But Mediasonic has gone a bit overboard, I think: all used, everyone had to change to a new chip and new firmware. I understand that hardware changes are sometimes unavoidable: when Samsung stopped making the demod chip the HW, iView, etc. As a result they don't have time to deal with long-standing bugs like the ones I mentioned recently - and of course there's always a risk of introducing a new bug, which seems to have happened with this latest batch. I've also never seen one in a store-I found out about these boxes here.Yep, evidence is mounting that this is a new firmware bug.Īll these firmware problems are coming from the fact that Mediasonic keeps changing the hardware, so they have to keep ordering new firmware. While a simple device, it does what it needs to forever for one month's cable bill. You can't do any of that fancy tivo record and watch in delay at the same time, and good listings are vital-I've used the Tivo listings to set timers for the 180. I still have a CRT fed component 480i from a DVR in one room, but everything else is now HDMI. Unless you need component, it doesn't matter. Not much to report, and a whole lot less maintenance than my HDD-250. I don't miss a channel on the box, as most gadgets today all work off the remote anyway. There is a video out port and an HDMI, but no component, but as the grand scheme of the HDMI consortium is to phase out the analog hole, this is no surprise. I can report that the 180 works on CC on recordings. That's the "karaoke box" that comes with a mic and costs about $60.Ĭlick to expand.I came into this thread really late and have no experience with the earlier boxes. The only HomeWorX that has a numeric front-panel display is the HW-220. So much for HomeWorXes with front-panel displays I guess that still gives you some idea which channel you're on, so it may be somewhat useful if you use the front-panel channel up/down buttons but I always use the remote and look for the (true) channel number on the screen.Įdit: The HW-220 appears to have been phased out. It doesn't display the true channel number it only displays a sequential number (so the first channel in the box's memory is C001, the second is C002, etc.). Personally I never felt the need for a front-panel numeric display. I don't know of any owners of the Boost Waves or ViewTV boxes, so I have no idea if either supports CCs during playback. His is a 7816 box so it's unlikely to support CC during playback. It disables the front-panel display if you install it and there's no way to go back!Īfterlife2 started a thread on the eMatic. Also, the firmware on iView's Web site is apparently different from what the box ships with. Of those, only the iView is known to have firmware that supports closed captions during playback (I tested it myself) but of course it has the scheduling bug too. Other boxes that have numeric displays are the iView 3500STBII, the Boost Waves BW1658, the eMatic AT103B and the ViewTV AT163. That's the "karaoke box" that comes with a mic and costs about $60. The only HomeWorX that has had a numeric front-panel display is the HW-220. Lately they've had the HW-150s really cheap but haven't dropped the HW-180's price, so the latter has ended up going for a bit more. Originally the HW-180 sold for about $5 less than the HW-150, but Amazon is kind of weird sometimes. I sacrificed its better remote for a fix by reflashing with HW-150 V2.1 firmware, but of course I had to have an HW-150 remote on hand to do that. However it's firmware has the scheduling bug. Compared to the HW-180 it's smaller, cheaper (I paid $31), and retains the coaxial digital audio output.
Does V11.0 have the scheduling bug? Firmware for the 7802-based iViews (V5.0) does, but firmware for the 7802-based HW-150 (V2.x) didn'tĪs you may recall, on my last purchase I went with the iView 3200STB instead of either HomeWorX.Recordings made with one reportedly incompatible with the other.7802-based unit reportedly supports CC during playback with V11.0 firmware (but not earlier versions).Currently runs about $2 more at Amazon (clearly no big deal but I wanted to be complete ).No RF "loop-through" (but no big deal just use an RF splitter if you need that function).Look at their own photo of the back panel.