DSE High Definition with Timer Recording GH5930

Works but has a few bugs – I bought one of these a few months back as a potential replacement for my Telefunken STBs. I was pleased to discover that the system within was an update of the GVA Set Top Boxes that The Good Guys was selling about five years ago. The onscreen font and menus are a lot clearer than those, and the auto search picked up all the local TV and… Read more

TV-Radio channels (I live in the Newcastle area). The picture quality was very good, and setting up recordings was easy to do. You can watch another channel in the same stream that you're recording to but the display is clumsy. Rather than only show alternative channels in the same stream, it allows you to go to another stream with a warning and asks you if you want to stop recording. Too easy to press the wrong key. But - and I can do this on the Telefunkens I have - you can't watch another existing recording while you're currently recording. That's common for a number of cheaper STB/PVRs.

I did however have issues with watching recordings over 1 hr long. Sometimes you could not go directly to a time longer than an hour in the recording, and the only way to get to that was to fast-forward (2x and 4x only) from about 58 minutes in. If you tried to go to a specific time over that it would then reset you to the start of the recording (as would returning to a recording that you'd stopped before and had come back to). This only happened SOMETIMES and my testing with both a scheduled and an off-the fly recording didn't seem to show why it only happened sometimes. Now it's possible to just remove the external USB Stick/Hard Drive and copy/play those recordings from a home computer with a media player (like VLC) but that's annoying to do. In the end I returned mine for a refund because it was unreliable.

Good for the money, but you get what you pay for. (Model: GH5944) – Bought a good few months back and havent really used it much as Aus TV is pathetic. With football world cup being broadcast the PVR is not doing what you tell it to do. It records 1 program correctly and nothing more. No errors to suggest what went wrong. Would be useful if it at least contained a suggestion as to why this didn't work (space… Read more

issue, epg failed, something at least ...) On the positive, the picture is clear, using a very cheap usb 2.0 32GB drive as a test is great ... also allows me to copy my backed-up programs to a usb drive and use the stb as a media server ... appears at this stage that mpeg, mkv and perhaps some other file formats will work (havent tested all of them yet but manual goes into detail). I also note that a 2TB is the limit as far as usb is concerned; I plugged in a hdd and this is not recognised, can only think the power required for this drive will not work in stb's usb port, so perhaps best to use a smaller drive with less power requirements but its a difficult to determine what hdd will work... the joys of compatibility...

Re: would I recommend it: well, depends what you want it for ... for tv and perhaps media server, go for it. for pvr I'd say be cautious ... I'm going to try another drive when I work out the power requirements if possible, perhaps its unrelated to the unit, but support for this is non-existent so I'm guessing. cheap! easy to setup! media server and tv are fine! remote is silly and at times unresponsive, pvr unreliable, fat32 fromatting for usb is weird

good usb recording to replace video – If you get an 8GB or 16GB USB and record on that it's good to replace my old video recorder. Doesn't tell you have much space you have left on the USB. But 8GB is about 3 - 3.5 hrs and 16GB is about 6 hrs max. It didn't like using a 32GB. A photography student told me their uni lecturer said use 2 smaller USB's rather than one big one. And… Read more

blank videos have got more expensive and USB's cheaper. But preferably get a USB that doesn't flash to much while it's recording.

I agree, I find the print a little small on the screen, but I can read it. Would prefer bigger. Perhaps on a bigger TV it might be bigger print. But the blue background doesn't overly help that either.

Remote and setup were a bit confusing to start, but now used to it and no problem.

PVR recording is easy. But I had an older version of this same one which had DD-MM-YYY and then the next one I bought for the second TV has MM-DD like american, so you have to get used to that.

If remote doesn't work or connections at the back are loose, take it back to store and swap it. When I first got one, the connections to aerial/Tv at back were slippery and loose, and a movement of the cable changed the reception, but I returned it no problem. And the replacement was tight enough better connections and been using for a couple of years.

And I do daily recordings too. My two machiness have, daily, weekly, once. easy and cheap pvr usb recording MM-DD can be annoying, small print size on the screen

Good box which does its job – This is a good basic machine that's made by Hills and does the job .It is easy to set up, gets the channels up easily and the instruction manual is easy to understand. It should not be bought if you are going to use it as a PVR/HDD player. We put a 500gb hard drive on it but it would always only record about 20 minutes of the show and then… Read more

stop. It works ok with a new 4gb flash drive but that only records for about 45 minutes before its full.

If you want an uncomplicated set top box to pick up HD digital channels then its a good buy.

GH5926 to GH5930 Upgrade – Hi All This is a bit of a side note if anyone is interested just to get this out there. I originally bought a DSE STB a GH5926 and found it OK, but then later when they were on special I bought a GH5930. This was also fairly OK, recently started to have calender probs with it (the 5930) so got in touch with DSE support and had them send me a… Read more

firmware upgrade.

Did the upgrade and it worked fine, then out of curiosity checked out the guts of both boxes and by and large they were both identical. Thought to myself "self" what if I update the firmware on the 5926 with the 5930 firmware. So I did and it worked perfectly, just load the update onto a HD or USB stick and go to the USB menu then music it will show up in there.

Select and the upgrade goes ahead once it finishes you will have to remove the power chord nothing else will work but when you power it up you have a fully functional recorder.

Cheerz hope someone finds this useful It's a good backup when I can't use my Topfield PVR Menus are a bit glitchy

great product – I found this stb easy to set up, easy to use and have had no problem with it. I found that the best way to record is on a fat32 formatted 2.5 500gb (or whatever)external hard drive, formatting can be done with a free downloaded program from the internet. I think I paid $49 for the stb, which is a very cheap product and it delivers the goods.… Read more

Easier and cheaper than buying a dvd recorder and your recorded programs can be watched on your computer. value for money, great little stb

Dick Smith Set top box is dissapointing – Reviews can be good and bad. this one is Average, as was my experience with using it. So its a dick smith Set HD top box. If you want cheap go a head buy it. if you want reliable, responsive, and easy to use navigation and a good remote dont buy this. the remote is the most annoying thing, but almost the most important thing when it comes to… Read more

usability.. if the controller is unresponsive I'd suggest taking the device back to the store for a refund.

its a pvr so it can time record and record a show while you can watch a second on a HD tv with a built in hd stb.

the menu is confusing and well silly, and hard to navigate..

** 2 stars

Ba controller, dodgey reception, pixelated, bad warranty, pvr is not great

Good – It was worthwhile upgrading to HD with all the new channels that are being launched at the moment, and this set top box was the best value we could find. Being able to record to USB is great. The price is definitely right for this set top box. It has more features than others at a higher price point, such as being able to play from/record to USB. Remote is a little clunky to navigate, and sometimes subtitling turns itself on for no reason.