DVD + 250Gb Hard Disk Recorder from Aldi
Saw this on Aldi Australia’s website: DVD Recorder with 250GB Hard Disc Drive for $399. Looks like a good buy — it used to cost almost a $1,000 for a hard drive recorder. It is also compatible with DivX/MPEG4 so there’s a lot of TV programs that you can record. It also has iLink interface built in, i.e. you can plug in your DV camcoder and it’ll download the videos (and probably compress them into MPEG4) for you.
Here’s the spec:
- Compatible with DVD / DVD-R / DVD-RW / DVD+R / DVD+RW / JPEG / CD / CD-R / CD-RW / MP3 / WMA
- DiVX/MPEG4 compatible
- Timeshift function - record a program while watching another recorded program
- 6 recording modes, progressive scan
- Dolby Digital AC3 decoded output
- Front connections: AV in, DV in, USB in
- Rear connections: TV tuner RF input/output, S-Video, RCA input, 5.1CH audio output, coaxial digital output, i-link interface, YPbPr/YCbCr output
- Includes remote control and batteries
It comes with one year warranty.
I think one lacking feature is a digital tuner nor digital input, so even though you might have a separate digital tuner, it’ll still only record the analogue signal.
Talking about watching and recording TV, rockycape wrote in and said:
If you are one of the first 500 to take up this offer you can get 50%
off any IceTV subscription between now until the end of September — whether your are a new, old or existing IceTV customer.Simply go to www.icetv.com.au/subscribe.php, purchase the IceTV subscription of your choice (1, 3 or 12 month) and enter the following
“discount code” to receive 50% Off the IceTV subscription;icetvmakestvworthwatching
IceTV looks like an online TV guide and with a few clicks you can easily schedule when the programs are recorded. There’s a 14-day free trial. I don’t think the Aldi PVR supports it though. If watching TV is your thing (I spent only around 5 minutes in front of TV a week), then you might give it a try.
Aldi Australia’s website: Tevion DVD Recorder with 250GB Hard Disc Drive
Prcied at ONLY $279. Australian dollars…
What a bargain..I will be waiting for the doors to open this Thursday 29th March 2007 at 9am with my cash in hand.
John — yup. I wrote about it here. Looks like a great bargain!!
Aldi’s Tevion DVD Recorder with 250GB HDD looks like a great deal but is it’s ‘inbuilt tv tuner’ a digital one? and if not does it have digital input so it can record digital tv from a separate digital set top box? Im there if so
Check this thread at DTVForum and hopefully that will answer your question.
Hi,
I see no reason why the Tevion HDD recorder could not be hooked up to a digital set top box .
I’ll know for sure this Thursday, and at $279. for a 250Gb hard drive recorder it is a GREAT deal.
Aldi I love you and your bargains…
Cheers,
John Gehring
Mooroopna.
Further to Aldi’s 250Gb HDD for sale this Thursday… after speaking to Aldi by ‘phone I have been assured that their sale price will be $279. Includes remote control & batteries, AV cable and has Digital Video and USB inputs - dolby digital recorder.
Can’t wait to get my grubby hands onto one.
why is the price are different from the first I saw….?
I thought is $279 and now is $369?
Mr Tee…
The price is $279. and very good value at that.
John G……
Only trouble with this unit is that if the power fails so do all your presets so if you are expecting to preset all your favs while you are on hols for example, keep your fingers crossed the power stays on.
Come off it Shawn…
Keep your fingers crossed that you don’t get ‘Nuked by some terrorists too..
or you might loose all your presets on your recorder.
I think I know where your fingers are.
John G……
Well thankyou John. Not sure which planet you live on or which electricity company you get your power from but power outages are all too common here on planet earth. I often go away for extended periods of time and have come home to see my clock flashing until I realised that any unit needs some kind of power to keep the clock powered up. In production this would cost less than a dollar to make provision for, such as a couple of AA batteries. If consumers expectation demand such things companies will quickly incorporate them in production. Unfortunately john I think you are the one with the misplace finger, but thanks for the thought.
