SteveM1503560124

Thanks for that. Been an bit busy computer maintenance (and Christmas) latest thing is the 2400pro svideo is refusing to do dual display (but works badly as primary)

Thanks for this advice again guys. I am upgrading to GECUBE 2400PRO PCIe card with on board HDMI for around $72, so will see how that effects multiple recording processing. Will take time, currently upgrading to new drive (primary partition out of space) using one of my PVR drives, learning xxclone, installing external USB enclosure, saving some files fro the PVR. Sweet deal for PC multimedia, so cheap. One question about web-scheduler, I have many many tabs open in my primary browser (Opera) during research which makes it an pain for web-scheduler to use, is there any way to set the scheduler to use Internet Explorer every time I use it? That GB-PVR looks really sweet. It doesn't use an web browser? I have not been able to review the functionality of web scheduler, but it isn't actually for viewing live channels is it?

Cool, thanks for this advice. If web-scheduler can deliver all the missing bits, that would be good. Have had an little look, I guess web-scheduler is not TV viewing playback software like PowerCinema, can anybody suggest something free to fill that niche also? Some thoughts on PowerCinema5. --------------------------------------------- I have taken an quiet an bit of time (instead of doing other things) in trying out the Power Cinema 5. It looks nice, but does not work as well. I have managed to crash it and get it out of kilter an number of times the first night, it is flaky when trying to record multiple programs. I can only record two programs at an time if I am not viewing any of them. If I go to view I find problems, if I was already viewing it will start recording the channel I was not viewing. The thing does not tell you which tuner it is using in which window, you have to go and change the source and figure out which is which. It does not seem to tell which frequency an channel is on, or strength/quality (but have not looked enough for this) do how do I select which duplicate channels to delete. It does not allow you to select multiple days in the schedule, unlike my digicrystal PVR (best feature). Like my cheap DVX PVR (and unlike the Digicrystal) you have to have no conflicts in scheduling, it is not smart enough to finish one and start the other on the overlap. I tried to setup two channels on the two tuners, but found I had the tuners the wrong way around (cheap test aerial on one) and could not change them in the schedule, as it produced an conflict with the other before I got to it. And other silly little things in it. Had significant problems with recording HD channels at once, I think this produced the most stability problems. In an bug, you could not stop recording, even if you kill the powercinema process, the recording scheduling process would keep running and stop you from turning off my machine. I appreciate the old Digicrystal more now (and that did not have deluxe software) this thing should allow you to record two channels while watching both of them, and any other sub channel, allow you to play forward rewind as it is being recorded (haven't tested this) and all the other wakeup things. The reason why, is if it is sending two 20 megabit streams, that is 40Mb/s, out of 480mb/s on usb2.0, and if the computer can process it, good. Verdict on the software, an but adequate, has many extra multimedia functionality as well.

I am not very well, and would like to ask some advice. I already have spent an few hours on this subject. I have just bought an Kaiser Bass twin usb tuner (distributed by Lako Australia). The website reads an bit ambiguously that: "Smart Recording Schedule, record, time-shift and watch two of your favourite TV shows simultaneously" http://www.lakopacific.com/page/Category/T...al_HD_TV_Tuner/ But the box only says it can record one channel while you watch another. I opened the box, and it only has an short installation manual and an Cyberlink PowerCinema 5 package and drivers, and the on disk documentation doesn't say much more than it will support up to three tuners for viewing. Anytime I see such an thing, without even an specification list (and virtually no internet presence) I get worried it is just an cheap re-badged generic product. It will take an while to test this, as the PC system needs an overhaul. So, should I return this, or is there free software that will ensure that it will record at least 2 channels? I also would like to get another two tuners and record in combination. Forgot, I have an plain XP Home PC, configuration is alright (Sempron 3400+, IGB, HDD+, Nvidia chip-set 6100 graphics, due to upgrade to Radeon 2400pro in the short term until next-gen display port comes in 3800+ series). Thanks Steve

I do. I can't help it if people don't have the patience (or effort) to read, and the patience to interpret comprehensively. Which is too common on todays Internet, where us old school Internet people are some of the few ones to give an full answer to the enquiries of ignored lost people, not just bits and pieces of incomplete answers. However, the courtesy is rarely returned by an population more interested in themselves than to nut out problems. You are just about the only one here that goes at least half way to this past standard. For instance, as an example of the current Internet generation: On the regular forums I am on, I have suggested the forum moderators to have header post/link for large threads, to summarise all the essential technical information in the thread, so people don't have to read thousands of posts in a thread, and so we don't have to answer the same questions repeatedly to newcomers, and save a lot of hassle. But after so many years, they are still too lazy to do these simple adjustments. Thanks.

My posts are very clear/transparent. Much of a comparison between this panel and any better ones (appears to be one at the moment). Plus an conclusion of options available. And a nice question about any others I should consider instead of this one. Hardly difficult, but thanks for the help anyway.

