Review: UPC’s new DVR MediaBox
Friday, August 24th, 2007One paragraph review:
UPC’s answer to Sky Digital’s Sky+ service has finally been launched and it’s a considerable step forward for the company, even if it isn’t perfect. The box itself is considerable in size, owing largely to the built-in HDD and cable modem. The EPG is overhauled from the old NTL days and is vastly improved (for a start it goes 8 days into the future rather than one or two as before). The recording process is simple to manage, as are the live TV pause and rewind features. The downsides include a somewhat sluggish menu, a rather awkward process to find your recorded TV and an inability to record two progammes at once (which Sky+ can do). That said, all of these negatives are off-set by a well-needed new service delivered in a far more impressive way than old NTL might have managed. The promise that the new box will be Video On Demand and Interactive-capable over time is just the icing on the cake.
For an indepth review, click below to continue the article.
(Disclosure - UPC offered waive to the installation fee when installing the reviewed system; the additional monthly charge will still be paid.)
What the new service is, what it costs:
The new DVR (Digital Video Recorder) service is basically a modern successor to the VCR. Some may be familiar with what a TiVo does, others might know what a Sky+ box offers and UPC’s offering is in the same league if not a carbon copy.
UPC’s DVR allows users to record TV to a built-in HDD (160GB - around 80 hours of programming, give or take) - this can be done on the spot by hitting the record button and OK’ing the decision, or scheduling the recording on the EPG, just like you’d programme a reminder for a show. On top of this users can pause live TV and resume from the same point at any stage or can rewind the programme they’re currently watching without having to do anything in advance (although you can only rewind back as far as you’ve watched, so if you change the channel only to realise you’ve missed the start of a show it’s tough luck).
What it doesn’t do at the moment is allow users to “series record”, that is set the device to automatically record all episodes of a series over a number of weeks, nor does mimic TiVo in automatically recording programmes it thinks you might like based on what you already watch - that said both of these services are technically only a firmware upgrade away (although nothing has been promised, it should be said).
UPC are currently offering the service to new customers with free installation, or €50 if you’re an existing one - the latter includes anyone who gets any kind of UPC service, even their basic analogue cable. After that it costs €7.50 a month in addition to the regular digital package cost, which varies depending on the deal you’ve taken out.
To give a quick comparison Sky Digital currently has no additional monthly charge for customers using their Sky+ service, but it does charge a once off €149 fee for it in addition to the €45 installation fee. According to Simon Kelehan, TV Product & Content Manager at UPC, this is because Sky sell their box to customers where UPC have decided to rent it out instead - hence the monthly cost in favour of a large once-off fee.
The setup
Setup was relatively painless, although there were some problems with a number of channels not showing up - this was resolved a few hours later after a call to UPC Tech Support (who, it must be said, answered the call and resolved the issue within minutes).
The box itself connects in the same way as the old NTL Digital box with cable in and out leads, scart leads and room for phono cables. This box does have a few additional options, however, such as the digital audio out cable and the ethernet and USB cable - both of which are possibly for updating purposes.
The Hardware
The hardware in question is a Thomson 6000 series (called the MediaBox by UPC) and as has already been stated, houses a 160GB HDD and a modem.
It’s of considerable size, in fact it seriously dwarfs the last generation of NTL Digital boxes produced by Pace.
It measures 14 inches in width, 9.5 inches in length and around 3 inches in height, so if you’re expecting it to be a compact replacement for your aging VCR you may be slightly disappointed. (These pictures will give you an idea of how it compares to a standard-sized VCR player and the old Pace/NTL box.)
The reasons for this size are probably numerous. For a start, it houses a HDD, which adds some bulk by itself. The built-in modem is also an issue and may be taking up the same, if not more, space than the HDD. The main reasons, however, could be costs and consistency.
The Thomson box is pretty much the standard-issue box for UPC across Europe - this means they’re able to buy in bulk and can now begin to co-ordinate tech support across the continent. For the consumer it means very little, especially as other boxes aren’t likely to get much smaller but are likely to cost more.
In terms of interface and buttons the box itself is quite no-fuss; on the left are the LED lights, one of which notifies you if the machine’s in standby and the other two which are dedicated to some mysterious purpose not yet revealed - something to do with phones and messages. The buttons are all on the right, starting with the power one, then guide and then record. After that there’s your standard left and right arrows, and up and down arrows; all surrounding an ‘OK’ button. This ‘OK’ button will light up red to tell you if something is being recorded.
