Beyonwiz's upgrade of its own range topping HD recorder was trailed as the "world's most feature packed PVR". A great thing? Oh yes...
One question we receive often about dvrs is: 'Can I use them to record Foxtel?' And the response is 'No', of course. Or it has been as yet.
Because the Beyonwiz DP-P2 high-definition PVR includes only that capacity, the first ever to do so, we consider. The business is advertising a computer device called the LiDiC as a bolt-on, accepting an outside input for its preceding PVRs - - - we looked at this in issue 21 as element of an article on archiving video tapes # 06. With the newest version, Beyonwiz has constructed in this capability as standard.
EQUIPMENT
DVRs have had a relatively easy task in the past, and this has never contained a need to convert analogue video to digital. All they have had to do is record computer style data on their computer style hard-disk drives. Once that's done, no additional processing is required.
That's the reason whenever you play back your record from a PVR, the quality is identical to the initial broadcast. The greater PVRs even permit you to truly display the subtitles and choose other audio streams that may also have been broadcast (the Beyonwiz DP-P2 surely permits both of those).
Without compression, the hard disk's capacity would be consumed very quickly (you'd be fortunate to get eight and-a half hours of uncompressed standard definition video onto the 320GB harddrive provided with the Beyonwiz DP-P2).
Since it is, this unit can record nearly 100 hours of SDTV and 40 hours of High Definition Television (my figures --- Beyonwiz's really are a little more conservative). For external recording, the unit looks to be good for nearer to 200 hours! These analogue signals can be received by it in the form of stereo audio and either composite video or S - Video. You select between the latter two within the setup menu.
Besides this added functionality, and the increase in the size from 200GB to 320GB, little has changed since the DPP1 version. The unit has twin high-definition tuners, and will be offering the ability to record from both at the same time, while in addition playing back a previous recording.
The Beyonwiz DP-P2 is filled with other capacities. It has two flash card slots on the front (hidden, and also a USB outlet, under a fold down panel) so that it can display pictures from your digital camera's storage card. Additionally it may use this USB outlet, or the one on the straight back, to see a wide variety of digital music or video files. In the event that you use any of these USB sockets to link an hdd, you can archive your recordings to it, enlarging the powerful capacity of the unit's integrated drive.
There is also, an Ethernet port, so that the Beyonwiz DP-P2 can be plugged into a home computer network. Whenever you do so, you may put it to use to play back media files (music , pictures and videos) from shared folders on your own computer, or really from other Beyonwiz devices also on the network.
Finally, the Beyonwiz DP-P2 supports IceTV's electronic program guide (EPG), and 90 days' free subscription to IceTV is included with the component. Until recently, IceTV's primary function was to furnish a full seven-day EPG to your Beyonwiz PVR over the internet. With this installed, selecting programs to record was simple. And instead of recording particular times and days, it is possible to tell the system to record named shows for you, and they'll be recorded regardless of when they appear.
FUNCTIONALITY
Setting up the DP-P2 was simple. There's the standard autoscan for TV stations, and also a good semi auto function, enabling you to truly establish a range of channels to scan. Perhaps you are able enough to save a good little bit of time, in the event you know what these have been in your place.
As a PVR as did the DP-P1, which is to say, incredibly reliably the DPP2 functions as well and reliably. The TELEVISION reception within the test area was strong; it simply wouldn't let me down. Nevertheless the Dolby Digital sound tended to drop out, at the very least when delivered over HDMI, so you may need to parallel the video connector to your gear with a digital audio one.
You still get (by default - - - you can switch it off) a live buffer that you can rewind live TV (for as much as two hours). You still get well thought-out 'trick' playback modes, such as skipping around your file. There's also a range of other functions which were fed slowly in to the Beyonwiz line as part of the organization's continuing firmware upgrade software. (Just Beyonwiz site. the see the Message board on. For example, a few months ago a quite strong 'bookmark' attribute was added to the Beyonwiz variety by way of a free firmware update.)