PS to my last. I did forget to mention one other thing. It might have escaped your notice John but there is this small little problem called the greenhouse effect. Heard of it? These really pesky folk say that we should try and cut emissions and suggest we should turn things off stand by. I suppose it is unreasonable to expect manufacturers to understand this also and have their units capable of being turned off standby. Heaven forbid what anarchy that would create and what an onerious task it would be for as mortals to actually use our index finger productively by turning a few things off around the house we are not using.
Dear Shawn,
my Irish friend,
Seriously, I agree with all you say.. A backup battery of some sort would be great.
and I agree with what you say about the greenhouse effect.
Where possible I like to turn all my electricial equipent off standby but in the case of the Tevion recorder you would loose all settings and forever be resetting the clock.
So..you win.. I loose.. and will be productive and stick my index finger in my mouth in future.
Cheers,
John Gehring.
Hi all. I bought one of the Tevion 250 GB HDD, and have just set it up. The problem I have with it, is that the tuner “tunes” to a frequency andgives it a “program number” (eg P056) and a name (or channel No, eg Ch0058), but you cannot change these settings to say Seven, Nine, Ten etc for your local channels. Has anyone else noticed this? It would have been nice to have this function. Or am I doing something wrong??
Hello, Barry,
I had exactly the same problem and spent a frustrating hour or two trying to make the “Channel Numbers” match my TV station channels.
I eventually gave up …
Has anyone else had any luck?
I have some DIVX (avi) movies on DVD but my Tevion DVD Recorder with 250GB Hard Disc Drive, won’t play them. Can you help please?
The IceTV Discount Code has been stopped.
Hi all it’s me again. I didn’t have any success with the channel settings. I just have to remember that preset 53 on the remote refers to CH056 on the TV (you have to remember this CH No so when you set up timer recording the Ch No goes in, not the preset No - very confusing). However I am now having another problem. I tell the HDD to record one channel, but it records another channel instead. Anyone else having this problem? Thanks
Just thought I’d let you know that I took my HDD back to ALDI, and they refunded me the money, no problems. I still had the problem of the recorder recording different stations from the ones I wanted. Must be some bug.
I have purchased the same DVD recorder. Have the same issue with the channels. But this is minor.
I programmed 3 movies to record to DVD when I am away. When I came back the DVD was full, but is not recognisable by the recorder. It comes up with the message “No DVD” ?!
They are supposed to be my favourite shows! and now I don’t have them! :((
Can anybody help?!
Thanks, Sofia
Sofia,
I am afraid to say that in all probability you have lost your shows. I have had similar problems in the past when recording direct to disk on another DVD recorder which didn’t have a built-in HDD (which is why I bought the Tevion - for the Hard Disk Drive)
The DVD fills up, the recorder is unable to close the session and the rest is history. The data is there, it just can’t be accessed.
My question, though, is why were you recording directly to DVD, when you have a Hard Disk Drive with so much more space? You should have no problems recording three shows to HDD and playing them back. Then if you want to, you can transfer them to DVD later (or simply erase them off the HDD if you no longer want them).
I bought one of the 250GB HDD PVRs last week from Aldi ($199.00) … operated OK until Sunday, then displayed only one channel. Exit & standby-power RCL keys worked OK, but no others. Would’ve liked to have been able to reboot (no infm). A friend also bought one at the same time; his was getting very hot and similar faults were starting to develop. I took mine back and got a refund.
I have one of the “Set Top Box with 250GB PVRs from Aldi ($199.00) TPVR2511 and it is working okay except the picture and sound are simutaneously freezing now and then. I guess the aerial is the problem … not compatable. Once I have the antenna checked out the PVR should operate fine.
To the people who bought the Tevion with the 250GB HDD & DVD-burner … how happy are you now, 6 months down the track? Aldi have what appears to be the same unit at the same price from tomorrow, so would love feedback about it.
Just bought one morning.