The remote is simple enough too - check here to get a snap of it. As you can see the power button’s at the top - although strangely the normal power button just turns the box off, you need to hit the ‘UPC’ button to turn it on.
Just a quick run through some of the less-obvious buttons. The DVD-R button (to the right of the ‘UPC’ button) will let you flick over to whatever you have connected to the Scart In jack in the DVR box (by the way it works with another Digital box,in this case a DTT one, and an Xbox so chances are it will work on most if not all devices).
As the issue with having a power-on and power-off button suggests, there’s something very inefficient about this remote. For example, Thomson/UPC seem to have avoided the ‘red button’ interactivity and given interactive features a separate button. The up, down, left and right arrows surrounding the ‘OK’ are only of use in the full-screen EPG, or for looking at stations without changing to them in the mini-EPG. Most remotes would use these as channel up/down and volume up/down, but in this case these functions are given separate buttons. There are also ‘page up’ and ‘page down’ buttons which only work in the full EPG - as they suggest they’re for jumping pages of channels at a time… Given this single feature it’s a mystery why Thomson/UPC didn’t make two of the colour buttons do this instead.
But while the remote probably could have had 5 or so buttons shaved off it it’s still usable. It only takes a few minutes to get used to, is reasonably comfortable and easy to get used to using without looking - which is all-important!
One final point on the remote - it actually seems to double up as the TV remote too (like the Sky remote would, but unlike the last NTL remote). This means that you won’t have to be carrying a second remote just to get the volume right or if you need to switch onto analogue for whatever reason. A welcome change.
The new EPG and menus
New box, new service, new company name, new EPG. The new DVR box comes with a completely refined EPG and menu system; here are some of the pros and cons:
Pros:
Cons:
The slight delay when moving on the menu pages is an annoyance but it’s not something that ruins the experience in any way. Putting the saved programmes and the radio stations out of the way makes them that little bit more inaccessible than they should be too, but again they’re not critical, just somewhat badly planned. With all the cons in mind this is still an unquestionable step forward from the last EPG, which was clunky and awkward, and one that can easily be improved through remote software updates.
The DVR and live pause/rewind
So we come to the all important feature - the DVR capabilities.
As has been covered already, accessing a recorded programme is a little awkward but recording one is not. At the bottom of the remote and six buttons mimicking your standard video or dvd recorder functions - rewind, play, fast-forward, record, pause and stop.
If you’re watching a show you want to record, just hit the record button and then OK (unless you want to adjust the end time, but it is always automatically set to stop when the current show is over). If you want to programme a recording, find the show in the EPG and press record.
When something is recording, you can freely flick around elsewhere, or you can even start watching the programme while it’s still recording. You can also switch the box to standby (but obviously not off completely!) so you can leave it to do its thing in the background. Pretty standard stuff.
To stop a recording on the channel you’re on just hit stop and then OK. If you’re on another channel you can use the full or mini EPG to locate the programme (it’ll have a red down arrow beside it) and a quick stop, then OK will stop it without you having to switch back to the channel it’s on.
The pause/rewind functions are easy to use too - if you want to pause the programme you’re watching just press pause; press play to start again. If you want to rewind it just hit rewind. The one downside to this feature is that once you change the channel you lose whatever content has been saved in the background, even if you had paused it and were subsequently catching up with the rest of the programme a few minutes later.
The DVR does lack a dual-record function like Sky+ but it should be noted that if you record two shows at once on Sky+ you have to stay watching at least one of those channels - technically you can record two programmes at once on the UPC box (by recording one and leaving the channel on the other, then rewinding back through it), although it’s far from ideal.
There is currently no way to programme recordings for an entire series of a show at once at the moment either.
Final thoughts
The UPC’s entry to the DVR market is strong, if a little rough around the edges. It lacks some of the features of its main opponent but pretty much all of these can be fixed through firmware updates, which are now made easier by the presence of a HDD and modem. Overall the monthly €7.50 addition isn’t too bad, although it must be a sore point for loyal customers to be forced to pay for the installation of something for which blow-ins get for free. Also in the context of a one-year contract the UPC offer becomes slightly less cost-effective than it may seem at first. With a €50 install and the additional fee for a year you’ll be paying €140 over 12 months - within 18 months you’re expenses will have caught up with the Sky+ service and from there it will become more expensive; that is unless UPC (or Sky) change their pricing by then.
