Tips & Tricks

Channel selection
Some people find channel selection to be slow, for example if you want to go to BBC 1 then when the 1 button is pressed the PVR will display "1" at the top of the screen instantly, however it won't change channel immediately as it will wait for another digit i.e. just in case you wanting Yesterday on Channel 12. Once the wait time has passed with no further remote digit presses then the PVR will switch channel.

To bypass this wait time for immediate channel changes then enter the channel digits with the remote and press the OK button.

EPG Search
The DS allows you to do a Keyword or Genre Search in EPG.

There are two methods for accessing this:
 * The shortcut of just pressing the TEXT button on the remote when is the EPG Guide display
 * Using the FUNC+ button

Frame by Frame Advance/Back
To use with live TV Time Shift must be enabled.

Watching something there might be a point at which you want to Pause then either frame advance or go frame by frame backwards to review something more closely.

To do this on the DS: Note: Each time use frame advance or back the transport banner appears, to dismiss banner press the [Exit] button
 * Press PAUSE
 * Then use [<<] or [>>] button to go in the direction you want frame by frame.

Media/Recordings archive/Schedule
In Schedule the "ALL" list doesn't show which timers are for Single or Series events, to see which is which use the "Single" list and "Group" list by selecting the relevant tab at the top. You can also use the Info [i] button on an entry in the "ALL" list and it will show whether it is "EPG Single" or "Instance of EPG Group".

Icon shows Event from EPG. Series Link Icon Appears at bottom of List (Info Area) in Group List. 5. Picture Control Menu -

Picture Control Menu - Fine tuning video output
MENU >

PVR Picture Control Menu shows real-time effect of slider control changes.

Control sliders for: Plus Save and Reset buttons
 * Contrast
 * Brightness
 * Saturation

Play All function
The best bit about this particular feature is it will play the list of selected programs in whatever order that you selected them, rather than just in descending list order.
 * Select recordings from MEDIA LIST with GREEN button
 * Then select Play All with the Func+ button to have them played back automatically one after the other.

Power Modes
The PVR has four power modes: Full On and Active Standby near enough use the same amount of power.
 * Full On
 * Active Standby - Used when a recording is taking place while the unit was in Standby prior to recording taking place or placed back into Standby by the user while a recording is taking place
 * Normal Standby - Front Panel dims, clock display remains shown, & RF loop through is still active
 * Low Power Standby - Front Panel turns off completely & RF/Scart loop through is disabled

Normal Standby uses in the region of ???

Low Power Standby is required to for the PVR to meet EU Regulations on power usage in Standby, to meet these regulations the PVR must use less than 1W however in order to meet this requirement it's not possible for the RF/Scart loop through to remain powered so this is shut off.

Recording & Standby
These PVR's have 4 power mode: If you have finished using the PVR while a Recording is still taking place then it is safe to use the Remote to place the PVR into Standby. When doing this a message appears "-" What happens is the PVR goes into the Active Standby power mode where the video & audio outputs are disabled but otherwise the PVR is fully on, the front panel will dim and "REC" will be shown on Front Panel, then once the recording has finished and no other activity is require the PVR will then enter either the Normal Standby or Low Power Standby depending on which Standby option has been selected in setting the PVR up.
 * Full On
 * Active Standby
 * Normal Standby
 * Low Power Standby

An example of this might be you are watching a program before going to bed e.g. program finishes at 11:30pm, at the same time a recording is taking place of something that won't finish until after you plan to go to bed e.g. a late night film with 11pm start & 1:00am finish, once finished watching program use Standby button on remote or PVR to safely place PVR into Standby.

Recording & Watch Live Options
The PVR's have a number of Recording & Watch Live options: For example:Record 1 - Tuner 1 BBC B Mux - BBC One HDRecord 2 - Tuner 1 BBC B Mux - ITV1 HDWatch Live - Tuner 2 Any Mux - Any other channel (Time Shift available) For example:Record 1 - Tuner 1 BBC A Mux - BBC TwoRecord 2 - Tuner 2 BBC B Mux - BBC One HDWatch Live - Either Tuner 1 BBC A Mux or Tuner 2 BBC B Mux - Any channel from BBC A or BBC B Muxes (No Time Shift)If 1 Recording is in progress and watching a channel LIVE/Timeshift when a 2nd Recording needs to start and the channel you are watching/Timeshifting (LIVE) is not on one of the 2 Muxes required for the 2 concurrent Recordings then a Pop-Up box will appear asking which service to stop:LIVEREC-Name1REC-Name2If you don't give an answer then after 30 seconds LIVE is stopped, however this option will mean the start of the 2nd Recording is delayed 30 seconds so the very start of a program could be lost while it waits for user input.... NOTE: When 2 Recordings are taking place and you want to watch something LIVE then any unavailable channels are "Greyed-Out" in the OK Channel List. This is not a perfect implementation as the highlighted channel does not look different, just the other channels in the list, so you have to move off a channel to find out if it is "Greyed-Out" or not. Sub-Note: This was added in the first Update 3.51.
 * Record 2 channels from the same DTT Mux uses 1 tuner so you are free to watch any live TV channel using 2nd tuner
 * Record 2 channels from 2 different DTT Muxes, you can only watch live TV from one of the other channels on the same Mux as which the recording are taking place

Remote Button Usage
BACK Button also alternates between last viewed channel and current viewing channel.

EXIT Button removes On-Screen INFO and other Banners

Screen Resolution and Format
The V.FORMAT Button will cycle all available HDMI Resolution Formats

Use the WIDE Button on the Remote to switch between Pillar-Box and Wide Modes on 4:3 source material.

I just have the Display Format set to Pillar Box in the Preferences and this sets broadcasts to automatically go to 4:3 mode or 16:9 mode as necessary.

The Pillar Box setting autoswitches to 4:3 on channels such as Russia Today and ITV3/4 whenever necessary.

AUTO HDMI Mode on the DS sends out the highest (best?) available on the TV so for a Full-HD panel that would be 1080p.

The pillarbox setting works on all outputs which is great as I much prefer programmes to be in the original 4.3 format rather than stretched across the screen.

There is a Test Card in the BBC-HD Preview Loop when broadcast. They periodically broadcast a Test Card with 5.1 Audio Test included. They also broadcast an Audio Sync Test as well (Black & White with a couple of moving elements and a Click). I have recorded these for reference as they are really useful.

There is a Test card that you can get from Channel 105 ! ! ! It's pretty low quality (SD at a Low Bit Rate - TEXT Data Stream) but it's just about usable for some set-up checks.

Method: Go to CH-105 > Text Screen Appears > YELLOW > Go To CH-1 > Go To CH-105 > GREEN > Diagnostics Screen Appears > GREEN

For the second press of GREEN button - wait a bit and be prepared to press it a few times before the Test Card appears.

Rotate JPG
When viewing JPG pictures pressing OK on the remote makes them rotate 90° for each press.