Hopefully it has been enhanced.
hi guys
how do you copy a dvd to hdd on these units?
i want to load up my collection of kids movies on hdd but i
cant figure it out. i just bought it a few days ago
Geez it gets hot. I brought the 250HDD last thursday but once I set it up I noticed only after two hours of recording it became very hot. My brother brought the 160 HDD about four months ago and he said he’s is the same. Left on stand by cools down. Any one else have this problem.
not really, have it in a well ventilated area. How do you copy your dvds to the hard drive?
Has anyone got the answer to this.
cheers mm
Mine had a dicky remote control. Combined with the lack of proper channel numbers (c’mon Tevion, that feature doesn’t even cost you anything, just a proper firmware will do the trick), overall it didn’t give me a great deal of confidence to continue with the unit and I had it returned.
Hi, I have bought a Tevion TDR251HD Dvd recorder and cannot seem to tune in correctly to any TV chanels.
Aerial works OK to Set top box etc.
Any one had simmillar problems ??
Any solution / menu selection option !
After three months of working with the Tevion 250Gb I have the following to report:
Can’t change the channel description.
Unit freezes when reading faulty CD’s.
Unit sometimes has a problem reading USB devices and freezes.
Sometimes the unit will not copy from USB devices but it will play from them.
Overall I am very happy with the unit and will be buying two more as xmas presents for my adult children if I can find any.
My TDR251HD has just stopped playing discs. It refuses and I get a “Not Accepted” up on the screen. It did used to play Region 1 and Region 4 and discs I had burrnt. It now plays none of them. Now not even a CD. Can anyone help. I truly think this Tevion cr** is to be avoided. You get what you pay for I guess. I’ll be going back to Pioneer.
Is the unit region-free? I thought it was Australia-only?
We had a Tevion 250g hard drive DVD, no problems with it. Have since purchased Tevion set top box, and cannot get it to record anything in digital? Is it something wrong with our set up or is it just not possible to record? Can anyone help please.
I have a Teac HD ditial TV with only a standard set top box. I want to purchase a digital hd recorder, does this have an HD box in it so that I can also watch the HD channels..Now be gentle I’m 69 years of age & need plain language…Thanks in anticipation of you help. Sue
Bought TDR251HD in Nov 07. It worked for 1 month & stopped recording on timer. Took it back to Aldi’s supplier in Knoxfield Vic & got new 1 following week. Took it back next day as only 190hrs of 318hrs SLP recording time were showing on brand new empty HDD. Plugged in new one while still @ warehouse & it only showed 188hrs SLP. Tech removed HDD & put in spare he had laying around in office. It showed 290hrs, so I accepted it. TDR251HD still freezes while recording from tv & while recording to disc from HDD - particularly in hot weather. It gets extremely hot on top, but I have found if I keep a baking tray with freezer bricks on top to keep it cooler, it does play up less. I think when the warranty period is finished, I will be opening the unit & installing computer fan. I think overheating is its main prob.
I bought the smaller Tevion , 160 HD , last June , lasted 2 months , took it back to Brisbane and they changed it over for a Conia 250 gb on August 31 st. Came back from holidays last week and it is dead. Taking it back on Monday and they will change it over for a new Tevion - 3 rd time lucky I hope
Just bought Tevion DVD player for $35 from ALDI mainly for the USB function.
Bought 1TB (FAT32) $299 from Office Works, yes that’s right $299.
Plugged it into the USB on the DVD player, can’t recogize it.
Plugged it into the USB on the TEVION 250 PVR and WOW it works.
Call service centre says the DVD player can only take upto 250GB FAT32 HDD’s because of power problems with larger HDD’s.
Is that right?
Have a DVD HDD 160 and would not buy again another ALDI product. This one is now out of warranty, no interest in fixing it, buy a new one. After sales service, forget it once the warranty is finished.
I have the Tevion 250 x DVD hard drive recorder.
It too has stopped playing DVD’s an CD’s. I had this problem while it was still just in warranty but it fixed itself somehow. Now it is out of warranty and just won’t work.
