PVR needed......do you use one and if so.....

Box Brownie

Box Brownie

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....would you recommend the make & model?

We have had ours since 2012 but for a while it has needed a hard restart to get it to work again. NB it may be the HDD is starting to fail???

So, hence the question as I want to replace it.

It needs to match the current ones specs or exceed them.

Minimum of 2 tuners
Freeview HD
255 hours capacity

One aspect that would be good is to be able to record some of the old machines recordings......... perhaps by daisy chaining the two PVRs ??? NB from what I recall the current one drive is exFAT but the recording system is proprietary so cannot be read if I pull the drive and put it in a dock :(
 
Our Humax PVR failed a while back but I was never happy with it. Very slow menus with a lag

There's so much available on catch up I decided I didn't need the ability to record, and our TV has a free sat capability in built, so I put up a dish and used that. I confess I rarely use that either as we watch so much via iPlayer, nowtv, Netflix

You could get a DVD recorder to burn stuff off your pvr if they still sell them (I think I have one in the loft somewhere)
 
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We have a Humax Freesat that is capable of recording up to four programmes at the same time. Works well enough for us on the odd occasion there is more than one programme worth watching.
 
Richersounds is the best place to look for a new one. The humax ones will record up to 4 programmes at once.

The old programmes might be transferable with a USB stick. I think HD content might have encryption so not sure whether they will be playable or not.

I had a humax for ages. Still got it but don't use it for active recording now. Have decided it's less effort just to use streaming.
 
Many thanks all for the replies and insights (y)

We do have a Richer Sounds nearby, so will popin on the New Year.
 
When I looked for my father in law 18/24 months ago there were very few PVRs available. Research showed that most manufacturers had stopped/were soon stopping making them. New model releases from Manhattan were behind schedule.

I looks like the position is much better at present

Don’t leave it too late!
 
Amazed anyone is still using these. Back when I had one the best one I had was a Sony one which could write to DVDs as well as the HDD.

If you suspect it's just the HDD just replace that.
 
robj20 said:
Amazed anyone is still using these. Back when I had one the best one I had was a Sony one which could write to DVDs as well as the HDD.

If you suspect it's just the HDD just replace that.
Click to expand...
I valid point about replacing the HDD

It may be a suck it & see, IIRC I do have some retired 3.5inch PATA drives but cannot recall the capacities. Plus, if I can find my docking port.

If so, I will see if I can make a clone of the drive.

My initial searches suggest it will take max 2TB drive. I have yet to find a "walk through of dismantling" for it, a TV Onics DTR-HD500.

So, very much down to is the drive PATA probably expensive and difficult to find now .....what sizes do I have to hand. If SATA.....I might have retired ones too???
 
robj20 said:
Amazed anyone is still using these. Back when I had one the best one I had was a Sony one which could write to DVDs as well as the HDD.

If you suspect it's just the HDD just replace that.
Click to expand...
I've still got 2 of these ancient Sony recorders, bought in 2012/13. They get their knickers in a knot every now and then when someone releases a bit of malformed metadata in the digital Guide thingy. There's a very long thread on AVForums on how to fix this. They're limited to SD TV, but that's OK with us. I don't like the idea of paying for multiple streaming service for content that might not be there next year, and the same applies differently to iPlayer. So I too am wondering what to do once they start to fail. We no longer use the DVD dubbing as much as we used to, so it looks like a 2-tuner Manhatten or more probably the 3 (or4?) tuner Humax Aura. Reviews of the latter do suggest that control is a bit slow and laggy, which is an issue. How nice it would be to try some things out for a while!
 
ChrisR said:
I've still got 2 of these ancient Sony recorders, bought in 2012/13. They get their knickers in a knot every now and then when someone releases a bit of malformed metadata in the digital Guide thingy. There's a very long thread on AVForums on how to fix this. They're limited to SD TV, but that's OK with us. I don't like the idea of paying for multiple streaming service for content that might not be there next year, and the same applies differently to iPlayer. So I too am wondering what to do once they start to fail. We no longer use the DVD dubbing as much as we used to, so it looks like a 2-tuner Manhatten or more probably the 3 (or4?) tuner Humax Aura. Reviews of the latter do suggest that control is a bit slow and laggy, which is an issue. How nice it would be to try some things out for a while!
Click to expand...
I only have Amazon and then the free on demand stuff. I do have all my old DVDs and Blurays on a server and access via Plex makes it very convenient.
 
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