No PVR on budget models!

visualise

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I recently bought a replacement (an AU8000) for my 2016 Samsung TV and was surprised to find that Samsung only offers the common "USB Recording" feature on their more expensive TVs since 2019 and it's now called Extended PVR.

My 2016 TV cost slightly less than the model I bought this year so it makes no sense Samsung is punishing loyal customers who repeat-purchase by offering them less features each year.

I can't say I miss the built-in PVR though. It was very unreliable. Each scheduled recording slowed down the EPG progressively. There was a small limit to number of recordings which could be scheduled. Recordings would only happen if the TV was put into freeview mode before turning it off. And it strangely would record while using HDMI, but not while using USB playback. Unless I stopped the USB playback before recording was due, then resumed playback after it started recording - then it would do both!

What a kick in the teeth from Samsung. Even the cheapest worst brand 4k TV has USB recording.

Enabling it in the hidden service menu does not make it work either. After enabling it, when I press record it says USB device not connected/present. I tried drives in different usb ports, unformatted, freshly formatted to both exfat/ntfs. The drives show up for media playback but will not record. So pvr is simply not implemented on these TVs and will not work.

I will continue to buy budget Samsung models though because the screen quality is so ahead of the competition.

Fortunately I very very rarely used PVR recording anyway.
 
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I recently bought a replacement (an AU8000) for my 2016 Samsung TV and was surprised to find that Samsung only offers the common "USB Recording" feature on their more expensive TVs since 2019.

My 2016 TV cost slightly less than the model I bought this year so it makes no sense Samsung is punishing loyal customers who repeat-purchase by offering them less features each year.

I can't say I miss the built-in PVR though. It was absolutely terrible.
Could not play back recordings on my computer or other TVs in the home, scheduled recordings froze up the EPG, could not play back from the USB and record at the same time, and often recordings would not happen unless I put the TV into a certain state before-hand.

Certainly wouldn't pay £130 extra for the next model just to get the PVR feature. I'd rather a quality PVR recorder box with a dual tuner.

But what a kick in the teeth from Samsung. Even the cheapest worst brand 4k TV has USB recording.

I won't be returning it though as I already bought and returned other mid-range TVs and those had bigger problems than missing PVR.
Other TVs I tried at this price point had horrible direct-backlighting with splotchy greys, or stupid software issues, such as streaming app subtitles not reducing in contrast/brightness along with the picture (causing horrid eyestrain in darkened room).

And on a totally separate note, may I also say that the 304 nits display of this unit which expert reviewers mock for being too dark is absolutely amazing for HDR!!

Last night I watched some real HDR on prime video for the first time (Jack Ryan), at just 10% brightness - and it was amazing. I'm sick of people whining about movies which look dark and they can't see what's happening. What are they watching? Horror movies shot in the dark?! Then they complain it is dark. Many don't even bother to increase the brightness either and are watching dark scenes on eco-brightness setting. Of course a movie shot in the dark is going to look dark on eco-brightness.

To me HDR on Prime Video looked absolutely life-like and amazingly bright. Lifelike colours, viewable (lit) indoor scenes which looked naturally light, and obviously scenes with lots of explosions and fireworks almost made me poop myself with their realism as these popped out of the scene (does anybody else feel HDR has a similar novelty to that of 3D TVs a decade ago?)

And amazingly, scenes shot at night were perfectly viewable too - at just 10% brightness.

So I cannot understand the complaints of the screen being too dark for HDR whatsoever. Did Samsung increase the brightness in their 2021 models compared to last year? Or have these people who complain lost all light sensitivity in their eyes from viewing at 100% brightness for too many years?
There are no TV's that allow you to record a programme to a USB stick and take that stick and plug it into a PC or other TV and view it, this is due to copy protection.
Likewise you cannot record and playback from a USB stick at the same time.
 
There are no TV's that allow you to record a programme to a USB stick and take that stick and plug it into a PC or other TV and view it, this is due to copy protection.
Likewise you cannot record and playback from a USB stick at the same time.

They also removed red button support. It just opens the iplayer app now and displays nothing of use.

I'm not seeing much point in my TV if it doesn't have PVR or red button support.

Samsung needs to be careful making their TVs only good at displaying streaming apps, as I primarily use my phone + tablet for watching streamed video (in between browsing).

I will end up just using it for movie nights where I need a big screen.

I suppose I enjoyed the retro experience of waking up some days and instead of traveling many rooms away to switch on my internet router, I'd watch something PVR recorded, or catch up on the news/weather via red button.

Perhaps it's a good Samsung forces me to be strictly modern though. Apparently Freeview will be switched off in the 2030s 👻
 
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I think you'll find the change to the red button is a bbc thing and Samsung can't change that..
 
I think you'll find the change to the red button is a bbc thing and Samsung can't change that..
So why does the red button act differently on my latest Samsung TV compared to the 2015 model I had?

Is there a newer MHEG spec in the latest TVs which allows launching built-in apps?

I'm not sure what the purpose of the red button is anymore then. If green launches the programme live on iPlayer, and red just takes me to the iPlayer programme listings, then how am I supposed to get the news/weather.
 
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Maybe your TV is for another country/market where PVR is not supported and you will need to change local set in Extended service menu to your country.
Check your exact model on back side of tv
 
It is already set to UK and is definitely UK model.
I accept it is just a basic tv.
I just feel bad for others. I love digital subscriptions and rentals.
But others I know who are technologically simple rely on freeview and use usb pvr.
I just cannot recommend Samsung to them as them as their next tv.
I would love to as it's so slim with an amazing screen.
 
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