OT Pace Twin Digital Recorder - mini review

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Mini Review of the Pace Twin Digital Recorder

Well, where to start, i'm just going to bable on (never reviewed b4). Its
not a
Tivo, more of an advanced video recorder. The box is small and not
unattractive
(has a handy clock on the front when off - a bit expensive if you only want
it
for that). Theres a good set of outputs on the back including 2 scarts, 1
comp
video, 1 s-video, RF in/out, 1 optical digital-audio out, L&R stereo.

As i have a Tivo as well, I found the pace box not as intuitive. I've had a
Pace FTA adapter and this box seems an extension of that (menus are pretty
much
the same).  Its easy to set up initially, just takes time to work out their
terminolgy and the buttons associated with it.

Now, a few facts i've discovered. The HD can only hold 10 hours worth,
theres
no way of reducing the quality to expand on this. (Having a wee peek inside
the
box shows this to a be fitjitsu laptop HD, easily accessable (with a few
blobs
of goop to hold the cable in place/discourage people playing with it) -
theres
a handy option in the menu system to format the drive so putting a larger
drive
in place might be relatively easy, voiding the warrenty of course) As they
dont
store a EPG yet, the drive seems to be only used for recordings

On a Tivo, its always recording so you always have the last 1/2 hour. This
is
only recording if you ask it to. This adjustable buffer space (30/60/90
minutes - if you change this, you loose all your recordings?) is activated
when
you pause tv (handy icon in corner tells you how far behind you are). even
if
you catch up, it still records, you have to press 'stop' to stop this
happening
(suppose this saves on HD usage - the drive also shuts down when the
machine
turns off - very distinctive sound)

Having 2 tuners and 2 scarts means you have have 2 channels showing on 2
different devices at the same time. The first tuner always has your live
TV,
the second records (when scheduling programs, you have the machine send to
the
HD or send it out one of the external ports so you can video it or
whatever).
theres 2 sets of channel change buttons, one for each tuner so someone else
could watch another channel in another room.

Setting up recordings is more like a video at present. The EPG via DT
really
only gives current program and the next. You can select the next for
example to
record which sets up the time and channel to record off, you can also
select to
make this weekly/daily... but this only really sets the times (as in a
video)
as the EPG doesnt exist that far ahead yet (I didnt thing it would have
taken
much to teach it to say, if it saw CSI on a tuesday coming up to record it
rather than having to set precise times, would be more flexible)

The Library as they call it has the list of whats recorded (you can watch
while
recording) , this also displays the currently selected recording in a small
window. handy option is you can set markers in recordings (and label them)
so
can can wizz quickly to the points you want (how many would use this
though?)

Overall, i was initially a little disappointed (got too used to the Tivo).
This
is a good replacement for a video and has a good range of external ports to
enable connections to Home Cinema/stereo systems (forgot to mention it
records
hours of digital radio). With the development of the EPG, it will become a
much
more useful unit. (especially if the digital epg updates if a program
changes/overruns - or is that just a dream)

Feel free to pump me with questions if theres anything i've missed or you
have
a query re something about the unit

Ade

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