Magic Pvr Arrived Today

[mwd]

+1 one of the most intuitive to use PVRs out there and I am blown away with the PQ in both HD and SD. " One" never looked so good.

Off topic Check out ABC2 Licence to Drill ( Wednesdays??) evening great program in Far North West Canada.

[Tassie Devil]

+1 one of the most intuitive to use PVRs out there and I am blown away with the PQ in both HD and SD. " One" never looked so good.

Off topic Check out ABC2 Licence to Drill ( Wednesdays??) evening great program in Far North West Canada.

Thanks for that mwd - one ABC2 program I've missed.

A return recommendation: SBS v late (actually Sat AM) Fri night "Spiral" - an ex French cops & druggies series. Outstanding acting, a plot you can actually understand and a very good looking female detective in a lead role. The red head attorney (turning a bad corner) is also pretty nice to view. I will not praise the guys for fear of incorrect interpretation, but they also act well. And yes, the MAGIC records them very nicely.

John

.

[prl]

...

A return recommendation: SBS v late (actually Sat AM) Fri night "Spiral" - an ex French cops & druggies series. Outstanding acting, a plot you can actually understand and a very good looking female detective in a lead role. The red head attorney (turning a bad corner) is also pretty nice to view. I will not praise the guys for fear of incorrect interpretation, but they also act well. And yes, the MAGIC records them very nicely.

...

Agreed about Spiral. I saw it first time round. The current series is its second season. The first season was also very good.

[Baird]

"we do not look at much TV".

I know the feeling Tassie Devil when someone like your friend says in a superior way "oh we don't watch much television" but you know it's funny that they are the same ones who go out & buy the DVD because they didn't have the gumption to record it. Hypocrisy!

[tassaj]

If anyone out there is reading this and wondering whether to jump in...

I just bought a 2nd unit today, proably will reside with my mother who is over her Topfield 5000 SD and 0kb length recordings, missed timers etc., and the guy who sits behind me at work picked one up last week.

so I can say so far so good with the confidence of someone who has hammered his for the past 2 weeks.

Good comments by others on the benefits of timeshifting programmes you wouldn't normally watch, that was how I was first introduced to 'the Wire' on ABC2.

Anyone successfully taken something off the machine yet and played with it on a PC ?

Edited August 8, 2011 by tassaj

[mwd]

If anyone out there is reading this and wondering whether to jump in...

Good comments by others on the benefits of timeshifting programmes you wouldn't normally watch, that was how I was first introduced to 'the Wire' on ABC2.

Anyone successfully taken something off the machine yet and played with it on a PC ?

Yes copied a prog to USB portable HD formated NTFS gives a .ts file which will play in VLC or KMPlayer without doing anything. Can be imported into VideoReDo for add cutting and editing before converting to MPEG2 files or into DVD authoring programme. DVDStyler or DVD Flick.

[Submariner1503559614]

I am using the HDMI connection on a Samsung 40" LCD TV (C650) and at first, the picture looked a bit washed out with the Magic tuner. Then I found an option on the Samsung TV to change the HDMI black level and now the picture is great. Comparing the Samsung tuner to the Magic tuner, with the same picture settings, and the Magic tuner shows more detail.

BTW had a scare when I first set up the Magic PVR, the picture was breaking up. Paid $15 for a brand name TV RF cable for the Magic tuner, as I have two antenna wall sockets. Swapped this cable with the home made cable I use with my Samsung TV and the problem disappeared. The brand name cable had a signal strength of 40% and quality 39%, according to the Magic PVR. My home made cable had a signal strength 61%, quality 99%. The brand name cable was returned and exchanged, in case it was faulty, but that made no difference. Ended up using the Magic PVR loop connection.

[Tassie Devil]

The Magic PVR sounds great but how does it compare to the $318 Vantage HD8000T or the $298 Strong SRT 5494T?

then I found the $749 Xtreamer ULTRA-C1 to heap more confusion onto myself....

does anyone know enough about these PVR's to help decide which is the best one,

money wise the Magic, Vantage and Strong all seem to be on a par, but which one is actually the one most experienced PVR users would buy?

is the Xtreamer worth it if you can afford it? it seems to do a lot more? are there any experts out there who could help sort this out?

all four were found here

http://crazystu.com.au

I currently have a Topfield 7000HD which to be honest has been a bit problematic, blown capicitors, regular loss of channels, noisy hum, external drive problems and now it appears to have some type of power supply issue, I'm sure there is forum covering all these problems somewhere, but I really couldn't be bothered anymore, I just want the best PVR which is future proof and can do just about anything without cracking it every few weeks, I'm willing to pay more if I have to, ie the Xtreamer.

