- Receives Digital/Analog/Clear QAM channels
- Records Digital/Analog programs
- Built-in 2.5-Inch 320GB HDD (38hrs HD/150hrs of SD)
- Simultaneous record while playback other titles (DTV only)
- Scheduled recording from EPG
Like most people I have a VHS recorder but the quality on those recordings is pretty poor compared to broadcast quality, let alone HD. It might be fine for a soap opera but try watching a tennis match and you can hardly see the ball.
I labored over trying to find a cheap DVR. At first I could hardly find any products at all, then I discovered that Magnavox had two DVR's in the $300 $400 range. I read some reviews and there were a lot of complaints about these units getting fried when they lost power and not coming back on again. That was bad but the deal breaker for me was that it would not record in true HD, only SD.
I had pretty much given up and then I stumbled across this device. It was only $200 but it DID record in HD, had a 320Gb hard drive and could handle digital and analog signals transmitted over unscrambled Cable. I have basic Comcast ($15/mo) and DO NOT have a cable box.
So I purchased one of these from Adorama camera (via Amazon) and was excited when it came. After plugging it in and having it scan all the channels it could not find most of my digital channels and the Analog ones were so filled with snow\static as to be unwatchable. I played with all the various settings, multiple cable, different TV's and was satisfied that the unit was the problem. I called their tech support the next day and had a very poor experience, the guy said that was as good a picture as I was going to get, which was ridiculous. So I returned the unit and got a full refund so I was only out the original shipping.
I decided to take a gamble and bought another one from a different source and I'm very glad that I did. After hooking it up it found all of the channels plus some I didn't even know about. The interface is very easy to use and the quality of the picture and recording is excellent and you would NOT be able to distinguish live from recorded.
Recording a program is easy and there are three different ways.
1) Just press the record button on the remote for the channel you are watching.
2) Use the program guide which pulls information that is distributed over the digital signal. (I did not know this existed). It's no TiVo but it is quite handy and makes the recording very easy to do.
3) Simply schedule a recording based on date\time, channel and duration. You can set these to record once, every day, weekends etc.
Playback is likewise very simple. Simply browse the list of recordings (if it's off a digital channel it will have the name of the show, otherwise it will have a date and time) and press play. There are fast forward\rewind options which let you got from 1.5x 32x normal speed which is handy for skipping commercials.
It passed the girlfriend test quite easily too and she is able to watch, record and play shows without any involvement from me!
I give it 5 stars because of it's price performance. It does not do commercial skipping or pause live TV, but for $200 it has all the necessities plus some nice extras that exceeded my expectations and met all my needs.
Buy Digital Stream DPH1000R HDTV Recorder with Digital Tuner and 320 GB HDD (Black) Now
I have converted from Dish to a digital antenna, and I get a wonderful picture. I wanted to be able to record our favorite programs on CBS, NBC and ABC. The tuner on this unit is poor and only picked up CBS and NBC; very strange. I disconnected the Digital Stream device and hooked the antenna lead directly to the TV and I got all channels perfectly. I returned mine within the 15 day return limitation. Not worth buying until they upgrade the tuner.I like the idea of having an over the air (OTA) DVR to no longer have cable bills but yet take advantage of the benefits of digital recording over old VHS tapes.Unfortunately, there aren't many machines to choose from when looking for an OTA DVR. This is my third DVR. The first I owned is a defunct DTVPal which when working was great. However, randomly would record shows in Spanish or with no sound. The second one I owned was a PHD-VRX dual tuner DVR which I found just too complicated to use, so I returned that.
The Digital Stream DPH1000R DVR I feel is the middle of the two previous mentioned. The DTVPal was very user friendly and easy to use. The PHD-VRX was too difficult and unfriendly to use.
If one hopes this DVR will offer as many features as DVR from a subscriber (examples, TiVO, Comcast, U-Verse, Dish) then one will probably be disappointed. But if one looks as this DVR as a step up from the days of VCR recording, than one might be quite satisfied.
Rather than trying to go over the various features of this DVR, I'll list out what I like and dislike.
LIKES
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Editable recording schedule after selecting via program guide. For example, I like to record the evening news. I can look at the program guide and select to record it. The selection then shows up on my schedule. I can then select and edit the selection to automatically record by frequency (Mon-Fri as an example).
USB port for external media. I haven't used this yet, but I will. I have several old VHS tapes that I wish to digitize. I can transfer the old tapes to the built-in HD then copy that program to an externally connected HD. Plus, I can then play the videos from the external HD. Also, I can view pictures from files using the USB port.
Resume playing of a recording program. If I stop a program before finishing viewing it, when I decide to watch again, I can resume viewing from where I left off. The PHD-VRX DVR didn't do this.
