Conceptronic CM3PVR User manual

Brand: Conceptronic

Model: CM3PVR

Category: Digital media players

Type: User manual

Conceptronic CM3PVR is a versatile media player and recorder that offers a wide range of features for enjoying your favorite content. With its built-in analog TV tuner, you can record and watch live TV broadcasts, or connect external devices via composite or component inputs to play DVDs, music, and pictures.

M P C C L U B

w w w . m p c c l u b . c o m

7/23/2008

BuGGeR and Hi-Jack

Kiss Technology is still marked in our books as the brand that has brought the best

attempt to our homes for a digital recorder. The online EPG and content sure has

helped a lot with the DP-558 and VR-558 series to reach that status. We seen few

attempts for digital recorders by Ellion and then some other brands and today we

look at the Conceptronic Grab „n Go Recorder & Player. Chances are slim it will beat

the best recorder we had years ago as it comes with no network abilities at all and

that probably means it is limited to local scheduling and local playback with no use

for NAS servers, PC software, UPnP and the likes… It seems as we are going back

instead of forward where internet is cut out nowadays (EPG, online scheduling

etc…). Let‟s see what it can do then…

Conceptronic Grab ‘n Go

Recorder and Player

MPC REVIEWS

MPC Reviews are a great “neutral” source for any user or company,

offering an in-depth opinion on products from the consumer‟s point

of view.

Electronic company developers and designers wish to promote their

products, good or bad, and often seek to do so by soliciting reviews

from independent sources which have no affiliation so that

consumers can be assured that the outcome is unbiased. MPC is one

of these unbiased resources with a well-established record of open

and honest evaluations.

Unlike most reviews which are limited to a few screenshots and

some basic text, MPC Reviews are detailed and explore device

features in-depth, with many detailed pictures. This allows any

reader to have a good idea about the product before purchasing it.

The high level of detail is especially appealing to well-informed,

technically-inclined consumers who demand maximum information

before making a purchase. That‟s what makes an MPC review

different.

Reviewed by Hi-Jack and BuGGeR from www.mpcclub.com , this

review is intended to be your first and best introduction for the

Conceptronic Grab „n Go Recorder & Player as most consumers will

experience it. Reviewed from a consumer‟s perspective instead of

being based only on technical details and specifications, which

always look good but offer little in-depth knowledge. Through our

reviews we strive to provide valuable feedback to the brands making

electronic equipment, in order to improve and tune the user‟s

experience with the latest state of the art products.

Notice: MPC is a consumer oriented Media Portal analyzing products

and offering a first impression in their reviews so that you have an

idea of what you are about to purchase. In light of our efforts to

provide reviews quickly to leading-edge consumers, these reviews

are not always able to be fully complete or 100% accurate and can

become outdated over time. Use the forums for catching up with

updates and changed opinions vs. this review first impression.

Date: July 2008

Device: Conceptronic Grab „n Go Recorder & Player

Firmware: 056 (3

of July 2008)

Contact MPC:

Press: [email protected]

Legal: [email protected]

Owner: [email protected]

Want to have a product reviewed by us and you can provide a

sample? Contact us right now with product info and we‟ll be in touch

with you sooner than you think.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

MPC Reviews ............................................................................. 2

About the Conceptronic (CM3PVR) ............................................... 3

Unpacking .............................................................................. 3

Remote and connections ............................................................. 3

Setup ........................................................................................ 4

Recording and its functions ......................................................... 5

OTR ................................................................................... 6

Timeshift ............................................................................ 6

Scheduling recordings .......................................................... 6

Playing media - video ................................................................. 6

Playing media – audio ................................................................ 8

Playing media – pictures ............................................................. 8

Conclusion BuGGeR .................................................................... 8

Pros ....................................................................................... 8

Cons ...................................................................................... 8

Hi-Jack Conclusion ..................................................................... 9

Addendum (Important) ............................................................... 9

Pros ....................................................................................... 9

Cons ...................................................................................... 9

ABOUT THE CONCEPTRONIC (CM3PVR)

Being a KiSS DP-558 user myself

for over 3 ½ years now, I was

looking around for some

recorders to replace the old unit

when it happens to break down

(again). My eye fell on the

good-looking Conceptronic. I

didn‟t need much time to think

about it, when Hi-Jack asked me

if I was interested in reviewing

it.