A very important factor that still has not changed is the inferior video performance over HDMI with standard-definition TV, because of the low quality deinterlacing the unit provides. That this is in accordance with almost all the HD PVRs is really no reason not to have taken this opportunity, together with the launch of a new version, to provide decent performance.
Besides archiving old videos, the use of the external record capacities of this unit would be to time shift Foxtel, with no need to use the Foxtel IQ. But I usually do not have Foxtel (nor any other Pay TELEVISION), so I used a DVD player, connected via analogue sound and S - Video..
No selector for the AV input has been added to the remote control, but the 'List' key in the remote brings up an on-screen record of all available stations. At the base is just a brand new station, 950, "A/V Input". Just keying in '950' on the remote control will take you there as well. The machine appears to treat this external input the exact same as its internal tuners, not merely in regards to listing it as just another station, but also with recording. So you can record one station plus the AV input at the same time, but while doing this you can’t see a different station using the spare TELEVISION tuner. You don't get a choice about the 'quality' to make use of in the recordings. This came to about 435MB of quality, comparable to a bit rate of around 3MB per 2nd. That is towards the bottom of the range of bitrates that you see on DVDs.
That video segment included a good number of movements, which could make demands on lossy compression systems. So I replicated the procedure with a static image and that did not make a whole lot of difference, reducing the amount of data by merely
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6%. Low Bit rates or not, the caliber of the recording was exceptional. With one exception, there was no difference at all that I could see between the source (delivered as S-Video, since that is what the Beyonwiz was recording) and also the recording itself --- and that was examining the pictures critically on a large front projection screen using a total high definition projector. Black and - white graduation was consistent, as were colour and picture sharpness. There were no visible artifacts. This was an extraordinary performance for this new and useful record function. The sole problem, which may or may really not bother you, was that the procedure somehow transformed the aspect ratio of the first source slightly. The recorded video was exactly the same height as the first, but not quite as wide. In fact, it had been 6% narrower.
Whether this will be noticable to you will likely rely in the program material. With widescreen programs, it will usually mean thin black bars down both sides of the screen. If Beyonwiz failed to fix this with a firmware upgrade in the close future I would be really surprised.
One question we receive often about dvrs is: 'Can I use them to record Foxtel?' And the response is 'No', of course. Or it has been as yet.
Because the Beyonwiz DP-P2 high-definition PVR includes only that capacity, the first ever to do so, we consider. The business is advertising a computer device called the LiDiC as a bolt-on, accepting an outside input for its preceding PVRs - - - we looked at this in issue 21 as element of an article on archiving video tapes # 06. With the newest version, Beyonwiz has constructed in this capability as standard.
EQUIPMENT
DVRs have had a relatively easy task in the past, and this has never contained a need to convert analogue video to digital. All they have had to do is record computer style data on their computer style hard-disk drives. Once that's done, no additional processing is required.
That's the reason whenever you play back your record from a PVR, the quality is identical to the initial broadcast. The greater PVRs even permit you to truly display the subtitles and choose other audio streams that may also have been broadcast (the Beyonwiz DP-P2 surely permits both of those).
Without compression, the hard disk's capacity would be consumed very quickly (you'd be fortunate to get eight and-a half hours of uncompressed standard definition video onto the 320GB harddrive provided with the Beyonwiz DP-P2).
Since it is, this unit can record nearly 100 hours of SDTV and 40 hours of High Definition Television (my figures --- Beyonwiz's really are a little more conservative). For external recording, the unit looks to be good for nearer to 200 hours! These analogue signals can be received by it in the form of stereo audio and either composite video or S - Video. You select between the latter two within the setup menu.
Besides this added functionality, and the increase in the size from 200GB to 320GB, little has changed since the DPP1 version. The unit has twin high-definition tuners, and will be offering the ability to record from both at the same time, while in addition playing back a previous recording.
The Beyonwiz DP-P2 is filled with other capacities. It has two flash card slots on the front (hidden, and also a USB outlet, under a fold down panel) so that it can display pictures from your digital camera's storage card. Additionally it may use this USB outlet, or the one on the straight back, to see a wide variety of digital music or video files. In the event that you use any of these USB sockets to link an hdd, you can archive your recordings to it, enlarging the powerful capacity of the unit's integrated drive.
