Starting Thu 14th May - Bauhn brand 320GB twin HD tuner PVR with 2 Year Warranty.
Receive all free to view digital channels
Seven day electronic program guide
Simple plug and play operation
Dolby Digital 5.1 channel surround sound
Integrated twin HD digital tuners
320GB hard disk drive
Converts between HD and SD
Includes remote control, batteries and AC cables
I don't think you're meant to, due to copyright and everything. I'm not 100% on that though, but I'm yet to see a TV recorder in Australia that has a LAN port on it. Sure, my computer has a TV tuner built in, but as for standalone products, I haven't seen one :)
The Beyonwiz DP series has LAN and lets you stream off or copy onto/off any attached storage network or USB. The DP-P2 also has a composite in to let you record onto it. They are around the $700 mark tho, and I haven't managed to get decent mkv playback yet.
Good price for a twin HD tuner but after read about the problems of this unit on whirlpool, I'm not sure it's a bargain or not. Admitted that was a previous model (with 250Gb hd) but judging from the comments there, it may not worth the trouble.
Definitely seems like there were problems in the initial firmware but most said their problems were resolved after the firmware update.
This unit should no doubt come with the newest firmware, hopefully bug free. For $299 it's a great deal and if it doesn't work like advertised you can refund it.
no doubt.
just in case, here's an aldi pinata you can hit if it fails.
http://aldi.com.au/au/html/offers/2827_8307.htm
How is this ALDI unit getting the program info? And how far ahead does it get it? Is this a real alternative to a Tivo?
I have had a (SD) set top box with hard drive for a few years now and there always has been an electronic program guide broadcast free to air - one channel is constantly updated with all the different offerings. Press the info button on the channel you are watching and it will bring up program details. Press the guide button and it will bring up what is on offer for the next few hours. It will let you scroll backward and forward a few days. Select any of the programs and press the record button and it will record when the time comes. I can also timeshift (rewind) and record 2 things at once. From my limited understanding of TIVO it sounds exactly the same.
1) All PVRs get the free-to-air electronic programs from air (in the broadcast signal)
2) Some can only do 1 or two days, other can get 7-day program.
3) I believe PVR (non-Tivo) units can do almost everything Tivo can (and in some cases more) except download movies onto the builtin HD. I think Tivo doesn't allow you to transfer saved content onto another medium while some PVR units let you do that - either via USB, DVR or put the HD onto a PC
Does this one have a usb port to connect an external hard drive?
Im not allowed to vote negative, but people need to know these units are slow primitive garbage. The sound drops out continuously when you record a HD channel, regularly records whole programs in 6 second blocks (200+ 6 second recordings for 1 program) Recording from the program guide is useless because you will not record the first or last 10 minutes of each program. The firmware upgrade was a waste of time and effort. I am told there will be no more firmware updates.
again have a look at this thread:
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1128470
posted already by
(timhn on 06/05/2009 - 21:12 ΒΆ )
shows all the problems people had with the last model.
many have been fixed with firmware updates, i still think its pretty good as your not going to get anything anywhere near this for that amount of cash.
so bargain in my books.
my Dads got one this morning.
you can rip the HDD out and read it with the PC
(but with this new 320 gig looks like you'll void your warranter)
http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1201261
aldi have a decent return policy to 60 days not happy just return it.
Its worth a shot to try out one of these for 60 days.
It looks like people were grabbing the TV's but not the PVR's.
Aldi Westfield Southland might still have some :-)
No, what I am saying is these are the problems left after the firmware update. They aren't fixed.
I am stuck with one of these things, don't get trapped. I thought that when the update came out all would be good, it added some nice features but didn't fix the big problems. You will be mucking about with it forever you never know when it will do the 6 second thing. you have to delete each recording one at a time or format the hard drive and loose other recordings you would rather keep, When you have to delete 250 files one at a time you'll remember what I have said.
I see on the Whirlpool forum that the 320Gb units are starting to go back to Aldi now,
There seems to be no use using the epg to record when it cuts the beginning and end off Top Gear
There seems to be no network port. How can I get the recorded program out of this?