Great to see that the BTVision box (the V-box™) is getting a software update this month. The update focuses on three main improvements:
- Recording
All new recordings you set up will add 5 minutes to the end. This is great news, as the current setup often loses the last couple of minutes from the end of programmes. - Restarts
On a number of occasions we’ve returned to our BTVision box to discover that for some reason it’s rebooted itself and thinks it’s doing a first-time install. The new update will “reduce this from happening”. - User interface tweak
The UI is getting a tweak, making it “a bit more clear”, we’re promised.
All that said, overall as it is I think it’s a really great system. I need to blog about it at the other place … maybe once the update has gone through (sometime between 6 – 20 October).
This was one of the reasons we went for the Freeview Topfield PVR when we bought ours (almost 2 years ago).
The ability to upgrade the firmware directly and use a range of alternative user interfaces and other utilities (TAPS) makes it a nice machine to use. That and being able to transfer TV programme files to a PC for editing and then burning to DVD.
But a PVR does completely change the way you watch TV. I remember the first time we sat recording 2 programmes at the same time while watching a programme we had recorded earlier.
Absolutely … but I now want to be able to do that with my digital radio.
I’ll catch the back-end of some news item or a comment on some programme and think “What was that … I’ll just rewind it and find out …” Only to remember disappointedly that I can’t.
The other night, for the first time, we recorded two programmes at the same time while watching another … on VHS. It felt so retro.