The Conceptronic CM3PVR is a hard drive recorder with a built-in

analog TV tuner. You can record through the Composite inputs or

via the analog tuner integrated. On the side, the Conceptronic Grab

„n Go Recorder & Player is capable of the generic SD playback,

including DVD backups, music and pictures.

The CM3PVR is available with built-in hard drives ranging from 320

GB up to 1Tb. The sample we use for this review contains a

preformatted 500 GB version.

UNPACKING

While unpacking, you have the feeling that it‟s a decent player

for that kind of money. The black metal housing feels heavy and it

has an overall eye-catching design. The only down-side is that the

plastic stand isn‟t quite up to par with the device and we have seen

this before with the CFULLHDMA.

The stand lacks rubber feet to keep it from scratching the furniture

and for more stability it should have been in one piece and heavier.

The stand does not hold the player in place either. It cannot be

attached firmly enough. Due to its design, the player can only be

used standing up. Notice the absence of a cooler which means the

device is completely silent, except for the hard drive activity. This is

a very wanted feature as no one likes blowing fans while watching

TV although in case of recording it probably means no one is home

anyway.

The package is complete including:

Power supply with power Cord

Remote Control with battery

RF Antenna cable

S-Video cable

Coaxial digital audio cable

Composite video cable

Component video cable

USB cable

SCART adapter for Composite/S-Video cable

User Manual

Product stand

It‟s always nice that you can start using your device right away

without the need to search/buy missing cables. In the case of this

player, the amount of cables is almost overkill. We are not going to

complain about that now, do we…?

REMOTE AND CONNECTIONS

The remote is quite small and

thin. As with many remotes, there

is no backlit or „glow-in-the-dark‟

buttons provided that could make

the remote easier to operate in

darker cinema rooms.

Overall, the layout is acceptable

except for the odd placement of

the numeric buttons. Those will

take some time getting used to

for programming recordings and

changing channels.

The navigational buttons are

made of hard plastic and that

should have been different. I

would prefer the materials used

for all the other buttons: Soft

black rubber.

With the QUALITY button, you

can toggle the recording quality.

It‟s nice to find there is a TV

output button so you can toggle

between the outputs to get a picture no matter what connection is

used on first setup. I miss a SETUP button though.

In the front is a little compartment that contains a USB2 host port

and a MMC/MS/SD card slot. Opening the plastic door of this

compartment isn‟t as easy and blocked by the upper cover. Pulling

the door open, the lever gets stuck behind it and offers the

impression the plastic front is not fitted well. Opening the door itself

is also a challenge unless your fingers suffer from anorexia. There‟s

just not enough space.

At the rear you have (from top

to bottom) the TV tuner in- and

out, mini USB slave connection

(for PC), composite in- and

outputs, component output,

digital coaxial audio output, s-

video output, and the main

power switch. The only missing

output would be “optical”.

Filling up the internal hard drive

is a breeze using a PC and the

provided USB/PC connection

cable. The device is recognized

as a mass storage device on the

PC and you can start filling it up.

Using the device as an external

memory card reader is another

feature covered over USB

connection by inserting any

supported medium in the front

compartment.

Downside of the player is that

you cannot use Flash medium

and the internal hard drive at

the same time. Either the hard

drive is loaded or the Flash card

reader by pressing the “down”

button in front.

The front of the player offers some buttons that can help navigate

the player without remote. The navigational buttons are covered,

Record, Stop, Enter/OK/Play/Pause.

