My new BeyonWiz DP-S1 DVD, Media Player and High Definition TV Recorder

I recently bought the BeyonWiz DP-S1 model you can see pictured on the right. It is a good device in general but definately could use a lot of polish. As BeyonWiz do produce firmware updates, there is hope yet :-)

This is my comment, bug and wish list...
It concentrates on what I see as issues or flaws as those are changes I'd like to see in future firmwares.

I suppose I should say that I don't regret buying the BeyonWiz DP-S1 although it might sound like it after reading the following! I've had the device for about 3 weeks now and decided I'd collect my thoughts as to what its issues are and at his stage I'd buy it again.

These are my opinions and I don't really want to argue about them... Please note that it has been mentioned that I'm very picky!

I noticed a few stupid bugs when I first started using it so I upgraded the firmware to the latest thats available (01.05.197).

It took me over a week and two userid creations to get access to the official BeyonWiz forums. I've never had to work so hard to join a forum before...

The HARDWARE

• Not that it looks like a poor quality remote, but some of the remote's keys "rub" like one and this is very annoying.
  
• The device seems to have nice deep rubber feet and plenty of ventilation holes so it shouldn't overheat, but despite the rubber feet it vibrates very loudly on my wooden (hard surface) entertainment unit, it probably needs spring loaded feet! I currently have it cushioned with a towel underneath a tray to isolate it. I'm thinking either a bed of bubble wrap or little carpet squares under the feet...


• The hard drive can be a little noisy (lot of short "ticking" noices - head movement) although most of the time it is not noticable.


• I can see that the BeyonWiz site now allows you to buy different color side panels, but I'm 95.21% sure that when I last looked at it it said it came with the 2 other colored side panels and as I didn't like the grey I was going to attach the black. Needless to say it came with grey only. Everytime I don't capture all the details (called "proof") on a web site I end up regretting it...


• The BeyonWiz has a DVD reader, this should have been a writer.


• Obviously it would be nice to have a blue ray writer or reader.
  

Firmware Upgrade

• I think its fair enough to require a factory reset, what is not fair enough is to lose all your configuration.


• It should be possible to save all your channel and other options on the hard disk (automatically when upgrading firmware I'd suggest) or elsewhere as XML (text at least). On load it can ignore options it doesn't understand when from a previous release or not if from current.


• Perhaps there could be an "autoexec.xml" which gets loaded at boot time. If XML is used this could allow external programs to tailor the config.

WLAN

• My Wii didn't have too much trouble where the BeyonWiz is now, but the Beyonwiz struggles to connect and stay that way. Just bought some Netcomm HomePlugs...



• Fairly basic security support. I didn't like having to downgrade my router's security just to get the BeyonWiz to attach, and then have to change my Wii, computer and everything else thats attached.

Capabilities

• It should have internet access via browser (therefore "YouTube", java games etc).


• Video podcast support sounds good also...


• It would be great if it had arcade GAME emulators (not sure how you'd control it without joystick, are there USB joysticks?).


• No screensaver mode when paused etc.
  

User Interface

• If a button brings up a dialog then I think its fair that the same button remove it.


• The file (movie etc) list is just that, no tag information and as far as I can see no way to display IMDB data.


• The file list should display "((12 audio files))" or similar when browsing for movies and other categories found (its way TOO easy to accidently change categories)...


• There should be a small (500ms?) delay when moving down OVER DVD to USB etc so that it doesn't immediately start the DVD and read it (delaying you) when you don't care either way.


• As far as I can see the "guide" doesn't use unused turners to update itself automatically so you have to scroll to each channel, select it, wait some ("long enough already?") time. It also doesn't appear to visually update unless you then scroll off this channel to another.


• The "(i)" button could be used for context sensitive help particularly in setup options.


• There are many assumptions made in the manual, fo example what a "timer" and "favourite" is, these should be explained in detail.


• The BeyonWiz should log user and its activity (detailed) in a file which can be viewed and downloaded. I'm sure this must be useful for reporting bugs and trouble shooting. I had a lot of trouble with the Network to start with (due to its limited security support) and this took a while to work out. A log may have helped.


• The file deletion dialog is too Microsoftish, displays no meaningful information that might help you make up your mind (assuming that you know you are deleting anyway). It should say how many files its deleting (when more than 1) and should either list them or not popup over it/them so you can visually confirm correct selection of what is about to be killed...


• The BeyonWiz does make good use of the colored remote buttons, however the use of color wasn't thought through, RED normally means stop or bad, perhaps cancel and the color GREEN normally means the opposite. The BeyonWiz reverses this...


• I think at least standard DVDs should autoplay, thats pretty much expected...


• It should integrate with IMDB.


• In the "file manager" see "weird" non existant folders (below its root) like 'device1/unit0_p1" for USB, so you have to navigate down two folders just to get to the root folder of the USB device!
  

Power Off

• While recording, pressing "power off" on remote displays a dialog with buttons "Later", "yes" & "no". Choose Later. Then play movie, BeyonWiz turns off while playing movie! The fact that this was one which the BeyonWiz couldn't fast forward didn't improve my mood...


• The "later" dialog shouldn't even exist. It should go to an intermediate mode between off and on where no output goes to the screen ("grey or perhaps a nice "off" bitmap) but it records. If you do anything or power on it goes back fully on. As a possible (poorer) alternative don't allow shutdown at all when recording but display a msg telling you to hold button for x seconds if you really want to do so.


