Finally A DVR

As of yesterday, we finally have a DVR in the house. Unfortunately, it’s nothing as configurable and flexible as the MythTV box that I was trying to build not so long back.No, this is the very pedestrian, low-intelligence Philips DVDR7300H.

Just a few of my complaints after 24 hours of use:

• Its GuidePlus+ electronic guide system covers only a small subset of the channels that we receive. Important ones that are missing are BBC3 and BBC4.

• The maximum number of programmes that can be queued for recording is a rather pathetic 25.

• One can not elect to start the recording early to account for imprecise broadcasting schedules.

• The steps by which one can allow a recording to overrun are too rough: 10, 20 or 30 minutes. Why not 2, 5 or a user-configurable amount?

• There is only one tuner, so one cannot record two programmes at once.

• One cannot set a programme to record daily. A daily news programme, for example, would require three of the 25 recording slots: one Monday to Friday slot, plus a weekly Saturday slot and a weekly Sunday slot. This is just plain stupid.

• The machine offers the user no choice what to do when there is a scheduling conflict. I assume it allows the first programme to finish, rather than truncating it and commencing the recording of the next.

• The G-Link IR blaster was a pain in the arse to configure. I need it to work with a Thomson set-top box, which is what UPC’s digital cable package uses. The DVDR7300H requires you to tell it whether you’re using a cable, satellite or terrestrial set-top box, at which point it presents a list of manufacturers. Unfortunately, Thomson doesn’t feature in the list of cable set-top box manufacturers, so I tried telling the Philips that I was using a Thomson satellite box instead. Sadly, none of the infrared codes it sent to the UPC box were successful in changing the channel. Eventually, I got lucky by trying a bunch of different manufacturers at random. Telling the Philips that I was using a Motorola cable box did the trick, but it took a lot of time and energy to reach that point.

In spite of these and other shortcomings, it’s been so long since we were able to even record a programme from the television, that just the reacquisition of this basic functionality feels novel to me now. I’d still give almost anything to have my TiVo back, though. It could do so much more than the Philips DVD-R, which is essentially a piece of rubbish (no intelligence and a very poor UI), and was much cheaper, too.