These buttons have lights integrated, the usual blue ones that might

become a burden. There is no option to disable these lights,

probably because of the recording functions that turn the left light

into red.

Overall, the hardware is acceptable as mentioned before but we did

not mention the price yet. In European countries, the CM3PVR is

sold for about €220.

SETUP

As the unit comes with a hard drive already built-in and

preformatted, you can plug it in and start setting it up right away.

Boot time is a mere 13 seconds, which brings you to the nicely

designed main interface

For SETUP, you have to press “7” which is a bit odd. I prefer the

good old SETUP button on the remote that offers direct access to

the Setup pages and arrow keys to select these items.

Interface languages supported include English, German, French,

Spanish, Portuguese, Italian and Dutch.

From the Setup pages, using the AUTO TUNING, you can easily let

the device search and save all the channels on your analog TV cable.

Once finished, you can rename the channels up to 4 characters,

disable channels you don‟t want or reactivate disabled channels,

change audio format (the usual PAL and NTSC settings), fine-tune

the channels and swap places to end up with a list of channels

arranged as you want them to be.

Up to the part of scanning channels, things are quite easy. Troubles

start once you change audio settings and re-arrange channels. The

swap system is nowhere near as easy as the ability to just select a

channel and move it where it belongs.

How the swapping works is almost as hard to explain as it is to use.

In the “Channel Number” field you enter the channel which you

would like to move and then enter the number for the channel to

swap with in the “Swap Channel” field. Nowhere, is there a list to

use as an overview and that‟s just not convenient at all. This could

have been so much easier with little eye for detail and convenience.

Naming and placing your channels in order is a time-consuming

endeavor. As a side note, it‟s a pity that you have to input the

channels you want to edit with the numeric keys, channel up/down

doesn‟t work in this particular section. It‟s quite a big job, but hey,

you only have to do it once, hopefully.

RECORDING AND ITS FUNCTIONS

Now, we have good news. The Conceptronic CM3PVR does not

record in TS (it is not capable of playing these either) or in the usual

MPEG (mpg, VOB) files. It actually records in Xvid format (720x576,

VBR). This results in less disk space used for your recordings. If we

compare recordings against MPEG recording in high quality, the

CM3PVR records 1 minute below 35MB while the KiSS records at a

rate of 65MB for 1 minute.

The device is able to record to the internal hard disk, USB or

memory card (mind the FAT32 is mandatory and preferably the use

of High Speed Memory Cards).

Recording has 3 quality settings: HQ, SP and LP. HQ recording takes

up approx 2,2GB/hour, SP 1,1GB/hour and LP 0,7GB/hour. The

internal HDD is formatted in FAT32. The device can‟t read/write

NTFS. This is a shame because when using external hard disks or

USB sticks, they all need to be formatted in FAT32. Due to the

FAT32 file system it is not possible to store files larger than 4GB.

A flaw in this system of using XVID would mean however you have

to convert the XVID files first to MPEG stream to make a DVD out of

it but that kind of reasoning counts for other players as well, if we

turn things around where you‟d prefer compressed Xvid or DiVX.

Maximum file size of a recording is 2GB. In HQ mode this means

about 56 minutes of recording. When recording longer programs the

recording will be split into two or more files. This is in my humble

opinion a big flaw. NTFS should have been used to overcome this.

This also raises the question why the files are cut at 2GB when the

system supports 4GB?

The next burden is the

way Conceptronic names

the files. Off course,

missing the EPG functions

and the PDC functions, it

cannot get the names of

the recordings anywhere.

Instead, recordings are

stored with the Time and

Date these took place

resulting in a lengthy

numbered file with no indication of the content or files belonging

together. I feel at least a few enhancements could be made to this

naming convention by adding simply the recording source (TV

channel) for instance or offer a name to be added in your schedules.

