With the v1.10 release (30 October 2003) of new firmware for the NorthQ 7000/7100 it has become much nicer to use. They have listened to their customers and implemented a number of very nice improvements, for example sorting and naming of TV-channels. It's very nice to know that they listen to their customers and implements functions that the user community lacks!
There are still some room for more features in the NorthQ 7000/7100. Below I have listed things that could be implemented in future firmware updates. I have also set an "importance-number" on every function, 5 = "Pleeeease implement this!", 1 = "Could be nice to have". Note that these numbers is my own opinion, others may want things in another order.
| Wanted function | Importance | Added in |
|---|---|---|
| Automatic stop of a manual recording: When I start a manual recording, the NorthQ should by default stop recording after 30 minutes. A push on a button on the remote control should increase this time by 30 minutes every push. | 4 | |
| Default Quality setting: When setting up the NorthQ to do a timer-recording, the default setting for "Quality" is "LP". It would be good if this could be changed to something else. Now you have to change this for every timer-recording you do. | 3 | |
| Index function: The NorthQ should be able o be set up to make an index-mark in the recording every 5 or 10 minutes by choice. These markings could then be jumped to using "NEXT" and "PREV". | 3 | |
| Timer-recording symbol active: If the NorthQ is in standby mode and it is setup to do a timer-recording, it would be nice if the timer-recording symbol (on the LED-display) was lit up. | 2 | |
| Support for ShowView: It's called VCRPlus in some countries. Here are some information about it from Gemstar (the inventors). | 2 | |
| "Stay in the same mode": When a timer-recording is finished, the NorthQ goes into standby mode even if it was on when the recording started. It would be nice if it stayed on if it was on when the recording started. | 2 | |
| Store channel information in memory: The channel-information seems to be stored on the hard-disk. If you replace the hard-disk, you have to make a new channel setup. | 1 | |
| Watch TV without hard-disk: It is not possible to watch TV from the tuner without a hard-disk installed. Not a big problem, but could be nice to be able to do. | 1 | |
|
5 |
Almost fixed in v2.01, the skip is only 10 seconds. |
|
3 | v2.0 |
|
5 | v1.10 |
|
4 | v1.10 |
This is the features that could be added that I (and some more guys) could think of at the moment. If you have some interesting ideas for improvements, contact me and I'll put them up here!