Cisco Cable Television Decoder ISB7031

Earlier, Corbin, and now Beeline installs Internet and cable TV at home. A certain device goes to the television, which Beeline himself calls the “ Decoder with the recording function and with a hard disk (TV set-top box) ”. In English there is a term STB - Set Top Box. In this article I will call it "Decoder".

The device is a kind of unit Cisco ISB7031, about which very little is written on the network, mainly on the Beeline TV forums, or offers to sell. And even nothing on the site itself Cisco .

You can buy a decoder from Beeline for a fairly high price of about 8,000 rubles, or you can rent it for 95 rubles a month (this is in Tver, 270 in Moscow). Someone bought, now does not know how to get rid of: the decoder only works on the Beeline network. If you are disconnected, it will not be useful for you.

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But let's move on to the device itself. We all love Cisco products, and then she did not let down. The decoder is nice in appearance and feel. Since the Internet is not transmitting tactile sensations, I attach a photo:

The first thing that catches your eye: USB! And of course there is hope - is it possible to connect a USB flash drive to view video files. This is a question I asked a Beeline representative when he installed home television for me. He evasively remarked:

- Maybe try again later.

But it just did not want to upset me right away. The manual says that the USB port is for technical use only. The decoder didn’t pay attention to my flash drives or USB drives. So in this regard, bummer.

Let's see what the decoder has behind:

We see there:

- eSata,
- s-video,
- HDMi,
- optical,
- standard bells.

Why do I need eSata I have no idea. The instructions about him does not say anything. I suspect that for the same purposes as USB is a purely technical part for software installation.

This completes the external inspection of the decoder, and think about it inside. Inside it has a neonka 160 gigabyte hard drive.

Recording capability

Initially, I did not think that the possibility of recording was so interesting. But I was wrong. This turned out to be the main advantage, which is why my wife and I decided to leave the television from the biline in our house.

The joke is that there are quite a lot of good movies and cartoons that are shown on TV, but they don’t always go to the moment when we sit in front of the TV set. By recording a film of interest you can watch it at a convenient time.

Now we usually look at the program on Friday for the next weekend and put on the record 2-4 films, and then watch them in our spare time. Some erase, some save. For each recorded movie, you can set the attribute:

- save up to the requirement of a place
- save until I delete it myself.

We already have a collection of dozens of full-length cartoons that children love to watch. Movies for ourselves, we usually delete after watching.

How to record

At first, I thought that Beeline cable television had some kind of signal that is transmitted to a decoder, which means that the program has started, and the same signal about the end. It would be very convenient to start watching the recording exactly from the moment it started, exactly until the moment it was completed. But everything turned out to be easier - the recording starts 5 minutes before the start of the scheduled time of the program. And it also ends 5 minutes after the planned completion.

This is not always good. For example, at the time of the March daylight saving time, almost all the channels had problems over time and I could not record the film “Cruel Romance” to my wife. Recording began an hour after the movie began. Right from the moment when our mustache friend began to sing his famous song about the bumblebee. Nightmare!

Some channels do not strictly follow their own program schedule. For example, the children's channel Nickelodeon constantly sins. And we just write to children a few cartoon series.

And often there are some overlays and films start to show later, and often you watch the movie and break off hard at the very end, when you do not know how it all ended. Often this happens on the first channel on Saturday. So recently showed "The Expendables." I recorded. And, imagine, the recording ended right at the moment when the whole team was sitting in a palace surrounded - neither enter nor exit. The most apotheosis! Horror.

On the other hand, it's not so scary. Failures are very rare. And after the abolition of the transition to winter and summer time, it probably will not appear at all! Overwhelmingly, all movies and programs are recorded on time. Yes, and you can configure the record so that it turns off after 15 or even 30 minutes after the planned completion. Now I always put films on record with a margin, so there are no problems.

Record a series of programs

It is possible to record a series of programs. For our children, the discovery was made by TiJi TV channel - a French channel for children under 7 years old. Very not bad cartoons, which we gladly watch all together. There, the children liked the Peppa Pig series, and we first recorded them one by one, and then set up recording all the episodes at the same time.

