Freeview HD PVR's... Getting ready for F1
Discussion
So, the F1 is going HD this year and I have been mulling over the best way to go about getting HD. I am about to tell BT where to stick the c
p over priced service and thought that if I could get Sky broadband, phone and TV for not a lot more it might be worth considering.
Playing with their website says I can get TV, broadband and phone for £41.25 a month. This is with a HD box but no HD subscription, which still gets me the Freeview HD channels.
or...
I can buy a Freeview HD PVR and switch the phone and broadband to O2 at £20.84 a month. This has the bonus of not having a Sky dish attached to the house (pet hate of mine) and after 12 months, the box will have paid for itself.
I have narrowed the choice down to three boxes, but I am at a total loss to chose between them. The choices are:
1) TVonics DT5-HD500
2) Humax HDR-Fox T2
3) Philips HDT-8520
They all broadly do the same thing, and yet all have subtle differences, the TVonics for example has 2 x HDMI inputs, and the Humax a CAN slot.
So, I open this up to the PH massive, do anybody have any good or bad experiences of any of these boxes? A independant retailer (Plotloss?) with experience of all 3 would be great.
Thanks in advance.
p over priced service and thought that if I could get Sky broadband, phone and TV for not a lot more it might be worth considering.Playing with their website says I can get TV, broadband and phone for £41.25 a month. This is with a HD box but no HD subscription, which still gets me the Freeview HD channels.
or...
I can buy a Freeview HD PVR and switch the phone and broadband to O2 at £20.84 a month. This has the bonus of not having a Sky dish attached to the house (pet hate of mine) and after 12 months, the box will have paid for itself.
I have narrowed the choice down to three boxes, but I am at a total loss to chose between them. The choices are:
1) TVonics DT5-HD500
2) Humax HDR-Fox T2
3) Philips HDT-8520
They all broadly do the same thing, and yet all have subtle differences, the TVonics for example has 2 x HDMI inputs, and the Humax a CAN slot.
So, I open this up to the PH massive, do anybody have any good or bad experiences of any of these boxes? A independant retailer (Plotloss?) with experience of all 3 would be great.
Thanks in advance.
We recently purchased an SD Humax system after sacking Sky. With the Sky boxes we had 5 in the space of two years and enough was enough. We were delighted with the way in which the Humax made the sky boxes look reliable, overjoyed at the waste of £130 on a device I would not give to the mother-in-law.
It is so bad I would never consider another Humax system again. It is very easy to use however.
It is so bad I would never consider another Humax system again. It is very easy to use however.
LaFleur said:
We recently purchased an SD Humax system after sacking Sky. With the Sky boxes we had 5 in the space of two years and enough was enough. We were delighted with the way in which the Humax made the sky boxes look reliable, overjoyed at the waste of £130 on a device I would not give to the mother-in-law.
It is so bad I would never consider another Humax system again. It is very easy to use however.
Sorry But I have 2 9200T and one 9150T Humax PVR's and they haven't missed a beat. They are the most reliable ones on the market with their feature set. I keep hearing about some that are considered more reliable but they don't have the EPG, Series Link and other features that make the Humax the simplest to use over a period of time. Yes like all PVR's a glitch caused by FREEVIEW two years ago did cock-up the boxes and slowed them down awfully. However HUMAX produced software for their existing boxes the 9150T and 9300T and also for the 9200T they had stopped selling over a year before!! I cannot see even many Japanese makers supporting their older products that well. You can even upgrade them. One of my 9200's has a 500GB SATA drive using a SATA to IDE convertor. I never run out of disk these days. There is even a forum for users that have problems or need advice. www.hummy.tv. They are certainly reliable and well supported. I would hesitate buying a PVR from anybody else.It is so bad I would never consider another Humax system again. It is very easy to use however.
Edited by telecat on Thursday 20th January 13:03
Sonic said:
I've always been put off the PVR's not having more than a 1TB disk.
It looks easy enough to buy a Humax HDR-FOX T2 and install a 2TB disk though, so will be giving it a go.
I have a 500GB disk and it rarely gets beyond 60% full so I wouldn't worry about 1TB. The 2TB may well be the limit as disks above that size use a different block size that I don't think is compatible (at the moment) with any PVR.It looks easy enough to buy a Humax HDR-FOX T2 and install a 2TB disk though, so will be giving it a go.
