[DarkKnight]

What's the chance of a redesign to match the Tranquil T2.e MCE design ?

(Blue glowing perspex....fwarrrrrrrrrr!!!!)

I have been sneaked pictures of the DMS III.

yes...erm...the legs are actually hollowed out and contain the next generation of storage, sponge.

Look at it this way, when the riaa and mpaa come raid your house, NOBODY will suspect that your old "betamax" is actually a state of the art recording device.

They will probably coo at it and say "cor blimey, I used to have one of those" while you calmly smile to yourself, safe in the knowledge that 400 pirated movies lie undiscovered.


Hi-Grade, keeping you safe with our next-gen stealth technology.

[itsfja]

Originally Posted by Werner

gigabyte silent 6600gt (thanks for spilling the beans...I was keeping quiet about that one, being passively cooled etc I have plans for it...)
Eval card will be coming in this week, we need to take some measurements. If you want one fitted to the xtreme, it will be ok.

Werner,

Hello, I cancelled the Elonex, good technical information, poor expectation management. I am now torn between waiting a couple of months for the dust to settle, ordering a system and hope its a survivor, or building a home brew. May I ask you some questions to aid me in my decision?

1. Above it is implied that the 6600gt may be fitted. Is this yet true and if so how may one accomplish this?

2. Is it a condition of the warrantee that customer modifications are not undertaken e.g. adding a shiny new widget card? If so does this extend to s/w?

3. As and when you offer improved or additional componentry, will customer fitting be tolerated or is it anticipated that there will be engineering field or factory upgrades?

4. Is the DVD shipped/field upgradable to multi region play? Would such a modification, if required, void the warrantee?

Cheers.

Regards,
Francis.

At the stage the above quote was taken, we were referring to our DMS Xtreme model, which can take any combination of cards/motherboards available.

Since then, we have pre-announced our intentions to fit the 6600gt to the DMS2. This will take about a month to materialise, as well as the digital tuner option. When it is available, it will be in the form of a new rear bracket, as well as the card itself. Anybody with a modicum of screwdriver ability should be able to fit it in about 5 minutes. We havent decided yet if it will be a back to base job, onsite, or customer fit...there are a mountain of possible issues we have to consider first. In the past, if you can assure us you are technical enough and carry responsibility, we have sent similar parts out to be fitted by customers. This *may* well be the case here, but please dont quote that as gospel.

Regarding customer upgrades, we do not have a strict policy on this as such. Competent customers are treated as such, however, obviously , if you damage the equipment via your own accord we will not cover that under warrantee. If you fit parts to it yourself that later cause problems (e.g. you fit ram, send system in because it is crashing, and it turns out to be the ram you fitted) then that wont be under warrantee either. I think it is just a case of using some common sense.

3rd party software is tolerated, off course. Our support teams may not be able to assist you directly with any problems with this software, but we will try where possible

Being a reputable supplier, we have to ship a region 2 drive. There are a host of utilities which can work around this, as well as firmware flashes available for download. Your warrantee will not cover a bad firmware flash on the drive. I think that is common sense too.

To summarise, it is YOUR machine to do with as you please, but, if you do something and it breaks a part we supplied, we wont be the ones carrying the cost for that. Once again, no loop holes, just common sense.

Hope this helps

[Razor]

I have to agree with the coment made about the looks. I personally prefer the DMS Extreme. Its a shame that its alot louder than the DMS 2. Is there any way of quietening the sound?

[itsfja]

Originally Posted by Werner

To summarise, it is YOUR machine to do with as you please, but, if you do something and it breaks a part we supplied, we wont be the ones carrying the cost for that. Once again, no loop holes, just common sense.

Hope this helps

It does indeed, I am hoping to borrow a machine from work for hdtv use for a month, if that works I'll wait for the upgraded specification. Cheers.

Regards,
Francis.

[kolabere]

Originally Posted by Werner

A new thread for the Hi-Grade DMS2 where you can discuss the machine or ask questions. I will jump in and help where I can.

(note: only started as the elonex artisan thread is getting offtopic and cluttered)

website: http://www.higrade.com/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=3254

review: http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/69291...s-ii-3400.html

Finally got round to reading the PCPro review. Very impressive.

