Best HD Freeview box

[Too Late]

Going to install a 92" screen and projector this weekend. But rather than just films the wife would like to watch standard TV on it as well.

Not wanting a sky subscription i am forced down the HD freeview box route. Some seem so cheap while others are £300...

Dont need to record anything really but could be a nice feature. I just wasnt HD really.

Any recommendations?

[telecat]

I would recommend any HUMAX HD box. They are a bit old but the HD-FOX STB and HD-FOXT2 recorders were very good. The latest triple tuner FVP-4000 is also considered a good box with HD options from 500GB to 2TB. The reviews for the HDR-1800 and HDR-2000 were not as good. Basically only recorders seem to be made these days as most TV's have HD tuners.

[gregs656]

YouView Zapper box?

[blueST]

I don't know if you have a disused dish or not, but if you do, consider going Freesat. To my eyes, the picture quality, both SD and HD is better than terrestrial Freeview. No idea if there is a technical reason or not, but it might be of benefit on such a big screen.

I've got a Humax Freesat that does record, on demand etc. Very well.

[Badvok]

We're very pleased with the Youview software. Get the recording + version

[gareth_r]

We have a "refurbished" (probably just returned unused) 500gb BT YouView+ Humax DTR-T2100 DVR connected to an aerial and to the wireless router via powerline adaptors (BT subscription not necessary for Freeview).

Works really well as a Freeview HD tuner, as a recorder, for catch up by scrolling back through the guide, and for streaming IPlayer, ITV Hub, All4, Demand 5, UKTV Play, Quest, and Netflix (there is also a NowTV app, but it's Sky Movies only).

Definitely worth the 90 quid it cost last year.

Edited by gareth_r on Wednesday 3rd February 22:50

[OldSkoolRS]

I'm using a HD-FOXT2 and occasionally use it to watch things on my projector, the screen being 2.8 metres wide. Granted the SD channels look especially ropey that big (even using a really high end video processor to upscale/deinterlace), but the HD channels are pretty decent especially since most content is 16:9 so I zoom back smaller as my screen is 2.35:1.

I keep thinking I might need to replace the HD-FOXT2 at some point, but I don't think I'd gain anything TBH (I wouldn't use most of the new 'features'). Makes a change to have an AV device that lasts more than a year in the rack...

[Too Late]

in the end i bought one of these for £29.99



very pleased!!!

thanks for the YouView shout!!

[gregs656]

Too Late said:

in the end i bought one of these for £29.99



very pleased!!!

thanks for the YouView shout!!

Good price for a zapper box I think.

I've been using YouView for a couple of years now and I think they have done an excellent job with it.

[NickGibbs]

gareth_r said:

We have a "refurbished" (probably just returned unused) 500gb BT YouView+ Humax DTR-T2100 DVR connected to an aerial and to the wireless router via powerline adaptors (BT subscription not necessary for Freeview).

Works really well as a Freeview HD tuner, as a recorder, for catch up by scrolling back through the guide, and for streaming IPlayer, ITV Hub, All4, Demand 5, UKTV Play, Quest, and Netflix (there is also a NowTV app, but it's Sky Movies only).

Definitely worth the 90 quid it cost last year.

Edited by gareth_r on Wednesday 3rd February 22:50

Thread resurrection. I'm looking at Freeview DVR boxes and the BT one looks good.
However it has been on the market for four years now though (according to its Amazon listing) and I'm worried, possibly wrongly, that it might start to be superceded by some newer technology or other.
Another other recommendations? The BT box is £120 (no subscription involved).

[megaphone]

Loads of unwanted BT ones on eBay, usually from ex subscribers who don't bother to send them back, they work perfectly, still use mine even though I ditched BT TV.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_t...

[gareth_r]

NickGibbs said:

Thread resurrection. I'm looking at Freeview DVR boxes and the BT one looks good.
However it has been on the market for four years now though (according to its Amazon listing) and I'm worried, possibly wrongly, that it might start to be superceded by some newer technology or other.
Another other recommendations? The BT box is £120 (no subscription involved).