That would be hard with the remote as it has no SMS alphabet

integrated with the numeric buttons on the remote, although there

is an online keyboard provided but also there… things are made

harder than they should be by splitting and numbering buttons.

OTR

With the OTR (one-touch-recording) function, you can quickly record

a program. With each press of the RECORD button you increase the

length of recording with 30 minutes. (up to 6 hours)

TIMESHIFT

Time shifting is done by pressing PLAY/PAUSE on the remote. Live

TV images are paused and you can resume viewing by pressing the

same button. A cool feature when using time shift is where you get

an info bar which informs you if you are catching up with the real

time broadcast. (By fast forwarding commercials for instance this

can be handy). You can hide this info bar pressing the DISPLAY

button.

SCHEDULING RECORDINGS

You can access the scheduling menu quickly through the Timer

button on the remote, or through the main menu. You can set a

total of 8 recordings in your schedule which is rather limited if you

are on holidays and have multiple programs you don‟t want to miss.

Eight is after all, just eight. Luckily you do have the option to

schedule recordings once, daily or weekly. For my taste there should

be one more option: “Weekdays”. (This would purpose mainly the

ever so great “Bold and the Beautiful” type of soaps that are aired

daily, yet only on weekdays. I like these shows but I don‟t feel like

sacrificing 5 out of the 8 options to schedule for this. No, not even

for my girlfriend…  )

Because this is a player without network connection, there is no EPG

(online program guide). It also doesn‟t support PDC(program

delivery control), so when a show is aired a bit earlier or later than

planned, there is a chance you only record half of the show unless

you start recording sooner and stop later than planned.

Usually, recordings have an option to enter default times to start

before the scheduled recordings and end x minutes after the

recording was done. Also this little yet useful feature is missing from

the schedule options.

While setting up your schedules, you can select the source to record

from to be the TV or any device connected to the AV input

(composite input). A flaw in the recording systems which matches

the overall experience so far is that the player does not use the

“names” you assigned to the channels but uses channel numbers

instead. Weak in operations and inconvenient!

PLAYING MEDIA - VIDEO

The CM3PVR has no support for High-Definition video content like

WMV9HD, MKV, DiVX HD or any other HD video content. So you‟re

limited to playing only the standard definition video formats.

Navigating through the files is a bit awkward because it only shows

the first 13 characters of a filename. The names will start scrolling

when you select them, but the scrolling is far too slow. Conceptronic

should delete the Time-column, thus freeing up 11 more characters.

The interface is build in two parts where a “preview” windows

consumes quite some space, yet only seems to work with files

actually recorded by the unit. Other content seems not to provide

the preview. That kind of makes the preview “surreal” as it merely

shows the first frame and not actually plays the video in the preview

window. This is utterly useless to disadvantage the possibility of

having longer file names on screen.

Info provided during browsing the content is the length of the

feature selected. Other info is provided during playback but does not

contain codec information at all.

When you press EDIT on a

file, you can choose some

repeat modes, rename files or

delete / copy the file. This

could be a solution to rename

recordings but it all sounds

too much of a fuss and would be far more convenient offered at the

scheduling window.

Searching inside movies is powered by a GoTo function which is

activated with the “Timer” button on the remote. Also here, a better

pop up window with some bigger input fields would be better.

Supported subtitles include srt, sub and smi for the usual files in the

XViD and DiVX range. These are shown are shown in white with a

grey background bar behind them so no outlined subtitles which is

step back in the wrong direction when no one uses it anymore

based on customer feedback! No options like choosing font size,

colors, move up/down or sync are provided.

There is an automatic resume play function, but only on the last

played file however this only works on DiVX files and recorded files.

DVD titles cannot be resumed and is limited to the “last file played”

only.