Something I particularly like - from the rookie point of view - is the labelling at the back. This is an excellent idea Werner. I suppose in the fullness of time more of these machines will be used by idiots like me rather than AV aficionados.

I also liked the position opposite the Artisan ad, so it was easier to compare esthetic's - no contest really .

My twin digital Artisan is on the way.

[fusion7]

just finished setting up my DMS II...its truly fantastic...faultless!
thanks to werner for all his help!!!

[NutKracker]

Go on...post up a pic!

[fusion7]

Originally Posted by NutKracker

Go on...post up a pic!

See thread 'DMS II 3400 Picture'.

Okay Im convinced, first thing tomorrow Im canceling my order with Elonex and jumping ship to HiGrade.

I love the design of the case but then I always was in the betamax camp

Werner, would you mind see if you could chase my order along please , I will PM you the order number etc once I have it. Thanks

Jamiemc, thanks for your vote of confidence...

Because we are in full production swing on these machines now, any backlogs etc will be gone by monday latest, so any new orders (assuming payments has cleared) will only take a few days at most. I can oversee the order, but there is no chasing necessary.

While we are on the topic Chrise, CTID (and others) should all be receiving their systems Tuesday/Wednesday latest.

cheers

[fusion7]

ive been using the system for a couple of days now with no problems whatsoever...if anyone has any questions feel free to ask

If I can pre-empt some questions:

1) opinion of keyboard as this seems to be a contentious point
2) noise
3) heat
4) picture quality
5) haha, "vcr looks"
6) build quality
7) packaging, manuals, cables etc
8) remote control

There, in case you havent noticed, I am prompting for a review

[fusion7]

ok:
1) Keyboard - pretty good. The trackball is very easy to use and it is accurate. However, the keyboard is IR and as such, although the range is very good, does not allow the flexibility with angles that i am looking for. In addition, it feels a little cheap and therefore i will change it for the BTC 9019 @ £20.

2) Noise - no need to review this as it doesn't exist.

3) Heat - again, N/A

4) Picture Quality - Best i have ever seen through a PC TV capture card. I have a Hauppague PVR-350 in a Dell PC upstairs, and the picture quality doesn't compare to the Avermedia cards in the DMS. The DMS exhibits a cleaner picture, less image noise, more vivid colours and a brighter image.

5) VCR looks - lets face it, thats an exageration. When you get the machine, you willl see that this just isn't true. In my opinion, it looks far better than any competitors out there. The Artisan for example, with a redundant volume knob and a cheap looking front panel display that shows 5 characters. The DMS will actually say on the top line '501 - Sky News', bottom line 'Live at Five' for example.

6) Build quality - flawless. Its extremely well built, nothing loose or untoward. Much better built than any dell machine i've ever bought. More built like a Vaio S series laptop than the equivalent Dell Inspiron.

7) Packaging - ? well it was well packaged. Manual is very simple and easy to follow and would mean that even a total AV dummy could set the system up. Cables are all supplied. A SCART to composite adapter may have been useful though.

8) Remote Control - very responsive and works well.

anything else, please ask.

Well its done, Ive ordered it. Looking forward to getting up and running.

[zAndy1]

Which avermedia card is it exactly and where can they be bought from? I'm wondering if one of those cards would be a better option than the Hauppage PVR150 card I'm using at the moment? Sorry slightly off topic for this thread but sounds like an interesting card...

Cheers,
Andy.

zAndy1, it is the Avermedia a169-d dual analogue tuner. I am not aware of any place that stocks this card in retail form, sorry.

[zAndy1]

Oh well.. thanks for the info anyway

Cheers
Andy

[chrise]

Originally Posted by Werner

:While we are on the topic Chrise, CTID (and others) should all be receiving their systems Tuesday/Wednesday latest.

cheers

A little quicker than Elonex

Thanks

Hi,

I've followed the Artisan thread on and off & more recently followed this DMS2 thread with more interest.

I'm very keen to get a DMS2 (following PCPro Alist and comments here), however can someone please confirm it will fit my living room architecture:

1. 32" CRT TV
2. Panasonic Model TU-DSB30 Sky box (will the IRblaster work with this?)
3. Terrestrial aerial

I'd like to connect the DMS2 to the Sky feed and allow the EPG to function. Will I also be able to connect the terrestrial uhf aerial to the DMS2 to allow the second tuner to show channels from this to get the full functionality of record/watch two channels? I believe the EPG will not work on both tuners with independent signals - but can I at least record one and watch another?

