Comments on: Digital TV PVR Comparison: Beyonwiz vs Tivo Freeview vs Sony PlayTV for PS3

By: Jeff

Jeff — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 02:19:48 +0000

Beyonwiz DP P2. Bought it in Feb 2009. Still 100% OK in October 2011. Gets used whenever the TV is on ie, every night from 6PM ish to midnight. Had ONE issue that would have required a hard disk reformat but then I would lose about 100 recordings, so I had anothe hard disk on hand (1 TB). In it went – worked fine ever since, AND I then mounted the original hard disk in an enclosure and connected it to the Wiz via USB – all recordings available!
How good is this….
I set up the recording program via the internet from work (or anywhere in the world!).
Whenever the Wiz powers on (to record a program, or someone at home turns it on) it logs into the internet and downloads my programming selection.
If I can’t watch the show (shows) I have recorded, I usually download them to my laptop (via the home network) to watch later – whever I might be.
By the way, the shows are downloaded as ONE file (NOT 32 Mb chunks), and VLC plays them (on my laptop) at full HD with no issues at all.
By the way, the ad-skip on these is via 4 buttons on the remote: UP skips forward a pre-settable number of seconds (set it to 30 is convenient), RIGHT skips it forward a pres-settable percentage, down skips BACK a predetermined number of seconds, and LEFT skips back a pre-settable percentage. Ads just don’t exist anymore.
About the only issue is keeping track of recordings. (“Why did I record that?” etc…)
I have just downloaded the latest PC download software onto my laptop. Now displaying the Wiz’s contents can be done while someone else is watching the TV (recording, playing back etc) to save interrupting their viewing. I can also download programs, stream them, delete recordings etc from the WIZ, via laptop.

By: Joseph

Joseph — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 10:57:47 +0000

I have the Beyonwiz DP-P1 .. it has been reasonably reliable .. early on a few issues were sorted with firmware updates .. i think this is totally acceptable for a product pioneering in this type of technology . I chose Beyonwiz above Tivo because i did not want to have a permanent internet connection hooked up to it ( that pretty much rules tivo out ) and found the network to pc abilities of the Beyonwiz very attractive . I am always transferring recorded files to my pc , editing them and archiving them . The ability to move recordings to other media players is a feature i could not do without … I know of a few people with Tivo’s who have had hardware issues .. and i think any product similar to these will have some issues , again due to being new-ish technology , a work in progress. If i need to buy another PVR , i’m pretty sure it will be a more up to date Beyonwiz. … I call it the control freaks PVR of choice !! … As a last word i would like to point out that HDD space is barely worth mentioning if you have easy network connectivity … the only limit is how many hard drives you can add to your pc ( i have about 3.7 TB internally and another 5 TB externally ) … and even as an added bonus , you can extract recorded files directly from the beyonwiz using USB fat32 storage.. Why would you bother with anything else ??

By: John

John — Thu, 02 Jun 2011 05:19:35 +0000

I want to upgrade my old glass tube SD TV and SD Topfield 5000 to HD TV & PVR. The old Toppy was so reliable and hassle free. Read a lot of comments online and would like the Beyonwiz for its tech smarts but the reported unreliability turns me off and am leaning to the Tivo. Does anyone have a HD Topfield-what are their new PVR’s like?

By: lance

lance — Thu, 05 May 2011 07:37:33 +0000

i am apensioner luddite in darwin off line. i just like to watch free tv & over the years i have got pvrs; bush, dgtech ,strong, digitalview, samsung ,toppro , & just bought a topfield quad but i still want a freeview+epg continuous pvr to see the end of movies. does it also automatically start early when the programs are early too.? the salespeople in darwin tell all sorts of rubbish & i am continually returning pvrs as they dont have Enhanced EPG (MHEG-5)-phase 2. same on websites , troll thru pvr ads with no clear idea what products will start & end on time. i was interested to see u say tivo can be used free. any other suggested brands 4 free 2 air. & what sites 4 best buys (pricewise). p.s. this is my 1st hour looking into surfing this subject