any ideas ? 

I'll feedback more as I learn how to use it !