True, some interesting details came to light. The setting follows an algorithm like this: write programs, with the name “X”, close to the time YY: ZZ. If the name has changed, the decoder does not record it. For example, at one time the same “Peppa Pig” began to be designated in the program as “Peppa Pig 2”, or it was written with quotes. In this case, the decoder decided that it was a completely different program, and stopped recording.

The same garbage happened to the "South Park" on the TV channel "2 × 2". Cartoons show the "South Park 7", the "South Park 11". When I didn’t find a new cartoon on the decoder in the morning, I realized that the name had changed again.

A series of programs are collected in the list in a separate daddy, and it is convenient to view them one by one. True, it is not possible to set up playing them as a playlist. What is not very convenient - every time to include a short cartoon for a new one.

How much is placed on the hard disk

Honestly, I can not answer this question. Now we have 8 full-length cartoons recorded, 6 series of cartoons of 20 pieces in each folder, another 3-4 we record every weekend and there is enough space for now. There is no disk status indicator. Could and could be done to control the volume.

PS February 2013: “Now there are already 50 films on the disc and the same series of cartoons, but there is still enough space.”

PS January 2017: “Now there are more than 70 films on the disc, including in the HD format, several program series.”

More recordings

Another definite plus record. Every program that you watch immediately automatically written to disk. If you watched the program, and decided to record it closer to the end, then it will be recorded not from the moment you click the Record button, but from the moment you start watching it. Conveniently.

In addition, you can pause the preview and watch it later. You can reel back. Not so often use it, but it happens. Trifle, but nice.

By the way, it was found that the show on cable comes with a slight delay of 6-8 seconds. Apparently the decoder buffered information with a small margin. But I don’t keep it for lack.

But we appreciated all the advantages of digital broadcasting - always a clear and bright picture. You get used to good things quickly, when I see ordinary television, it immediately seems that I have gotten into the past century.

Navigation and usability

Navigation and usability quite on the level. Everything seemed intuitive to me. There are TV viewing modes “Horizontal” and “Vertical”.

Quite convenient mode of viewing TV programs "Channels by groups." Shows only what is going right now through the channels, while you can scroll and immediately look in a separate window.

My wife even prefers to watch cable in this mode.

Interactivity

In general, they are not enough. Yandex only reports the weather for today and tomorrow, the rates of two currencies. In Moscow, probably, also Yandex traffic jams. In Tver is not. Rambler gives several records "Rambler-Sport." To me, as a person working all day on the Internet, it seems somewhat ridiculous.

It is clear that the TV is not a computer. He has other functions. But then I do not understand why this interactive is needed at all.

PS March 2012: “New features have appeared in the interactive, in particular, broadcasting twitter, visiting Facebook wall, Contact and Odnoklassniki. I do not use. There was also a service for showing videos from Rutub. The clips are not too many and are not updated. "

"Film screening" service

This service has never been used. You can order paid content on TV - movies and cartoons. The cost of 50 or 75 rubles.

Having bought content, it is available for 2 days.

For adults

When I was installed Beeline television, the representative confidentially said in a whisper:

- There is content for adults.

What saddened me more than pleased. First of all: I have children in the family who like to learn everything new, and can use the remote to scroll to where it’s not necessary. Secondly: remembering the stories of how people in hotels write off money for watching erotic programs, I was afraid that they would write off the excess from me.

I was not afraid of anything. Content blocked by a pin code. After switching on, it is again blocked after half an hour (apparently, it is considered that half an hour of viewing is quite enough). Just in case, I deleted these channels from the TV program in the settings. So for the children you can not worry.

You can not worry about the money. Channels are included in the standard set, and are not charged separately. These are channels:

- Russian night,
- Playboy,
- Private.

(As of February 2013, only a certain Nightclub channel is included in the standard package, which we have never watched, because it only broadcasts at night).

My wife and I somehow sat down to see what was being given while the children were with their grandmother. What can I say: "Private" specific porn. Playboy is a bit more erotic than pornography. “Russian Night” is not a Russian pornographic show, but simply a Russian channel, through which different films are shown.

