Page 1 of ELLION dvr-530s TV tuner

Hi
I`m trying to decide on a new DVD recorder. The Ellion DVR-530s seems to have all I need and has got good reports on earlier threads in this forum.
Only problem is finding out if the internal TV tuner is NICAM stereo or mono. Can anybody confirm which it is and that it works?
I nearly bought a Tangent DVR 500, but had eventually to e-mail Tangent support to find out that it only had a mono tuner. It wasn`t mentioned in any of the specs or Manual.
The Ellion Manual looks very similar in the Tuner section, so I am suspicous.
Would also be interested to hear any other comments on the Ellion, especially overheating, as I want to buy a fanless model.
The next choice I can find is Cambridge Audio DVD55+RWI, but it is £50 dearer. Is it worth the extra?
Thanks.

The Tangent is made by Sampo....Ellion make their own machines.
The DVR-530S almost certainly DOES have a NICAM tuner but more importantly has a RGB input scart so you can record from set top box in good quality

Unusually for a recorder it has DivX playback.

The Cambridge Audio 55+RWi is the same as the 53+RW- only with an AV/i-Link input.They only have one scart socket I think
Richer Sounds appear to be discontining the 55.
The DVD57+RWi at £249 has it all -2 RGB scarts etc but costs £249

I took 2 back back then got my money back.
Both had faint vertical lines on all playback, also the RGB input was too bright.

Dont get this dvd player, you will regret it. See this thread.

Thanks for the advice, fellas. Looks like it has a good spec. but bad quality.
KDH, did you ever buy one?
Can anyone suggest another fanless recorder with similar spec. and price that will work for more than 3 months?
Anybody got any experience of BNI 1000R or Cambridge Audio DVD55+RW?
It looks like a purchaser`s nightmare out there!
Thanks for your help.

This item was edited on Sunday, 13th March 2005, 20:57

Absolutely agree - don`t buy the 530S.

Mine is now three months old during which time I have only been able to use it for a few weeks. It went back for repair three days after unpacking and has been back since. Today I have again had to mail them as it quite often does not record despite the rec. light being on and the OSD showing that it is.

I also get the vertical lines as described plus horizontal `wave` patterns on large areas of bright colour.

At the moment, I think it`s a load of junk.

btf

This item was edited on Wednesday, 23rd March 2005, 15:56

I am now on my 2nd DVR-530S. I did the firmware upgrade and now does not record on to Verbatim DVD+RW disk-invalid disk but works ok with Imation +RW.

bigtimefred:Main problem now is same as yours everything looks like it records yet the disk is blank when you go to view the recording. Works fine with OTR but dodgy when on timer recording. Hve you managed to get this problem fixed...really fed up with this now >:(

Thinking of exchanging it for the philips dvdr615 or the panasonic dmr-e65( I need DV IN for my camcorder) can anyone suggest any others for under £200?

mikejav

They have suggested they replace it. The replacement arrives on Friday I hope so I will give it a good testing for a week or so and report back.
During the week or two that it did seem to be working, the picture and sound was pretty good even though I could not use RGB due to this over-emphasising the colour.
Mine also seemed to work when using otr but was initially very erratic on timer and then finally stopped making any recording but told me that it was doing so !
Still had two very,very faint vertical lines on some recordings/programmes - most noticeable on letterbox film material.

If the new one is a dud there will be hell to pay.

This item was edited on Thursday, 7th April 2005, 10:00

I have a Ellion DVR-530S and it is the worst electronic item I have ever bought.

[*]I took the latest firmware from the ellion website but it failed to upgrade, has anyone else had these problems?

[*]Timer recording is really flaky, sometimes when setting a timer recording I find that the clock time has changed!!

[*]Also it doesn`t always record on timer. It will burst into life at the right time, the blue light will come on and then nothing! I can` distinguish as to why it sometimes works and sometimes does not.

Has anybody else seen these problems??

I would get your money back if you can.

I had mine replaced but the replacement had more faults that the first one.
I had also tried a firmware update without success after having problems with timer recordings (see above post). In my case it would switch on, the red light would come on but there would be no recording made. I also had problems with the clock re-setting.
It seems they have lots of quality control / firmware problems to resolve with this one.

This item was edited on Wednesday, 8th June 2005, 16:07