Humax PVR9200T & OAP's......

[laser]

Having bought a Humax 9200T for my parents for christmas to replace the old video recorder, what a day! I wish I hadn't.

If the Humax is supposed to be one of the more simpler PVR's to operate (and I think it is, having used it for one week before setting it up for my parents) then god help the oldies when analogue TV is switched off and they have to use a DVD reocrder or PVR.

The concept of chase play or pausing live time is beyond my parents. Even talking them through it for several hours with many demos they just could not grasp the concept. They hated the EPG as it looked too complicated and had too much information displayed on the pages.

I though I'd cracked it though with the ability to record two programmes at the same time until my father decided he wanted to record Doctor Who on BBC1, Millionaire on ITV1 and watch the History channel. As the multiplex's are different he couldn't watch the History channel. That was it. He decided it was too complicated.

The final nail in the coffin was that Teletext was different, most pages don't have numbers displayed and you navigate to a page via menus. He thought this was stupid!!! I did explain that you could enter a page number directly but there isn't a comprehensive index like on analogue. THe main page have numbers but not all pages. He also discovered that the holidays on Teletext Holidays are far fewer than on analogue teletext which was a major drawback in his eyes.

Anyhow it's going back for a refund......and the video is back in action.

Bare this in mind if buying a PVR for non techie parents. Save yourself the hassle.

[ROYOLD]

.....or purchase the Digifusion FVRT 200.

[laser]

Is the FVRT 200 any easier to use than the Humax?

It certainly won't solve the Teletext problems and I don't really see how pausing live TV could made any easier than on the Humax but I'm only too happy to take a look at the FVRT 200 to see if it is easier to use.

However I think the whole concept of hte PVR is just too much them to grasp.

[ROYOLD]

Hi laser. Well I am 71 so I guess I qualify as an OAP. I manage the Humax, Topfield and Digifusion quite well and recently purchased the Aldi PVR 101. I find them all reasonably easy to operate altho the Digifusion is probably the simplest to use. Were I a bit older say eightyish then you are probably right and I would find PVR's difficult to use. It may even come earlier than that. I find myself doing strange things now on the odd occasion and I don't suppose the outlook is good. Let them persevere a bit longer. I think the Humax and Toppy have too many functions anyway. Most of them I do not use.

[laser]

Thanks forthe advice royold. I think I will check out the Digifusion. It certainly seems to get good reviews and would appear to be the most bug free PVR aswell. If it is easier to use then that would great.

I can see it from their point of view....if you've been doing something for 20 years i.e. opering a VCR and viewing teletext and the whole process changes, to what seems a more complicated method of doing something the same, then I can fully understand any resistence to changing the way you do it. The logic behind a PVR was to lay the ground work for recording a higher quality TV picture for when they replace their old TV as they want a larger slimline LCD set. A video recorder IMP would not produce a good picture on a high resolution set.

[laser]

Originally Posted by ROYOLD

and recently purchased the Aldi PVR 101.

Have you run into any of the known problems with the Aldi PVR 101 i.e. not recording sound on ITV2, changing channel results in no signal and failed timer recordings?

[ROYOLD]

The only fault encountered, and which is still evident, is the lack of sound on ITV1 (button 3)
when first selected. As pointed out in the thread
on this machine by selecting button 9 first then switching to 3 sound is obtained on the ITV channel. Haven't had any trouble with recordings and have made these direct from the epg and also from timers. Worked fine. Techno Trend have an update for this machine scheduled for 29 - 31 December repeated 6 - 9 of January 2006. Quicker with this than Humax have been - still waiting one for the 9200t (OTA that is).

http://www.dtg.org.uk/retailer/download_schedule.pl

[laser]

Thanks for the link. Very interesting.

[Matthoulb]

My gran is 80 something and i get called out every so often to set the video for her, oh and tell her a few (!) times how to actually play the tape. I think half the problem is having more than one remote and i did think a PVR would be a great solution. But you have me concerned!

