TV Freeview hard drive recorder - recommendations...

Lynton

Lynton

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Lynton (yes really!)
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OK have binned sky, as fed up with a thousand channels of crap / repeats.

Must be freeview. Must not be HUMAX. (problems in the past with them!)

Looking for something half decent... reliable.. the bigger the capacity the better.

I assume that everything on the skybox we still need to watch will still be available.
 
You can still watch your sky box can't you?

If you must have a freeview recorder 1gb is the biggest available hard drive size and there's a few makes but it's a pity you don't like Humax, I've never had one that works better.
 
dunno... it doesn't go for another month. Have heard sky will set you up with a freeview card.

I am sure Humax are fine. Our one was crap though.. however, I am talking, a few years ago!!
 
Get a Humax, they really are the best available.

PS why are you planning to use FREEVIEW rather than FreeSat?
 
Humax also. Although sometimes forgets series links. Haven't tried anything else
 
DemiLion said:
Get a Humax, they really are the best available.

PS why are you planning to use FREEVIEW rather than FreeSat?
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Freeview from existing aerial. I thought freesat needs some kind of dish.


Coley. said:
Humax also. Although sometimes forgets series links. Haven't tried anything else
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I don't want HUMAX

LCPete said:
Yep humax for me too :)
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Please see above

srichards said:
Panasonic. Parents one just works.
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That will match the TV........will have a look into them, esp if sky+ does not record... after the sky gets cut off....


Cheers guys...... find it very odd though when i say "I don't want humax"... "well what you need is 'Humax'" :cuckoo::cuckoo:


to be honest though... £40 odd quid a month and 90% of what we watch is on terrestrial or freeview... so bye bye sky
 
Friends had a humax one. They sent it back. Missed recordings and playback was jumpy.


Don't get an icecrypt either. Utter crap. Still not got a working firmware out of them. Last firmware made the box lose all channels several times a week.
 
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Lynton said:
Freeview from existing aerial. I thought freesat needs some kind of dish.
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Yup, but you've got a Sky dish haven't you?
 
DemiLion said:
Yup, but you've got a Sky dish haven't you?
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Very pleased with our Humax,far better picture than Sky, just took out the Skybox and plugged in the Humax.
 
Lynton said:
OK have binned sky, as fed up with a thousand channels of crap / repeats.
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Lynton said:
Freeview from existing aerial. I thought freesat needs some kind of dish.
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:thinking: although we binned freesat as it had didn't have 5star and a few others (my wife is mad on CSI, NCIS etc)

I'm going down the same route next month and have been on the lookout for ages...I need a freeview pvr with streaming capabilities, and they seem few and far between (even more so if you won't touch Humax).

Stumbled across this earlier, nice looking Samsung, and it has a smarthub as a bonus too :)
 
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antihero said:
:thinking: although we binned freesat as it had didn't have 5star and a few others (my wife is mad on CSI, NCIS etc)

I'm going down the same route next month and have been on the lookout for ages...I need a freeview pvr with streaming capabilities, and they seem few and far between (even more so if you won't touch Humax).

Stumbled across this earlier, nice looking Samsung, and it has a smarthub as a bonus too :)
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that Samsung looks nice - shame it cannot record x2

2blue4u said:
Consider YouView. 1Gb and all the on demand.
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Youview - not available here.. checked that the other day following a very tempting BT offer. Love how they mail you (addressed) not postie shoving through everyones door.. and then you cannot get it.


I really don't care how awesome everyones Humax is, our's was crap and not going back to them!
 
I didn't mean you take the BT service, simply buy a YouView box and use it. Simply connect it to a freeview capable aerial and your Internet service.
 
2blue4u said:
I didn't mean you take the BT service, simply buy a YouView box and use it. Simply connect it to a freeview capable aerial and your Internet service.
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ah right.. sorry... i'll take a look into that as well then..... :thumbs:
 
I thought only humax made the youview box at the moment?
 
srichards said:
I thought only humax made the youview box at the moment?
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Yes, they manufacture it. But it runs on YouView software and support. You would only know of the humax connection if you took it apart.
 
