Bell Expressvu PVR: has anyone tried it? (1 Viewer)

[Gary Cliff]

I am thinking about getting one, but I haven't talked to anyone who has one. I was wondering how far into the future the programming grid will go. In a store, they tried it, and were able to go ahead 36 hours. But I wanted to know if it could go as far as a week ahead (in case I want to record programs while away on a vacation). Does anyone know about this? Thanks!

 

[Dael]

HI...

I have the unit in question;

comments/observations...

with the latest software revision, you can now get 48 hours ahead, plus or minus a few hours.

expect to go through at least one 'deletion' of your shows...don't know why, but I have had two units, and both of them deleted recorded shows during the first week I had the unit, but no problem after that

i love the ability to rewind and watch a clip over...very handy for sports/sitcoms etc.

recorded program quality is excellent

very easy to use

i am assuming that at some point the 5100 will become the Canadian equivalent of the TiVo units in the States...and this is what I have been trying to figure out..what the upgrade path is for ExpressVU...if it goes that route, I wil be very happy, in the meantime I am enjoying my unit immensely as is

dael

 

[Gary Cliff]

Thanks, Dael!

Just a question on one of your comments. I am not that familiar with TiVo. If ExpressVu went that way, what differences would there be? And would it require another hardware upgrade?

- Gary

 

[Dael]

i am not sure what the upgrade path is for expressvu, have been trying to find that out myself; the TiVo can best be explained by going to tivo.com , but it is one heck of a great product. at the moment i am unsure if expressvu have the necessary hardware inside the 5100 box that will allow them to slowly upgrade the unit to tivo-like functionality, or if they will make us buy a separate unit.

either way, the 5100 is the best we can get in canada at the moment, and i bought it knowing what its functionality was and love it--if they can upgrade it down the road (soon i hope!) to become tivo-esque, great! if not, and they come out with a separate tivo box, i will end up getting that as well.

dael

 

[Gary Cliff]

dael, I just visited the TiVo website, and I can see why you're so enthusiastic about this system! But I can also see how the ExpressVu 5100 is great just the way it is. One thing I wonder about ExpressVu's integrating a TiVo-like system: If you programmed the system to record every time, say, "West Wing" was on, wouldn't you get it 5 times, once from each of the 5 time zones? Just a thought.

 

[Dael]

I'm not sure how it would work; I have seen the system in use, but never played around with the feature set...perhaps someone on here that has TiVo could tell us...?

 

[Robert_J]

If you programmed the system to record every time, say, "West Wing" was on, wouldn't you get it 5 times, once from each of the 5 time zones?

There are two ways to do this. A Season Pass for a show is tied to a single channel. So Law And Order records on my channel 5 every time it comes. If it is on other than Wednesday or is a two hour special, it records it from channel 5. A Wish List searches for key words. If I put in "Law And Order" it will record Law And Order, Law And Order: SVU and Law And Order: Criminal Intent on every channel it comes on. If it records it from USA network at 7:00 PM, it will skip the show if it is repeated at 11M. Go to the Tivo Community and read up on these machines.
As for the path of ExpressVu, just look at what Dishnetwork is doing. They come out with the PVR501, later you get the 5100. The PVR508 (about 70 hours recording time) is coming soon. The DishPro721 dual tuner PVR has been announced. Unfortunately, there has never been any hint of Tivo like functionality. They are basically just digital recorders.
-Robert

 

[Vishwa Somayaji]

I have a 5100 and I am very pleased with it. It changes the way you watch TV. However, you have to remember that this technology was developed in house at Echostar and it unlikely we see TIVO functionality. Now that the ultimate tv is shelved, echostar has not much of a cometetion in the field of PVRs. There may be better features but I don't think they will ever license other technologies.