Wednesday, April 26, 2006
Digital Home's Canadian HD PVR Review
Posted by Jason Dunn in "ARTICLE" @ 12:00 PM
"Personal Video Recorders (PVRs), also known as Digital Video Recorders (DVRs), are devices which allow television viewers to "pause" live television, record television shows and skip commercial messages on pre-recorded shows. In addition to providing all the functionality of a PVR, High Definition PVR's (HD PVR) can record and playback high definition television signals. Digital Home surveys HD PVR's currently available in Canada along with in-depth feedback from over 300 Canadian HD PVR owners. In Canada today there are six different high definition PVR's available: The Scientific Atlanta 8000HD, Scientific Atlanta 8300HD, Motorola DCT6208 HD, Motorola DCT6412 HD, StarChoice DVR530 HD (which is made by Motorola) and the Bell ExpressVu 9200HD (which is made by Echostar)."
For my fellow Canucks out there, this is a beginner-level article about what PVR options we have here in Canada. Things are certainly better than they once were - my very first PVR was a ReplayTV I bought off eBay and had to tell it I was located in Helena, Montana, in order to get the time right. No programming guide data, so it was essentially a digital VCR that we'd program manually. Not a great experience, but it still transformed the way we watched TV. I now have a Motorola HD PVR unit with dual tuners, and while I think it's generally decent, the user interface and general ease of use falls far short of what I get with my Media Center Edition PC. It's the only way I can record HDTV however, so I put up with it until I can get a cable-card MCE solution in place - early 2007 perhaps?
For my fellow Canucks out there, this is a beginner-level article about what PVR options we have here in Canada. Things are certainly better than they once were - my very first PVR was a ReplayTV I bought off eBay and had to tell it I was located in Helena, Montana, in order to get the time right. No programming guide data, so it was essentially a digital VCR that we'd program manually. Not a great experience, but it still transformed the way we watched TV. I now have a Motorola HD PVR unit with dual tuners, and while I think it's generally decent, the user interface and general ease of use falls far short of what I get with my Media Center Edition PC. It's the only way I can record HDTV however, so I put up with it until I can get a cable-card MCE solution in place - early 2007 perhaps?
