TVonics DVR-FP250 user reviews
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User reviews3
DTV_User 21 May 2011
Good: Looks good, plenty of functions, ease of use
Bad: Unreliable, poor playback, regular crashing
Comment: I was initially pleased with the FP250, it looked good, was well thought out, easy to use, had lots of good features and seemed good value. However, I soon came to hate it! Some things you know about, and can accept - e.g. only one tuner, no series link, no library/EPG search, no external back-up options - but here's a few things they DON'T tell you about:
Regular crashing resulting in lengthy (1-2min) reboot (80% disk full), sometimes several times a day.
Regular loss of audio sync on playback, usually 3-5 seconds.
Playback regularly freezes, audio continues in bursts of a few seconds, with long silent gaps - playback has to be restarted.
EPG entries go blank after midnight/1am. Most entries turn into 'no information available'
Playback is very jerky to start with, often takes between 3 and 5 jerks/falters before it runs smoothly. (Makes you motion sick until you get used to it.)
Playback after pausing or slow-playback can jump backwards a random amount, anywhere up to 40 seconds!
Locked scheduled recordings can be accidentally deleted without having to be unlocked.
On a 80% full disk, loading the library ALWAYS takes 15 seconds, during which a nearly all black screen (no background channel) is displayed.
Review (Rewind during playback) is very irregular and jerky, the rewind rate seems to depends on the length of the recorded program.
Slight signal drop-out or interference (mopeds etc.) can cause crashing & rebooting or picture freezing, displaying instead static vertical colour bars.
Unit occasionally hangs for up to 10-15 seconds before unfreezing and then executing ALL commands received whilst frozen, successively, or performs a lengthy reboot.
Unit has more on-screen excuses for why it's unable to function than I thought possible! (You'll get really sick of the frequent 'unexpected error during...' message)
...and so on, there are many more. Auto-upgrade is always on, but there appears to be no support. TVonics ignored my email to them detailing problems, offering feedback & requesting a manual update. Can't recommend - you've been warned!
snowman 1 November 2010
Good: compact and easy to use
Bad: It locks up , and needs to rebooted frequently, also will miss a recording , when set on the series setting
Comment: We have 3 TVonix boxes . Each of these machines have played up. To overcome reliability we set 2 boxes to record on the series button to avoid disappointment . We find occasionally the program you want cannot be set .This is difficult to explain why it does this ,but we find it helps if you put the TV to same channel , then you go along the menu , to the program you want to record . Then click OK and it will then except it . If not we use another one we have , and it will except it straight away .I know this is Queer , but this is our experience .
So its easy to operate . It plays up much to regularly .Picture and sound quality is good . when fast forwarding it does not want to stop and shoots past and is sticky to stop which is annoying.
conjunction 16 November 2007
Good: looks good, easy to use, good design
Bad: doesn't work properly
Comment: I have picture and sound problems which Tvonics say are my aeriel but their machine says my signal strength is good. Also I have sound and picture synchronisation problems and they say some updated software is on its way.