Sky ditched - need a freeview replacement.
Discussion
As above really. We don't subcribe to sports or movie channels so we decided to junk the sky+ and replace with a freeview recorder (we have a normal ariel as well).
We like the actual sky+ box so are looking for a box with similar features (and hopefully a more reliable unit - we're on our third box in as many years!).
Not to clued up but am veering towards a Digitalstream DHR8205U, a Humax PVR9300T or a Toshiba HDR-5010KB.
Never really heard of Humax or Digitalstream but both seem to get decent reviews which is why I've included Toshiba in my musing.(Although J.Lewis is selling with a 2 year warranty)
So, over to those who know. Need to keep it under £200 and min of 250gb. Is a HD tuner worth the extra? (have a 43' plasma).
Ta!
We like the actual sky+ box so are looking for a box with similar features (and hopefully a more reliable unit - we're on our third box in as many years!).
Not to clued up but am veering towards a Digitalstream DHR8205U, a Humax PVR9300T or a Toshiba HDR-5010KB.
Never really heard of Humax or Digitalstream but both seem to get decent reviews which is why I've included Toshiba in my musing.(Although J.Lewis is selling with a 2 year warranty)
So, over to those who know. Need to keep it under £200 and min of 250gb. Is a HD tuner worth the extra? (have a 43' plasma).
Ta!
FlossyThePig said:
What is your Freeview reception like? London doesn't make the switchover until next year?
Plugged the ariel in the back of the tv and the picture quality is v.good with Freeview. Probably will want to switch to freeview instead of freesat as we sometimes have problems with the signal (Sky next to useless in trying to fix this).Your Sky issue may have been the box, not the dish. It could also have been the LNB (attached to the end of the dish), or the cable terminations.
Is your dish accessable? If so you can buy a cheap sat signal meter from Maplins (or Ebay, wherever) so you can ensure your dish is pointing the right way and check the cables are terminated securley. If it's not giving you strong readings then a new LNB is only a few quid.
You then have the option of freeview or freesat. I've got freesat as it was easier for me to fit an octo LNB (8 wires coming off my dish) and run 2 feeds into 4 rooms. This gives you the dual feed needed to work a PVR box.
Humax are universally regarded as being up there as the most user friendly and reliable box, can't go wrong with one of those. Biggest draw for a sky box is the user interface, the Humax isn't quite as good but not far off.
Is your dish accessable? If so you can buy a cheap sat signal meter from Maplins (or Ebay, wherever) so you can ensure your dish is pointing the right way and check the cables are terminated securley. If it's not giving you strong readings then a new LNB is only a few quid.
You then have the option of freeview or freesat. I've got freesat as it was easier for me to fit an octo LNB (8 wires coming off my dish) and run 2 feeds into 4 rooms. This gives you the dual feed needed to work a PVR box.
Humax are universally regarded as being up there as the most user friendly and reliable box, can't go wrong with one of those. Biggest draw for a sky box is the user interface, the Humax isn't quite as good but not far off.
We've just bought a house with no aerial but an old sky dish on the side. Our panasonic plasma has a built in freesat decoder so we plugged it on and were very pleasantly pleased with the quality. We've retired our old freeview humax and bout one of the 500gb twin tuner freesat ones.. Really pleased with it, great quality and very nice interface (I've never used sky+ so I cannot compare) I would recommend it to anyone.
ETA, Richer sounds had it for a tenner less than anywhere else
D
ETA, Richer sounds had it for a tenner less than anywhere else
D
I wanted one to match the TV so have just got this Sony: www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-SVRHDT500B-Freeview-Personal...
The EPG is not quite as good as the one on the TV, but then that is excellent.
The EPG is not quite as good as the one on the TV, but then that is excellent.
davidd said:
We've just bought a house with no aerial but an old sky dish on the side. Our panasonic plasma has a built in freesat decoder so we plugged it on and were very pleasantly pleased with the quality. We've retired our old freeview humax and bout one of the 500gb twin tuner freesat ones.. Really pleased with it, great quality and very nice interface (I've never used sky+ so I cannot compare) I would recommend it to anyone.
I was in the same boat - house came with no aerial but a sky dish so I also bought the Humax Freesat box. It's not as easy to use as Sky+ but is still very good.Gassing Station | Home Cinema & Hi-Fi | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff