Starchoice 530 vs regular dvr and 505

aett258

I was about to jump into purchasing the 530 but thought about what if I decide to go with another provider. My other option is to buy the cheaper 505 and get a DVR with a hard drive from panasonic or another company. This way if I change providers, I could keep my DVR. Would any body have any opinions on this. Also looking for recommendations for DVR's that have a DVD burner included. Please give me your thaughts.

Thanks

AS

rpm_computing

Well it is always your option to go with another SAT provider at any time. You could purchase the DVR530 and sell it as long as your account balance is below $25.00 when disconnecting. I personally recommend StarChoice though. They are a %100 owned Canadian company, excellent customer/technical support and have limited contracts and account restrictions.

Read your paper work that comes with/from any company before signing on the bottom line. You will see StarChoice is a good "long(er) term option" for your satellite t.v. vieving experience.

StarChoice HD is exceptional, the competition asked Future Shop to stop comparing t.v.'s side by side with one system to another? I think it has something to how each company is compressing their HD channels. Star Choice gives a clearer picture.

I hope this helped,

Rick.

dks

I find it hard to agree with the statement "it is always your option to go with another SAT provider at any time." First of all, StarChoice does lock you in to a 1-year term with them. To get out of it you have to pay them a cancellation fee or donate your new receiver/DVR. For those people who cannot afford this, it certainly minimizes that option. Furthermore, if you have spent $800+ on a brand new DVR, even selling it you are not going to ever get all of that money back. How much do you think one is willing to spend on a used DVR?

Don't get me wrong, StarChoice has some good points. To say that they have exceptional HD - well I don't know about that. There is not one night that I can recall where the sound did not cut out on any HD feed that I was watching. It cuts out on Fox, NBC, ABC. It's ridiculous!! I would never call this exceptional.

Future Shop and Best Buy do not even have the StarChoice DVR530 setup in their stores. I have not seen one store from Halifax to Vancouver that had this DVR set up. I asked a guy one time here in Ottawa why they did not have the DVR hooked up as a demo, and he said that there have been tons of problems with them. Hmph, he got that right! I bought mine in May 2005 and it has never worked properly. Why didn't I return it? I trusted StarChoice would fix the problems, just like they said they were going to. Two years later and I'm still fighting with lockups, poor quality FF and Rew, and the possibility that the machine is going to fry like so many other customers' machines.

If I could turn back the clock I would have never purchased this machine. As much as I despise Bell's customer service, I am thinking that the 9200 from Bell is actually your best value for your money.

rpm_computing

Sounds like you may need to factory reset your 530. StarChoice has the least compression for HD viewing, that is why they are superior as far as HD is concerned, and yes #1 for customer support.

When I made the comparison of SC & Bell for HD I should have phrased HD tuner in general.

New Firmware is on the way for the 530, I would be expecting it to be released "around" March. Hopefully that will help resolve some issues with the 530. New firmware was already released for the 505 last week and all seems well with it.

How long is a bell contract?

dks

I'm not sure how long the Bell contract is, but I do know that if you are shelling out close to a thousand, you're likely not going to turn around next week and buy another DVR. Mine has been here since May 2005. I spent $804 total and it has never worked properly. I have had dozens of factory resets done and those really don't help at all. All the factory resets do is wipe out my timers, wipe out my favorite channels, and a few other things. It's a real pain in the keaster. I've been in contact with Jim Cummins from StarChoice, who then passing me on to other people and nothing they do ever seems to fix the problems. I did not know about a new firmware release. I'm on my 4th firmware release now. Each time I get my hopes up that the firmware release will fix everything, but each time I'm disappointed. Silly me, my hopes are up again. I can only pray that this fixes the machine once and for all. I don't want to ever have to reboot the machine again. I don't want to have fast forward or rewind functions that seem to have a mind of their own and stop at any old place when you press play. These things should be in sync.

rpm_computing

Well, I understand your frustration with the 530 for sure. There have been several units that have experienced issues from one sort or another. What I do know is Star Choice has been looking into them and is continually trying to make them better with newer releases and as far as I know they have been becoming more stable as we move on.

I personally hope for all 530 owners this release will be able to resolve stability issues.

Just a quick question. Has your 530 been more stable after the new firmware has been installed?

I talked with another Star Choice customer a coupple days ago that has had issues from the get go as well but said the newer firmware is definately helping him. Less restarts and better functionality.

Rick.

ecat

I picked up 9200 from bev for 299 one year contract 6 months free,I've heard of a new reciever coming out in march,mpeg4.

sweetmarie

I don't have many posts but a buddy said Bell told him the same thing. And he has a hd pvr and a hd recvr.

canuck

If anyone is considering a switch, make sure you compare functionality of the hd receivers. I have had both in the last year, here are a few things to watch for:

A little one sided but all valid points.

1. Starchoice has little to no program searching ability compared to Bell.

3. PVR functionality, Star choice is exactly like your VCR with out the Plus. Bell allows you to set it up to record all show of a series or just the new shows. You can tell is to record a show that you don’t even know what channel or time it is on. When the show airs Bell records.

4. Show listings, Starchoice shows you all the available channels all the time. Not fun when you are surfing unless you pay for ALL channels. Bell works like this: press the guide once and get your subscribed channels only (+pay per view) press guide again and see all the channels. In this mode they color the channels you have access to a different color.

5. With Bell’s HD PVR box, you can hook up the system to two different TVs so that two people can watch two different shows at once. They include two different remotes as well. Or both can be hooked up to the same TV. Starchoice nope.

6. HDMI, simply put Starchoice does not have an HDMI output on their box. Bell does. Not necessary just less cabling.

7. Pic in Pic. Starchoice no. Bell yes.

8. Size - Starchoice’s 17” receiver does not fit in my standard pioneer size stereo rack, Bell’s does.

9. Hours of recording - Starchoice 160 Bell 180.

10. Loading the menu after reset – Starchoice 15 minutes. Bell less than 30 seconds.

11. Picture Quality – at 1080 can anyone really see a difference? They both look awesome.

12. Web site – You actually see what you are subscribed to with Bell. Starchoice nope.

appleHead

My choice would be Starchoice customer service is awsome no better i sell both bell customer service is crap their equipment is awsome but starchoice basicaly does same thing customer service is the key for me

appleHead

carl033

According to posts here and elsewhere, a firmware upgrade (current one is 00.CC) is due sometime soon. It supposedly addresses and fixes those concerns Canuck listed in Post #9.
Has anyone heard when this upgrade will be sent to us?