Videocon D2H initial impressions

[baijuxavior]

After using RelianceHD for over two years I decided to give Videocon HD a try. Ordered one yesterday and the service guys installed it in the evening. Price is Rs.3250/-. Settled for 2.8K+200 for installation+200 for recording facility. One month south platinum HD is free.

Hardware

The STB is a new type, white in color, and very small. On the connectivity side you have HDMI, coaxial SPDIF, ethernet port, composite and component video outs and power input on the rear. The power socket looks like old S video input. On the left side there is a USB port which allows recording to make it a DVR. The accessories include hdmi cable and a wall mount unit which I have not seen in other HD installations. The wall mount unit is made of plastic and can support the STB and PSU. Very useful if you have wall mounted your TV. Ten meter Finolex coaxial cable is free.

The remote control is also white in colour, and it works on RF. You have to initially pair the remote with the STB. One advantage is that line of sight is not needed as in the case of IR remotes. It has very good range and can even control the STB from another room. Continuous keypress is not working. You have to press once and release volume (and channel) buttons to change the volume (channels).

Software UI

The STB takes around 20 seconds to boot. The UI is very refreshing and user friendly. One advantage I found is that you can actually use the channel numbers starting from 1 to store your favorite channels. No need to remember 3 digit channel number. There are four favorite channel groups.

Browsing through the different menu items is very fast. However channel change takes 3-4 seconds.

Picture

Picture quality of SD channels is not as good as Reliance HD, but is OK. HD channels look very good, but can see artifacts if watching from close distance.

Audio

This is where Videocon excels. Both HDMI and coaxial outs support Dolby Digital surround. All you have to do is set the audio settings to 'Auto'. Other options are 'Normal' and 'Surround'. While using auto, you can't control the volume if the audio is in DD. Mute works though. Most of the HD channels have DD.

DVR facility

The USB port can be used to connect a pen drive or external hard disk for recording contents. However you have to pay an annual fee of Rs.200/- for activating the recording facility. When you connect a pen drive it will detect the drive and prompt you to format it. So be very careful while using the recording feature. It will wipe out your data. All DVR features like pause, time shift, record currently viewing channel etc. are available. You can't record a second channel while viewing one channel.

The remote should be set to 'Compact' in STB settings for DVR functions to work. The 'OK' and navigation buttons will now act as the different buttons for recording.

Overall I'm happy with this DTH.

Edit - There is one SBS 3D channels also. However watching it is not easy on the eyes as the 3D logo, Nat Geo logo and D2H logo are always visible which is irritating.

 

[manzb]

Few queries. While recording

1. Is it only recording the media without any ad breaks?

2. Can we preset a channel and leave it for recording, while the TV is switched off?

 

[baijuxavior]

1. It records the currently viewing channel, by pressing the RED button. There is also a buffer recording for time shift and pause. The buffer time can be set in settings. It is usually around 30 minutes.

2. Preset recording is available. You can select a show in the EPG and set it for record. Series based recording is also available, but I have not tested it.

 

[deeceeds]

I have read it somewhere in this forum that the recorded file names is misleading at times... hence its difficult to locate the programme/episode that you want to playback frmo the recorded data... is that true?

 

[baijuxavior]

I recorded only a few clips and they were easy to retrieve. The window also shows a small thumbnail of the video selected.

 

[jsmithe]

Thanks for the detailed review. You mentioned that there is a composite video output. Does the STB have analog audio out via RCA too?

 

[baijuxavior]

I didn't test the analog audio out. Will test and post.

 

[deeceeds]

This is what it read..... I am not able to locate that post.. had copied this text... Let me know your views... I am deciding between Airtel and Videocon.. HD channels and recording facility is my main requirement... I have TataSky HD as of now... w/o recorder...

Hi this is my first post here. I have changed from TataSky+ to Videocon D2H DVR last week.

After 1 week, I can tell you that I regret switching from Tata Sky and am considering moving back to Tata Sky although I have paid 1 year of platinum subscription to Videcon HD.

Note that this review is DVR centric.

Background:
==========

I am a "power" DVR user, i.e. I rarely watch live TV, I usually record my favorite shows, serials, movies etc. and watch it when I am free. I also record a lot of cricket matches.

I have had Tata Sky for 5+ years. Like everyone else, I got tired of waiting for Tata Sky to add more HD channels so went with Videocon since it had the most HD channels when my latest annual Tata Sky subscription expired.


Reasons:
=========

The points mentioned by the original poster are relevant. I would like to add:

- Serial Link: The videocon dvr is advertised as "auto serial" recording but really does not have that feature. I have the latest loader software (version 44) as on July 26, 2013, but the DVR does not support the serial link. I sent an email to videocon on FB but no reply. Customer Care doesnt know about this either. Tata Sky has this nifty feature where if I click on a serial to record, it gives me the option to select either the episode or the entire serial. With videocon, I have to go into the TV guide daily to choose my shows. Also, I forget if I am recording weekly shows (for ex: Apprentice Asia every Friday). With TataSky it happened automatically.


