HDVR2 vs T60

[oiler]

I was considering getting the HDVR2, but was wondering how it compares in speed to the T60 (which I currently have).

I have searched for the specs of the HDVR2 but cannot seem to locate them.

Does the HDVR2 have a faster CPU, more memory, use ATA100 or ATA133?

Are the menus much faster than the T60?

Thanks!

[mrblack51]

this is a relative subject, because there were some fundamental design changes from the s1 to the s2 dtivos. yes, s2 units have a faster clockspeed of 200mhz versus 56mhz, however, the procesors are different...the s1 had a ppc, the s2 uses mips. also, the s1 had all the mpeg decoding done by the cs22 chip in hardware, while the s2 units do it in software.

basically, the performance is roughly the same overall. one menu might be faster, but another might be slower on a given model. dont get an s2 because you think it will be faster, you will be dissappointed

[oiler]

Wow, that is a big disappointment then.

So really the only 'major' difference is the addition of the USB ports on the S2?

Other than that, are there any other reasons to get the S2 dtivo over the S1 dtivo?

Thanks for your input, as it is definitely helping me to decide on if I should get the S2 or not.

[mrblack51]

Originally posted by oiler
Wow, that is a big disappointment then.

So really the only 'major' difference is the addition of the USB ports on the S2?

Other than that, are there any other reasons to get the S2 dtivo over the S1 dtivo?

Thanks for your input, as it is definitely helping me to decide on if I should get the S2 or not.

pretty much. the big difference is usb ports, and the *theoretical possibility* of being able to use hmo at some point. however, dtv hasnt indicated whether or not they will ever enable it or not.

thats pretty much it on the reasons to get one...other than the theoretical benefits of having a newer unit.

[rpl]

Overall the menu speeds seem about the same to me.

I believe the S2 has an improved cooling design by moving the fan to the back of the case. Hopefully we will not see the same failures in the tuner that the S1 seems prone to. Same with the power supply. Since both of these items are not readily available anymore for the S1 I hope we don't see the same problems in the S2.

Deals for new subscribers are available for the S2, and some deals may be available for existing subscribers if you can get a hold of customer retention.

I don't know if the S1 is available anywhere except ebay. I've seen broken boxes selling for 150 dollars which I think is crazy.

A drawback of the S2 is that it is really set up to hold one hard drive. You can get a bracket to hold another hard drive if you desire.

[tinman]

You need to decide what you want to do with your unit. If you just want to watch TV, get an S1. If you want to play at the hacking game and try to figure out how things fit together and don't care as much about watching TV, get an S2. Our you can be like many of us, get several of each!! Watch TV on the S1s and play on the S2s. Frankly, I can't tell any difference in speed or menus between the S2s and S1s.

The S2 USB ports are easier to use for video extraction once you get the hacks loaded correctly. I found it was a real pain to install the turbo net card on an S1 and drill a hole in my case (I know, I didn't have to drill the hole but it looked neater).

[oiler]

One thing I always seem to have a problem with my T60 is if I load quite a few of the hacks and turbonet, I would start to get some audio skipping. If I remove a few of the hacks (it did not matter which ones), the skipping would go away. I assume this was the hacks taking too many CPU cycles, so I was hoping the S2 would alleviate this problem by having the faster CPU.

Do you think this is the case?

Also, I see everyone mentioning the USB to ethernet adapters to hookup the S2 to their computer. Is it not possible to use a wireless USB adapter, something like the Linksys WUSB11, so you could connect to a WAP on your computer?

[mrblack51]

Originally posted by oiler
One thing I always seem to have a problem with my T60 is if I load quite a few of the hacks and turbonet, I would start to get some audio skipping. If I remove a few of the hacks (it did not matter which ones), the skipping would go away. I assume this was the hacks taking too many CPU cycles, so I was hoping the S2 would alleviate this problem by having the faster CPU.

Do you think this is the case?

Also, I see everyone mentioning the USB to ethernet adapters to hookup the S2 to their computer. Is it not possible to use a wireless USB adapter, something like the Linksys WUSB11, so you could connect to a WAP on your computer?

most have found that the faster raw cpu speed negated by the software mpeg decoding that must take place. as riley states, setpri is your friend. as for wireless, there are two options. there is some basic support for a few wireless adapters, with info available in the s2 forum. the easier solution as far as setup and such is to get a wireless bridge like you would use to connect an xbox to wireless, that way you could use wep and such if wanted.

[oiler]

Thanks for all the info!!

I think I will go ahead and get one and start playing around with it.

As for the setpri, I have actually tried that and it did not seem to help the audio skipping all that much.

I am using 3.1 and I have put 'setpri fifo 1 $$' before the bash call in rc.sysinit. One question though, I also have a rc.remote-login that calls other scripts. Does rc.remote-login get called before or after rc.sysinit? If it is called before, I guess I would also have to put setpri in there also?