Thanks again Croc. I saw the new 26inch model there, and the picture seems even better, like the Phillips 32 inch I have seen. Unfortunately it was doing a HD feed, and all they had for the 32inch was cartoons or "Grumpy Old Women" DVD that has the look of a Sony Z1 with way too much color. But I fiddled with the modes, and it didn't come up nicely compared to what it would have been on my TV (then again, I only watched "Grumpy Old Men" on my TV, I was far too grumpy to watch "Grumpy Old Women" 72%, so it will be much of a muchness between the Samsung based Highlander and the Aiko, more a matter of which gets discounted first. For around $1999 you can get a 4Mp 30inch Dell, I wonder if that will come on special. I know next year we will be seeing 70% color 56inch 8Mp screens, so I suspect the prices of the Dell might be coming down. Still, has anybody got 1280*720 50p, or 1360*768, or 1366*768 etc working properly through the VGA, or at least the 60p versions? Has anybody seen 1080 or 37inch plus panel at a low price, or even 32inch with 92% color? Thanks

Thanks Croc I managed to ring the support line, and they confirm independent input and that when you turn it on and off it comes back to the last used input (but then they are a call center, so I don't know if they can be trusted). They didn't know the model of the panel used in the Unit, which I could compare against other units for performance range and color. Has anybody located a better website for Aiko? It looks like Big W is buying direct from overseas, so there price should be one of the lowest you can get.

Hi I am looking at this panel, and I have a few questions. I would like to know if all the ports on the panel are independent. On my Rowa 68cm TV, for example, SVIDEO and Component and some of the sound channels, are tied together. So you can only have Svideo or component, unless you want to unplug and replug things. To make matters worse three of the ports seem to share one audio channel. Can all the ports be used with active equipment plugged in at one time? When you turn the display off and on, will it restart in the input mode it was in before you turned it off, with normal color? Another problem from my Rowa, no matter what port (video component or svideo) I am using, when I turn off it turns back on in analogue TV mode (makes set top box usage difficult). This problem also restarts in B&W when I turn off in component mode. About the VGA performance and HDMI. The problems with VGA output modes compared to HDMI, could that be because some PC hardware acceleration is tuned to particular standard resolutions? Is it possible to get 1280*720 50p, or 1360*768, or 1366*768 etc working properly through the VGA, or at least the 60p versions? About the panel model used: Does anybody know what the model number of the LG/Phillips panel is? If anybody has it or a website reference, I can look it up and find out the performance characteristic. Most LCD's are color limited compared to CRT's. Some are 30 to 40% of the colorspace of NTSC (which is less than PAL which is less than newer HD systems and much less than the human eye). More modern back-lit panels do 72% of NTSC and 92% of NTSC. There is technology now that will do within 90% of what the human eye can see, and the latest announcement was for something that can replicate more colors than the human eye can see. I would like to see if this panel is one of those 92% of NTSC panels. I recently went to an clearance sale with many newer TV's, most sets were great pictures, some were just silky smooth. I remember a Phillips back-lit one like that. Other TVs? I would prefer a 1080 or 37inch plus panel at a low price, or even 32inch with 92% color, has anybody seen any? I have been looking at a $999 32inch Highlander LCD TV at The Warehouse. It is a 72% NTSC color Samsung panel, has dual component and one scart, and probably one more AV. Looks gorgeous, this is the one I want to compare against on panel specs. Thanks Steve

Sorry for the delay Ia, > Hi, Furstly, i want to know...is there a newer hardware and software version for the box? I don't know there is version 1 hardware and version 2 software on mine. > Secondly in reguards to the previous post by SteveM. The Aldi Remote can be trained to copy codes and functionality of other systems. I purchased 3 when they had them out the last time, so if you want to overcome the whole issue with all the remotes, do the followin. This is my example of how i configured just one of the TV's in my home.. Thanks, but can it be programmed to turn on multiple things and switch to AV in sequence, by pressing one button? > AV/Sound Connection: > > STB >>>> (AV1) VCR (AV-OUT) >>>>>TV AV1 My TV only turn on in analogue, then I have to switch to AV, and the analogue channel from the VCR is snowy. I am looking at working a work around so that I can have component and svideo plugged in at the same time on the Rowa (when svideo is plugged in it cuts out component, even if not turned on) by wiring the sync/luminance from one plug to the other (please note, apart from potentially voiding warranties, there is no guarantee that this will not fry the DVD, Kross or TV, or produce a fire hazard, over time, so should not be attempted by unqualified people). One thing, I rewired my aerial and got better reception, but even though I got signal strength up, in the channel tuner menu, the quality went down and reception was worse. Does anybody know how these things work? Thanks Steve

Gof, it is a feature of the chipset but the Kross firmware doesn't seem to implement it. I was suggesting the firmware could. They might consider it too complex for users, but all they need is an "Advanced control menu" with items like "Reduce Flicker", "Smooth Edges" and "Adjust Image Size to TV Screen" in it.