My Humax has been working fine since 2004, I had to replace a failed harddrive a couple of years ago, but that can happen to anyone.
 
Panasonic DMR-BWT720EB looks (on paper) quite a good spec....

Twin Freeview HD tuners with 1TB drive
Bluray recorder
DLNA functionality

Not looked in to it in any depth as I have a home theatre PC that does a lot of all this for me but would have been very tempted by something like this a few years back before I built the HTPC.
 
The only real annoyance with the panasonic models (they may have changed this) is when you bring up the guide, the sound is cut from the programme you are on. I find this unacceptable. It's the only reason I haven't cast my icecrypt into a skip where it belongs.
 
I've had two Panasonic DMR recorders die on me, A few years back now and hopefully they've sorted themselves out but I'd never buy another without very careful checking of the net for reported problems.
 
Parents got theirs from Richer Sounds with the 5 year warranty so it's not an issue for another 4 or so years :)

All the panasonic stuff I've had has been fine. Even with negative reports from others. My toppy is ok at 6 (just about) and many had theirs die at 18 months old.

I do make a point of switching off the live rewind feature as that stops the HDD being used so much.
 
Yeah, I'd agree that the program guide on the Panasonics is rubbish as it's the same on our TV. I'd much prefer either picture in picture type or at the very least audio.
 
srichards said:
The only real annoyance with the panasonic models (they may have changed this) is when you bring up the guide, the sound is cut from the programme you are on.
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On the DMR-BWT720EB this does not happen, you get a picture in picture of the program you were watching with sound in the top left of the guide screen. I own one, I just went to check before writing this reply.

The only issue I have with it is that coming out of the guide using the "return" button somehow affects the input select on my Panasonic TV, and the TV reverts to its internal tuner rather than the HDMI1 input that is fed from the output of my amp, into which the freeveiw recorder box is plugged. This means finding the remote for the TV to change the input back (one press of the "AV" button).

One good thing about the Panasonics, at least the ones that can write out to DVD or BD, is that they will record video from external inputs like the VCRs of old would. Most freeview recorders won't do this. This means I can now record from dish and decoder I have pointing at Eutelsat Hotbird (not that I ever remember to check the schedule for RAI1 to see what's on, nor is my Italian good enough to follow most things!)
 
hmmm... well conflicting info (on FB as well) as to if the sky+ box will record freeview or not...... think i'll wait, see if it does and then...if not.. look into a PVR.

Stupid me though. What is "The Masters" being shown on 2 week in April.... Sky...:bang::bang::bang:
 
Lynton said:
hmmm... well conflicting info (on FB as well) as to if the sky+ box will record freeview or not...... think i'll wait, see if it does and then...if not.. look into a PVR.

Stupid me though. What is "The Masters" being shown on 2 week in April.... Sky...:bang::bang::bang:
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Go to blockbusters and get the dvd instead of a HDD box.
 
Lynton said:
hmmm... well conflicting info (on FB as well) as to if the sky+ box will record freeview or not...... think i'll wait, see if it does and then...if not.. look into a PVR.
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The sky+ box will record any channel it can pick up, but you need to have a sky subscription that includes the + functionality. It used to be movies or sport or pay a supplement to get it, but that might have changed. Pretty sure that when your subscription ends anything you have recorded will become inaccessible though (it also becomes inaccessible if you disconnect the satellite feed or the dish goes out of alignment).
 
Have you got a PS3? I use that to record my Freeview TV :) Far more reliable than the old TopUp-TV box or other random recorders we used to have!
 
Az_GTi said:
Have you got a PS3? I use that to record my Freeview TV :) Far more reliable than the old TopUp-TV box or other random recorders we used to have!
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yes i do have an original 40GB one.... how do i do it?
 
Little device called Play TV. Should be cheap now. If only 40GB won't have much space for recordings but easy to swap to larger drive.
 
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