Your post looked like it was a socket puppet for CrazyStu but it turns out this is not the case so implications re the impropriety of CrazyStu are unfounded and withdrawn. He should not be posting on DTV as in the other thread spruking his wares and this sort of misunderstanding would not arise.

But apologies again for upsetting you.

John

Edited August 9, 2011 by Tassie Devil

[Tassie Devil]

If indeed crazy stuffed up here fair enough but are there any real reasons not to purchase from him/them?

Interesting question.

Looks like I misinterpreted. Apologies that my earlier post was misleading.

John

Edited August 9, 2011 by Tassie Devil

[melserg]

Hi, I am not associated with CrazyStu in any way shape or form? I live in Brisbane and I am looking for a new PVR to replace my TF7000, which really has been a pain to own, I was browsing around this forum and saw a link about the magic PVR which directed me to Crazystu, of whom I have never even heard of before, and that is where I saw the other PVR's. I can give anyone my name, address and phone number no problem - I was only trying to get some help in choosing a PVR, It was not my intention to spruke CrazyStu, I just added the link so ppl could see what I was referring to? lighten up fellas.

[melserg]

I feel as though I have done this "CrazyStuart" a great disservice, seriously, I have nothing to do with Stu, whoever he is - you should really make sure that what you are saying about Stu is correct before you run his reputation into the ground, I can assure you 100% that Crazy had nothing to do with my post except that is where I saw the PVR's, I found the link in this very forum? if you are going to be so touchy about ppl posting links maybe you should just ban them? how on earth is it that you are so certain that Crazy Stu is behind my post, did you do any checking? If you still have any doubts I can supply you with my personal contact details so you can verify in person that I live in QLD and have no links with CrazyStu.

[Tassie Devil]

I feel as though I have done this "CrazyStuart" a great disservice, seriously, I have nothing to do with Stu, whoever he is - you should really make sure that what you are saying about Stu is correct before you run his reputation into the ground, I can assure you 100% that Crazy had nothing to do with my post except that is where I saw the PVR's, I found the link in this very forum? if you are going to be so touchy about ppl posting links maybe you should just ban them? how on earth is it that you are so certain that Crazy Stu is behind my post, did you do any checking? If you still have any doubts I can supply you with my personal contact details so you can verify in person that I live in QLD and have no links with CrazyStu.

OK, apologies but it looked VERY suspicious. I'll edit my earlier post accordingly.

No intention of offending anyone new so not a good welcome to DTV.

As a long time owner of a Toppy 7000 I empathise with what your original post said but can only comment on the Magic - it is superior to the Toppy in my experience.

John

[mwd]

I will try to answer some of your questions Melserg but cannot comment on the other pvrs you indicated. I have only had the MagicTV for a couple of weeks so no idea how it will perform long term but I own a Homecast 8000 and a Topfield 5000MP SD PVR to compare against. I can say the Magic seems to be a very well thought out and executed PVR. It is very easy to use and set up is dead cool and silent and quite a goodlooking unit and does seem to be excellent value for money. I am finding it quite an enjoyable machine to use. It is not perfect there are a few tiny bugs in the software but nothing that really spoils the overall quality of the experience.

With regard to the Xtreamer Ultra C1 it seems on paper to be superior to anything else available on the market today and might be worth considering if you have a big library of media files that you watch often. It does seem to be more closely aligned to a full blown HTPC and not just a PVR.

If you are thinking about a Magic then you can save a little bit more by not ordering the wireless Wi Fi dongle. CrazyStu also includes a free HDMI cable with his deal as it is the only cable missing from the bundle that is supplied. If you are used to the Topfield I am sure you will find the Magic interface and actions very simple and sastisfying and the Picture Quality is outstanding via HDMI.

Hope that helps a little bit.