But overall it’s a small monthly price increase for a very useful tool - Once some of the patches are ironed out and the likes of Interactive TV and Video on Demand are brought on-stream (the latter of which we should see early next year) the package will get a lot harder to resist.
A general observation now; DVRs seem to have the same effect as an mp3 player does on someone used to Discmans. That is that people will probably use the new technology once and find it very hard to go back to a life without it. That said, DVRs do lack in some ways, just like mp3 players do - for example there’s no way to transfer something from one player to another with any ease; at least with an old-fashioned tape you could watch it anywhere there was a player or loan it to friends.
An ideal fix for this would be if UPC sent out some firmware that allowed their box to network with a PC or take on an external storage unit where files could be transfered back and forward. The USB slot is there, but it’s unlikely the will of the carrier or the copyright holders is too.
Blogs elsewhere
September 7th, 2007 at 6:14 pm
I just had my UPC DVR installed today and had to comment on this post. This is at best a poorly designed, hapahzard, crippled toy of a DVR. (The company should not even be allowed to use the term DVR for such a box)
The lack of recording a series is pitiful. This is a basic function of DVRs…to process and parse the schedule. My NTL installer told me it was because SKY owns the copyright for this feature..I presume he made that up.
The volume control on my remote does not function … nor the mute … this post implies it must know about the TV…but there is no manual with the device and I haen’t found the user guide on the website that is mentioned.
The on/off button for on and the UPC button for on is STUPID…the symbol on the top button is the internationally recognized symbol for ON and OFF ina single button. The failure to put page up and down functions in other pieces of the navigation software is AMATEURISH, the use of the STOP button to unmark a show for recording is POOR DESIGN and the remote is UNCOMFORTABLE to hold, particularly if you have arthritis. The wasp shape of the TIVOs and the Logitech Harmony were chosen for a reason.
The menu system seems to have been designed by a team of chimps…there is no logic to it, no usability and only one accessibility feature…sort of. The help button accesses one screen with a short description of four buttons.
The preferences and settings could all be collected in a single screen. The three clicks to find your recorded progremmes
Sorry for the harsh review, but I own 3 TIVOs in the US and they set a very high bar of quality. Any professional software development team could have done better than the mish mash of functions and features offered by this box.
The Back button is OK, but why not make it sizable like the OK button?
Just an aside: NTL’s installer was 2 hours late and then disappeared for another hour because he showed up at my door and did not have the box. Then, NTL told me he was not qualified to do the install, I would have to wait 24 hours more…just before he showed up again and performed the install. Somebody had their head up a very dark place!
Bill McDaniel
http://worldbehindtheglass.blogspot.com
September 7th, 2007 at 11:48 pm
The lack of recording a series is pitiful. This is a basic function of DVRs…to process and parse the schedule. My NTL installer told me it was because SKY owns the copyright for this feature..I presume he made that up.
That sounds very much like a BS answer from a guy who just wanted you off his back. I was told at the time of the launch that it was a feature they could add down the line (but for whatever reason have/will not now). I’m not even sure if such a concept as a series install can be copyrighted to any viable length.
The volume control on my remote does not function … nor the mute … this post implies it must know about the TV…but there is no manual with the device and I haen’t found the user guide on the website that is mentioned.
That must be a TV compatibility issue and frankly I’ve no idea if it’s solvable (if you haven’t already try the cable forum on boards.ie; they’ll have the answer if there is one.
Both the tvs I’ve tried it on were philips (one quite old, another only a year or two). Both worked fine.
The on/off button for on and the UPC button for on is STUPID…the symbol on the top button is the internationally recognized symbol for ON and OFF ina single button.
As you can see in my review I pretty much agree - it was a complete waste of a button.
The failure to put page up and down functions in other pieces of the navigation software is AMATEURISH,
Yeah - it is odd to have buttons that only work in one or two situations where they could be easily applied elsewhere.
the use of the STOP button to unmark a show for recording is POOR DESIGN and the remote is UNCOMFORTABLE to hold, particularly if you have arthritis. The wasp shape of the TIVOs and the Logitech Harmony were chosen for a reason.