Are my assumptions correct and can I expect any problems with this setup?

Thanks in advance for any reply.

Steve

sAVer, all your stuff looks fine, but you wont be able to plug both the sky box and the antenna into an mce machine for "watch one, record another" type viewing. As your research has shown, the epg wont allow this type of scenario.

What you can do is similar to this (seeing as all terrestrial channels are on sky anyway)

1) sky box into mce machine, from mce machine to tv via scart or svideo or whatever

2) terrrestrial aerial into tv...


then, when you record something off sky, you can still watch terrestrial tv via switching the channel to terrestrial on the tv itself.

You wont be able to record two things simultaneuously though.

hope this helps
Werner

[MattTheBeanster]

werner, do you know the various read/write speed of the optical drive? Like the dms in the pcpro round up was given. taa

Lite-in SOHW-1633S

review here:
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=721&pageID=1136

quick summary:
DVD+R Write Speed Up to 16x - CAV
DVD+RW Write Speed Up to 4x - CLV
DVD-R Write Speed Up to 8x - Z-CLV
DVD-RW Write Speed Up to 4x - CLV
DVD+R DL (DVD+R9) Write Speed 2.4x - CLV
DVD Read Speed Up to 16x - CAV
CD-R Write Speed Up to 48x - P-CAV
CD-RW Write Speed 24X - Z-CLV
CD Read Speed Up to 48X - CAV
Data Buffer 2 MB

[MattTheBeanster]

taa muchly

[MattTheBeanster]

Originally Posted by fusion7

ok:
1) Keyboard - pretty good. The trackball is very easy to use and it is accurate. However, the keyboard is IR and as such, although the range is very good, does not allow the flexibility with angles that i am looking for. In addition, it feels a little cheap and therefore i will change it for the BTC 9019 @ £20.

so have you found this keyboard? i've looked everywhere online but no joy so far.

also does the display scroll like the artisans. i am a bit worried the scrolling is going to tick me off big time.

and..hows the dvd drive noise, the artisans is getting some rough reports.

and...werner any more news on the 6600gt card? can we upgrade from the x300 to it later for definate? an idea of how much?, >= £150?

Just ordered a DMS 2 (after changing my mind from the Artisan) this morning but I'm confused about a couple of things that, perhaps, Werner could clear up.

1) After reading the PCPro review and noting that the DVD writer was single layer and only -R/-RW I called HiGrade sales and asked if it was possible for them to fit a dual layer +R/+RW compatible drive. They said it wasn't. Werner, from what you say below it seems you are already shipping such a drive.. is this true?

2) I was quoted 10 working days delivery. Is that true; from what you say it is likely to be sooner?

TIA

Andy Bower

Originally Posted by Werner

Lite-in SOHW-1633S

review here:
http://www.bjorn3d.com/read.php?cID=721&pageID=1136

quick summary:
DVD+R Write Speed Up to 16x - CAV
DVD+RW Write Speed Up to 4x - CLV
DVD-R Write Speed Up to 8x - Z-CLV
DVD-RW Write Speed Up to 4x - CLV
DVD+R DL (DVD+R9) Write Speed 2.4x - CLV
DVD Read Speed Up to 16x - CAV
CD-R Write Speed Up to 48x - P-CAV
CD-RW Write Speed 24X - Z-CLV
CD Read Speed Up to 48X - CAV
Data Buffer 2 MB

The machine ships with the drive I noted above as standard.

Please be aware we have two products, the DMS and the DMS2. They CAN and probably will be confused at some stage. The DMS2 is the product we are talking about here and it has a dual layer writer.

Sales are trained to say "7-10 working days" to cover any unforseen eventualities. Currently, the lead time is shorter than that.

Hope this helps
Werner

Originally Posted by MattTheBeanster

and...werner any more news on the 6600gt card? can we upgrade from the x300 to it later for definate? an idea of how much?, >= £150?

The sample card didnt arrive when it was meant to, so I am still waiting on it. I can only say things like "definate" and "for sure" once I have it in my hands. If it works as planned, it will be ~=£150 using my "back of napkin" mathematics.