Fusion: FVRT100

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Comments (7)

Colin (Hamilton) on November 10th, 2004
The DigiFusion PVR is a twin tuner PVR which was remarkably easy to install and has some automated features like updating. The receiver sensitivity seems low and I think it could be a problem for anyone without a very strong signal. The EPG is the proprietary 4TV Interactive (channel 704) so by overnight updates shows a pre-loaded EPG which displays quickly but will not reflect sudden schedule changes. A synopsis of the highlighted channel on the Guide seems to display automatically which makes the page cluttered and a bit difficult to read, it would be better to have the synopsis show by user choice. Playing back has some nice features like skipping to 5 minute marker points suitably shown by freeze frame snapshots. These are fine on big screen TV's but would be difficult to see on portables. This feature can cause recordings to be corrupted so I have taken to pressing the red button to avoid generating the snapshots (and ensuring my recordings stay intact!) The recorder seems to be reasonably stable and reliable and (so far) seems to be free of the annoying freeze-ups that are endemic with digital recording systems. The pause live TV feature is easy and useful and allows you to rewind a "live" programme. You can record in SP, LP or EP the greater the compression the less the disk space used but the lower the quality, you take your pick! The menu-driven recording system is fussy and uses more button-presses than might be necessary, and most annoying of all is the convoluted way of returning to watching TV after scheduling a recording or after playback. I have found from experience that if you want to make any recordings to keep for posterity do it analog, these ditital PVR's are prone to disk corruption and the need to wipe the HDD - perhaps later generations of PVR will be more reliable! This does seem a good product, with some refining and simplification of the operation and display would be better.

Adrian Parker, London on February 11th, 2005
Does what is says on the box. Basically, this is as good as any Freeview box I have used with the bonus of two tuners and a hard drive to store recordings. The twin tuners are what put this PVR ahead of the pack. Exactly what I needed. Despite it's cheap construction, this unit looks very nice and is reasonably easy to use. The remote is rubbish though. I find the installed hard disk a little small for my taste. As soon as the warranty runs out I will upgrade. Word on the web is the OS will allow a 80Gbyte disk. I will also install a bigger fan. Bigger disk will equal more heat. The only problem I can see is the gutless power supply. I don't think finding a replacement will be a problem. So, is it worth the money? I think it's over priced but if you hate recording to video tape and love the idea of recording two programs simultaneously, the FVRT100 will deliver the goods.

Foscom, Newcastle on February 16th, 2005
The Digifusion 150 has an even better build quality than the 100 and recent over the air software updates allow "chase-play". Fantastic machine, my only critisism is the noisy cooling fan, it would seem pot luck as to a silent fan or a high pitched whine...

Hedley (West Sussex) on February 19th, 2005
Have owned this box since end of December 2004. It is every bit as good as any other that I have seen, with the addition of the twin tuners. As the only decent broadcasting during the week seems to take place on every channel at exactly the same time this is a very good feature, and works well. Have also tried recording 2 programmes whilst watching another from the herd disk, and this works well also. I think the GUI is mostly good, and the basic operation is easy to drive. However getting back to TV after setting up a recording is sometimes a little convoluted and, if you press the wrong buttons in the wrong order, you can lock the system for a minute or two. It always recovers if you just leave it, though. Do not make the "super compression" your reason to buy. You will only want to use the SP mode anyway, as the compressed modes are not convincing. If you read a review that says that the LP and SP modes are good, then these reviewers had misunderstood how the system works - it records everything in SP mode, and then compresses the recording later, whilst the box is on standby. You can tell whether a recording has been compressed yet or not (it takes 4 hours for each hour of recording) by the colour of the "mode" setting on the library summary page. A film recorded today may not be stored in compressed form until 2 days time. To be honest it will not be worth watching once it has been compressed anyway, so don't bother with this feature. The only other bad point is that the sound sometimes becomes disjointed from the picture, and a line of dialogue in a film is repeated whilst the picture moves on. This does not happen often, and is sometimes accompanied by mush on the picture, so may be a signal problem rather than a box problem. Also this box is not silent in operation - when there is no sound from the TV you can hear the sound of the fan inside the box - annoying if you like silence occasionally. The program synopsis is a good feature in principle, but it displays on only one line at first then expands about a seconbd later. That means that the whole screen display changes just after you get to the end of the first line of reading, and you then have to find what you were reading all over again - really annoying "feature". Apart from these niggles this is an excellent box and I would buy it again without hesitation, above all others that I have seen on the market.

Phil, York on March 23rd, 2006
Avoid Digifusion like the plague. I've tried and failed to get them to supply a replacement power supply for mine as it failed after 15 months. despite being a known problem with these units, they insist on charging nearly £23 for a replacement supply. Its a shame really cos the unit is quite good, but if the power supply is naff, its a bum deal.

Dave, UK on April 9th, 2006
Excellent box.

Nick Pope, Reading on July 5th, 2006
Ours has worked well but needs to be disconnected occasionally from power as it locks up. Have to say thatthey were great when remote styopped working. I explained that it had been chewed by a puppy and I wqas happy to pay. "No" they said "that's covered by warranty" and sent replacement free of charge!