For the longest while, we couldn't
figure out who let the standalone HD DVR die. To this day, we're still scrambling to find an answer, but thankfully DISH Network has stepped in to revive the niche while the search continues. The outfit's
DTVPal DVR has been
circulating for almost a century now (okay, just a year and change, but there's hardly a difference in the grand scheme of things), and Mr. Dave Zatz has done us the honors of unboxing one and setting it up. The unit actually doubles as a DTV converter box and an HD DVR, and Zatz found setup to be almost
too painless. Everything seemed to be humming along just fine at last check, so feel free and have a look at the gallery in the read link below before pulling the trigger.
posted Feb 1st 2009 4:09AM
I am not normally one to complain about the styling of electronics, but seriously, who designed this, and when? 1995?
I have VHS decks that look more modern.
Its so ugly it took FCC 15 years to approve it...
Looks kinda lame, This is the 2nd time I've been 1st 2nd or 3rd comment, I really have no life
iYawn
iFugly
uBOTHDIE!
Their logo looks like Don-Kat from Taiko no Tatsujin.
oh cool ... the remote is made by Playskool.
So is the rest of the thing...
Forgot about Comcast DVR's much?
What makes this notable is that this is the only subscription-less PVR that will record OTA HDTV.
With sites like Hulu and improving amount of OTA HD, you could get ride of your poor value satellite or cable costs ( $70.00 a month for 4 hours of programming that just repeats over and over? ).
Sat companies are fast adapting to the new environment.
I decided to get rid of my sat subscription last month, but then ,at no added charge, my sat provider (viasat/TV1000) began to offer a broadband distribution service that lets satellite subscribers choose when to watch any movie or programmme on any of the channels of the package which have been on in the last 48 hours via their broadband connection.
That means a minimum of 80 free movies a day plus all serials, programmes, cartoons, documentaries etc. that are , were, or will be transmitted by the company in the last 48 hours.
For a modest fee (about 3 USD per flick) a vast library of movies on demand is also available, even if with at least 80 movies a day for free, plus all the other TV, sat & internet TV resources is hard to imagine I would ever pay for extra content.
Definitely a smart move from sat providers to avoid being put out of businesss by new tech, uh?
Yeah, OTA HD is great. HULU great too. But, until ESPN HD is free, most "avg joes" gonna keep paying for cable/sat service.
Face it, HD Sports are probably the biggest selling point to a huge % of folk. And ESPN provides the largest % of that.... ;)
seems like plenty HD DVR's are available for purchase outside the US
Spamalot?
not cool matt
Just be careful, some markets don't have the required TVGOS service that makes this device work...
I don't care how it looks as long as it works flawlessly. You guys must be gay.
Somewhat confusing name for a television device. PAL, short for Phase Alternating Line, is a color-encoding system used in broadcast television systems in large parts of the world. Other common analogue television systems are SECAM and NTSC.
I think you're taking it out of context. It's purposely not in all caps, so it's meant to convey "Pal" as in friend or buddy. It's just simple marketing. This way, maybe when the vast majority of people who still don't know what the heck the DTV transition is going to do, they'll end up buying the one that sounds friendly.
Plus, you know, the number of Americans that have any idea what "PAL" broadcasts standards is going to be severely less than the number of Americans who don't understand the digital transition. Kinda renders the confusion to an acceptable percentage.
I think this would only be confusing to those of us who know that we should be looking for an NTSC model (although, I'm not sure if NTSC/PAL/SECAM applies to digital standards anymore). It's very rare to find a place where you can buy video equipment in the wrong format for the country it's being sold in, so while I agree it's probably not the best name, I don't think it will cause any significant confusion.
Standalone HD-DVRS = TiVo Series 3, HD, and HDXL. Done.
I believe the point was that this is subscriptionless. Tivo requires a subscription.
wow. i did some research and found that this costs $250. if it were $100 i might be interested but i could build a myth tv box for nearly this things asking price or just buy a used mac mini with boxee
how?two hd tv cards would probably cost 250 dollars alone i bet, never mind a harddrive.
@fred
HDHomerun has two digital tuners, works with any 'puter on your network and lists for about $160. Periodically goes on sale for about $30 off at Newegg. And that is one of the more expensive ones. You can easily build a myth box for $250 if you have some parts lying around and count them as free. But if you are buying all new stuff, $400 is probably the bottom end including the tuner.
hdhomerun looks interesting i guess. my problem with old system parts is they are power inefficient and loud much of the time. this of course can be solved by more money, but the more you add, the more over budget it goes. it doesn't include wireless remote, perhaps you can get a wireless mouse/kb, but thats also money. its a fun project but if you want a wife acceptable build its going to cost quite a bit more than what most people will want to spend, plus theres the time you have to spend online reading reviews/forums/guides on how to set this up right and buy the right parts. the investment is significant.
http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?t=1099071
I clicked on the Read link and got a nice little keylogging malware gift. Beware.