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Eddie Talbot reviews
Daewoo
- Price: £Under 160
Freeview is now evolving further.
It’s been a year since the first generation of the SetPal receivers for thefree digital terrestrial TV service hit the shelves. These set-top boxes wereamong the first to herald a new generation of sexier-looking compact receivers,designed for Freeview. The service allows the average TV viewer access to aconsiderable amount of new channels on offer such as those being advertised bythe BBC – and all through a standard TV aerial.
Now the follow up product is here, and is the first of its type in the UK. Itis simply a SetPal integrated with a standard VHS VCR, and is given the modelnumber SV-900. As with the first SetPal units, the VCR features a Daewoo badge,although the real brains behind all the SetPal-based products are actually theIrish company NovaPal.
For those who don’t know already, a major unique selling point of SetPal-basedreceivers over other Freeview receivers, is the sensitive tuner that gives aclear picture where most other boxes would be too glitchy. This helps for viewersin marginal signal areas, and makes all the difference in this transitionalperiod when the digital TV signal is much weaker than that of the traditionalanalogue one. In the last year, NovaPal was successfully able to fend off achallenge to this claim, when a rival manufacturer complained to theAdvertising Standards Association.
Basic DescriptionBack to the VCR, then. The idea is simply as a drop in replacement to astandard analogue video. It is VHS with the HQ system and the standard SP andLP modes, as well as featuring the now ubiquitous VideoPlus+. This is also thefirst product to combine both Freeview and VideoPlus+. Because of this, it maytake the magazine listings a little time to catch up with publishing compatiblenumbers for non-terrestrial Freeview channels, however work is definitely inprogress to make it so. The video will also put an Index mark on each recordingmade and features an Index Search option from the remote control which willautomatically scan through your recordings.
There is no PDC (Programme Delivery Control), as this system is based on theanalogue TV system, and since this VCR only features a digital tuner and notan analogue one, then it is not present. However, many may not be bothered bythis. PDC can be unreliable and does not have total coverage, as this excellentguide explains. Also, the vast majority of non-terrestrial channels work to astrict schedule now anyway. Programmes on UK History or the Community Channelare unlikely to be disrupted by an over-running football match !
One of the questions that has been around for some time is what happens topeople’s video recorders when the analogue signal is switched off – well thisproduct is certainly the answer for some. I find it interesting that whilstidTV (Integrated Digital TVs) have been available for a some years already,this is only the first idVCR to hit the shelves. I do think it is much morelogical design-wise to put a DTT tuner in a VCR, so why we had to wait untillate 2003 for the very first is anyone’s guess.
Switching OnAs a VCR it works pretty much how you’d expect it to. It’s just that it hasmany more channels than a regular video, plus a beautiful-looking interface tonavigate through them ! The front LED of the panel will light up which channelyou’re currently viewing. When a tape is inserted the front-panel will notshow the tape counter (not enough digits!) however, a much nicer counter canbe called up on-screen by pressing the Display button on the remote. Thisfeatures a very nice “fuel-gauge” style bar and there is a feature thatautomatically works out the length of the inserted tape (see image to theright).
Switching on this video for the first time kicks off the EasyTune process.This works in two stages – firstly to tune the VCR to your TV, and secondly toscan for digital TV multiplexes, from where the VCR will also set it’s clockautomatically. If you’re still using an RF lead into your TV then the VCRautomatically cycles round all of the UHF channels until you find the one thatmatches. You can also select what RF channel (21-69) to use in the preferencesmenu, however it’s always better to use a SCART lead wherever possible. Helpfully,both a basic SCART lead and an RF lead are supplied in the packaging. Thescanning for digital channels and the Favourites list is identical to that ofthe existing SetPal receivers. You have the option of initially excluding fromthe list anything you don’t like. For me, that’s shopping channels!
