Can anyone who has used the DSR 530 please answer some questions??

[miguelaqui]

I would really like to get HD in January. I wanted to keep Expressvu, but it does not seem that they want to have many customers who own thier HD DVR equipment. KUSat told me they can't "sell" them, but they can "rent" them.

I was wondering if the DSR 530 was as nice as the EV 5900? I know that the 5900 is not HD....I just wanted to compare the DVR features.

I once had, for a very short period of time, a DVR from the local cable company. The 15 second skip behind, took 15 minutes to execute. I was wondering if the 530 was a fast or slow receiver as far as these things.

Is the picture from Star Choice a lot better then EV's? When I had the digital cable, my picture on the digital channels was better than the pic on EV. I was wondering if *C's picture was truly much better??

I have also heard that the 530 sucked. I remember someone once posted, somewhere on here, that they were very frustrated with it and he felt as if he had paid a lot of money for *C to use him as a beta tester.

Does the 530 really suck?

Thanks!!

 

[Satellite Expert]

The SD pictures on SC are better PQ than Expressvu with a couple of exceptions.

As for the 530, the good news is that there are no hardware issues. The bad news is that there are a pile of firmware bugs. In addition, a have decent attempt by Motorola would fix these and unleash a number of new features. When & will Motorola do it? - who knows.

SC is obviously keeping the 530 price high to keep it out of general circulation. They have done a relatively good job with the DSR505 firmware (But then again, they had more than 40,000 units to move).

Word is that, the next upgraded software will be for the 530. If it fixes all the bugs in the 530, this firmware will be downloaded to the 505s, then the 500s. Then they will have only 1 set of 5XX firmware to work on - not 3 like they have now.

StarChoice traditionally drops hardware prices during Boxing Week (the week between Christmas and New Years). It has been rumoured that the 505 will go on sale for $99 at box retailers during that week. OTOH, SC has already run out of elliptical dishes in parts of Canada due to heavy demand by new subs and older subs with single satellite round dishes taking advantage of the low 505 prices.

At some point the DSR530 will do what it is capable of - then you see SC lower the price.

 

[miguelaqui]

Dual Recoding

I read on another forum that the DSR 530 will not record 2 programs at the same time...Is this true?

I also read that the receiver does not have the PIP function; you must have a PIP television.

Is this info correct?

 

[miguelaqui]

Thanks for the info!!

 

[Mr Tony]

I read on another forum that the DSR 530 will not record 2 programs at the same time...Is this true?

correct. You can record one program and buffer another but right now it wont record two shows at once

 

[miguelaqui]

correct. You can record one program and buffer another but right now it wont record two shows at once

Darn! I really hope that someday Star Choice will get a nice DVR. When that receiver first came out, I thought I would have the perfect opportunity to switch to Star Choice and upgrade to HD at the same time!

From what I've read, they like to blame everything on software. If that is the case, then why don't they just fix it?

Maybe the rumours are true that the DSR 530 was really VOOM's DVR and Star Choice just tried to make it work on their system, without 100% success.

I would really like a Canadian HD-DVR, but I'm afraid that the DSR 530 might be replaced before we see the software they have been promising since May. That is a high price to pay for a "dual tuner" DVR, which only can use one tuner for recording at a time. Also, it does not have an off-air tuner.

Maybe, we'll see an improved version within the next couple of years, maybe even MPEG4.

 

[Satellite Expert]

Maybe the rumours are true that the DSR 530 was really VOOM's DVR and Star Choice just treid to make it work on their system, without 100% success.

Motorola and SC were working on a HD DVR long before Voom even launched. The Voom DVR was to be this unit with 2 ATSC tuners added and UCentric firmware rather than Motorola. Since Motorola have lost almost their satellite customers they have little interest.

 

[rkrenicki]

Well, The Big M bought up Ucentric.. so perhaps that division will do some good in the coming months..

 

[miguelaqui]

PVR/DVR features??

Can you start watching a show, let's say 20 minutes later, then finish it until the end, like the 5900??

I know, some cable DVRs will stop when the event time is over. For example, if you are watching a show with a 5 min delay and the show ends at 10:00, the DVR will stop at 10:00. You will have to go into the recorded events and start the program over.

Does the DSR do like some cable DVRs or is it like the 5900?

Also, the cable DVR, the one I had, was not very fast. It would take 10 seconds to skip back 15!

Is the DSR 530 a fast machine or is it a little slow?