DISLIKES
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ill-designed remote control (more on this later). I don't like the remote control. The two most noticeable are first the buttons feel spongy when pressed. Second, and more importantly, the most likely used buttons (pause/play, stop, forward, rewind) are tiny. The larger buttons are the numeric buttons but they aren't used as much by me as the navigation buttons.
can only record from one tuner. The DVR has two tuners. But unlike other DVRs with dual tuners, only one tuner records. One can have a recording in progress and watch another program, but not record both.
the DVR does use a program guide which automatically gets updated. Perhaps it's by area, but I've only seen at most about 12 hours of program information, unlike the 7 day maximum one would expect.
Automated prompts that can't be turned off. After each recording, a prompt comes up on the screen and defaults to automatically shut off machine in about 10 seconds unless one navigates to cancel the shut off. Also, before a recording starts, a prompt comes up notifying that a recording is about to happen unless I want to navigate and cancel the recording. I wish I can just turn off the prompts but there is no option to do this.
Can't pause live TV. This is one feature I loved on my DTVpal DVR. While watching a program, I'd just press the pause key, and a buffer of up to 1 hour would start. From there I can walk away and take a break up to an hour before resuming the program. There is a workaround sort of with the Digital Stream. That is, to press the "record" button to record what one is watching. Then go to the playlist and watch the recording program in progress. There one can use the viewing buttons. This works for the most part, but is not as transparent as just hitting the pause button to pause live TV.
Remote doesn't have Skip 30 seconds button (more on this later). Another feature I loved on my DTVpal DVR was at the touch of a button, to be able to skip 30 seconds forward of a recorded show. This was a convenient way to go past commercials and not use the Forward button and guess when to press the play button to halt the forwarding.
Maximum speed of the forward button is 32X. This is okay for commercials but slow if one wants to move towards the end of a recorded program.
Neutral
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24 hour clock. The DVR uses a 24 hour clock. For many, they do not like it. I'm more familar to regular am/pm 12 hour format. Yet I also like that with a 24 hour clock, there's no confusion as to getting the day/night confused as I have in the past got my am/pm mixed up and missed programs.
As mentioned early, one of my major dislikes is the remote. First because of it's bad layout and feel, plus the feature of a skip 30 seconds is missing. To solve both issues, I decided to get another remote. Not just a remote but one with macro features. Thus, now I have a remote that has better keys, and also have created buttons on the new remote which add a skip forward 30 seconds and a skip backward 10 seconds funtion. With my new remote control, the skipping forward and backward isn't as instantaneous as with my old DTVPAL DVR, yet is adequate. A review of the remote I got can be viewed here: URC A6 Pre-Programmed and Learning Universal Remote Control for up to 6 A/V Components
In summary, though there are a few things which I dislike about this DVR, when treating it as an upgrade to my old VCR, and now I have digital viewing without cable bills, the ability to archive old VHS recordings to digital, and found a new remote control to retain the much wanted feature of commercial skipping 30 seconds forward, I can learn to really like this DVR.
Update (10/14/2012): I have been using the DVR for about three weeks and am getting more familiar with and am happy with its features. I did experience the first hiccup this morning as when I turned on the DVR, there was no sound. After unplugging and replugging back in, the sound came back. When playing a previously recorded program from the morning, that did contain sound.
Want Digital Stream DPH1000R HDTV Recorder with Digital Tuner and 320 GB HDD (Black) Discount?
The digital recorder was received a few days of ordering.I made the required connections and started setup. After antenna station scan, only 2 stations were found. I tried to rescan(as over 25 are available in the Orlando, Florida area),but the recorder would not respond to the remote control. Using the set box menu control I tried again with still only 2 stations found. the set then quit working. I returned the recorder to the seller and received a prompt credit card refund.I may try purchasing this again as it is what I want, if it works.
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I purchased this unit to replace an analog Pioneer unit whose hard drive died a couple of months ago.I am new to digital television but recently purchased an inexpensive Visio television and discovered about 100 channels (including HD options for all of the broadcast channels) while just having regular $15/month cable and was excited to find an HDTV recorder that (1) didn't require me to get a cable box with monthly and (2) wasn't a $400+ refurbished model (ala Magnavox).
The Digital Stream arrived last night. Before connecting it I read through the manual and then began installation.
18 analog channels found (interestingly, no CBS or NBC). The ones found are so snowy as to be un-watchable. Zero digital channels.
I did what most other reviewers did I tried selecting different cable systems, I even tried channel scanning as if I was using an antenna... nothing better (usually worse)
Tried calling customer service who were already closed for the day -I will report back on this -but perhaps it is telling that on the digital stream website the product doesn't even appear.
As one previous reviewer noted maybe it is time for Amazon to drop this product.
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