Ken_F
05-27-03, 01:18 PM
The Zenith HDR230 HDTV PVR has hit the market. It does not support satellite or cable HDTV, but only over-the-air broadcast stations. It features a small 80Gb hard drive for ~9 hours of recording that can be replaced by the end-user with a larger model. The box does not have DVI or Firewire, but only RGB and component outputs. It has a $999 MSRP and is being sold by J&R Music World for $899.
In this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=262970&perpage=20&pagenumber=1), Thomas Desmond and Jeff have reported on the unit and provided some screenshots, several of which I have mirrored below. Note the screenshots do not show actual HDTV, but just upconverted content stretched/cropped:
From what they've said, the program guide on this product is all but useless for scheduling, because few to none of their local broadcasters supply PSIP program data. Thus, they don't see any program information in the guide, nor can they use the guide to schedule recording. Instead, they must configure a manual timer as below:
http://kfowler.bizland.com/zenith/reserve.jpg
A list of recordings is shown below:
http://kfowler.bizland.com/zenith/proglist.jpg
The menu clock is configurable, and does not only rely on PSIP local time information, which is often wrong:
http://kfowler.bizland.com/zenith/menuclock.jpg
The channel information screen shows the PSIP program information (if there is any), the time, the channel, the channel callsign (if provided by PSIP), and the ATSC format of the broadcast:
http://kfowler.bizland.com/zenith/stationinfo.jpg
I do like the fact that the Zenith lists the original ATSC format for each channel.
With their PVRs, I hope both Dish and DirecTV will mirror satellite local/network programming information on the broadcast networks. Dish could do this through an optional network affiliation setting for each subchannel, or a selection to mirror the information from one channel (via dropdown list of all satellite channels) on another.
Without this information, one will be forced to manually schedule recordings, and the recordings one does make will be listed as "untitled" or "no title," as shown on the screenshots above. Obviously, that's not very intutitive, as makes it a task to differentiate between recordings. Note the Zenith does allow one to rename the title of recordings after the fact.
Here's a picture of the PVR buttons on the remote:
http://kfowler.bizland.com/zenith/pvrremote.jpg
The Zenith does have a nice feature that lets people edit out commercials of recordings. Although the PVR only allows "reserved recording" of one program at a time, the box does apparently have two OTA tuners. It is possible to timeshift one program (using timeshift function, rather than scheduled record) and watch another program at the same time, from what people have reported.
Jeff has posted screenshots of the Zenith PVR's internals on his website right here (http://jeffshome.net/Zenithhdr230/pictures.htm). The box is fanless and uses a standard Seagate Barracuda V hard drive.
In this thread (http://www.avsforum.com/avs-vb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=262970&perpage=20&pagenumber=1), Thomas Desmond and Jeff have reported on the unit and provided some screenshots, several of which I have mirrored below. Note the screenshots do not show actual HDTV, but just upconverted content stretched/cropped:
From what they've said, the program guide on this product is all but useless for scheduling, because few to none of their local broadcasters supply PSIP program data. Thus, they don't see any program information in the guide, nor can they use the guide to schedule recording. Instead, they must configure a manual timer as below:
http://kfowler.bizland.com/zenith/reserve.jpg
A list of recordings is shown below:
http://kfowler.bizland.com/zenith/proglist.jpg
The menu clock is configurable, and does not only rely on PSIP local time information, which is often wrong:
http://kfowler.bizland.com/zenith/menuclock.jpg
The channel information screen shows the PSIP program information (if there is any), the time, the channel, the channel callsign (if provided by PSIP), and the ATSC format of the broadcast:
http://kfowler.bizland.com/zenith/stationinfo.jpg
I do like the fact that the Zenith lists the original ATSC format for each channel.
With their PVRs, I hope both Dish and DirecTV will mirror satellite local/network programming information on the broadcast networks. Dish could do this through an optional network affiliation setting for each subchannel, or a selection to mirror the information from one channel (via dropdown list of all satellite channels) on another.
Without this information, one will be forced to manually schedule recordings, and the recordings one does make will be listed as "untitled" or "no title," as shown on the screenshots above. Obviously, that's not very intutitive, as makes it a task to differentiate between recordings. Note the Zenith does allow one to rename the title of recordings after the fact.
Here's a picture of the PVR buttons on the remote:
http://kfowler.bizland.com/zenith/pvrremote.jpg
The Zenith does have a nice feature that lets people edit out commercials of recordings. Although the PVR only allows "reserved recording" of one program at a time, the box does apparently have two OTA tuners. It is possible to timeshift one program (using timeshift function, rather than scheduled record) and watch another program at the same time, from what people have reported.
Jeff has posted screenshots of the Zenith PVR's internals on his website right here (http://jeffshome.net/Zenithhdr230/pictures.htm). The box is fanless and uses a standard Seagate Barracuda V hard drive.