Freeview HD PVR - Philips / Pace HDT 8520

professorhat:

The EPG (through which you can set recordings, but not choose channels):

So, first impressions.

What I like:

1. Picture quality - I tested the Philips against the Digital Stream DHR-8205 and the Philips picture was definitely clearer. It also looks on first impressions that standard def is better than my PlayTV unit through the PS3 and also the in-built tuner in my Pioneer 5090. So pretty damn good then!
2. The HD channels look excellent. Am impressed even with the upscaled versions of ITV and Channel 4, whilst native HD programmes (and thus all of BBC HD) look so much better than normal standard def programmes.
3. Recordings so far have all worked.
4. Everything has been very easy to setup and get going.
5. The remote is very good and fast to respond.

What I don't like:
1. At this stage, you can't directly choose a channel via the EPG, only set recordings. Crazy! I've been told this may well be fixed in an update due later this month so keep watching for updates.
2. No ability to pad around recordings e.g. add 10 minutes before and after recording a programme to ensure you don't miss anything. So long as the Accurate recording method works, then this isn't really necessary, but for some programmes which you really don't want to miss the end of, this would be a nice safety net.

That's it for the moment, more to follow. If you have any questions, feel free to post and I'll get back to you when I can (though I am away this weekend I'm afraid!).

daveh75:

professorhat:

The EPG (through which you can set recordings, but not choose channels):

Surely not?  That sounds like bit of a design floor!

Indeed! See note above though about supposed software update to fix this. We shall see!

If Phillips would public commit to that fix, I would probably order one.

What is a PSU?

Power Supply Unit.

does the philips have an optical or co ax output for sound? I dont have an hd amp yet.

Fraz1:

does the philips have an optical or co ax output for sound? I dont have an hd amp yet.

IIRC it has co-ax, i seem to remember this being discussed on another thread some time ago.

 I'm seeing Philips on Wednesday - will see if they have an answer re firmware...

 

Clare Newsome:

 I'm seeing Philips on Wednesday - will see if they have an answer re firmware...

 

Please, that would be awesome service.

firstly, a massive thanx to professorhat for posting his mini review as i've been looking everywhere for a review on this machine and i'm also a playtv user so was interested in your findings etc. also professorhat, thanx for the John Lewis Oxford Street tip!! wanted one in time for last night's footie and even tho John Lewis doesn't list it on their website and also denied it's exsistance on their generic phone no., i called the Oxford street branch directly and they had 'em in stock and reserved one over the phone!! if anybody is interested, Comet (London) should have some in-store by Friday.

Now I'm not gonna lie, i love my playtv!! it's highly underrated IMO and was worried that this Philips box wouldn't live up to my expectations. good news! i agree with professorhat, this machine does the business!!

I've got a rubbish shared ariel with a weak signal on some channels but the Philips found all the channels (including the 3 HD ones) with ease and displays no picture break ups etc. within a couple of minutes i had the footie on ITV1HD-and it looked amazing!! was a bit worried about what the freeviewHD picture would be like as have only seen the BBCHD channel displayed in stores on un-calibrated tvs which looked worse than my upscaled PLAYtv broadcasts! i can confirm that whilst freeviewHD won't be scaring bluray any time soon, the picture quality is brilliant on a calibrated display!!

whilst only having this box since last night, i can recommend it with ease. no bad points found as yet..........except the EPG!

anybody who uses or has seen PLAYtv's EPG and display banners in general are going to be disappointed!! the philip's EPG does everything its supposed to do (except the problem listed above) but it's nowhere near as slick looking as the PS3 offering. b4 people start crying deal breaker, this is not a problem specific to this Philips box as other boxes i've seen also have this problem-even sky's OSD is rubbish. On my PLAYtv it's OSD's are in glorious 1080p with small, sharp fonts. everything else i've seen (including this box) has letters big enough that my gran could see from a mile away and looks like it's rendered in SD etc!.

sorry for the rant! to confirm, the Philips has great picture quality in HD and upscales SD great. the box runs completely silent. looks great with a good, clear display including channel name which other most boxes don't have.

to answer the question above, it does have an optical output.

for professorhat: whilst i've not had time to check out recording stuff yet i've seen on youtube the box offering you to be able to pad around the recordings. so it's either a feature they've removed or we've not found it yet!! let us know what your findings are after a few days use etc. cheers

Prof,

out of interest have you encountered any of the bugs(from the rather long bug list) posted on a certain other forum?

Hi Dave,

Well, typically I was called away on work yesterday morning and have only just returned (as well as being away all weekend) so am only now getting a chance to see how the box is doing!

I've definitely seeing some of them, but most of these aren't really too much of a concern to me e.g. the corrupted Scheduled Recordings is one where recordings set in the Scheduled List don't look right e.g. a number of recordings had the same time, date and description settings in the list as the England match last night, yet the EPG still showed them correctly. Crucially though, I have come back today and everything I had set to record has recorded and accurate recording looks to have worked in that I haven't missed any of the beginning of the show, though I now need to find time to watch them to ensure the ending is there! So although this might be a bit confusing, at least the box is recording everything I told it to.

I've also noticed that Dragons Den (recorded on Friday night I think) has the echo issue that has been mentioned for Torchwood the week before i.e. sound is echoed slightly which is quite annoying. Reading so far has indicated this is actually an issue with the HD broadcast rather than the box though, so need to keep an eye on this one.

I've not had issues with Series Link recording +1 channels which is nice - again, the EPG suggests this is going to happen, but looking in my library, I still only have one copy of each Series Link which shows it's not happening - confusing maybe, but not as dreadful as everyone is making out.

On the padding, since accurate recording is working well, I don't really have an issue with it not being there. The PlayTV also had no option for padding and I had no issues with missed recordings on this so I'm not sure it's strictly necessary. At any rate, on anything which I've thought might overrun (such as Formula 1), I used to just set for a couple of programmes after the F1 show to record as well meaning I should get everything in the event recording did stop before the end.

For those not aware of the "certain other forum" which shall not be named () I'll post the issues listed on it which I've been seeing after checking out some stuff I recorded tonight. I'll probably do this tomorrow as it would be nice just to sit down and watch the England game I missed last night due to work, all in its HD glory!

butch01:

for professorhat: whilst i've not had time to check out recording stuff yet i've seen on youtube the box offering you to be able to pad around the recordings. so it's either a feature they've removed or we've not found it yet!! let us know what your findings are after a few days use etc. cheers

Have gone through the manual a few times and looked for something to do this but not seen anything. It's also been listed as a missing feature by several other users elsewhere so if they had it, looks like they've removed it. Would be interested to see the video though - do you have a link?

There's an Firmware upgrade available on the phillips website dated today.

 Unfortunately i can't see any documentation to say what it upgrades.

Miles

Link removed. See professor hat below. Turns out to be a mistake by Phillips- and is not an upgrade for the 8520.