DVD images (VIDEO_TS and ISO containers) are supported. This

allows backups from original DVD‟s to be played as if the DVD was

playing and is especially useful by having kids operate the device

without screwing up the disks. There is still room for improvement

because only 85% of the images we tested actually played and

these have been created using exactly the same tools. Probably

some incompatibility with certain IFO menus…

Thanks to the 4GB limit, you might want to be careful ripping DVD‟s

so they not exceed the 4GB limit as the usual ISO file properly

created is 4.3GB or more. This is not a problem for Video_TS which

has files of maximum 1GB in size.

I have to say it. It‟s a poor execution of playing media files where

DVD‟s do miss bookmark options and overall, there is no ZOOM

function. Other features like A-B, Slow playback, Frame by Frame

are equally missing the party of the CM3PVR. One would start

wondering what is possible besides the basic play and stop functions

and there is actually something that works… FF/RW in increments

starting from 2X to 4X, 8X and 20X.

PLAYING MEDIA – AUDIO

Supported audio formats are MP3, WMA and WAV. Playlists are not

supported, neither is the oh so ever wanted and appreciated FLAC.

Also in this section we return to an overly disappointing interface

layout where the tag info does not even fit the provided space as

the “labels” are already taking up all the space available.

Since the device is lacking a display, you can‟t expect to play audio

without turning on your TV. In fact, with the TV turned on it‟s not

any better with such interface. The same comment as in the video

section here: take away the time/date column to improve readability

of the files and at the same time, expand the tag information to a

better layout. Hey, at least we can browse during playback, but only

in the same folder.

PLAYING MEDIA – PICTURES

We can be very brief about the picture abilities of this player as if

Video content already misses any features it could have including

ZOOM, we cannot expect a “low level extra option” as picture

support to have them. In addition, the player only supports JPEG

files.

Pictures can be previewed on the left hand side of the screen.

Pressing PLAY on a file starts a slideshow, beginning with the

selected file while pressing the “TIMER” button allows you to set the

slideshow interval. (1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 30 to 60 seconds).

Rotation and mirroring of the image can be done using the arrow

buttons but as stated already, no ZOOM or panning functions are

spotted.

Depending on the images, the preview and load times vary but are

pretty slow in general, just as the global navigation of menus and

options on this particular player.

CONCLUSION BUGGER

This is a very basic, but well built SD player/recorder as long as we

approach the device in hardware only. The feature set sounds

impressive but is in fact almost none existent. Everything falls short

either in features, online presentation and more. In a time where

High Definition is becoming the standard, more and more people are

looking for HD players/recorders although there is a market for SD

solutions. Those however need more than the basics like Ethernet

(streaming, UPnP, SMB, NFS), EPG services, PDC, more versatile

scheduling options, file tricks like ZOOM, Slow playback, frame by

frame, multiple bookmarks and tons of others…

I can‟t help but feel that this unit came out 2 years too late. Now,

this device is only recommended to people who want a basic

recorder and want to take the first steps into the digital media

world. Alternatively, it would make a nice bedroom player/recorder.

It‟s cheap (around 220€) and it‟s portable + has a nice design.

For my personal taste, I expected a replacement for my „good‟ old

KiSS DP-558 but I‟ll stick to it until the next recorder comes along. I

don‟t want to go “back” if you catch my drift. I would miss the EPG

and the network functions too much. My search continues…

PROS

 Complete package (all cables included)

 Build quality/nice design

 Time shift info

 Price tag package (500GB HDD inc.)

 Copy functions

CONS

 No editing functions

 Interface quite poorly designed

 Slow overall navigation

 No EPG or PDC

 No NTFS support at all

Now I move and hand over the keyboard to Hi-Jack. He looks willing

to say a few things too 

HI-JACK CONCLUSION

This is going to be a very painful conclusion and I won‟t apologize

for what I‟m about to say. I can‟t end positively in this review

although I tried my best to see the value inside this player and I

found it? It‟s a good looking external hard drive system but as

Recorder or Media player, the CM3PVR fails to convince. Except for

the fact it records in Xvid instead of the usual formats is a plus and

it has Time Shifting. That‟s probably where the good things end as

these are insufficient to justify the cost or a product named as

“Player & Recorder”. After all, any good hardware without proper

firmware ends up as a door stopper and this is one hell of a

beautiful door stopper right now. (I tend to call things by its name)

