Maplin Barebones PVR

[Inventive Software]

I spotted this walking past my local Maplin across the road a couple of weeks ago, and wondered if it's any good. It's on sale for £49.99, basically drop in an IDE hard disk and you're good to go.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?ModuleNo=221276&source=1&DOY=30m11

It supports most IDE HDDs up to 500 GB drives, around 250 hours total recording time, 7 day EPG, pause and rewind live TV. Basically, the standard issue stuff that you'd expect from a HDD PVR, except 500 GB support. What I wanna know, before I plonk for this and a (now they are stupidly cheap) 500 GB drive, is, is it any good? I've heard mixed reports which say don't use it as a primary PVR, but it's good as a secondary one. Some people have had problems with the EPG.

[2Bdecided]

There's a £3 discount on-line. Not sure about postage though! ;)

Could you buy one, try it with an old spare HDD, and if it doesn't work very well, take it back. Maplin are usually very good at taking things back.

Cheers,
David.

[Inventive Software]

The problem with that is the lack of money, being a uni student unable to find a job, and the lack of a spare HDD, since I bequeathed my 250 GB IDE one I had spare for over 2 years to my brother who can make immediate use of it!

[Inventive Software]

Hehe, I'm know I'm grave-digging, but I thought I'd update.

I took the plunge and went with it. Persuaded my brother not to use the HDD, and the PVR works fine with it (170-odd hours max on a 250 GB HDD, better than most), even though the hard disk runs awfully hot for some reason. Nearly burnt my fingers on it. :eek:

And found out how to transfer recordings from it to my computer. It uses some weird UDF file system with a few anomalies, but the driver I found works in XP, so I'm happy. DGIndex found the file alright, and this is the first TS I've worked with, so I'm very happy it works.

[2Bdecided]

Is the EPG any good? Reliable? Easy to skip adverts?

Cheers,
David.

[Inventive Software]

EPG is a bit hit and miss when it wants to display what's on, but looks better than my non-PVR Freeview box. Skipping adverts relies on manually forwarding / reversing, and the remote's a bit picky selecting speeds for forwarding or reversing, but it seems to work well. It's also got no text / interactive. In conclusion, it's not designed as a replacement, more a complement to your setup.

[kathyzhong]

Is the EPG any good? Reliable? Easy to skip adverts?

Cheers,
Hi David:
This is Kathy from a professional software company .I can answer your question .EPG is useful.

1* you can know the TV programme by a picure of it .
2* find TV programme quickly.
3* can schedule record,never miss any wonderful TV shows.
4* store your favourate TV programme in a list
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If you don't believe you can download from our official website spam link removed If you have any other problem ,please contace me .

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