We're still using the Youview DVR, plus a 1TB version in a different room. They have been excellent VFM at the prices we paid.

However... YouView rolled out a software update last year that concentrated more on appearance (pretty pictures instead of text) than functionality (a lot of features just disappeared, although they are slowly reappearing). The Quest app vanished as well.

You could also look at Freeview Play DVRs for similar features, possibly with a longer platform life, but you won't find any cheap BT returns.

[megaphone]

Yes I was disappointed with the Youview firmware update, main feature I miss is the info pane when you scroll through the guide, I just want to quickly see the details of a programme, you now need to press the 'i' button and then back again every time, makes channel scrolling a pain.

And don't get me started on the rubbish remote! The central cluster is a 'cluster fu**' , ok if you have fingers like Jimmy Saville, my fat digits keep hitting the wrong buttons.

[Mr Pointy]

I picked up a BT 4K Freeview box from ebay as I'm tired of my rubbish Humax & found it was even worse. The UI is utterly pants & it lasted a week before I put it back on ebay. I couldn't find a way of creating a custom channel list with the selected channels re-ordered which was one of the more minor requirements I had.

It's a shame more people never used Topfield recorders as then they'd know what a good UI could be, especially with a few mods installed.

[gareth_r]

Mr Pointy said:

I picked up a BT 4K Freeview box from ebay as I'm tired of my rubbish Humax & found it was even worse. The UI is utterly pants & it lasted a week before I put it back on ebay. I couldn't find a way of creating a custom channel list with the selected channels re-ordered which was one of the more minor requirements I had.

It's a shame more people never used Topfield recorders as then they'd know what a good UI could be, especially with a few mods installed.

One of the things that disappeared with the YouView "improvements" was the abiity to hide channels, although it did eventually return.

The developers and testers must have been working in their school holidays. The whole focus seemed to be on making it look pretty (or like a smartphone?), rather than on providing features that the actual users might want.

[NickGibbs]

megaphone said:

Loads of unwanted BT ones on eBay, usually from ex subscribers who don't bother to send them back, they work perfectly, still use mine even though I ditched BT TV.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_from=R40&_t...

Interesting. They sell 'refurbished' ones on Amazon for £80. I'm switching from Virgin and I'm assuming they'll want their DVR box back. It was only a few months old and pretty good, but maybe it'll lock me out at switchover.

The Panasonic Freeview Play looks pretty good, but again it's been around a while https://www.amazon.co.uk/Panasonic-DMR-HWT150EB-Sm...

[gareth_r]

I forgot to mention that the Humax YouView BT DVRs have had a problem recently with failed recordings. There is, supposedly, a fix on the way, but you might want to wait until it's confirmed (or you might think that Freeview Play is a better bet )

https://community.youview.com/youview/discussion/7...

https://community.bt.com/t5/YouView-from-BT/Failed...

Edited by gareth_r on Monday 25th June 18:40

[MiniMan64]

CLEAR!

Thread resurrection!

Anybody current experience of Freeview HD recorders?

This thread has got me thinking about getting rid of a TV service altogether and just using Freeview.

However I don’t have a ‘smart’ TV and I’d like to retain the ability to pause/record live TV so some sort of PVR box seems to be the only option.

Does anyone have any opinions/suggestions?

[megaphone]

Same advice that's in this thread. Humax are good. You can choose from two platforms, Freeview Play or Youview which have all the 'smart' functions, both are good. There is also generic FreeviewHD but it lacks 'smart'

If you have a Sky dish then you could look at Freesat.

As I said above, look for BT Youview boxes on eBay or look at the Humax refurb site.

https://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/refurbished.html

[MiniMan64]

megaphone said:

Same advice that's in this thread. Humax are good. You can choose from two platforms, Freeview Play or Youview which have all the 'smart' functions, both are good. There is also generic FreeviewHD but it lacks 'smart'

If you have a Sky dish then you could look at Freesat.

As I said above, look for BT Youview boxes on eBay or look at the Humax refurb site.

https://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/refurbished.html

What’s the difference between Freeview and Youview?