[Wing Nut]

I tried to talk a Luddite friend into a MAGIC but he is generally stuck back in the dark ages of analog and came up with the incredible excuse that he likes watching TV live and enjoys channel surfing and his VCR. Bottom line is he is too lazy, or too snobbish, to look at the paper to plan ahead about programs worth watching, using the excuse "we do not look at much TV".

Just got back from London (quiet there last week!) where elderly rellies have a 3rd floor council flat full of old TVs. I counted 6 I could see though there were rumours of more under some blankets. Two 20" CRTs were in front of the couch (apparently one's a spare for when the Sky sat link fails though Uncle Stan seemed to watch both at times), a couple of old VCRs, a pile of tapes and stacks of dead audio gear. The main TV 'system' takes 5 minutes for the 'satellite connection to warm up', or so I was told

We were tempted to wander down the road and buy them a decent 32" - 40" digital TV, but I suspect they'd have trouble finding space between all the other abandoned electronics - I couldn't even find a spot to put my phone on charge! If I was there this week I guess I could pick up a new TV for nothing ... !

[melserg]

OK, apologies but it looked VERY suspicious. I'll edit my earlier post accordingly.

No intention of offending anyone new so not a good welcome to DTV.

As a long time owner of a Toppy 7000 I empathise with what your original post said but can only comment on the Magic - it is superior to the Toppy in my experience.

John

thanks, so as a long time owner of the TF7000 have you ever experienced the start up power issue, where the unit will go to "run" then seems to switch off, then back to "run" again, my unit does this for about 3 - 5 minutes non stop? it then turns on as normal, it only does it from a cold start, if it has been on recently it won't do it.... I have heard that it is a power supply problem and that there is a lot online about it but I have failed to locate anything about this problem, I rang topfield and they want me to send the unit to them so they can see whats wrong with it. I'm thinking for $300 I'll just get the magic and use the Toppy in the spare room.

[Tassie Devil]

thanks, so as a long time owner of the TF7000 have you ever experienced the start up power issue, where the unit will go to "run" then seems to switch off, then back to "run" again, my unit does this for about 3 - 5 minutes non stop? it then turns on as normal, it only does it from a cold start, if it has been on recently it won't do it.... I have heard that it is a power supply problem and that there is a lot online about it but I have failed to locate anything about this problem, I rang topfield and they want me to send the unit to them so they can see whats wrong with it. I'm thinking for $300 I'll just get the magic and use the Toppy in the spare room.

Early on I had the sort of problems you describe, but a trip back to Toppy Australia fixed it. Unfortunately the 7000 obviously has some design problems, both in the hardware & software. Some people have escaped dramas but others have had more than is acceptable. My experience is half way. I've had really good support from the Toppy buys but they are pushing it uphill, and it is very runny.

So, ditch the Toppy and buy a MAGIC. I just paid $170 to freight & pay for my Toppy 7100 back to them to have a new motherboard installed. So what do I now have? Hopefully a like new twin tuner HD PVR. Sounds good, but then look at the alternative - for under $150 more I could have had a brand new MAGIC PVR with a 1 TB HDD compared to the 325GB in the 7100. Well I purchased the MAGIC anyway so now find the Toppy gets little use. I guess it will eventually migrate to another system somewhere. I still have a 7000 in another system but it is getting little use. If it starts playing up it will migrate to boat anchor status. All very sad as I have been a great Toppy fan for quite a few years now. It does seem Toppy have finally got their act together and their latest products are fine. But, IMHO, unless you want special features they are not worth the money.

Hope this helps

John

Edited August 9, 2011 by Tassie Devil

[melserg]

I will try to answer some of your questions Melserg but cannot comment on the other pvrs you indicated. I have only had the MagicTV for a couple of weeks so no idea how it will perform long term but I own a Homecast 8000 and a Topfield 5000MP SD PVR to compare against. I can say the Magic seems to be a very well thought out and executed PVR. It is very easy to use and set up is dead cool and silent and quite a goodlooking unit and does seem to be excellent value for money. I am finding it quite an enjoyable machine to use. It is not perfect there are a few tiny bugs in the software but nothing that really spoils the overall quality of the experience.

With regard to the Xtreamer Ultra C1 it seems on paper to be superior to anything else available on the market today and might be worth considering if you have a big library of media files that you watch often. It does seem to be more closely aligned to a full blown HTPC and not just a PVR.

