用家意見 |
Just bought it about a week. So far I am quite satisfied with its performance.
Just to share my experience as follows:
PROS:
- Very simple interface, I can master most functions even without reading the manual.
- 2 remote controllers.
One full functions and the other one with basic functions only.
I find the latter one very useful for the elderly or people who hate to use complicated remote controller.
- 1080p upscaling makes better picture quality. You will find it very impressive particularly for SD channels or using LCDTV of 42 inches or above (I use 47"). But it will be less obvious for smaller TV or for HD channels which already use 1080i broadcast.
- picture quality is very good. Colour, details and 立體感 very good. It is also playing very smoothly at HD.
- 2 tuners
I can watch and record multi-channels at the same time. I have tried to record ATV and watch TVB HD at the same time with no problem.
- Recorded video can retain multichannel audios and all the subtitles. The recorded picture quality is the same as what you watch in real-time.
- Most popular functions nowadays for STB are there, such as time shfit 時間平移, recorded video editing, PVR, etc. I find time shift function is very user friendly for this model. I only need to push one button to activate and another button to view. Also the picture-in-picture function is good for me to catch up with the program in real time along with time-shift.
- The STB apperance is stylish. Better than a number of other popular brands (older models).
- As it has an internal harddisk, I can record pre-set programes even the STB is set at standby mode.
CONS:
- A bit hot during operation. But obvioiusly not as bad as many STB. As a reference, I find it not as hot as my Cable TV box in standby mode. So it is acceptable for me.
I can leave it at standby mode all the time when I leave home for work.
But one should know that STBs with internal HDD are usually hotter than those using external HDD.
- So far the recorded program files cannot be transferred from the internal HDD to external HDD. It is also not able to use external HDD for recording for this version of firmware.
Currently it seems that the USB port of the STB is just for firmware upgrade purpose. This obivously needs to be updated in the next firmware version (I hope they will release one very soon)!
- Firmware update for this brand is known to be quite slow. Fortunately this model has most functions that I need for the moment. So I can wait a bit!
- the STB is sensitive to the signal input. I tested it by using tv signal splitter, 1 to 1 (i.e. no splitter), 1 to 2 and 1 to 3 splitter, respectively. It can play 1080i in all cases, but can only play 1080p in the case of 1:1 and 1:2 input only. For 1:3, the screen will freeze when 1080p is used for the HD channels, though no problem for the SD channels.
So beware if signal input is known to be weak in your home setting, such as when one need to use indoor antenna rather than the common antenna of the building. Perhaps this can be easily resolved by using a TV signal amplifier.
- Some may consider the speed of switching channels and accessing the menu quite slow. My experience is, it may be related to the strength of signal input. Better signal input will make it respond much faster.
- The list price of this STB at $4,280 is a bit expensive (though already cheaper than another famous brand which only has one tuner).
But one should be able to find a shop that will sell you well below $3,500! (I bought it at $3,250 using credit card.) So one should shop around before purchase!
Bottomline:
I find this new model has improved many of the shortcoming of previos models as commented by others in the web. One should seriously consider and compare this one with many other similar STBs with 320G internal HDD, particularly if one considers 2 TV tuners, 1080p upscaling and internal HDD are important for STB and can find a shop with good bargain price.
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