Posted by Ken Moiarty on 03/01/06 10:43

[First of all my apologies for cross posting this, possibly off topic, query
to so many groups. Wasn't sure which, if any, of these groups it might
elicit an interested response.]



Hello,

I'm planning on buying a Beyond TV bundle {Beyond TV and Dual-Tuner
Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-500 MCE Kit, to be specific} to install in my PC.
Before I take the plunge though, I'd like to hear any feedback from others
out here who may have had experience with this PVR product.

My reasons for wanting to try Beyond TV has to do with the fact that where I
live, in Canada, we are pretty much limited in terms of PVRs to what is
offered by our local cable and satellite providers. For example, I just paid
almost $800 (CAD) to Shaw cable to purchase the Motorola DCT6412 PVR unit
that they offer. Hardware-wise it is a good unit, except that its hard drive
can hold only a maximum of 15 hours of recording in HD. (It holds up to 40
hours of standard-broadcast-only recording. But I bought the unit mostly to
compliment and take full advantage of my newly purchased widescreen HDTV. In
rationing my use of this limited hard disk space, I won't be opting to do so
by dropping HD programming choice. The Motorola DCT6412 has myriad digital
ports on both the back and front of the machine. I'd just love to get down
on knees and attach an SATA, Firewire 800, or even a humble USB 2.0 external
hard drive to it in order to try to address the limited storage space issue.
But all the digital ports on the machine are rendered not-enabled by its
software, which is closed to the public, provided and controlled by the
local cable provider (Shaw Cable; whom btw has expressed no credible
intention of ever changing this). Installing a larger drive without some
kind of secret software authorization key or adminstrave inside knowledge to
that effect, I've researched and concluded, is pretty much mined with
software security hurdles only a qaulified ot-entrusted technician could
have any chance of succeeding with. So my only option left in order to
increase storage space for recording is to spend another $800 and add an
entire additional Motorola DCT6412 unit alongside of the existing one. (I
would then manually switch between units as recording needs require. Or I
could spend $200 to $400 for remote control HDMI switch.) Yet this one
additional unit would increase my HD recording capacity to only 30 hours.
Obviously, I've realized, this approach is far too expensive for the
relatively meager returns.

Then I heard about the Beyond TV PVR option, in that, unlike Tivo or
ReplayTV, etc, which cannot access useable EPG for Canadian views, Beyond TV
claim that its EPG works in Canada too. Now, I'm posting my above query here
as I just want to make sure through sodoing so that this product is not
going to turn out to be something unexpectingly less than it is promised to
be, before I buy. Therefore, thanks in advance for any helpful, informative,
or otherwise interesting feedback on Beyond TV and/or any of the tuner/PVR
cards that it claims are compatible with its software and service..

Ken

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