I don’t find the remote particularly uncomfortable, although the placement of the actual DVR function buttons is quite awkward.
The menu system seems to have been designed by a team of chimps…there is no logic to it, no usability and only one accessibility feature…sort of. The help button accesses one screen with a short description of four buttons.
Yes, that is an odd one - there’s plenty they could put in the help section if they wanted.
Sorry for the harsh review, but I own 3 TIVOs in the US and they set a very high bar of quality. Any professional software development team could have done better than the mish mash of functions and features offered by this box.
Please don’t apologise - it’s your opinion which your completely entitled to and it’s not something I have any reason to be offended by. (Unless you were apologising to any potential readers from UPC, in which case I’ll let them deal with that!)
The Back button is OK, but why not make it sizable like the OK button?
I’ve not problem with the back button - I think it’s apparent enough in its shape and placement to be easily found by touch alone.
Just an aside: NTL’s installer was 2 hours late and then disappeared for another hour because he showed up at my door and did not have the box. Then, NTL told me he was not qualified to do the install, I would have to wait 24 hours more…just before he showed up again and performed the install. Somebody had their head up a very dark place!
That sounds like a bit of a nightmare alright but I somewhat doubt you’re alone in such an experience.
As a quick addition to the review, after further messing around I am extremely disappointed with the radio functionality. Not only is it very awkward to get to it also doesn’t allow you to record anything - in fact I don’t think it even has programme information, which I’m quite sure the last box did. It feels very tacked on.
September 16th, 2007 at 10:23 pm
I DID get the volume up/down buttons and mute to work after I located a user guide for this box on a SWISS cable TV site.
I had the same problems you did with the radio function…seems largely useless.
Another inconsistency I found was that sometimes you press info to see the extended info and then press it again to make it disappear but other places you press it to see the extended info and BACK to make it go away.
Also, I’ve noticed the audio and video tracks can become very out of sync (by several seconds) and we get a lot of audio dropouts particularly after fast forwarding or rewinding live TV. Has anyone else noticed this, I wonder? I put it down to poor multithreading software and slow decoders.
I am a software designer which is why such poor system and interface implementations bother me so much. I just don’t understand why thomson, a well known electronics firm, would create such a piece of junk.
thanks
Bill McDaniel
September 17th, 2007 at 12:36 pm
The full guide is available as a PDF on the NTL site - but that’s something I only found out on boards.ie - you’d think it would even be mentioned on that card they give you.
I have noticed the audio/video tracks going out of sync once but I think I rewound the clip and they went back in sync. One little niggle I have noticed, however, is the time it can often take for the audio to come on after you’ve rewound something..
The other day I was watching something and missed an important comment so rewound it to hear it again. However on playback the sound didn’t come on for a few seconds in so I missed what was said, again. In the end I had to rewind the clip 5-10 seconds more than needed just to hear the comment.
November 18th, 2007 at 12:19 am
[…] you first used in 2007?” I’d probably be able to find an answer easily enough - the DVR, perhaps… but it’s […]
November 22nd, 2007 at 10:24 pm
I tried calling NTL at 21.50 today and a recorded message said that technical support was open until 22.00, followed by stating they were closed? On the first day the unit was working fine. On the second, I’ve been unable to enter the DVR menu as it says “At this moment recording and watching recorded programmes is not possible. Please contact Customer Service. Press OK now to continue”. Soft and hard resets have no effect. When I do a soft reset the audio doesn’t work and I’m forced to reset a number of times before the audio returns. Most annoyed….
November 22nd, 2007 at 10:31 pm
That sounds weird Paul - never had that problem myself… it won’t let you record or watch recordings at all? Sounds like the box can’t access the HDD
November 26th, 2007 at 7:50 pm
Just getting to grips with this new toy myself, I agree with most of what’s been said. Based on people’s comments it appears there’s loads more that can be done to make it better (and should have been done prior to release). That said, having put up with an old box for some time this is a welcome improvement. I do have one problem in that i cannot access my list of reminders to see which i will record, not record or watch - the system just crashes back to the programme you were watching. Anyone had this problem?