There is also, an Ethernet port, so that the Beyonwiz DP-P2 can be plugged into a home computer network. Whenever you do so, you may put it to use to play back media files (music , pictures and videos) from shared folders on your own computer, or really from other Beyonwiz devices also on the network.
Finally, the Beyonwiz DP-P2 supports IceTV's electronic program guide (EPG), and 90 days' free subscription to IceTV is included with the component. Until recently, IceTV's primary function was to furnish a full seven-day EPG to your Beyonwiz PVR over the internet. With this installed, selecting programs to record was simple. And instead of recording particular times and days, it is possible to tell the system to record named shows for you, and they'll be recorded regardless of when they appear.
FUNCTIONALITY
Setting up the DP-P2 was simple. There's the standard autoscan for TV stations, and also a good semi auto function, enabling you to truly establish a range of channels to scan. Perhaps you are able enough to save a good little bit of time, in the event you know what these have been in your place.
As a PVR as did the DP-P1, which is to say, incredibly reliably the DPP2 functions as well and reliably. The TELEVISION reception within the test area was strong; it simply wouldn't let me down. Nevertheless the Dolby Digital sound tended to drop out, at the very least when delivered over HDMI, so you may need to parallel the video connector to your gear with a digital audio one.
You still get (by default - - - you can switch it off) a live buffer that you can rewind live TV (for as much as two hours). You still get well thought-out 'trick' playback modes, such as skipping around your file. There's also a range of other functions which were fed slowly in to the Beyonwiz line as part of the organization's continuing firmware upgrade software. (Just Beyonwiz site. the see the Message board on. For example, a few months ago a quite strong 'bookmark' attribute was added to the Beyonwiz variety by way of a free firmware update.)
A very important factor that still has not changed is the inferior video performance over HDMI with standard-definition TV, because of the low quality deinterlacing the unit provides. That this is in accordance with almost all the HD PVRs is really no reason not to have taken this opportunity, together with the launch of a new version, to provide decent performance.
Besides archiving old videos, the use of the external record capacities of this unit would be to time shift Foxtel, with no need to use the Foxtel IQ. But I usually do not have Foxtel (nor any other Pay TELEVISION), so I used a DVD player, connected via analogue sound and S - Video..
No selector for the AV input has been added to the remote control, but the 'List' key in the remote brings up an on-screen record of all available stations. At the base is just a brand new station, 950, "A/V Input". Just keying in '950' on the remote control will take you there as well. The machine appears to treat this external input the exact same as its internal tuners, not merely in regards to listing it as just another station, but also with recording. So you can record one station plus the AV input at the same time, but while doing this you can’t see a different station using the spare TELEVISION tuner. You don't get a choice about the 'quality' to make use of in the recordings. This came to about 435MB of quality, comparable to a bit rate of around 3MB per 2nd. That is towards the bottom of the range of bitrates that you see on DVDs.
That video segment included a good number of movements, which could make demands on lossy compression systems. So I replicated the procedure with a static image and that did not make a whole lot of difference, reducing the amount of data by merely
Look at here http://www.dealspace.com.au/
6%. Low Bit rates or not, the caliber of the recording was exceptional. With one exception, there was no difference at all that I could see between the source (delivered as S-Video, since that is what the Beyonwiz was recording) and also the recording itself --- and that was examining the pictures critically on a large front projection screen using a total high definition projector. Black and - white graduation was consistent, as were colour and picture sharpness. There were no visible artifacts. This was an extraordinary performance for this new and useful record function. The sole problem, which may or may really not bother you, was that the procedure somehow transformed the aspect ratio of the first source slightly. The recorded video was exactly the same height as the first, but not quite as wide. In fact, it had been 6% narrower.
Whether this will be noticable to you will likely rely in the program material. With widescreen programs, it will usually mean thin black bars down both sides of the screen. If Beyonwiz failed to fix this with a firmware upgrade in the close future I would be really surprised.
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