wex@cs.ULowell.EDU (Paul Wexelblat) (06/26/91)
Anyone who is tempted to purchase a VCRPlus unit [Please, no flames about how dumb people are who can't program thier machines, this is real consumer info] GemStar has been shipping version 3 since March, most stores I have checked are selling version 2. DAK is shipping version 1. A) version 2 tells you the listing channel number, while version 3 (they say) tells you the cable box number. (Listing numbers are arbitrary numbers assigned to stations (e.g. 33 = HBO) cable box numbers are the channel #'s you use to tell the cable box what you want to see; VCRPlus lets you map these) B) version 3 tells you the number you are used to using on your cable box (redundant) C) I don't know what else version 1 did wrong D) I have not found a source for version 3 E) Most important, How to tell them apart!! GemStar gives NO indication on the outside of the box (packaging) which version is inside!! (Instruction manuals are sufficiently vague as to not help) You must open the battery compartment and read the little white tag inside the coding is AAnnxxxxx..., where A=LETTER, nn= 01,02, or 03 (the version #) (N.B. "version" number is GemStars terminology, not model number) Good luck, happy hunting, and if anyone can tell me how to recore Wimbledon where coverage alternates between HBO and NBC (45 and 4 on my cable box) without being there and without a VCRPlus, Iwill accept flames. ...Wex PS GemStar has an 800 number for info, they could not tell me who had v3.