November 27th, 2007 at 9:25 pm
I’ve had the NTL / UPC DVR for 3weeks, and it is OK, but only just OK. While a valiant effort by NTL, Sky+ beats it hands down
I’ve seen amazing DVR from UPC in the US, and yet they opt for this?
Also, be warned NTL / UPC customer service is POOR – Installation engineer never made the appointment. Never a call. No word of apology. Nothing. THREE days of NTL dodging my calls before they rescheduled
I agree with most of the point made, 6/10 for UPC and their DVR. Must try harder
Picture quality is noticeably poor when connected to CRT, pixelated with blocky colours, and only worse on a LCD – installing engineer said this was a good as it gets from it’s SCART output
Menu, EPG and handset are poorly designed and annoyingly slow
Mini EPG only shows what’s on now and next
Navigating through EPG is clunky
Scrolling channel and program memo on front of DVR is annoyingly poor
No series record feature
While the ‘advanced timer’ is easy to use – it doesn’t tag the recorded program with even a title
Unit makes a surprising amount of creaks, groans and noise
A printed Manual would be nice – a decent printed manual would be great!
DVR has hung several times in the last 3weeks
December 14th, 2007 at 4:57 pm
I just got the upc dvr box yesterday. Found it a welcome addition to my tv entertainment as I haven’t been able to record anything since I upgraded to digital.It’s a step in the right direction. However after programming my weeks programmes fairly easily during the day I ended up unplugging it before going to bed.Here’s why… It was getting so hot you could fry an egg on it even in standby. I lifted the unit to feel the heat on the steel base ..it was extremely HOT! The unit has no ventilation issues as it has plenty of space. I would be very curious to know if anybody else noticed this potential fire hazard or was I just unlucky with my unit. Anyway after waiting 20 MINUTES to get through to tech services they agreed to send someone out to inspect it next week.
Opinions / feedback would be much appreciated!
February 10th, 2008 at 1:38 pm
The DVR manual can be found at this link:
http://www.upc.ie/pdf/DVRManual.pdf
The only thing that annoys me about our UPC installation is the total lack of documentation and basic information - I worked out how to ‘unlock’ BBC news by entering a 0000 PIN (why does this get locked and why we were not informed about the PIN?) Any information is hard to find on their website.
March 25th, 2008 at 8:49 pm
Agree with most of the negatives already mentioned about UPC mediabox. My box started to crash after about two months - had to get a replacement after a long drawn out process with UPC technical support. Ended up losing all my recordings - the real downside of solid state storage. The sooner some way is found to move stuff off to portable disks the better - any way of doing this?
March 25th, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Well there’s a USB port on the back of the box so theoretically it could be used to transfer files to an external drive of any description, be it iPod or USB key.
All it would take is a software update by UPC, which could be made without the user having to do a thing… but I wouldn’t hold my breath for it at all as it could cause UPC problems with programme makers and broadcasters.
April 14th, 2008 at 5:26 pm
Am writing to you as maybe as a journalist you might be interested to hear the following. Tried today to book a service as I’m experiencing a lot of problems with one of our two MMDS boxes. I work 5 days a week till 3.30. Asked for a Saturday appointment. “No we don’t do calls on Saturday”. Asked for an afternoon service after 3.30. “Can only offer all day service to MMDS customers”(why specifically MMDS customers?). When I asked to speak to a supervisor I was asked to wait. The same person came back to say they could book an afternoon appt between one and six. I explained I couldn’t be there prior to 3.30. She kept saying she’d make an appt. I said I would look like I had made an appt and hadn’t bothered to turn up. Eventually I said I was going to contact their officers which I will. Do upc want to get rid of their MMDS customers or do they not understand the meaning of providing a service which we are paying for? Chorus offered Sat visits and were much more customer oriented. Furthermore UPC have already increased the rates. When we received notification I discovered we’d been bumped up to a more expensive package without requesting it. I wonder if that happened to anyone else. We rang to state we wanted the old package. That evening we had no TV at all because they had taken us off the new package but hadn’t put us back on the old one. Am seriously considering going to Sky.
April 19th, 2008 at 5:40 pm
Got my UPC MediaBox today. Does anybody know why the sound comes and goes sporadically when watching tv?Tried calling customer support to no avail. Would have to agree that the menus are clunky and the remote could be a little better designed.
May 25th, 2008 at 8:12 pm
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