Is it possible to put a dvd player from my old computer in it and get it to work?
It might be a long shot but maybe possible.
Cheers
Nigel
I have a Tevion 250HHD DVD recorder and a Tevion HD set top box. I want to connect them so I can record from the set top box, but can’t figure out how to do it. Can anyone help with instructions? (Please provide a drawing showing all the cable connections, if you can.)
I have a few foreign films in DivX/XviD and am disappointed with how the Tevion 250HHD handles “soft” subtitles.
1. It does not even recognize IDX/SUB files.
2. It does recognize SRT subtitles, but you must manually select it before playing the movie. Very annoying when there are two or more movies in a row.
3. The subtitle text appears all left-justified, instead of centred, and it tries to cram 2 lines into one line. Very often two words get jammed together without a space in between.
4. The subtitle “window” has a different coloured (or different shade of black) background. This whole window pops in and out together with the subtitles and becomes very distracting.
Overall, this handling of DivX subtitles looks very amateurish. I reckon they just forgot to tidy up the program code (software) for them. My friend’s Tevion 160HHD does the same, probably the same chip?
One good thing tho, it does let you play MP3 music and JPG photos simultaneously. This might be an unintentional bug, but I like slideshows with background music. ;o)
Have had a SD Set top Box with 250 GB HHD for a while now. It seems to get very hot. The HHD just froze one day saying it was full but still had 188 GB of available space left, could not record anything. Turned unit off on main switch on front panel to reset. Everything seemed to work OK but lost all recorded programs on HHD. Same thing happened again last night but no reseting will fix it. No HHD functions available at all now. Has anyone had similar problems or a fix?
Has anyone opened up one of these that don’t work? Is any of the components “unpluggable” or are they hard wired into the board? HDD/DVD/etc.
Wouldn’t mind getting my hands on one, just to get the bits and upgrade it, but the core CPU component seems like it is the problem - especially if it is overheating.
I have a Tevion TDR251HD. Does anyone know where I can get a detailed manual for this machine? Thanks
from past experience, you get what you pay for…
you pay peanuts, you usually get monkeys…
I have the Tevion SD 250 GB. I have had no trouble after I turned off the function that allows time shift recording. If you disable this function the HDD will go into sleep mode and hence the unit does not get so hot. Its a trade off between using the time shift record function or having your unit overheat. I personally have had my unit freeze up and I lost all HDD recordings. If I remember correctly I just did a full HDD format. Its been months now with the time shift disabled, have not had any problems. Hard drives can generate a lot of heat.
Hiy,
just acquired one of these (supplied in strange unprinted generic white carton) yesterday, after long-running battle to get a replacement of some kind for a failed Tevion TPVR1100 which went in early July. The mob ALDI have doing their service in Knox vic would have to be the most dysfunctional bunch service-wise I have ever dealt with, despite the flash looking premises they have if you have ever been there. I stopped counting in double-figures how many times Id been promised that a DVD recorder in lieu of the unobtainable PVR had been posted, only nothing to turn up, call ALDI again, whole process began again.Even their service email link now returns emails receiver unknown. Anyway, in exasperation, I went in there, and sure enough was given one of these TDR250HD units, plus a Conia DSTB, I guess because the TDR250 is not a digital decoding unit.You are expected to connect the two and have 2 appliances doing job of one. Fair enough, if you can, or actually not that worried even if it wont record in digital, as the only real difference between that and the PVR I had would be ABC2 ch22.
What I am after reading this blog is filled with some apprehension over the likely reliability of the unit, that it will lose its settings each time there is a common power outage?
That it will take it upon itself to skip recording channels from the one you have requested?
That it gets so hot you can fry a steak and eggs on it while you record something( which excessive heat always spells premature death of hard drive units of any kind)
that the recording function generally is iffy dependability and ur lucky not to casually lose the lot in a freeze or crash?I probably wont even be recording that many discs, occasional, but simply using it as a PVR 80% of the time…but in that capacity, a lot, almost daily.