If you are thinking about a Magic then you can save a little bit more by not ordering the wireless Wi Fi dongle. CrazyStu also includes a free HDMI cable with his deal as it is the only cable missing from the bundle that is supplied. If you are used to the Topfield I am sure you will find the Magic interface and actions very simple and sastisfying and the Picture Quality is outstanding via HDMI.

Hope that helps a little bit.

Thanks, there are just so many choices these days, I would be happy to keep my TF7000HD if it only operated correctly! so sick of the wife blaming me for all its faults, I'm sure she thinks I had something to do with the design.... the TF hasn't been all bad, but it has had more than its fair share of annoying but non fatal problems, they just seem ongoing and are a real pain - my mind is now made up, I'm not going to bother with the Topfield anymore, it can retire to the guest room and I will just buy the magic, thank you all for your insight.

[melserg]

Early on I had the sort of problems you describe, but a trip back to Toppy Australia fixed it. Unfortunately the 7000 obviously has some design problems, both in the hardware & software. Some people have escaped dramas but others have had more than is acceptable. My experience is half way. I've had really good support from the Toppy buys but they are pushing it uphill, and it is very runny.

So, ditch the Toppy and buy a MAGIC. I just paid $170 to freight & pay for my Toppy 7100 back to them to have a new motherboard installed. So what do I now have? Hopefully a like new twin tuner HD PVR. Sounds good, but then look at the alternative - for under $150 more I could have had a brand new MAGIC PVR with a 1 TB HDD compared to the 325GB in the 7100. Well I purchased the MAGIC anyway so now find the Toppy gets little use. I guess it will eventually migrate to another system somewhere. I still have a 7000 in another system but it is getting little use. If it starts playing up it will migrate to boat anchor status. All very sad as I have been a great Toppy fan for quite a few years now. It does seem Toppy have finally got their act together and their latest products are fine. But, IMHO, unless you want special features they are not worth the money.

Hope this helps

John

Yep I agree - I am going to place my order for the Magic, thanks for your input.

[Tassie Devil]

Just back from spending an hour or two with my 82 year old Aunt, configuring her new MAGIC PVR and explaining the basic operation. Not too hard, which is a tribute to how well the PVR has been sorted out. Previously I had not taken any notice of the colouring of the remote buttons - green for the navigation etc, something which did make instruction a lot easier. I just wish they had labelled the "back" button "ESC" & the "clear" button "DELETE" as being moderately computer literate, that would have made it just that bit easier for her to learn. Not a heavy criticism, just a comment.

A minor complication was to also configure her new SHARP LCD TV so all the inputs were hidden except the one to the MAGIC. Unfortunately the "ATV" for analog could not be nuked but she seemed to be able to cope with that. The Sharp remote is an abomination with such small buttons. The designers obviously did not consider elderly folk who have more difficulty with buttons. Sort of tempting to suggest she get a HARMONY but that could create more problems than it would solve if experience with my wife is any judge. Setting macros is fine for you and me who understand what is going on, but press the wrong button (which she does often because of not being careful enough) sends out the wrong stream of IR codes to mess it all up properly.

I do stick my neck out sometimes but enough is enough. I'm sure there will be queries re using her new toy, but the structure of the MAGIC should mean there are not too many. I'll let you know in case anyone else want to talk an aged relative into digital recording via MAGIC.

John

[mwd]

According to my local TV man the elderly don't like Harmony remotes coz the buttons are too small. He was looking for a remote he could sell to his customers.

As a Magic "glove" puppet must say the remote is very user friendly much more so than a Toppy remote. Would like PIP though, miss that.

[Saxon Hall]

Crazy Stu has this unit at $299 which is obviously a good price for such a well featured unit. Having read through this thread several times now there is one area that needs clarification. In the new version of firmware (I presume sold as Freeview disabled MTV4000PVR) is the Season Pass record feature disabled? If this is so, can the feature then be restored by reverting to the old firmware?

BTW One missing feature that would be very handy for me would be P.I.P.. Definitely not a gimmick in my household as the whole family uses it extensively.

[melserg]

Crazy Stu has this unit at $299 which is obviously a good price for such a well featured unit. Having read through this thread several times now there is one area that needs clarification. In the new version of firmware (I presume sold as Freeview disabled MTV4000PVR) is the Season Pass record feature disabled? If this is so, can the feature then be restored by reverting to the old firmware?

