Did anyone get a new NTL DVR?

S

Slash

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We got one on Saturday last - what a piece of junk!

First of all, there is a clearly audible "whirring" noise coming from it constantly. Like the whirr from a hard disk on an old PC. I rang NTL on Saturday (and actually got to talk to someone!) , held the phone up to the DVR and she agreed "That's not right!!".

Secondly, the menus are totally different from the STB, which i can probably live with long term, but............

Third, the remote control from the DVR does not and cannot control the volume on the TV: you have to use the volume control on the TV's remote control. Seriously!!!

Fourth, we have it for ,what, four days now and had to reboot it at least 5 times when the remote refused to change channels or do anything else (it kind of froze, if you know what I mean).

Anyway, they have made an appointment to come back and take a look at it. If they can't rectify it, I'll be asking for my STB back.

Anyone else got similar experience?
 
Reviews I've read (on boards.ie) have been largely positive.

You may have just gotten a dodgy one.
 
Mine was due to be installed between 1 and 6 yesterday but (surprise, surprise) ntl never turned up.

Maybe I had a lucky escape Slash :rolleyes:
 
Got one a few weeks back and have to say it the best €7.50 per month (plus€50 install) I've spent in years. OK you can hear it faintly when you turn the sound off on the TV but otherwise its not noticeable. The menus are differnent than the standard STB, but that can only be a good thing, the TV guide actually shows a full 7 days ahead!

The mini guide does freeze occasionally but generally switching to the full guide and back again fixes this. A bit of a pain but worth it considering I no longer have watch 15 minutes of ads per hour of most channels.

I'm not generally a fan of NTL/UPC but the DVR if good value - if you get a working one of course.
 
Must have missed this one - NTL have only been talking about launching DVRs for over a year.

So when are they going to get around to launching HDTV then?
 
Got one in the first week. See this thread. http://www.askaboutmoney.com/showthread.php?t=56044&highlight=dvr
So far I am very happy (for the price) Don't agree about the guide, I find it just fine. And it works for a full 7 days.

Best bit is you can join a program (if u record it) a few minutes after it starts while it records the rest seamlessly. Eventually you can catch up with it if you fast forward the ads....nice. Also the pause tv is a treat..

Am no NTL fan by the way, just think this works for a change..
 
Anytime I've seen NTL digital I not impressed with the amount of compression artifacts you see. I'm still on Analog myself. The DVR might be what gets me to switch to digital.
 
I agree Cobra. Sad to say the dvr has the same problems in the compression department. I had an "old" NTL pace box (big blue one) and the picture was far superior to the new slim gray one. If you are going digital without the dvr try and get your hands on one...I tried to keep mine when the NTL man came but he was very keen on taking it away!
 
One other point for Slash. The DVR is very sensitive to heat, prone to freezing up if it's too hot (like any other device with a hard drive) The NTL man reckoned you need several inches of clear air around the top and sides, and not have it stacked on other items... Probably not the problem but worth a try..
 
Here is an update on this story for anyone who may be interested:

NTL man came on Saturday morning.

He agreed that the humming noise coming from the DVR was not normal, and that the "Freezing up" was not acceptable either.

The rest of the conversation went something like this:

Me: "Can you fix it?"

NTL Man: "No".

Me: "Can you give me a replacement?"

NTL Man: "Haven't got one". (Seriously, that's what he said).

Me: "Can you take away the DVR and give me a STB"

NTL Man: "Yes" (he seemed relieved at this suggestion).

So he did, and the DVR is gone.

The End.
 
Slash, you must have received a well dodgy one.

We finally got ours a couple of days ago, on the 3rd try ... NTL never showed up on 2 occasions ... in the end it was up and running in about 15 minutes. Straight swap with our existing box (and we're on MMDS).

The new program guide is great, although you've to program the remote to work with your television to control volume. They didn't provide a manual, but its available in the help section of the website.

I had to call NTL well over 10 times to get them out, and I actually called SKY at one stage to see what it would cost to change over, it would have been 200 euro install plus 60 per month for the equivalent with SKY+ (we've 3 NTL boxes, costing 30 per month .. special offer a few yrs ago).

If ours packed up, I'd definitely be holding out for another one off them rather than going back to the old box ...
 
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