That you will not even get your full allocation of 250GB but that it might be as little as a third of that budget available to start with?
The channel number assignments is also a bloody annoying and childish fault ….which the earlier TPVR1100 was ok in that way, from memory, and was also an easy set-up channel scan.
Bear in mind I havent run or used it yet,new in carton, Im wondering if it is better off sold on on Ebay for whatever I can get, and getting a HD one such as OMNI which may have most of the basic issues sorted out.
One final question- does it play region-free /R1 discs or not? If not, is there a hack code around for the player, at least ?
Grrrr. ALDI electronic products and their agent Pebble, even though ALDI customer girls have done their best on telephone when I have spoken to their people in Sydney.
Is this stuff basically re-badged Conia?
Should I be bothering, or **** it off while it is still new, as I dont want to get some complete TV drama series and other goodies TV wise on it only to lose the lot b4 I watch them.
Re: fixing overheating by switching off time-shift recording setting…what is Time-shift setting anyway, sounds like one of those buttons Ive never used on anything, unless without realising it.
I have the overheating problem with my unit … had it for the first time a couple of days ago, when I had the unit on for most of the day. Towards the end of the day, I lost colour on the unit - this returned after the unit was put into standby mode for several hours and allowed to cool.
Thing is, I *can’t* turn off time-shifting (which is the problem I believe, and which I don’t use EVER) … I’ve read the manual, I know where the selection SHOULD be to turn it off … but it’s NOT there.
Anyone had this problem?
Thanks!
P.S. Time-Shifting basically means the unit is ALWAYS recording live TV, so that IF you decide you need to dash off to the loo (or whatever), you can just press ‘pause’ on your remote, and it will record in your absence, and when you come back you can ‘play’ and catch up with your program again.
oh, yes, thanks, got it, might have come in handy last night while watching “Life” …I knew i was drowzy, and off I went.
But, its something I could get by without.
Record TV to hard-drive on command and by timer, have good playback pic quality, and be able to be trusted..is what i need from it, if it cant do that its useless.
Sounds like switching off that function is a good investment in the durability of the product.
Which settings does it lose when power is lost briefly?clock? thats a nuisance…wht about the channel set-up?
and oh yes, is the player a region free or it needs region hacking? The instructions seem to imply that it is R4 only, but of course sometimes that info is generic, or out of date, or deliberately evasive about such issues.
it’s actually a 251, not 250, I just realised. Is unit serial # about 8 million.
To my knowledge, the unit is R4, not region-free. Mine is also the TDR251HD. I contacted Pebble Ltd this morning about turning off time-shift, because Page 49 of the manual says the TimeShift Menu SHOULD have the following submenus:
* Timeshift Default Mode
* Timeshift Buffer Mode
* Hard Disk Info
* Space Management
* Empty Hard Disk
* Erase Optical Disk
My machine ACTUALLY has the following submenus:
* Timeshift Buffer Length
* Timeshift Buffer Mode
* Hard Disk Info
* Space Management
* Empty Hard Disk
* Erase Optical Disk
And it’s the “Timeshift Default Mode” that lets you turn it off, but I don’t have that menu option. They say it can’t be turned off “as time shift controls the entire unit”, which seems a bit bizarre - I mean, what does it have to do with DVD replay, for example? They then gave me 3 service centres I could send the unit to, which is even more odd, because it’s not broken as such, and doesn’t need fixing.
I’ve asked for further clarification …
Sheesh!
I was going to ask how you found Pebbles, but I guess youve answred that already indirectly. I havent attempted any kind of service advice as such with them, and I doubt I would, I think your chances would be better on blogs.
Who did u get at Pebbles, did you recall the name?
Anyway, as I said, the PVR was returned in early July, and ever since trying to get any action from them, continually prompted by ALDI, continually making promises about sending this 251 in its place, continually breaking that promise. The last convo I had on Friday afternoon, here is what I was told, by “bill” at Pebbles:
Well, give us another week or two, and if nothing happens, call me again”
the CS girl at ALDI agreed that that should be framed.
