Truevisions (ubc) Dvr Is Here (finally....)

[jbowman1993]

Initially advertised in April 2007, this month's edition of the Truevision magazine has the new DVR box for use with Truevisions. Doesn't mention HD capacity, but I had the missus call about it and here is the skinny.

Available as of March 17th. Box costs a little over 15,000 baht, and there is a 300 baht surcharge for the "Benefits"

i.e. 8 day advance schedule available, one touch recording for specific shows, blah blah blah, etc.

Just thought you'd like to know...

[LivinLOS]

Wonder if someone will code up EPG access for the dreambox systems..

[sahprite]

I am picking up my free set on Saturday as part of the testing of the new system. I believe 100 of us 'lucky' people get it for 30 days to test it out and give them some feedback. I am surprised to hear they are releasing it for everyone before the trial period is over but this is Thailand.

Looking forward to having a new toy to play with but I still think I'll have the same old complaints about quality of sound and vision. At least it should make it easier to choose what I want to watch and when I want to watch it.

I'll let you know what I think of it next week.

[mobile69]

How much do these recording units normally cost now? And 300bt extra per month to get what should come free! I remember about 6 yrs ago UBC offered to sell their "lucky" customers the satellite receivers & dishes for a price that would take about 10yrs to pay off at the monthly rental fee of 155bt normally charged! And of course you'd be responsible to repair if faulty!! Amazing UBC/True.

[jbowman1993]

I am picking up my free set on Saturday as part of the testing of the new system. I believe 100 of us 'lucky' people get it for 30 days to test it out and give them some feedback. I am surprised to hear they are releasing it for everyone before the trial period is over but this is Thailand.

Looking forward to having a new toy to play with but I still think I'll have the same old complaints about quality of sound and vision. At least it should make it easier to choose what I want to watch and when I want to watch it.

I'll let you know what I think of it next week.

The March Truevisions magazine features the PVR box on the cover. Looks like its finally here.

Sahprite - Im looking forward to that review/update you promised!

[dekka007]

With apparently Component out - now perhaps we will get decent picture quality on our plasma's and LCD's.

[sungod]

I thought about getting one too, however then I realised that if I miss a programme/movie I should be able to catch it later in the week as they usually get repeated about 6 times.

[sahprite]

I've had my PVR on test for a couple of weeks now and I thought it was time to share my thoughts.

It was a huge disappointment in the first week as the operation of it all was painfully slow and incomplete and I was ready to put it back in its box after about 3 days. A call to True was enough to prompt a software update which was done the next day. That made a huge difference and it is now much easier and efficient to use.

Some people are thinking that it will improve the picture quality....nope! It's still the same poor quality it's always been. I haven't used the American Tivo system, only the British Sky+ system, and it is a bit similar to that. I am amazed that they have managed to input 8 days of programme schedules as they could barely manage what was currently showing before. They have not managed to provide a menu that shows an evening's worth of shows at one time. In this respect it is worse than the standard box as you can only view 1 show at a time for a given section of channels. You then have to pick one channel at a time to view what they are showing that day/night. The recording of shows is very simple to do and it allows you the option to record the entire series if you want. The PVR has missed a couple of shows in this option so far but I'll give them the benefit of the doubt and put it down to early days mistake.

They (True/UBC) have followed up with a couple of calls and emails to check on the testing and seem eager to please. Hopefully they will update the software again soon to iron out the early problems.

The football function is a simple enough feed of the scores as they come in from the games and may be usefull if you don't have access to teh internet, otherwise I won't use it.

There are 3 games which even my 9 year old found dull. They have the old golf game that some folks will remember from early PC days almost 20 years ago. Funny to see again but not something I will be using again.

The food delivery function was removed on the software update so I can't comment on that.

The box has a USB and Ethernet connections but they told me not to use them. The remote is big and chunky and much more comfortable to use than the standard one but the layout of the controls is all over the place and not grouped together in a logical way.

I was told 2 weeks ago when I collected the PVR that it would be available in mid March (now) to the public at about 17,000 baht and for 300 baht per month. I was also given the choice to buy my unit for 13,300 baht after the test was over.

Overall it has to be said that it is a step forward for Thailand but it is still way behind what is available in the more technically advanced parts of the world. If they had upgraded the quality of picture I might have considered this new toy after the 4 weeks are up. However, as I have finally turned to the dark side and started 'sharing' all the new shows from the US and the UK over the internet and then stream them from my laptop to my PS3 and onto my TV, I find it impossible to justify the expense. It's simply not worth it...for me. There may be some of you who will love it.

If you have anymore questions about it just let me know and I'll try to answer them.

Sahprite

[dekka007]

No picture improvement even using the Component out? - Must be a major improvement over the coaxial or S-Video out are using?

[sahprite]

I'm not much of a techy but if the component cables are the 3 red, yellow and white cables then, yes, they do have them. I also use them on my standard box and I cannot see any difference in picture quality.

I do have a 46 inch 1080p screen and it certainly does exaggerate the poor quality even more than a CRT tv however, I still cannot see any difference from the standard box. I don't think cables dipped in gold would make any difference to the quality of signal that they broadcast.

I stand ready to be corrected by the technically minded amongst us.

[LivinLOS]

No the red white and yellow are not component outputs, thats a single composite (the worst output) and the 2 (stereo) audio outputs. Component would be marked red green blue (RGB) and also have an audio output.

Component can actually mean quite a few different signal types but here in asia when discussing component 99% of the time people mean YPbPr which bizarely (considering the color coding) are not taking red green and blue on each channel but luma / chroma info.

[mads]

Here's some more info.

http://pvr.truevisionstv.com/marketing/pvr_demo/index.html