V+ Is the SA V+ box really that bad?

mollda · 25-06-2011, 21:03

looked on the internet and I can see a lot of bad reviews on the scientific atlantic v+ box and how much better the Samsung box is. I have had the SA box for 3 years and not had any issues, sure it can be at times be a tad slow in changing channels but not so bad that it becomes a problem and the HD picture is pretty good to me.

jb66 · 25-06-2011, 21:11

If you have a good one then keep hold of it. It's has a dated look it's got a noisy hard drive, slowness especially at midnight. It's sd picture is phenomenal though, wipes the floor with my tivo

mollda · 25-06-2011, 21:18

Quote:

Originally Posted by jb66

If you have a good one then keep hold of it. It's it's dated look it's noisy hard drive, slowness especially at midnight. It's sd picture is phenomenal though, wipes the floor with my tivo

Yeah agree that the SD picture is excellent, especially against what I have seen from the SKY SD picture. Not seen the SD on a Tivo yet.

25-06-2011, 21:40

Quote:

Originally Posted by mollda

Yeah agree that the SD picture is excellent, especially against what I have seen from the SKY SD picture. Not seen the SD on a Tivo yet.

Until there has been the software update to TiVo to fix SD picture for some TV, it cannot be judged fairly against any STB!

milko · 26-06-2011, 09:53

i have the SA V+ box , had it for nearly a year now, am very happy with it, not had any issues at all

mentalis · 26-06-2011, 10:03

I had an SA V+ and it was very noisy; at first I had it on a wooden TV stand and it sounded like someone was constantly drilling.

When I moved to a glass stand it was better, but you noticed it was much quieter in the room when you turned it off (even when the TV was on).

The channel changing speed I could live with, but when you pressed i and could actually watch it slowly draw a black background, followed by a grey outline then add the text that was painful.

Then it developed problems; it would randomly reboot, usually when recording something.

That, the fact it looked like something the 80s wanted back, and the measly 20+ hours or HD space meant I jumped to TiVo straight away - mainly for the extra hard drive space.

Toto · 26-06-2011, 11:54

Quote:

Originally Posted by mlayzell

Until there has been the software update to TiVo to fix SD picture for some TV, it cannot be judged fairly against any STB!

VM are planning a software update to improve SD picture quality on TiVo?

Lew · 26-06-2011, 13:08

Quote:

Originally Posted by Toto

VM are planning a software update to improve SD picture quality on TiVo?

Yes.

http://community.virginmedia.com/t5/...ty/td-p/500443

26-06-2011, 13:19

Quote:

Originally Posted by jb66

If you have a good one then keep hold of it. It's has a dated look it's got a noisy hard drive, slowness especially at midnight. It's sd picture is phenomenal though, wipes the floor with my tivo

I have a S/A V+ box funnily enough i do not find the hard drive paticularly noisy,but yes it does slow down at midnight alright.!

But am very impressed with the sd picture quality so much so when i took HD on sky sports for a while i did not thenk it worth the extra cash,as the V+ picture on sd is so good.I plan to hang to my one for the foreseeable future.

clayts · 26-06-2011, 13:22

Three things I don't miss about the SA V+

(1) The midnight/1am slowdown (avoid using FWD/REW, try to watch programmes with no advert breaks !)
(2) Having to nurse it through HD recordings - only being able to record one HD channel at a time, not being able to watch another HD channel whilst it was recording an HD channel or face the wrath of the random reboot
(3) Unreliable CatchUp - sometimes it would work, sometimes it wouldn't, usually within a few seconds of selecting the same programme

Other than that, and some slowness, generally the SA V+ was a good machine - yes the SD picture was marginally better than Tivo, but not a deal breaker in my opinion.

japitts · 27-06-2011, 11:03

The midnight slowdown is one big bug, and that'll never be fixed - but by itself I can live with this.

The only real "irritant" are the 4 dud recordings I have to delete every morning and have done for the past few years. I know I could easily reformat but for the hassle of wiping or having to dump all the other recordings, that's always felt a little extreme. If the UK4 software update clears this longstanding bug, then I call that a result :-)

When publicity for the TiVo first came out a few months ago I was rather tempted. But to be honest, I've rather gone off it.

WDLaserjetGLOVER · 27-06-2011, 12:26

Before Tivo I had the TVDrive silver version.
Never had a problem with it in all those years.
I was sad to see it go, but the rotters wouldn't let me keep it.

carbon60 · 27-06-2011, 21:30

I have one dud recording on my SA V+ that occurred when it tried to record the same program twice at the same time due to a bug with the EPG data at the time. I've just left it there - no point in deleting it for it to re-appear.

I don't use the box for HD and only have had minor issues with it. I'll reformat it should it ever be empty!

Lone Star · 28-06-2011, 12:22

Other than the midnight slowdown I never had a problem with my old silver SA TV Drive until the hard disk gave up the ghost six weeks ago. Now on my 2nd replacement Samsung, which admittedly doesn't suffer from the slowdown problem. But as the first one only lasted 3 weeks, I do wonder about Samsung V+ reliability.

28-06-2011, 19:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lone Star

Other than the midnight slowdown I never had a problem with my old silver SA TV Drive until the hard disk gave up the ghost six weeks ago. Now on my 2nd replacement Samsung, which admittedly doesn't suffer from the slowdown problem. But as the first one only lasted 3 weeks, I do wonder about Samsung V+ reliability.

Had my Samsung over a year now very reliable ( touch wood) My first V+ box!