Maplin Bareback Twin Tuna PVR
 

"Adrian C" wrote in message
...

Just got one of these. The tuners are not very sensitive - I get
breakup on it but not on a BT Netgem on the same aerial and lead.

On another dual tuner Freeview PVR (Tvonics DVR-FP150) some users noticed
an improvement with changing the supplied inter-tuner lead for something a
bit better. Maybe that might apply for yours?

The really interesting thing to test it weather a low noise pre-amp improves
the performance or not.

--

Brian Gregory. (In the UK)

To email me remove the letter vee.

Maplin Bareback Twin Tuna PVR
 

"Brian Gregory [UK]" wrote in message
...
"Adrian C" wrote in message
...

Just got one of these. The tuners are not very sensitive - I get
breakup on it but not on a BT Netgem on the same aerial and lead.

On another dual tuner Freeview PVR (Tvonics DVR-FP150) some users noticed
an improvement with changing the supplied inter-tuner lead for something
a bit better. Maybe that might apply for yours?

The really interesting thing to test it weather a low noise pre-amp
improves the performance or not.

The problem with wide-band aerial pre-amps tends to be cross-modulation.
With the analogue TV transmitters still in operation the chances are high
that a pre-amp will make matters worse. Of course you could employ
channel-specific pre-amps, but this would be expensive.

David.

Maplin Bareback Twin Tuna PVR
 

"David Looser" wrote in message
...
The problem with wide-band aerial pre-amps tends to be cross-modulation.
With the analogue TV transmitters still in operation the chances are high
that a pre-amp will make matters worse. Of course you could employ
channel-specific pre-amps, but this would be expensive.

Yes, if you have massively strong analogue signals while your digital
signals are weak you will have major problems.

What I'm saying is that a poorly performing freeview box might just seem
insensitive because it's front end has a poor noise figure or picks up noise
from its digital circuitry in which case its usually fixable by adding extra
low noise gain while another might be a poor performer for other reasons
where nothing at all can be done about it.

--

Brian Gregory. (In the UK)

To email me remove the letter vee.

Maplin Bareback Twin Tuna PVR
 

Keith G wrote:


"Ashley Booth" wrote in message
...
Gio wrote:


Thanks for the tip Keith. With luck it will be delivered on Wed
so no report for a bit. It seems a little strange that the
machine plays dead when a drive is fitted. I would have thought
the machine would have set about formatting the new drive on
boot-up then would have been ready for tuning. By the way what
is ukra ? The only thing I know with those letters are The
United Kingdom Rocket Association (UKRA) as in www.ukra.org.uk/
If it means something else then you will have to let me know
because my isp does not list ukra on the newsgroup list.

Gio

Just got one of these. The tuners are not very sensitive - I get
breakup on it but not on a BT Netgem on the same aerial and lead.


Yep, I've discovered it needs a decent aerial then no problems!


Biggest drawback found so far is
NO subtitles!



Must be the programme, Ashley - I've just checked BBC1 and subbies
are there (and off again) at the press of a button.

The one quirk I think I've found is if you hit the Record button
(effectively a One Touch Record button) to grab a programme it seems
to need 'confirming' (at the 2 hour default recording period) by the
second press of the button and then 'OK' - otherwise it can chunter
on recording to (presumably) the limit of the available disk space!

(It's no biggie - I can live with it, especially as I would probably
alter the recording period with a second press of the button as often
as not, in any case!)

Had a further play with it. Got the subtitles to work now.

Other comments.

Pressing MUTE 'mutes' the subtitles as well!

Very difficult to use the EPG more than a day or so in advance. You
right scroll thru the listings but after about a day or so in advance
the listings run out. You see them update but it then takes you back to
the present time. Very frustrating!

Selecting OK to record from the EPG is complicated as you are offered
the chance to alter the record time then you have to go into a little
sub-menu to activate the recording.

The item you are recording does not show up in the recordings list
until it has finished recording.

I guess I've been spoilt by having 3 TiVos. :)

Tried to give it to my mother(83) to use but she said it sounded too
complicated for her.

--
Ashley
For Windsor Weather see www.snglinks.com/wx

Maplin Bareback Twin Tuna PVR
 

Anyone know how long it should take to format an old 40Gb quantum fireball
HDD from a Tivo.Its been way over an hour now...And is this likely the fault
of the Tuna or the disc ?TIA


"Brian Gregory [UK]" wrote in message
...
"David Looser" wrote in message
...
The problem with wide-band aerial pre-amps tends to be cross-modulation.
With the analogue TV transmitters still in operation the chances are high
that a pre-amp will make matters worse. Of course you could employ
channel-specific pre-amps, but this would be expensive.

Yes, if you have massively strong analogue signals while your digital
signals are weak you will have major problems.

What I'm saying is that a poorly performing freeview box might just seem
insensitive because it's front end has a poor noise figure or picks up
noise from its digital circuitry in which case its usually fixable by
adding extra low noise gain while another might be a poor performer for
other reasons where nothing at all can be done about it.

--

Brian Gregory. (In the UK)

To email me remove the letter vee.

Maplin Bareback Twin Tuna PVR
 

"sonicwhirls" wrote in message
...
Anyone know how long it should take to format an old 40Gb quantum fireball
HDD from a Tivo.Its been way over an hour now...And is this likely the
fault of the Tuna or the disc ?TIA



Well my Maplin tuner formatted an old Maxtor 40Gbdrive in about 5 seconds,
just must have formatted the file allocation table.

Gio

Maplin Bareback Twin Tuna PVR
 

sonicwhirls wrote:
Anyone know how long it should take to format an old 40Gb quantum
fireball HDD from a Tivo.Its been way over an hour now...And is this
likely the fault of the Tuna or the disc ?TIA

That sounds wrong...

Err... you have qunlock'ed the ex-TiVo drive first? It will otherwise be
presenting itself as a 9 megabyte drive and probably freaking out the
new host hardware I'd think...

Also HDtune (http://www.hdtune.com) will tell you if the drive has any
issues by showing what's been logged internally to SMART counters.

:-)

--
Adrian C

Maplin Bareback Twin Tuna PVR
 

"Mark Carver" wrote in message
...
JPG wrote:
Sounds very fishy to me.

You can tune a radio, but you can't tune a fish.

You can if it's a tuna fish!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

:O)


--
Mark
Please replace invalid and invalid with gmx and net to reply.