Hi,
here in Holland the company(KPN Digitenne) who provide the DVB-T channels(25 channels) here in holland requires us to use a smartcard provided by them that fits in the DVB-T tuner(also provided by them) in order to unlock the channels.
So if we don't use that smartcard we can't watch the 25 channels here in Holland and I'm paying monthly for the channels.
Without it if I'm lucky i would only have access to 1 or 2 standard news channels which are pretty boring.

With the AC Ryan Playon!DVR-HD, will i have access to all the channels? Is there a slot to insert a smartcard into the tuner? or is it capable of displaying all the channels without the smartcard?..
are all the channels on DVB-T in other countries free?

Gday
We have something similar in Australia with 50 or so channels . Its called Foxtel and uses a smart card about the size of a credit card ,which is inserted into a decoder box to receive and decode the channels. The Decoder box is the property of Foxtel.

There is no smart card slot in the Playon , I would say if your Pay TV provider is similar to our Foxtel, they would encrypt the channels, So a smart card and decoder box would be essential to view the encrypted channels.
With Playon we can however record the channels from the decoder, through AVI cables from the decoder to the Playon, the recorded program will only be in 4:3 format.

The digital TV part of the Playon is for Free to air Digital broadcasts
So to conclude if you wish to watch the pay TV if it is an encrypted broadcast, You will need a Decoder box and smart card from the company supplying the PayTV .
If you have other non encrypted free to air digital tv in Holland your Playon should be able receive them, depending on the type of signal they use.

Cheers

Hi WraithGTO,

I'm in Melbourne and I've been looking at buying the ACR-PV76120 but so far I've had trouble finding out what channels it will pick up in Aus.

The main reason for this is that it doesn't specify Standard Def or High Def for the dual DVB-T tuners that the product has.

Can you confirm that the player gets HD free-to-air channels as well as SD ones please mate?

cheers

Hi Grindhead,
Picks up all Melbourne HD and SD channels.

thanks dogboymick , I assume that you are able to record the channels in full resolution too then?

I have to say that I have found a few issues with firmware on these AC Ryan products during my research for buying a media player but it seems the development are very interested in helping with these issues as well as the user community.

I'm an open source nerd/fan so i think this is definitely a good thing!