Actually, I just located what appears to be a bug with the ac3 sound, and there doesn't appear to be a Ten digital stream here (but I will have to check, new to this). I'm feeding my box via coax to my logitech z5500 5.1 system via a video cable. Normally the sound is ok, but when I hook over to the ac3 stream it stutters in a pulse all the time, and I have never got 5.1 sound. This is really disappointing, as that was one of the main reasons to get it. I don't know if it is my sound system, the Kross decoding local sound channel improperly, or if the video RCA cable is the problem, signal strength is low, but quality high, anybody know? I have just thought up another suggestion, and question: There is a lot of fiddling with remotes to turn everything on but it would be good to have a way around this, like: The Kross seems to sense when the TV is not on and turns itself off, so you have to turn it on each time. Wouldn't it be good if the Kross could turn itself on when the TV came on. Future version have a programmable remote that could be trained to turn itself on, turn the TV on, select the s-video channel, and turn the hi-fi on, select coax, just by pressing the power button (and turn everything off) with trainable universal remote for all other TV, hi-fi, DVD, VCR functions (like that $19 Aldi one). I doubt the present remote canbe made to do this (except for my xlogic DVD So can anybody tell me if the Aldi remote can be programmed like this (particularly turning everything on at once, I have no Aldi store here)? What is the brand and model of the Aldi remote, I might get a relative to send me one?

I forgot, despite version 2.0 firmware, the silly thing is still going wrong and locking up when I use captions on WIN TV channel.

Hi have just bought one of these with version 2.0 software, and read all the posts. I have found some more things that could do with a fix in the firmware. 1. When you adjust the TV format in the configuration menus to auto, the screen will get squeezed the wrong way. I found if you press OK OK it will right itself. There seems to be a lot of jagged edges and flickering in the signal. 2. There are features in the machine's decoder chip that can prevent this. If go to the link for the chip provided earlier: http://www.st-japan.co.jp/data/adv/2001071...htm/sti5518.htm Look under High performance on screen display (for some reason) it has: Anti-flicker, Anti Flutter, and Anti-aliasing filters. These don't seem to be used, and produce a lot of flicker glittering edges and staircased lines. Normally in a system that supports them, you can turn them on and upto various degrees, and would be a good menu item. On the Stratified Audio Acoustics HD STB, I've notice that viewing the HD channel on a SD TV will get rid of these artifacts, probably because the flickering of the 1080i interlace (or 720p) picture is eliminated when combining every two HD lines into one SD line. The funny thing is the 7HD channel has just started working on my box (cricket broadcast signal quality nearly 90%) and it does seem to flicker less. Previously the channel was breaking up and the guy at TinShed said that it could not decode a HD channel, but here it is doing it. Something about HD is that some stations are supposed to be preferring 720p to 1080i channels that use twice the amount of pixels. I wonder if this has something to do with it, because the 9 1080i picture will not come through at all. Big black borders all round full screen images. 3. On my computers ATI graphics card (and others) these can be stretched to fit the screen width. I think that a good menu option would be to stretch the image to fit the screen. Mixed aspect ratio images come out wrong on TV. 4. The other thing is an option to select "letterbox, full screen and full image auto" for each channel (or just as a general setting). Where letterbox will always force that shape, and full screen will always will the screen, but full image auto will switch between them to maintain the full image for the screen ratio. The present system doesn't seem to do this effectively. At the moment I either get big fat black bars, or the SBS EPG channel information goes off the side. S-video is nearly as low resolution as video when it normally should be higher. 5. I've tested the resolution of the s-video compared to the composite, and it doesn't appear to be much different and a lot lower than analogue or SD component resolution (maybe half of less) which is very unfortunate. This might have something to do with my TV (a Rowa 68 cm, with around 550 horizontal columns (around the resolution of an analogue TV channel) that has combined component and s-video ports) but I think it just as likely to be the box sharing analogue circuits. Flipping between video and s-video revealed just about the same resolution on still images, and none of the s-video advantage of separate colour channel with much higher colour resolution from the STB. The only real advantage is that there is no line crawling from the combined colour signal on detail that you get with video (well worth it). I think the max resolution for video is supposed to be around 230-260 lines (320 pixels) and for s-video 450 lines on only one odd PAL standard (probably 350-400 for others). I am disappointed, but the picture is clear and crisp Unless you have a big set, or are up close you probably won't miss it too much. But on the other hand they could maybe maximise the resolution outputted to the s-video in the firmware. Even if it would interfere with the video output, they could have an menu item, like maximise "s-video resolution" to turn it on if people wanted it. Problem SD channel in stereo HD ones in 5.1 Dolby but can't display them. 6. Yes, another feature I forgot. Would it be possible to assign the sound from one channel to another channel, maybe in channel configuration. So we could watch the SD channel, while listening to the Dolby digital 5.1 from the HD version. This might not be possible, but would be good if it were.