At risk of sounding politically incorrect, I think the place is a tower of Babel language and culture wise, they just cant communicate effectively internally.
I would not take as the final word the tech info they have given you, chances are its either lost in translation or else they honestly just dont fuqqen know the answer period.
Actually seems ok in most ways so far. One major win is that yes, it plays R1 DVDs no problem, no need for a hack code. The TimeShift I’m still having trouble making sense of how to work, let alone if it can be disabled or not.
The goto button is also causing trouble compared to the goto on the tevion PVR I had , it seems awkward so far as selecting a time point on a DVD you want to skip to, still dont have the hang of it, and there seems no effective “resume” or goto function so far as when ur watching a hard-drive file? If you stop it, there is no easy way to resume if from where you left off?
But some of the issues mentioned on this blog MAY have been resolved.
I have a tech question, actually. Pebble actually supplied me with a DSTB separate with this unit, which I havent connected to it yet…so that should make it possible to at least get the digital channels recorded through and onto the hard-drive? So therefor, if I obtained a HD DSTB, ditto I should then be able to rout the HD channels into the recorder?
What are the connections, antenna lead into the DSTB, an antenna lead STB to Recorder, and component connections output on from STB to input on Recorder?
The trick when watching the HDD is to use the ’segment’ feature - I now NEVER watch using ‘play’.
Once you’ve decided to segment your HDD playback, just click ‘ok’ at the start and end of every commercial break, and you’ll create ‘chapters’ that you can then go to easily in future by pressing the |<>| buttons.
I have my unit set up with a stb that I got recently from Crazy Stu (Hailo HDSTB 8000). The way I have it set up is aerial into the STB, aerial from stb to DVD, aerial to TV / Composite (??? - anyway the red/yellow/white cords) from stb to hdd, composite from hdd to TV.
Then when I watch live, I click ’source’ on the HDD to switch from standard analogue to the STB. When I record on timer, I choose CVBS instead of a ‘real’ channel, and make sure to set the STB to whatever channel I ‘really’ want to record.
Hope this helps! The STB also has HDMI which I think the Tevion also can accept, but my TV cannot (it’s a >15-year-old CRT), so I kept the connections Composite as that’s where my familiarity lies.
Catie
Hi
I’ve just bought a couple of these units and am having a few problems. Well one in particular. I’ve plugged the unit in, connected it up to the TV and turned it on. A nice blue TEVION screen appears on the telly but….
…on the DVD unit I get a flashing ‘hello’ and nothing else. The remote won’t open/close the drive bay or turn it onto standby. The buttons on the unit itself do nothing (except the power switch). No open/close, no source changing - nothing. It just keeps flashing hello at me in an increasingly annoying way.
I’ve been through the manual from cover to cover. Am I missing something? Is there a transport screw I’ve got to remove to kick it into life? Anything?
I removed the second unit from it’s box and plugged it in. Same deal. Hello hello hello…
Please help if you can
Cheers
Steve
Oh and I found this re hack for region changing. This should be handy when I can get mine up and running ;)
Region change procedure for Tevion TDR250HD DVD recorder
1. Ensure no DVD is in the tray
2. Enter 0086000 (the final digit selects the region code, 0=multizone)
3. Press Enter
You should now see a black rectangular box with a “0″ at the top LH corner.
To display current region setting and firmware version, press 0009 and then press Enter.
Steve, it seems like these things have been modified a fair bit from what they were when this blog began. Im not having any RC problems, in fact the RC response seems noticeably good compared to my Highlander/Mitsui DVD players and the Tevion PVR they gave me this thing to replace. The other good news as I actually mentioned earlier, is it needs no zone hack, plays my R1 vids both commercial and home-mades like beauties.Ive been watching all R1 discs on it, havent even actually put a domestic R4 in yet.