BTW One missing feature that would be very handy for me would be P.I.P.. Definitely not a gimmick in my household as the whole family uses it extensively.

I just took delivery of my new MTV4000PVR and will be sending it back, I plugged and tuned it in and it couldn't find any sbs chanels at all, and some of the other channels were breaking up! I tried everything you could think of, changing cables, moving antenna, retuning, nothing worked, also the picture quality is not as good as what my 3 year old Topfield produces, I either have a dodgy Magic or they are not as good as everyone is making them out to be.

I have no trouble picking up all the channels (including SBS) on all my other tuners, I have a Topfield 7000, Dgtec 5210 and built in tuners into 47" LG LCD TV, 32" Samsung LCD TV and El Cheapo 32" GVA LCD, they can all pick up all the channels perfectly? so I was surprised to discover the Magic couldn't?

[Saxon Hall]

I just took delivery of my new MTV4000PVR and will be sending it back, I plugged and tuned it in and it couldn't find any sbs chanels at all, and some of the other channels were breaking up! I tried everything you could think of, changing cables, moving antenna, retuning, nothing worked, also the picture quality is not as good as what my 3 year old Topfield produces, I either have a dodgy Magic or they are not as good as everyone is making them out to be.

I have no trouble picking up all the channels (including SBS) on all my other tuners, I have a Topfield 7000, Dgtec 5210 and built in tuners into 47" LG LCD TV, 32" Samsung LCD TV and El Cheapo 32" GVA LCD, they can all pick up all the channels perfectly? so I was surprised to discover the Magic couldn't?

I hear what you are saying and it is disappointing but what type of aerial do you have.?Internal, external, amplified? I understand that you are comparing to your other devices which work ok but it would still be interesting to know how you are feeding it a signal.

[Tassie Devil]

I just took delivery of my new MTV4000PVR and will be sending it back, I plugged and tuned it in and it couldn't find any sbs chanels at all, and some of the other channels were breaking up! I tried everything you could think of, changing cables, moving antenna, retuning, nothing worked, also the picture quality is not as good as what my 3 year old Topfield produces, I either have a dodgy Magic or they are not as good as everyone is making them out to be.

I have no trouble picking up all the channels (including SBS) on all my other tuners, I have a Topfield 7000, Dgtec 5210 and built in tuners into 47" LG LCD TV, 32" Samsung LCD TV and El Cheapo 32" GVA LCD, they can all pick up all the channels perfectly? so I was surprised to discover the Magic couldn't?

Bummer. Are you using the same aerial connection as with the Toppies? If so it looks like a faulty unit. No problems here or with any of the others my contacts have purchased. The MAGIC here leaves the Toppies for dead and I've sworn by them for years now. Don't give up - try another one - although I would not blame you for not doing so. This is the first one we have heard about like this & hope it is the last.

John

[melserg]

Bummer. Are you using the same aerial connection as with the Toppies? If so it looks like a faulty unit. No problems here or with any of the others my contacts have purchased. The MAGIC here leaves the Toppies for dead and I've sworn by them for years now. Don't give up - try another one - although I would not blame you for not doing so. This is the first one we have heard about like this & hope it is the last.

John

OK, so I shot my mouth off maybe a tad early, I looked up the actual Brisbane frequencies online for SBS and did a manual tune, it found the missing channels? this is the first time I had to manually tune any PVR, for some reason it did not pick them up in the auto tune, I did the auto tune 3 times..... I have been using the same connections that my Toppy was attached to, it is an amplified connection and comes direct from the antenna to a wall plug, from there direct to signal amplifier then straight to PVR, its just the standard cable. It was really odd because as a test I just ran the antenna directly into the Magic without any amplification and it found the SBS chanels and nothing else? so all that I could see was SBS, it did not find any of the commercial stations...... really screwy, so I take my initial comments back, I won't be sending it back just yet - the picture quality is still not as good as the Toppy's in my opinion, but I can certainly live with it. Just to make sure I wasn't screwing anything up I connected the Toppy back up to the exact same connections and it found all the channels, it took a lot longer than the magic but it found them all - and then the Toppy froze! which is the whole reason I got the magic, Toppy Bugs.