Good time to buy?

[grahford]

My topfield has started acting up and I'm thinking of jumping to a different brand.

Is it a good time to buy a Beyonwiz DP-P2?  That is, is it still a good product that isn't at the end of its supported life?

[prl]

My topfield has started acting up and I'm thinking of jumping to a different brand.

Is it a good time to buy a Beyonwiz DP-P2?  That is, is it still a good product that isn't at the end of its supported life?

The most recent firmware update was in January. It was for all models, including discontinued ones. The DP-P2 isn't a discontinued one, and a 2TB version was released late last year (around September IIRC).

However, have you considered the DP-Lite? It has the same functionality as the DP-P2, except no front panel display, no memory card reader, no front panel USB, no A/V input and 8MB firmware flash rather than 16MB. The DP-Lite has one rear USB port, the DP-Lite i has two. If you don't need the P2's A/V inputs, and don't want the extra HDD capacity of the DP-P2TB then the Lite is probably better value.

[Beyonwiz beta tester]

[grahford]

However, have you considered the DP-Lite?

Thanks for that information.  I've only started looking at options and was concerned that the P2 was a few years old.

I'll have to have a look at the Lite.  I'm not sure if I would miss the removed bits at this point.

Does the Beyonwiz, either the p2 or Lite, have any kind of notification for clashes when using icetv?  With my topfield if 3 or more shows lined up it would record 2 and silently drop the others with no warning.  IceTV says it is up to the box to handle clashes.  As it's been my only real annoyance on the topfield I'm trying to look for something that handles it better.

I'm assuming quick jump forward and back exist, (eg 30 seconds forward, 10 seconds back), for skipping ads?

[raymondjpg]

My topfield has started acting up and I'm thinking of jumping to a different brand.

Is it a good time to buy a Beyonwiz DP-P2?  That is, is it still a good product that isn't at the end of its supported life?

If only thinking of jumping, the Topfield 2400 or 2460 are fairly recent additions to the Topfield range, and IMO still well within the range of good buys and affordability for a PVR.

My only reservation would be Topfield's record of getting the firmware effective and stable. While the 2400 and 2460 are reputed to be easier to set up than the 7 series, I have seen reports that performance with Ice Interactive has been patchy (so far) - I don't know if that has been fixed.

The advantage of the Topfield 2 series over the DP-P2 is the capacity for two recordings for each of the two tuners on the same broadcast frequency. On the other hand I find the DP-P2 to be a very fine file player (from the pc) given the right file formats delivered through it. I don't think I have seen any Topfield PVR with such a file player capability.

For just TV recordings, I favour my Topfield, principally because of the file transfer speed to my pc where I can manipulate the recordings and re-encode for archiving. If the Topfield 2 series still have an FTP server, you can achieve up to the limit of fast ethernet speed file transfers, about twice (or more) the speed of file transfers from the DP-P2.

[prl]

...
Does the Beyonwiz, either the p2 or Lite, have any kind of notification for clashes when using icetv?  With my topfield if 3 or more shows lined up it would record 2 and silently drop the others with no warning.  IceTV says it is up to the box to handle clashes.  As it's been my only real annoyance on the topfield I'm trying to look for something that handles it better.
...

Beyonwiz firmware flags any recordings on IceTV if the corresponding Beyonwiz timer can't be set. IIRC some Topfield models/firmware versions do that, and some don't, but if so, I can't remember which. Certainly some don't.

But there's no automatic resolution. You need to check the IceTV website to see any error flagging, and resolve the problems manually.

[grahford]

@raymondjpg: Yeah it's pretty much the firmware that is making me not want to go back.  The initial few for my unit were bad.  The last few have been stable, but still a few little bugs and it doesn't report timer errors back to icetv.  But they don't seem to be updating my model any more.  So something with better firmware support and proven icetv integration is a must.  I really don't want to have to muck around with it.  Moving the files from the unit isn't a huge deal for me as I tend to record/watch/delete.  Though it can take some time for me to get to them, so plenty of HDD space is important.

@prl: That sounds better then my current situation.  Mine is one of the ones that doesn't report back to icetv that there was a problem.

