Portugal's ZON intros ZON BOX HD DVR

ZON TVCabo, a leading programming provider in Portugal, has introduced an all new HD DVR for its users: the imaginatively titled ZON BOX. The unit boasts a 160GB hard drive, USB 2.0 port, gigabit Ethernet and HDMI / component / S-Video / composite jacks for good measure. We're also informed that the box will come in handy here soon, with National Geographic HD (which recently launched on rival Portugal Telecom), MOV HD and possibly SportTV HD going live. The latter two channels would be dedicated to movies / TV series and sporting events such as Euro 2008, respectively. Unfortunately, we weren't able to solicit pricing information, but feel free to give the carrier a call and see what this gem will run you.

[onesolo Posted May 14th 2008 5:22AM]

Ehehe, nice a portuguese news...
I'll give you prices !! They are still preliminary..
Well, for starters if someone has already Zon Tv, has to pay an extra activation fee, €50, to have this box and then every month another €5 or €50 per year for rent!!
More details are still unknown

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 6:18AM]

After the cable has been forced to divorce from the big telecom company (PT) and went to a new company (ZON), HD is the new war in Portugal.
Cable HD or ADSL HD? Both have (or will have) Satellite HD also.

Consumer is the ultimate benefiting from this war, although the battles are living lots of customers agonizing in the battle field, due to badly planned strategies, commercial army without weapons (no boxes), guerrilla tactics between administrations releasing press releases announcing features 6 months ahead (lololol), etc.

Keep an eye on this fight over the next month. We love soccer and the Euro2008 is coming. HD anyone?

[(Unverified) Posted May 14th 2008 9:27AM]

meanwhile their spanish neighbours are stuck with a single HD channel available in the whole country(in trials, canal+ HD), that requires expending over €400 for a sat+dtt+pvr quad tuner box (iplus). No HD in cable (Ono) or IPTv (imagenio).

I guess Portugal really beats Spain in this area. Of course, Catalonia has a FTA HD service (TV3 HD), but is not available outside Barcelona.

[(Unverified) Posted May 20th 2008 8:50AM]

This info, is not current: the ZON BOX has a 250 GB hard drive instead of a 160 GB one, as initially planned! :-)

[(Unverified) Posted May 22nd 2008 8:26PM]

The problem with zon box is the missinformation. I cant contact any number they provide on the contacts page at their website.


Pros:
- Complete Guide TV
- Record from Guide TV
- Timeshift fw/rw with sound
- USB port (whats for divx/xvid movies?)
- Ethernet port (whats for, same above? copy movies from a PC?)
- SportTV in HD

Cons:
- only 90 minutes of temporary buffer
- activation fee of 50€ (Meo only asks 20€)
- MEO price tag is lower than the ZON PowerBOX, i bet with will be difficult to ZON BOX to keep up
- only HD at 1080i (interlaced)
- the HD channels will only be available to the funtastic pack after the Hype as i read somewhere
- missinformation, no one knows nothing about the comercial strategy: prices, availability, equipment..


Since im stucked with a DVDR philips, 250GB HDMI with1080p that brought. I will keep my interest for MEO (awating for the dish.. )

I live in the middle of the atlantic at Açores and stuff here gets later than the rest of the continental Portugal. I want to be sure that i will have (atleast) a good image during EURO2008.

My currently ZOn Cable signal is a joke..

[(Unverified) Posted May 25th 2008 2:06PM]

At least the cable version is being delivered with a 160GB hd , I just got one. Unfortunately there are a lot of things not working yet. For instance, digital audio out is not yet enabled.

An interesting thing is that there is an rp-sma connector on the back for an wifi antenna and a mac address for the wifi interface is show on a supplied label. I guess Zon has some plans for it on the roadmap.

The box outputs out of box at 720p/50hz through components or hdmi. Configuration options are almost none, unless there are some hide menus that I am not aware of.