Got myself a very nice piece of kit recently. It’s a Magnetox V120 Recorder. It’s a small ( Mac-mini-look-alike) device capable of recording video from a direct video source or a coax output. It is a very nice alternative to the DSTV PVR recorder.
The v120 can record to many formats, it can directly encode for the I-Pod and PSP, it has a memory card slot and a usb port to attach an external Hard disk drive via the supplied enclosure ( which stacks nicely on top of the device). With an easy to understand interface playing and recording is very easy it comes with a remote control, which has one touch recording and instant playback buttons. Because the device has a built in TV tuner you can hook up your DSTV decoder via the AV input and a normal antenna via the coax input, thus allowing you to record shows from both. Picture quality is good, but could be better, I would have preferred that the recording options be more flexible, in terms of the resolutions and bit rates etc. Currently you choose a preset mode, like TV or IPOD, and then one of three quality settings ( fine, SP, LP).
So all in all I’m very happy with the little thing, but i would have liked a bit more freedom with regards to the options.
On a side note i am trying to “Hack” the firmware on the V120 to be able to “enhance” or “modify” it, so at the moment I’m trying to make sense of the .bin update files, supplied by Magnetox, but I am yet to make a break through!
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