[raymondjpg]

@raymondjpg: Yeah it's pretty much the firmware that is making me not want to go back.  The initial few for my unit were bad.  The last few have been stable, but still a few little bugs and it doesn't report timer errors back to icetv.  But they don't seem to be updating my model any more.  So something with better firmware support and proven icetv integration is a must.  I really don't want to have to muck around with it.  Moving the files from the unit isn't a huge deal for me as I tend to record/watch/delete.  Though it can take some time for me to get to them, so plenty of HDD space is important.

@prl: That sounds better then my current situation.  Mine is one of the ones that doesn't report back to icetv that there was a problem.

Sounds like the P2 for you with a 2TB option, and giving you a file player and external A/V input should you ever want to use it. I must say that (purely subjectively) the latest official firmware for the P2 now seems to give me video quality through HDMI comparable to that of the Topfield. I'd say that it works very reliably with IceTV.

[prl]

...
Sounds like the P2 for you with a 2TB option, and giving you a file player and external A/V input should you ever want to use it. I must say that (purely subjectively) the latest official firmware for the P2 now seems to give me video quality through HDMI comparable to that of the Topfield. I'd say that it works very reliably with IceTV.

The DP-Lite and the DP-P2 have the same file player capabilities, except that old DP-P2s that can run 01.05 series firmware can play DVD RIPs as DVDs, while the newer DP-P2s and DP-Lites can only play them as a sequence of files from the VIDEO_TS folder, and you miss some of the DVD features. But you can only tell whether a DP-P2 can run the old firmware if you know its serial number, so that's a bit of a lottery for online purchases. You'd probably only get an old series DP-P2 as a refurb now.

List price for the DP-P2TB is $150 more than for the DP-Lite i (get a Lite i rather than a Lite if you can, having two USBs is handy, and the plain Lite has only one).

[bodogbodog]

i've joined the Wiz club
Scored a bargain DP-P2 with 500gb HDD - refer http://forum.icetv.com.au/iceforum/index.php?topic=2978.0 for $299 and it was delivered today (and to my surprise I even got a 3 month Ice TV subscription with it (not that I will use it as I am signed up to 2013 already)
I'm already running 2 x Win 7 Media Centers with dual tuners and store all my recordings on a Windows Home Server
So this weekend will be setting up the Wiz and using it as my primary recording device - the Win Media Centers will be for backup recordings in future
I'll surf the Wiz forums but it looks like setup should be easy on it - I'll certainly be getting my moneys worth from IceTV - 3 devices and 6 tuners using IceTV!
Any setup advice greatly appreciated

[prl]

... to my surprise I even got a 3 month Ice TV subscription with it (not that I will use it as I am signed up to 2013 already)
...

Why wouldn't you use it? I've always been able to use the free three month IceTV subscriptions to extend my account.

[prl]

...
Any setup advice greatly appreciated

There's really not much advice to give, except to say that you may have some problems if you don't set the Beyonwiz's time and time zone correctly before you connect to IceTV, and it may also help to get things started smoothly if you clear the EPG Cache just before you enable IceTV (SETUP>System>Initialize>Clear EPG Cache).

If the Beyonwiz's firmware isn't the newest (01.05.350/01.07.350) then it's probably a good idea to upgrade to that, too. That can be before or after you start using IceTV. Check the advice about the model number on the Beyonwiz downloads page and make sure that you install the correct firmware (01.05 or 01.07 series). If you install 01.05 series on a machine that needs to run 01.07 series you can have reliability problems. Unfortunately, the firmware update process doesn't protect against installing the wrong series firmware on a machine.

[bodogbodog]

I've always been able to use the free three month IceTV subscriptions to extend my account.

Thanks - I really didn't thnk of that  ::) - ok so extend it will be! - thats out to 31/3/2013 for me  ;D ;D ;D

Thanks also for the other tips - I'll make sure I follow them before loading up IceTV

Update: All installed and setup - very happy with it, just coming to grips with some of the key differences between the way Beyonwiz handles things differently than Win7 Media Center. Very happy with my bargain though