I have a Humax 9300T that has been totally reliable. Most of my friends seem to have digi-boxes that lock-up or lose recordings or both. My Humax has never missed a beat, has a reasonable EPG with a useful search function and even my wife can use it after minimal instruction. My 9300T was purchased direct from Humax with a one-year warranty for £120 - baragin.
Now that I have a television that can display and receive HD I intend to upgrade to the the relevant model of Humax. My 9300T will then be given to my father-in-law ro replace his Inverto on which the EPG stopped working last July and nothing is being done to provide a replacement. The Inverto locks up regularly and often loses recordings.
Now that I have a television that can display and receive HD I intend to upgrade to the the relevant model of Humax. My 9300T will then be given to my father-in-law ro replace his Inverto on which the EPG stopped working last July and nothing is being done to provide a replacement. The Inverto locks up regularly and often loses recordings.
I dragged this one up as I'm also looking for a Freeview HD PVR with a DVD recorder. I'm the sort that would think of sata as a misspelt asian peanut sauce so the Panasonic DMR-XW380 would be my target purchase.
http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_GB/Products/DVD...
So for the luddites out here is that any good?
http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_GB/Products/DVD...
So for the luddites out here is that any good?
Thanks guys.
I have decided to sit tight for a while. Research shows that they have only been available for less than 12 months, some units have software bugs and I believe there will be more units release this year, Argos for example are listing a Sony PVR in their new catalogue.
Hopefully another 6 months will see some of the bugs fixed, somemore competition and lower prices.
It's not like I can't watch it in normal definition...
I have decided to sit tight for a while. Research shows that they have only been available for less than 12 months, some units have software bugs and I believe there will be more units release this year, Argos for example are listing a Sony PVR in their new catalogue.
Hopefully another 6 months will see some of the bugs fixed, somemore competition and lower prices.
It's not like I can't watch it in normal definition...
To Be honest the Market is settled. The Sony is either going to be a re-badged Vestel or TVonics unit so will not dent the market that much. The choice at this time is either the DigitalStream or the Humax. Both use a similar chipset and have recent updates that seem to make them the class of the field.
As for the Panasonic DVD/Blu-Ray HDD recorders. The drawback is the price. The Humax is £275 for a 500GB unit whereas the Panasonic's are over £500 and only just have included a 500GB disk for that price.
As for the Panasonic DVD/Blu-Ray HDD recorders. The drawback is the price. The Humax is £275 for a 500GB unit whereas the Panasonic's are over £500 and only just have included a 500GB disk for that price.
telecat said:
...As for the Panasonic DVD/Blu-Ray HDD recorders. The drawback is the price. The Humax is £275 for a 500GB unit whereas the Panasonic's are over £500 and only just have included a 500GB disk for that price.
Huh? The current Panasonic Freeview HD machine is 250gb and can be bought for £380.So what's this £500 500gb Panasonic you speak of?
Ranger 6 said:
Huh? The current Panasonic Freeview HD machine is 250gb and can be bought for £380.
So what's this £500 500gb Panasonic you speak of?
It's the one with the Blu-Ray so you can archive at HD and it's the Panasonic DMRBW880EBK. Cheapest I've seen is £611So what's this £500 500gb Panasonic you speak of?
The slightly worse DMR780 is £450 plus with a 250GB Hard drive
The DMR-XW380 is probably the one you are thinking of at £380-ish but it only has a DVD recorder so you cannot archive at HD quality. And at that price with that spec it is still a bit pricey.
[quote=Ranger 6, earlier in the thread,]....looking for a Freeview HD PVR with a DVD recorder......so the Panasonic DMR-XW380 would be my target purchase....
[/quote]
[quote=telecat]The DMR-XW380 is probably the one you are thinking of.....at that price with that spec it is still a bit pricey....
[/quote]
Yes, but is it any good? i.e. does anyone with ownership experience have an opinion, rather than a guess from a spec sheet and a price?
[/quote]
[quote=telecat]The DMR-XW380 is probably the one you are thinking of.....at that price with that spec it is still a bit pricey....
[/quote]
Yes, but is it any good? i.e. does anyone with ownership experience have an opinion, rather than a guess from a spec sheet and a price?
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