Basically, I would refuse these channels. For we have this good in bulk on the Internet.

PS January 2017: “Now there are no more free erotic channels”.

Channel selection

There is no choice in Tver yet. There is one package of 88 channels, costing 195 rubles a month, plus renting a set-top box for 95 rubles. We are quite satisfied with this package.

It is possible to assign favorite channels. We had only 12 of them. But the knowledge that you can always look through something else pleases.

(As of February 2013, there is already a choice of packages. But we still use the cheapest one on 82 channels. There are now 14 selected people, including Paramand Comedy, which is shown by the Big Bang Theory).

Cisco console

The special story is the Cisco console. Very cool stuff. It lies comfortably in the hand, the buttons are arranged ergonomically. The main feature is that it can be configured to work with the TV at the same time.

I was looking forward to an interesting lesson - setting the remote. I thought that it would be necessary to shine from the television console to the Cisco console, and he would record the signals. But it turned out all the easier. You just need to find your TV model in the list and enter it into the remote. The signals of different TVs are already flashed in memory. After that, you can press the “TV” button from above, and the remote starts working as a remote for the TV. To return to the management of the Decoder, click on the button "STB".

In general, it is convenient to use one remote. And, which is also good, even in the STB mode with volume control, the remote increases the volume of the TV, not the set-top box.

Small minus

As I wrote, the Decoder only works in the network beeline, and even more - only one subscriber. Even recordings can only be viewed when turned on. Once we had no Internet or TV for half a day. So, it was impossible to watch the record. To Beeline’s credit, we were recalculated and we did not pay for idle time. This was in February, and since then there have been no more communication problems.

PS January 2017: “Now the policy with recorded materials has changed. If there is no network or run out of money, you can watch the recorded programs. ”

My wishes for improvement

Software for Decoder supplied by Microsoft. The system is called Microsoft Mediaroom.

My wishes are addressed to all software developers for the decoder, as well as to optimizers for Russia and Beeline.

1. If the series is still going to be in one daddy, then you can make it possible to play them in a row with a playlist.

2. I lack the ability to set “Start” and “Finish” for recordings, so as not to waste every time. Again, this would be convenient when viewing a series of play lists.

3. The role of the ID in the program list is the name, and the names of different operators can be typed in different ways. I think it is more correct to assign my ID, and I would not have to set up a separate entry each time for South Park 7 and South Park 8.

4. It would be nice to add an indicator of free space on the hard disk.

5. On some programs and films there is some information, but it is not enough. I would add the ability to view content from major portals, such as film.ru, or from others. When I look through the program and think whether to record a film for me or not, I often have to run to the computer to watch on the Internet what kind of film. Or you can fasten the IMDb view with a translator from Google.

6. If there is a loud name "Interactive", then why not make the display of news on RSS-feeds? A client in his office can specify sites, or an account in Google-Reader, and look at the news for himself, so as not to miss anything. Let not view the entire news, but simply the announcement. To keep your finger on the pulse.

Conclusion

I liked the service. So far, Dmitry Anatolyevich declares that he does not watch TV, because there is the Internet, I have a reverse turn - I watch TV again, because it is possible to record movies and programs and watch them at a convenient time. This, of course, not television 2.0, but 1.5 completely.

Update 2017

I still use the Internet and Beeline TV. Since then, the control panel has refused and I was replaced for free without any questions. Six months ago, the decoder itself suddenly stopped turning on. He was also changed for free. The new device is not Cisco, but the interface is exactly the same. So from a technical point of view, everything is in order.

From my wish list, one thing was done: if you have a series of programs recorded, you can watch the series one by one. Not automatically, but the “Watch the next entry” button appeared. Nicely.

Last year I tried another dom.ru operator. I did not like it and I went back to Beeline. While not going to change.

Brave who disassembled device

Sent me a link to the mail. You can see what it consists of.

Note

¹ “She's inside the neon” is a quotation from Arkady and Boris Strugatsky’s Tales of a Three. I do not like to refer to Lukomorye, but it is well written about this quote .

Authorship

The author of photos and text Vadim Galkin. Distributed freely. When publishing, please refer to the authorship and my personal page .