Mike Agerbo: TVs with HD capability become a must have for home entertainment systems. Want to make the most out of your high definition television, you'll need a high definition source. We are going to look at the system from Bell; they are one of the leaders in Canadian HD content with more than 85 channels available. This is their latest Bell HD receiver and what makes this one unique is that it's upgradable and this is pretty cool. By adding an external hard drive, you can turn it into an HD PVR, that's a personal video recorder, you can record your favorite shows to watch it a later time or if you want, you can even pause, rewind, and re-watch live TV.
Upgrading the receiver could not be easier and truly as plug and play. This particular hard drive, it's from Western Digital, it's 500 gigabytes in size and can store 60 hours of high-definition recording. Bell has actually chosen this one to be included in their PVR upgrade kit. By simply plugging in the USB cable from the drive into the back of the receiver, it automatically sets up for you. If you are interested in trying a different external hard drive, you do have to look for a few certain things, it has to have an external power supply, it also has to be USB2 compliant and have a speed rating of 7,200 RPMs.
For connectivity, the HD receiver has an HDMI connection and this is nice because it gives you an enriched video and audio home theater experience, simply one cable can go from the TV to the receiver. For the programming guide with the PVR upgrade, this is a nice future. It goes from three days of advanced viewing to over nine days of advance viewing. As far as recording, that's a nice thing about the PVR, the personal video recorder, you can actually easily go through the programming guide and select your favorite shows and simply by hitting record, it will then set that to record at the time that you want. Of course with the PVR, you can then go back and watch that at your choosing.
My favorite feature of the PVR upgrade being able to control live TV and this is an important feature for me. I remember one time in the past before I had a PVR, someone came to the door during the Stanley Cup finals and I missed that important goal. Well now, I can actually pause that live TV, I can go chat to my hearts content and when I come back, I can actually play where I left off. If I want to catch that goal again, I can go back, rewind and play. The receiver itself, HD receiver goes for about $199. You can add a compatible hard drive to turn it into an HD PVR for about another $99. If you do the math compared to a lot of other competitors out there, you are saving yourself a lot of money over their HD PVR's. If you want some more information about Bells new HD receiver, you want to check out their website at www.bell.ca/tv.
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