The things which have got me tossed a bit are the issues Catie replied to, it used to be that Tevion Hard-drives had the means to resume a HDD recording from where you last left off, if you had stopped it, they had a series of coloured buttons i think the yellow one was a resume button, ie, a 1hr recording, if you watched 33 mins of it, hitting the yellow??? button would take it back up from where you left off. This seems to have gone west…likewise, although there is a GOTO button, this seems not to do anything on HDD files, you cant pick a 25 min mark on a 1hr file and skip to it, and if you are 3 mins into a DVD chapter, and you realise you have already come this far and probably need to be at about the 20min mark, ur supposed to be able to GOTO whatever time point you want…but it is incredibly difficult to operate that feature effectively or get the hang of how exactly ur suppsoed to do it, you will continually enact an unwanted chapter skip, i find.
The picture quality of hdds I find is perfectly acceptable on the qualities ive used, whatever they are.
I dont really understand why it segemts things into 1hr blocks, but it then has a feature to enable you to splice them anyway.
their idea giving me a Conia STB to enable some digital; channel recording was a nice thought, but on what Catie and others say it is so awkward to record that way that u would not bother, so far as a timer program goes.
So I have gone down a step or two from the PVR in those ways, but have the ability to record to disc, if i want to, which Ive never done and havent even trid out yet, but seems straightforward.
I encountered no ‘lock” switch or anything, was up and running and its setup scan and clock set done quite quickly.
Thanks for replying Patrick
Re the locking of this thing - I’d suspected as much. I’ll have a hunt around and see who I can get hold of to complain/return the units.
Re the Regional thing… I’ll read a little more closely next time ;)
Thanks again
Cheers
Incidentally, that 1-hour automatic segmenting thing drove me nuts when I first got the unit, but someone else (I think on the DTV Forums???) told me that if you go into TImeShifting and increase the segment-time to 3 hours, then you don’t have to worry about pesky 1-hour segments in your normal recordings.
I’m going from memory here cos I’m not home, but can check later tonight if anyone’s interested …
Cheers!
OH, WELL, that sounds like a chance, yes, just snoop into the timeshift menu and increase segment size beyond what most recordings are.
Heres how stupid it is. Sunday afternoon I wanted the Gilmore Girls Everwood block on nine. 2 1hr shows, which you allow 5-10 mins past the 5pm finishing time in case they run over.
So you end up with 3 files, 2X 1hr files…plus an extra one for the extra 5-10 mins margin past 5pm you allowed.
So, you can splice em into 2 or 1, which admittedly is a reasonably easy operation.
a bit easier than a simple GOTO operation seems to be.
Anyway, pic quality TV show files is more than satisfactory.
My Tevion Personal Video Recorder with 250GB HDD is 11 months old and is now playing up. It will allow you to enter all details for a timed recording on the screen and accepts confirm OK etc.But it seems to then ignore it so it is not there when you re-check it and it definitely is not there when due to start recording.
Also, on the right of the channel number on the display panel, yhr figures 5:29 have appeared for days now. What does this mean?
I have still not been able to reach Tevion customer support and the warranty is close to expiry. Thanks
No panic folks, I am now able to set timing of programs to record now after running through many related and unrelated routines and trying every option shown- a temporary glich! Thanks for the opportunity to seek help. However, I still have the figures 5:29 always appearing to the right of the channel number in the display panel. What is this all about?
Mine is actually a treat-so far.Working well. What a damn shame the thing is not able to get the HD stations or at least the digi stations, means that when I record an ABC program , the poor signal strength is carried through, where that station is perfect in digital.But its efficiency has been 100%, and it is such a relief and pleasure NOT to be pursuing accursed Pebble Electronics.
Tell a funny story. In the packing of these units, they hide the remote control inside the foam packing blocks so that it is easy to overlook, I swore that I had no remeote, and contacted ALDI that I had picked this unit up(after giving up waiting for them to despatech it despite many promises) and Pebble dutifully contacted me, and promised me a replacement remote.
In the meantime, I had stumbled over it, imbedded in the foam block, but was too embarrassed to admit it.Pebble assured me a replacement remote would be out that week.