• If anyone has pressed "Later" then you will not even know (until it turns off on you) and as far as I know can't be cancelled.


• Also while recording and you have pressed "Later" the LCD shows the last station viewed not what is being recorded. This scared me the first few times as I thought it was recording the wrong channel...


• Of course the lack of any idea as to its state means that I sometime leave it on when I expect it to turn off (then it doesn't).
  

Recording

• The BeyonWiz won't let you say that you wish to create a weekly schedule for a Wednesday (as an example), you have to know the date of the next Wednesday, what was that again... 30 days has September, April.... This is stupid. I notice that you can verify its correct on the timer list. If its not for a specific date, then dates shouldn't be used.


• The timer list doesn't show the channel being recorded!


• Common convention says that a recording from 8:00 to 9:00 starts at 8:00:00 and ends at 8:59:59, that is the recording stops before the end time. The BeyonWiz either ends the recording at "8:59:00" or it simply is out by one minute for the duration as it thinks that 8:00-9:00 is a 61 minute recording.


• Two recordings on same channel one after another, (1) should never have problems overlapping (if other tuner not required, use it!) and (2) I shouldn't have to know about the padding (supposed to be invisible) but, you have to be, for example I have a 1 minute prepadding, for two one hour episodes the first can't be longer than 59 minutes!


• Clash detection should happen on initial startup and after timer added, clashing timers should be marked. Timers should not be discarded if a change causes it to clash!!! At least add a cancel option so I don't have to kill one of two timers and there is no other option!


• You can't set a timer for a currently in progress program!


• You can't edit (probably fair enough) a currently executing timer, but it should open in view only mode. I tghink you should be able to edit and this would solve anther issue in that the BeyonWiz defaults to "once" for a program chosen from the guide and then you can't edit it and you lose it before you can change it to "weekly". Note that I don't mean change the time of the current recording via the popup menu...


• There are the occassional but very minor recording blips (tiny splits). Actually yesterday these turned into major glitches recording "House", I have read that there may be a memory leak so I have turned the device off (at power) and back on.


• The recorded filename or details don't include the channel name. Still haven't worked out what the "*" in a filename does (manual assumes too much again) and have not see it do anything either (seems to get dropped).


• The device plays files in order, this is not good for recordings where they are listed most recent first, it should play in the reverse order so that the end of the one recording can flow onto the start of the next perhaps following one (where 2 or more consequitive programs recorded).


• It should not be possible to exit a recording with any button other than "stop" (also shouldn't play files in order). For example "forward" to end should pause at end of movie.


• I saw someone say in a forum that it is possible to record to an attached USB hard drive (and therefore you need not bother upgrading the internal one). If this is possible, I haven't seen how yet...


• The "padding options" should be DEFAULTS which can be overridden on a per timer basis. For some things such as news, I don't care, for some movies I'd like to have bigger padding.


• Another timer option should be how many copies of timer recorded files should be kept. I really only want the last news output (effectively for it I want an "overwrite" option).


• I think there should be quality options so I can decide how much of my hard drive is used...


• In one of my recordings there were two or three scenes "tinted" green!
  

Play Back

• Shares not correctly supported. Userid/password are SHARE attributes, not computer attributes, BeyonWiz talks to the share not the computer! Basically there is no mechanism to provide a userid/password unless these are identical accross all machines and shares!


• No "YouTube" etc.


• Because there is no "to the end" key (functions as a "end this file" key), it is very hard to see if your recording has the end of a movie etc, don't know about you but I don't watch 90% of a movie just to miss the end. The end key should take you to the end o the movie and pause, you should then be able to go back a bit and play.


• Generally does a good job but won't play all files correctly, not all sound produced and no trick mode etc possible, you get an error message "Not supported Action" when trying to fast forward etc. Not only is this not English, it is in any case a supported action, but for whatever reason the BeyonWiz can't process it and it should say why. In any case VLC on my laptop plays it perfectly on WinXP (including ff & rewind), so there is no technical reason the BeyonWiz shouldn't be able to do the same.


• No BOOKMARKS, can't believe it. If a DVD or DivX stops (easy to do with the tiny remote keys too...) it should remember where it was and allow continue and it should also allow you to set your own bookmarks.


• It is possible to set start and end (yellow "A" and "B") points to cut or save a portion of the file being played. Once you have selected "B", it limits you to playing that portion, EXCEPT that most of the normal keys like upparrow for +10% and "goto end" don't work on this and effectively cancel your choice.


• When you have a yellow "A" (starting) point you should see next logical choices displayed to lead you correctly to the correct sequences reuired to do what you want (add"B", move "A" and "B" etc).


• You should be warned if you are about to lose your "time-shifting" buffer! Better still why lose it, store it on disk until next startup and deleted it then or start a recording with the buffer and continue it (perhaps a dialog for this)...


• No UDP streaming client (for Tversity etc).


• Won't play off or see my movies on my NAS (NexStar LX). I have seen mention that they don't work too well with the BeyonWiz... I suspect the BeyonWiz rather than the NAS as I could not find any other mentions of incompatibities for the NAS but could for the BeyonWiz.
  

After struggling with this blog's software to get the formatting right (and I think it won), my next blog post may be about that...