I won‟t go on by making wishes about network, EPG and PDC as the

player is not designed to have those and that is perfectly OK with

me. We cannot blame anyone for failing on delivering options it has

never planned to have but… The player is designed to be a recorder

and a player and there it lacks so many options and has such poor

interface I would almost think the brand and developers “neglected”

what is important for customers: Convenience. This is a rush

“whatever something that looks like a recorder” to the market with a

list of great features and very low interest on how it should work or

is presented. Having it clearly outweighs how it can be used?

There are too many “obvious” mistakes that can only be blamed to

the company and developers. These are not just some bugs and

oversights. When in use, everything with this player feels imported

and re-branded cheap Chinese development that it could not even

get sold in China and receives a second attempt in Europe or so.

The hardware however states it is not cheap import and I live on in

conflict 4ever on that subject?

What bothers me most are the schedule limitations to 8 entries, no

ability to use the channel names you entered during setup in

scheduling, there is no setting to set a global time to start

recordings earlier than scheduled and the filename conventions used

are utterly useless unless you go edit the names right after the

recordings. Add ZOOM, only JPEG supported, no play lists, stupid

and useless preview window eating up all the space you need and

useless tag information and so on… what are you buying? What kind

of player does this qualify for actually? Even renaming the channels

is a pain (why only 4 chars?).

I‟m convinced just by looking at the player in action developers have

not overseen the many cosmetic issues and overall poor operations

of the player, filenames, shortcomings in options for playback and a

list of other things. They have either ignored them or the brand does

not pump enough money into the development efforts to make this

player work properly. Those are the only two reasons possible and

those are enough for me as a statement on how much care the

product has been given and will have in the future (Make sure to

read the addendum). Hence, by delivering such “obvious” neglect to

the user‟s convenience, no one should expect to get a positive

return on a review (at least not the serious ones) or expect people

to hurry to stores and buy it. We don‟t want a time machine that

brings us back a few years? We want to go towards the future and

we expect a recorder that fits today‟s needs or at least does what it

can do, well enough to support our recording needs?

I cannot recommend this player at all. Sure, there is not much

alternatives (luckily for some) but that‟s no reason for wasting

money. The fact this device costs €225 and is quite some package is

neither a reason to be used as excuse to deliver such poor result.

(CM3PVR uses Sunplus Chip, not Sigma)

ADDENDUM (IMPORTANT)

We had a better impression on the CFULLHDMA a few days ago as a media

player delivering “up to date” abilities. Whatever Conceptronic had in mind

when this CM3PVR was being developed is probably much better than what it

has become. It‟s all firmware related and with proper injection of resources it

might still become something good in a couple months?

I doubt this player will receive a lot of attention as Conceptronic is already

working hard on the “Media Giant Recorder” which happens to be “delayed”

because of… software issues. I hope this player is not the indication of what

problems the new model is facing as it would mean they have loads of ideas

on what it must do, only not how to make it work properly. The recorder is

spotted at €165 online so that might make it a little more interesting for you!

PROS

 Price (spotted at €165)

 Nice design

 Complete Package

 XViD recording

 Time Shift and OTR

 Card Reader (Copy functions (TV Mode only))

CONS

 8 schedules maximum

 Slow navigation

 Very poor interface

 No EPG

 No HD abilities

 Poor firmware

 Poor stand of player

 Front lever design

 HDD – Card Reader not simultaneously on PC

 No editing functions

Enjoy

BuGGeR and Hi-Jack

Conceptronic CM3PVR User manual

Brand: Conceptronic

Model: CM3PVR

Category: Digital media players

Type: User manual

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Conceptronic CM3PVR User manual

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