- TV Guide: The TV guide takes forever to load. Also, not all channels on the screen get loaded. Usually the channel that you are most interested in does not get loaded. After 5 minutes I give up. You cant use the DVR effectively if you cant see whats playing easily enough!

- DVR Forwarding : One of the advantages of watching recorded shows or cricket matches on DVR is that you can forward through advertisements or the bowler walking back to his mark in cricket. Videocon has this annoying tool bar that occupies about 25% of the screen when you are forwarding, blocking the picture. Also, when you resume, it doesnt start from where you stopped forwarding. It jumps a little forward or a little back, depending on the alignment of the stars Smile Also, the forward itself is not linear...you cant see things forwarding smoothly like you would in a VCR or TataSky...you have to guess when to stop.

- Jump: After forwarding from 2x through 32x, Tatasky has this cool feature of jumping 15 minutes ahead. This is useful when you are trying to skip big sections (say a lunch break in a cricket match). Videocon doesnt have this and it is annoying to go to the recorded time of interest.

- Recorded Programs: You have to press about half a dozen different keys to go to your recorded programs to watch your program of interest. TatSky has 1 power key on its remote to take you there. I also couldnt tell if Videocon DVR began its recorded program from where you stopped watching last time. Tata sky has the option of resuming where you last stopped (I watch a hindi movie over 3 or 4 different viewings, so I find this feature very useful).

- Name of Recorded programs: When I choose the movie or show to be recorded, the DVR post recording, loses the names. So instead of "Revenge" I get "Sneak Peek" which was 15 minutes ago. Similarly instead of another show "One Tree Hill" my DVR shows that I have recorded another program "Sneak Peek" from 10:00-11:00 PM also. Now I have about 15 sneak peaks after 1 week of recording and I have no idea what is what. So Videocon DVR does not retain the name of the show you recorded, making it difficult to identify and watch shows again out of a big repository of 500GB of taped stuff. Tatasky works flawlessly on this. Similarly, the time based recording stopped about an hour in for no reason on Videcon. Never had such issues with TS.

- Remote Control, Non-Intuitive UI etc: I read these reviews too before I bought my Videocon but didnt realize it would be this irritating, so ignored these warnings. The weird layout of remote control, the non=intuitive UI to reach your recorded programs, the difficulty with which to navigate to your recorded shows, or to identify your recorded stuff etc. makes me miss TS more then ever.


Summary:

While I hated Tata sky for being expensive, for not giving me the best value for money, not giving me enough HD channels, I have stopped watching TV mostly with Videocon. (Maybe that is a blessing in disguise Wink I regret switching to Videocon since the HD DVR does nothing for me.

If at version 44 this is the UI and software of the DVR, then I will check with Videocon again after a couple of years. By that time, Tata Sky might have actually fixed their transponder nightmare and added more HD channels with less compression.

If you watch your TV mostly via DVR, then Tatasky is the way to go.

I wrote this, since am guessing many folks like myself are considering moving to Videocon for the better HD availability. For those not interested in DVR, your opinions would differ.

Happy Viewing!

 

[deeceeds]

I checked with a friend having Airtel DVR... Below is his response...


I use all features mentioned for Tata sky in my current Airtel DVR.
After 32X jumping (both in Rewind and Fwd) airtel jumps by 5 mins instead of 15 mins (TATA), which I think is better in Airtel than TATA.

 

[baijuxavior]

I have tested only the basic features. I will test the recording options again and post my findings.

 

[dino29]

This is what it read..... I am not able to locate that post.. had copied this text... Let me know your views... I am deciding between Airtel and Videocon.. HD channels and recording facility is my main requirement... I have TataSky HD as of now... w/o recorder...

Hi this is my first post here. I have changed from TataSky+ to Videocon D2H DVR last week.

After 1 week, I can tell you that I regret switching from Tata Sky and am considering moving back to Tata Sky although I have paid 1 year of platinum subscription to Videcon HD.

Note that this review is DVR centric.

Background:
==========

I am a "power" DVR user, i.e. I rarely watch live TV, I usually record my favorite shows, serials, movies etc. and watch it when I am free. I also record a lot of cricket matches.

I have had Tata Sky for 5+ years. Like everyone else, I got tired of waiting for Tata Sky to add more HD channels so went with Videocon since it had the most HD channels when my latest annual Tata Sky subscription expired.


Reasons:
=========

The points mentioned by the original poster are relevant. I would like to add:

- Serial Link: The videocon dvr is advertised as "auto serial" recording but really does not have that feature. I have the latest loader software (version 44) as on July 26, 2013, but the DVR does not support the serial link. I sent an email to videocon on FB but no reply. Customer Care doesnt know about this either. Tata Sky has this nifty feature where if I click on a serial to record, it gives me the option to select either the episode or the entire serial. With videocon, I have to go into the TV guide daily to choose my shows. Also, I forget if I am recording weekly shows (for ex: Apprentice Asia every Friday). With TataSky it happened automatically.


- TV Guide: The TV guide takes forever to load. Also, not all channels on the screen get loaded. Usually the channel that you are most interested in does not get loaded. After 5 minutes I give up. You cant use the DVR effectively if you cant see whats playing easily enough!

