Dubai Forums Dubai Tech Discussions Dubai high tech talk

Hello all and thanks in advance for any information on the following.

I have the cheap, relatively useless Motorola set top box from DU. Du claims that you can set favorites etc but I still have not figured out how to do much more than change channels.

Du does not offer any type of DVR for their STB so I am wondering if anyone has purchased one of the DVD Recorders with internal hard drive to use with DU? I would like to purchase one and use the DVR portion to record shows etc. That being said, will a DVR even work with the DU STB and if so how??

My other issue is that I would assume the DVR has to have access and talk to the guide feature on the DU STB in order to schedule recordings etc. If you have any information please help.

I would even be willing to pay someone to set the thing up and get it working properly.

Take Care!

The short answer is... forget it.

I have had nothing but trouble with the DU STB, mostly because it is a cheap, plastic, piece of crap.

Forget setting your favourites, as periodically Du reset the channel list and it will set you back to square one... don't even bother. I spent an hour once setting up my channel list only to have it whacked 2 days later.

The STB Freezes, the remote chews battery, the IPTV picture quality is awful, and everynow and then they will change the broadcast format to NTSC for no understandable reason then to piss me off.

Now... if you're adventurous, some info I do know is the STB runs a breed of embedded Linux. You could in theory, telnet into it (assuming you know the username and password for it) and then find the appropriate com triggers for channel changing (the IR will also use a com port, so just need to change the listening port for the IR, or set it up to listen on both) and then hook this up to PC DVR software (many popular ones support this method).... but you'll still be at the mercy of the random channel order change.

Add to that there is no readily available online guide or rss feed for the channels... you're really bricking it together.

Spend the time and money on a bigger internet connection and a HTPC.

Ugh, like many things in Dubai, when you ask the DU people they say yes it will work, just call our tech support to set up the DVR. Only to find out talking with others that it will not work. Thanks for the info / heads up.

All of the stuff I like to watch from the states is on very late. ie Nascar and Football. A DVR of some sort will be my only savior.

Thanks again