I personally run a Windows MCE computer and the TV section of that is VERY easy to use, unfortunatly i've never used a standard PVR box so have no idea how they compare for ease of use.

What i 'thought' would be a good idea (but on reflection is probably not worth bothering with), is to setup the PVR and have it record all her shows. She watches the same things every day (all the worst soaps!) so i thought i'd just set these to always record, and for there to be a button to press that brings up the list of recorded shows, and you just select one to play.

Is it simply a case of selecting a show from the guide, pressing a red button, and it records? Or is there more to it than that? and is there a screen that just shows 'recorded tv' in a simple list?

Thanks

[laser]

Originally Posted by Matthoulb

Is it simply a case of selecting a show from the guide, pressing a red button, and it records? Or is there more to it than that? and is there a screen that just shows 'recorded tv' in a simple list?

Thanks

Yes, that is pretty much all you have to do. The Humax doesn't even need to go into Standby to record. The problem my parents had was the EPG showed a lots of information on one page which they found difficult to comprehend and they couldn't cope with using the remotes navigation controls to access the next days programmes. What to us would seem so simple, they find very difficult.

In my fathers case his eye sight is not great. He can see the TV OK but has trouble reading the text on the remote control. Therefore anything involving pressing buttons takes him ages. To record a programme from the EPG would take me around 10 seconds if the programme was on tomorrow. It took him around 3 minutes. I'm sure he would have got used to it in due course but he decided it was all too complicated and have reverted to the video recorder and Radio Times.

I will take a look at the Digifusion box but I think they will have exactly the same problem as with the Humax.

Its a shame as I was going to get them a LCD TV. But to be quite honest its probably a total waste of time if they are recording loads of TV to a video recorder. They might as well get a large, cheap CRT and save the money. The picture will at least look better than on a LCD set when watching a video tape, esecially when the majority of programmes are timeshifted and not watched live.

[ROYOLD]

A reasonable review of the Digifusion FVRT200 is listed on this website :

http://www.pvr-guide.com/archives/pv...vrs/index.html

Oh crumbs, I have never thought of myself as a non-technie oldie and stupidly did not even think that upgrading from a VCR recorder to a DVD recorder would be a nightmare.

But having battled unsuccessfully with a new Toshiba RD XS 23 Recorder I bought today, I completely identify with Laser’s parents. Dare I ask what a PVR is?

And my Teletext has completely disappeared; if ever I find its hiding place, am I to assume it will be in disguise.

Long live videotape!

Golden Oldie

[longleyc]

Heh Janet.
I have elderly relatives with all the above problems.
Their brand new Sony DVDR has never been used in anger in 18mths.
What a waste of money.
But i know itll happen to me too. (I`ll never be able to work the teleportation pods when im 80).

[LV426]

It's all really so sad. In principle, a PVR should be so much easier to use than videotape. No running out of tape, winding, rewinding, finding an empty bit, erasing something important by mistake..............

Yet sadly, most software designers are so interested in making it work at all (an area in which they are often lacking anyway) and/or providing additional bells and whistles beyond the basic function, that they fail utterly to produce a wholly intuitive UI. And omit important features (like autopadding).

Every PVR I've seen (with the possible exception of the Pace Twin) has some element of the UI that - from a user's persective - is poorly thought out.

[Richard46]

Originally Posted by LV426

Every PVR I've seen (with the possible exception of the Pace Twin) has some element of the UI that - from a user's persective - is poorly thought out.

Absolutely; the Pace Twin UI is beautiful; the first and the best. (shame about the other problems) My 80 year old mum uses one with no probs. Until today that was; she hides remotes when she is out so burglers wont find them and cannot remember where she hid the Pace one. Dooh. back to terrestial.

Anyone interested in an aged parents and technologhy support group? We could swap parents perhaps to eliminate the emotional baggage.