Almost 2 months later, Im stillw waiting for the unneeded RC unit, academically, to see if they would keep that promise at least. They didnt, never heard any more about it.
Lucky it wasnt needed, eh?
But its a good machine-IF it keeps going.
I still havent tried making a drink coaster on it yet.
Meanwhile I bought a straggler OMNI 550GB HD PVR on ebay, which is in the bedroom, as a backup. Both machines are working perfectly, so far.
Both machines have an annoying feature, when playing HDD files back, that you cannot resume a half-finished program from where you left off. Once you hit stop, you lose your place, and have to scan scan scvan forward to find it.
Picture quality on recorded TV shows on SP+ quality, is excellent, you couldnt ask for better.
Michael: I don’t have those numbers, but a question … have you had even a brief power outage recently? Because these units have zero tolerance for any power outages, and I’m wondering if 5:29 is May 29th, which might explain why your timer recordings weren’t working. Just a thought.
Patrick: there IS a way to “bookmark” where you’re up to in a hdd recording with the Tevion. I never playback using the “play” feature, rather I use the “segment” feature. Usually I press it once at the start of a commercial break, and a second time at the end of the break. It creates little “bookmarks” each time you press it, which makes it easier to start off from where you left off.
That’s not its intended feature though, it’s meant to be for editing out commercials or something, so you DO need to give each “boookmark” a “start” and a “finish” i.e. by pressing at the start and end of a commercial break, or by pressing once when you start watching, and a second time before you stop watching.
Hope this helps!
P.S. Patrick, the Tevion is compatible with external HDSTBs, I’m using a Hailo from CrazyStu and it works a treat, you just have to remember to set the “channel” you’re recording to “Rear-CVBS” (or SCART, or whatever) rather than eg “Channel 2″, and then remember to set your STB also!
Yes, I actually knew it was possible to record through an DSTB or HD DSTB, they actually pre-empted that by giving me a Conia STB with the DVD+250GB, as it was a replacement for a PVR1100 which had failed ( as they all seem to do) which they could not supply any direct replacement for, so attempted to make it up in two separate appliances. Which of course although possible to use it in that way is unwieldy, also, would make it impossible to timer-program 2 programs which are on different channels…there is noone there to manually change channels on the STB once the first show has been done.
Handy little unit though, and I couldnt complain, they were obviously trying to some extent, even though ther place is utterly paralysed when it comes to actually sending out items.
I assume if I didnt live 10-12 kms from Pebbles, with a means of grudgingly going there, I would still be waiting for the dvd250 etc.As im sure many people who dont have that option, are still waiting.
As I said to the British bird at Sydney ALDI, “you know, if they were forthcoming and said to me that the unit was here, but I will just have to find my own means of coming and collecting it, Id have shrugged and gone up there, but when they keep making promises, it makes me determined that they are going to make good on one ”
which eventually I gave in b4 they did.
So although I lost out on any real digital capacity with it, I gained on it can make discs, and it also has a quite effective DVD playback deck….which was even unexpectedly region 0, saved me zone-hack headaches, as 50% of what sets I buy are in NTSC.
I dont know how they overlooked that resume playback thing…as even the PVR1100 could do that…when you went to the list, and shaded an item, and hit yellow button (which this machine has the 4 coloured buttons) it would neatly pick up from any last point reached on an unfinished playback….or one of the other buttons would simply fresh-play it.
Hi All, I have had my Tevion TDR250HD DVD recorder for about a year, as long as I don’t have a dvd in the dvd drive I don’t have problems recording TV programs with timer recording. What I want to know is does the coaxial out send a true digital signal as i have just purchased a new surround sound system and it shows only a 2 channel signal coming through the coaxial lead. And can someone scan a copy of the manual and post it on the web. I threw my manual out by accident and it is a dead set pain in the arse
Hi all,
further to my last post I did some fiddling and found that if the HDMI port is used then the coaxial out is only left and right. But if you disconnect the HDMI and use the component video to the tv then it sends 5.1 digital via the coaxial to the home theater. Seems really weird to me. can anyone explain?