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DTR-T1000 (YouView) Shortcomings

I was thinking of going for the DTR-1000. Really confused here, about what YouView controls and what it does not. Is the above saying that even in the non-YouView areas of pure PVR functionality, YouView controls all the specs? So addition of say, fixed skip forward/back times (rather than FF or RW) that do exist on an HDR-T2 don't and probably won't on a DTR-1000? And similarly for many other HDR-T2 pure PVR features that don't exist on the DTR-1000?
 
As the old saying goes, "never say never"! You're basic premise is correct. Youview does control most of the specs that you've come to think of as "standard" on a PVR and the DTR-1000 is certainly lacking many of those just at the moment. However, you could look at it in a more positive way in that it would only require a software fix to make it happen and YV are certainly making positive noises in that direction (on their forum) but you have to also remember that they are tied to the purse strings of many commercial broadcasters and so stuff like the customer being able to skip quickly over adverts is probably "verbotten" in terms of the whole Youview ethos... It'll be interesting to see what the "big" (?) update at the end of October will bring...
 
I was interested to see that 'Which?' has recently put some PVRs and Catch-up TV boxes through their 'Test Lab'.

Their score ignores price and rates PVRs on Ease of Use (60% of score), Versatility (30%) and Energy Use (10%)

They tested 7 PVR devices - the Humax HDR Fox T2 and Foxsat-HDR were top of the list with an overall score of 78% each (and a Best Buy recommendation) but the Humax DTR-T1000 is in 5th place scoring 61%, which is below the 3rd placed Samsung SMT-S7800 at 64% and the 4th placed Sony SVR-HDT1000 at 62%.

'Which?' note that the DTR-T1000 is the first YouView box on the market, and say it is "promising" but comment that at the moment it is somewhat "hit and miss". They say it has some great features but "falls short of the mark in several important areas". YouView "confirmed that future software upgrades will address many of these areas".

Looking through 'Which?'s review of the DTR-T1000, the points that jumped out at me were:

"The timeline shown on screen (for EPG) is one-and-a-half hours. This is shorter than normal, and means more scrolling around"

"the search function only scans the catch-up TV content, which means you can't easily find a programme that you want to record in the future"

On-demand catch-up content plays smoothly "provided you have a good internet connection (upwards of 3Mbps)"

"Another omission is a lack of a folder system for storing recorded programmes ... YouView puts everything into one long list"

"There's no wi-fi and no way to add it. You'll have to connect a cable to your broadband router or ... use powerline adaptors"

"There are two USB ports, but their usefulness is limited - you can't view photos or play videos from external drives"

"The remote control is well laid-out, but there's no button to directly access recorded programmes .... And although you can fast forward recordings, there's no skip function for jumping through in blocks of time"

"Boot times and energy use are another serious issue. In the high eco standby mode it only uses 0.25W, but takes two minutes to boot .... the low eco mode reduces the boot time to 18 seconds, but ... uses 18W ... likely to cost £23 a year more in running costs."

So I think I'll be sticking with my HDR-Fox box!

(Incidentally, for TV Streaming devices 'Which?' give a Best Buy to the Roku LT (about £50) which they score at 71%. "Tiny box, not much larger than a pack of cards ... delivers smart-TV features to owners of conventional sets. Connects to the internet via wi-fi to access online streaming services, and photo-sharing websites and internet radio". "It can't stream YouTube videos and doesn't have ethernet connectivity" so you need to have a good wi-fi signal to make it work.)
 
Some of the functionality issues will be addressed in updates I'm sure, there has been some mention of skip.

DelftBlue said:
"There's no wi-fi and no way to add it. You'll have to connect a cable to your broadband router or ... use powerline adaptors"
Click to expand...

This isn't quite true, maybe not as convenient as they would like but I know THIS (click) would work (appropriately configured), and there are similar things out there with fewer options for less money. It could be powered from one of those redundant USB sockets!
 
I had a quick look at the Roku LT box as I was keeping an eye on the R-Pi developments for making an old telly connect to the recordings library on the Hummy and NAS. While checking the Roku out (which looks OK compared to the price of the Pi and associated setting up) I spotted it saying it could connect to a service called Crackle which allows free access to a movie library (I guess not top box office stuff but free is always good) - so can this Crackle thing be put onto the Hummy (in the custom portal presumably (or is that assumably??;)))
 
DelftBlue said:
(Incidentally, for TV Streaming devices 'Which?' give a Best Buy to the Roku LT (about £50) which they score at 71%
Click to expand...
Curious that if they were truly ignoring price to choose something which has limited access to online content.
 
CPN said:
"Tonight's" update? Where was this publicised and what time does it start?
Click to expand...
Announced 3 weeks ago by the youview CEO! 30th October. All over the Internet!

2am is when the box searches, but whatever time youview send it out. The 2nd September update was in the afternoon if I remember. You can do manual updates.
 
cj136uk said:
Announced 3 weeks ago by the youview CEO! 30th October. All over the Internet!

2am is when the box searches, but whatever time youview send it out. The 2nd September update was in the afternoon if I remember. You can do manual updates.
Click to expand...
Well, I've received no e-mails from the YV team since the end of the Trials Team period and after the forums went public! Nice of them to keep all their original trialists informed! Not! Not to worry, I'll go try a manual just now...
 
CPN said:
Well, I've received no e-mails from the YV team since the end of the Trials Team period and after the forums went public! Nice of them to keep all their original trialists informed! Not! Not to worry, I'll go try a manual just now...
Click to expand...
That was the trial over. They have an internal trial team, the the external trial ended.
 
Tonight? I suspect the automatic update will be tomorrow night although it may be available for manual update at some point during the day.
 
@cj136uk - I know the external trial ended. I was very active on it for over 7 weeks. My point was that the last mail sent out by them, to the whole team (of which I was a member), promised that they would still communicate with the original trial team members in the future as and when appropriate... (and the fact that that didn't last long after they threw the main forums we were using open to the general public...)
 
gomezz said:
Tonight? I suspect the automatic update will be tomorrow night although it may be available for manual update at some point during the day.
Click to expand...
Gomezz always the optimist!

I said I thought afternoon!
 
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