New DStv Explora Decoder: 10 Things To Know Before You Buy
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The new DStv Explora has gone on sale in Nigeria after it was successfully launched in South Africa ealier in August. The Explora which comes with a 2 Terabyte (TB) hard drive is four times the size of those in DStv’s 2 Tuner which has only 500 GB storage capacity. It also comes with a 4 Tuner high definition (HD) personal video recorders (PVRs) that would also allow up to 220 hours of HD recording in addition to 20 movies in Box Office and 60 hours series of Catch Up content, even though subscribers would have to wait until Q1 2014 to have access to the Box Office.
According to MultiChoice, Subscribers with a 2 Tuner HD PVR in South Africa will also benefit from the extra tuner in the Explora, MultiChoice chief technology officer Gerdus van Eeden also added in an interview with TV journalist Thinus Ferreira. The second tuner in the current HD PVR is shared between recording, BoxOffice, Catch Up, and TV guide data, the Explora has a tuner dedicated for user recordings. DSTV Explora costs R2,499 in South Africa (N39, 195) while it is currently being sold at Multichoice offices in Lagos for a retail price of N65,000 (4,144) [without installation] and N71,300 (4,545) [with installation]. Obviously, it’s more expensive to buy in Nigeria and costs far less in South Africa
Here are 10 Things You Must Know Before You Buy New DStv Explora Decoder
No. 1 – Price
The new DStv Explora decoder comes at a rather expensive price of R2 499 in South Africa which is R1 000 more expensive than the previous model depending on where you are buying from. In Nigeria it costs even more at a price tag of N71,300 (R4,545), Is it worth paying for at such a price?
No. 2 – Interface
One of the things that distinguishes this product from the previous one is the new interface it comes with. The New DStv Explorer is fast, reliable, efficient and very responsive with better looking interface than the previous one, it can handle anything you throw at it. The interface features really cool and inspiring large icons that is pretty much like the interfaces of streaming services you find on Apple TV, Netflix or Hulu.
No. 3 – Bigger Capacity
The storage capacity on the new device has been increased 4x from a pmere 500GB to massive 2TB, DStv has also increased it’s drive speed from 5400 to 5900rpm while slimming down the physical size at the same time, this implies that you can now be able to record up to 220 hours
The New Explora decoder comes with a DStv’s Catch Up service that will have users benefit from the increased storage size of the HDD in the Explora. You can now be able to see ongoing series doubled to forty concurrent shows and each show can have up to 4 prior episodes available for the user to watch at any point in time.
No. 5 – Faster hardware
It’s not only the hard drive that s upgraded in the new device, Multichoice has also upgraded the CPU from 1.1GHz model to a 3GHz unit in the Explora, the RAM has also been upgraded by a factor of 4 to 1GB of DDR3 RAM.
No. 6 – New Remote
It comes with a completely new remote that has been designed to be not just less complicated than the previous one by removal of the alternate functions mode but also features a big blue DStv central button that’s more like a home key for getting back all your data or content
No. 7 – More Box Office
The new decoder comes fully loaded with 30 video on demand rental service that will be available at any given time for users in South Africa
The Explora runs on a Linux kernel and a completely custom developed code base from Multichoice themselves with a little support from other Naspers subsidiaries
No. 9 – Three USB Ports
The device comes with three USB ports which will be used for upgrading as goes on, it will also likely allow for things like WiFi and 3G connectivity
No. 10 – Better Content Discovery and Search
The New DStv Explorer Decoder comes with advanced content discovery with search results across 8-day TV guide, playlist, DStv Catch Up and BoxOffice. It enables you to search movies currently running and upcoming, live sport for the next 24 hours, as well as theme, key word and advanced searches. Find out more on some of the latest features