- DVR Forwarding : One of the advantages of watching recorded shows or cricket matches on DVR is that you can forward through advertisements or the bowler walking back to his mark in cricket. Videocon has this annoying tool bar that occupies about 25% of the screen when you are forwarding, blocking the picture. Also, when you resume, it doesnt start from where you stopped forwarding. It jumps a little forward or a little back, depending on the alignment of the stars Smile Also, the forward itself is not linear...you cant see things forwarding smoothly like you would in a VCR or TataSky...you have to guess when to stop.

- Jump: After forwarding from 2x through 32x, Tatasky has this cool feature of jumping 15 minutes ahead. This is useful when you are trying to skip big sections (say a lunch break in a cricket match). Videocon doesnt have this and it is annoying to go to the recorded time of interest.

- Recorded Programs: You have to press about half a dozen different keys to go to your recorded programs to watch your program of interest. TatSky has 1 power key on its remote to take you there. I also couldnt tell if Videocon DVR began its recorded program from where you stopped watching last time. Tata sky has the option of resuming where you last stopped (I watch a hindi movie over 3 or 4 different viewings, so I find this feature very useful).

- Name of Recorded programs: When I choose the movie or show to be recorded, the DVR post recording, loses the names. So instead of "Revenge" I get "Sneak Peek" which was 15 minutes ago. Similarly instead of another show "One Tree Hill" my DVR shows that I have recorded another program "Sneak Peek" from 10:00-11:00 PM also. Now I have about 15 sneak peaks after 1 week of recording and I have no idea what is what. So Videocon DVR does not retain the name of the show you recorded, making it difficult to identify and watch shows again out of a big repository of 500GB of taped stuff. Tatasky works flawlessly on this. Similarly, the time based recording stopped about an hour in for no reason on Videcon. Never had such issues with TS.

- Remote Control, Non-Intuitive UI etc: I read these reviews too before I bought my Videocon but didnt realize it would be this irritating, so ignored these warnings. The weird layout of remote control, the non=intuitive UI to reach your recorded programs, the difficulty with which to navigate to your recorded shows, or to identify your recorded stuff etc. makes me miss TS more then ever.


Summary:

While I hated Tata sky for being expensive, for not giving me the best value for money, not giving me enough HD channels, I have stopped watching TV mostly with Videocon. (Maybe that is a blessing in disguise Wink I regret switching to Videocon since the HD DVR does nothing for me.

If at version 44 this is the UI and software of the DVR, then I will check with Videocon again after a couple of years. By that time, Tata Sky might have actually fixed their transponder nightmare and added more HD channels with less compression.

If you watch your TV mostly via DVR, then Tatasky is the way to go.

I wrote this, since am guessing many folks like myself are considering moving to Videocon for the better HD availability. For those not interested in DVR, your opinions would differ.

Happy Viewing!

Well u must have applied wrong settings for recording shows in HD DVR, plz apply the setting where HD DVR does not record 15 mins before the programme starts and ur issue regrading ''Nam of Recorded Programmes'' will be resolved

 

[rjames123]

I too bought the HD set top box today with 1 year Platinum HD pack for 7090.
I wanted to know if there is a way to quickly select only HD channels without going to Channel list or PIP ?

 

[baijuxavior]

I use favourites. There are four favourite groups, set one group for hd channels. You can add upto 20 channels in a favourite group. After this you can simply press the number of the favourite channel to access it.

 

[NGM]

I didn't test the analog audio out. Will test and post.

If possible,can you please check and update about this analog audio out?

 

[baijuxavior]

Sure, when I'm back at home.

 

[baijuxavior]

If possible,can you please check and update about this analog audio out?

Tested the analog audio out. The volume is very very low compared to digital and hdmi out. There is no sound if Doby Digital audio is selected.

 

[NGM]

Tested the analog audio out. The volume is very very low compared to digital and hdmi out. There is no sound if Doby Digital audio is selected.

Thanx Baiju.I was planning to move to d2h HD from my airtel SD.One problem i face is my HT(base model) does not have digital/HDMI in.So only option left for me is analog out from stb or audio through HDMI ARC which is working fine.My understanding is output from both options will be similar in quality.
Due to budget constraints i need to stick to current HTB for another 6 months.
Will videocon a good option for upgrade considering PQ and sound quality?

 

[baijuxavior]

It is better to use the ARC audio as the analog out of the stb is too low. PQ of SD channels is just OK. I would say RelianceHD has better PQ than Videocon for SD owing to the upscaling done at their end. I usually watch only the HD channels. Indian HD channels look much better than English HD channels.

 

[vpraveenis]

Hi, Congrats on the purchase. I'm interested in the DVR functionality with a external drive. Do you mean there is no internal drive to record to? Also while recording on external drive, what format does it store? Will it be possible to play the recordings in computer with VLC or any such player?

 

[baijuxavior]

There is no internal drive in this model. You can connect a pendrive or HDD to the usb port. The stb will format the drive so be careful not to use a drive with valuable data. Windows will not recognize the drive, so can't play the recorded videos in PC. The STB OS is based on linux so a linux pc may be able to view the drive.