Freeview and PVR Combined

[anonymous-user]

I am looking to buy a combined freeview and hard disk recorder. Anyone got suggestions as to best ones to go for? PS.....not looking to spend the earth!

[gopher]

Funnily enough I'm looking to buy the same thing.

I was tempted by a segam(sp?) one which is the same as the Dabs value one - twin tuner, 80GB hard drive - but many reviews say it is very noisy which is a shame because at arounf the £130-£150 mark was in my price range.

Cheers

Paul

[Phil S]

Personally I would buy a Cube PC with a digital TV card and run Windows Media Center on it. Have done this in the past and it is excellent.

PC spec can be fairly basic and a digital TV card costs less than £50!

[keppy]

I would agree with the Windows Media Centre comment, except that my twin-tuner PC which is silent and looks like a hi-fi component cost me £700 to build - not exactly cheap, which was one of the criteria in the original question. It is awesome though!

If you want to spend a lot less, then look at the Fusion or Humax boxes - less than £150 for an 80GB twin tuner version.

k

[Podie]

Mate of mine has the Humax jobbie... which seems pretty good actually.

I seem to recall reading a review of the "Topfield" (or something like that) which said it was the best of the lot.

[trooperiziz]

Podie said:

I seem to recall reading a review of the "Topfield" (or something like that) which said it was the best of the lot.

I have a toppy, it replaced my tivo when it went tits up.

The toppy is the best of the freeview PVRs by fair margin and if you are a bit of a tinkerer then it's fully customisable.

Have a look here www.toppy.org.uk/

[size13]

We have one at work that doesn't let you record all of one program e.g. every episode of Eastenders. Check which ever one you look at can do that.

[simpo two]

I have an Irish video recorder. It records programmes I don't like and plays them when I'm out.

[gopher]

I've just ordered the Humax PVR9200T, twin tuner + 160GB HD. I'll let you know what it's like when I get it.

Has a USB 2 port which allows you to upload Photo's etc, but one review suggests you can offload the video, handy if you really do want to keep something.

Cheers

Paul

[joust]

You could just buy the minimum Sky+ subscription for a year, get two packages the same, and pay slightly less than that Toppy box all in over the first year.

If you then cancel after the first year you haven't lost any thing and gain a Sky+ box with the "free" channels left on it...

J

[FunkyNige]

Phil S said:

PC spec can be fairly basic and a digital TV card costs less than £50!

Where can you get a digital card for £50 from? I've looked everywhere, even fleabay starts at £65.

[Phil S]

FunkyNige said:

Phil S said: PC spec can be fairly basic and a digital TV card costs less than £50! Where can you get a digital card for £50 from? I've looked everywhere, even fleabay starts at £65.

The top one on this page for a start!

www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/TV_Cards.html

Or here

www.aria.co.uk/ProductInfoComm.asp?ID=19158

Or here

www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=13210102251&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=99264

Or here

www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=196755

And those are the first four sites i've checked for months

[cuneus]

http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/forumdisplay.php

[anonymous-user]

joust said:

You could just buy the minimum Sky+ subscription for a year, get two packages the same, and pay slightly less than that Toppy box all in over the first year. If you then cancel after the first year you haven't lost any thing and gain a Sky+ box with the "free" channels left on it... J

Get two packages the same????

[zzr]

Our company gave us all PVR freview boxes as a present this year, it was, I think the 80GB Vision unit, which is very easy to use.

Have to say there is one disadvantage:

The hard disk and cooling fans are quite noisy and the fans run all the time. If you switch it off it doesn't pick up the programming updates and you obviusly can't record with it off.

Paul

[gopher]

FYI

Just an update

We bought the Humax 9200t and it arrived yesterday. Set it up in about 5 mins once I got home and had all the major fucntions sorted in about 30 mins.

Very easy to use although the instruction manual does have a few gaps (the actual button to press for certain functions not always obvious for example but I'm a bit of a luddite when it comes to audiovisual).

The pause live tv bit is fast and smooth, seamless in fact, and the playback menu is easy to use as is the record setup for both single and multiple records.

Advert skip is basically a scene shifter (it jumps to the next change of scene) and is ok, but it did jump about 30 secs into the programme on one occasion, but I may have been a little enthusiastic!

I have yet to try uploading photo's mp3 or attempting to download the video onto pc (it has a USB2 port under the lid on the front) which according to one review is possible but will update this when I have. Also have not yet played around with the EPG.

Very pleased with it so far, well worth the £208 delivered price.

Cheers

Paul

[marctwo]

Another vote for the Topfield 5800. Yes it's expensive but it's the best.

[Mrs Fish]

We have a topfield, it is very good

[Don]

Hmmmn. I've just ordered a Evesham eBox2. Twin Freeview cards, 300GB disk, 1GB ram, Windows MCXP2005. Sounds like I've gone down the expensive route again. Still - it will do everything I want. Digitise the entire CD collection, access the digi-photo collection, web-browsing as well as all the TV functions.

Just need to order me up the big screen to go with it now. Christmas - a wonderful institution - licence to spend money...

[docevi1]

is there a PVR which can have a web interface? I.E. I want to be able to control the box from outside if I've forgotten to program it...