Continuing, it then becomes clear that the menus are evolved from the originalSetPals, with more colour and new options for handling Timers. Menu speed isstill very fast indeed, and so is Digital Text. Given the integrated nature ofthe product, there appears to be no compromise in the excellent performance ofthe SetPal tuner, at least on my setup. I personally do not have ideal receptionconditions, as I am currently using an indoor aerial, but the SetPal copesmiles better than an ex-ITVD Nokia receiver I used to own.
A brand new Preferences menu is available, which allows many options forconfiguring the behaviour of the SetPal tuner as well as some of the VCRbehaviour. A number of these options were previously available only in thehidden engineering menus of older SetPals.
Picture/Sound QualityAs with previous SetPals, the VCR automatically outputs both RGB and Compositevideo and your TV should select RGB over Composite if it is supported. There isno S-Video, although with the excellent RGB picture quality available it shouldhardly be needed.
Playing a VHS tape will switch the SCART to output Composite only. The unit isauto-tracking (but with a manual option if need be), and tape playback quality,whilst not breaking any new boundaries at all, seems acceptable with mypre-recorded material and lots of off-air recordings made with my old ToshibaV857-B VCR. Recordings made with the VCR again are reasonable with both SP andLP modes – I don’t think it’s as good as my old Toshiba, but then again thatcost me 400GBP at the time – this 6-head machine will not cost anywhere nearthat much! Again I would emphasise that this product is probably for averagemass-market consumer, and not for the home cinema enthusiast whom in this agehas probably already moved on to DVD recorders.
Hi-Fi stereo is of course featured, and sounds nice and crisp. This is notNICAM however (the system that was designed for digital stereo over analogueTV). There is no analogue tuner in this VCR – so there is no NICAM, butFreeview still does deliver good quality MPEG-2 stereo. You must remember,however that to hear the stereo back you must have this VCR connected to yourTV with the SCART lead, as the remodulated RF output is mono only. If you wantto hear your VCR through your Hi-Fi then two RCA connectors are at the back forL/R stereo output. Unfortunately, no digital S/PDIF output yet, although Iwouldn’t be surprised if one appeared in a future product.
Other FeaturesIf you want to connect a camcorder, there are composite inputs on the front of the Unit, anda second SCART around the back can also loop through other sources. To my knowledge, this is also the first VCRthat can loop through RGB sources, although unfortunately in my pre-production model there is a bug which hasprevented it from working totally satisfactorily. NovaPal have informed me that some of the early units in theshops may have this feature disabled because of a bug introduced by Daewoo (not NovaPal’s fault). Hopefully astatement will be forthcoming from Daewoo on this issue. ConclusionIf your current video is on its last legs, and you know you still want VHS fora number of years yet whilst the DVD-recording format war rages on, then thisproduct can probably serve a duty as being the last VHS video you ever own. Itmay also be appealling to those who do not yet have Freeview, and although theyalready have a reasonable VCR, would like a way of adding Freeview to theirsetup without adding to the “box count” of their system. Those who do not wantto go down the TiVo or Pace Twin route may simply buy the product because itprovides a very easy to use integrated timer/recording functionality for DigitalTV.
I am confident that even those who have not used a SetPal should find it easyto use. The large number of people who are familiar with a SetPal already willfind it an absolute cinch! The market has well and truly been cornered.
There is no doubt that some may well see the combination of the analogue anddigital world in this way a rather odd proposition, and I think there’s agrowing community out there who are wondering if we’ll ever see a SetPalidDVD-R. A product with S-VHS ET and maybe some even Digital Noise Reductionwould have been desirable to milk the last vestiges out of analogue recording.As it is, bog-standard VHS looks really dated. But whilst we wait patiently formore advanced products, NovaPal & Daewoo have taken a logical step in thedirection of putting Freeview into the humble video, and I’m sure there willbe many who’ll go for it.
Pros: SetPal tuner provides best chance of a good reception. Good lookingand very easy to use software and timer.
Cons: It’s VHS, and my 5-year old Toshiba deck had a more solidpicture. Possible bugs in early units.
Review copyright © Eddie Talbot, 2003. The complete reviewincluding a full description of the machine’s timer functionality.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.