What's the best value Freeview PVR?

IOWDebbie

Do any smallish TV's come with a PVR buit in?

MikeJ37

I bought a Topfield Tf5800 last year and have been very pleased with it. Two tuners means you can record 2 programmes at same time or watch one & record one and depending on channel set up sometimes record 2 and watch a third. One of the main reasons for buying was ability to connect to PC via USB connection. Applications available online can improve performance and add features, also upgrades available online. I've uploaded all my music CDs in MP3 Format to give a giant Jukebox. Topfield Users Forums with lots of info at toppy.org.uk

giovanni

IOWDebbie wrote: »

Do any smallish TV's come with a PVR buit in?

Nope, try a PC card/usb though. Works great for me. It's rare to even find a large tv with a pvr.

Torry_Quine

Another vote for the Humax PVR 9300T.

Howitiz

And another vote for Humax 9300T. We bought ours 2 months ago and it has been wonderful. The series link is used constantly and we do not lose start or end of programs.
I found Dixons was the most competitive price at the time, delivery was excellent and I did it through Nectar estores and got triple points. When I looked today they were offering it at £168.00 which seems competitive.

mean_momma

MikeJ37 wrote: »

I bought a Topfield Tf5800 last year and have been very pleased with it. Two tuners means you can record 2 programmes at same time or watch one & record one and depending on channel set up sometimes record 2 and watch a third. One of the main reasons for buying was ability to connect to PC via USB connection. Applications available online can improve performance and add features, also upgrades available online. I've uploaded all my music CDs in MP3 Format to give a giant Jukebox. Topfield Users Forums with lots of info at toppy.org.uk

We bought a Humax on sale at John Lewis, then tried out a Topfield, also reduced, for the second TV. Because they were sold as 'opened box', it was possible to try them out then receive a full refund if not happy. In the end, we kept both. The Humax is definitely the easiest to use and the least complicated, although the Topfield, imho, is better for recording from the radio. The Toppy has lots of extra features that can be installed via the computer, if desired. It is a lot easier to upgrade via the computer than the Humax, although you get 'over the air' upgrades anyway, every now & then.

One disadvantage with the Topfield is that it gets hot, so you can't stack other equipment on top. Apparently, this is because it has no fan. Although there is no fan noise, some of the Topfields have been known to have a loud hum.

Hope this helps

davieg11

You are better getting humax. I read good reviews about them but stupidly bought a hitachi hdr163 160 gb hdmi from argos. As it was hdmi I picked this one. BIG Mistake. It crashes every couple of days. It is non responsive and you have to unplug it to get it working again. It misses recordings. If you do a scan for new channels you lose all the timers and series link shows that were set to record. If you have it on low power mode to save electricity it wont come back on.(unplug again). When I had it hooked up to hdmi I kept getting no signal error even though freeview on tv ok. (unplug once more). I have to use scart lead which gives poor picture quality. Lots of these recorders have problems but humax seems to be the exception.

macman

The one silly flaw in the Hummy is that you can't control the TV volume via the remote if using the HDMI input. Works OK on the SCART though. Hopefully that can be fixed on a software upgrade at some point. So on that basis I'd give it 9 out of 10. Everything else just works.

Edinburghlass_2

macman wrote: »

The one silly flaw in the Hummy is that you can't control the TV volume via the remote if using the HDMI input. Works OK on the SCART though. Hopefully that can be fixed on a software upgrade at some point. So on that basis I'd give it 9 out of 10. Everything else just works.

Fairly new user of a Humax and I did wonder about the volume control so thanks for that, in fact as a new user to my Toshiba TV I'm still finding out how to use that too

But I must say I'd recommend the Humax having had a Thomson which kept freezing.

mean_momma

macman wrote: »

The one silly flaw in the Hummy is that you can't control the TV volume via the remote if using the HDMI input. Works OK on the SCART though. Hopefully that can be fixed on a software upgrade at some point. So on that basis I'd give it 9 out of 10. Everything else just works.

That's interesting. Ours works fine via the remote, connectied through the HDMI. The sound isn't coming through the TV, thuogh, but through a separate sound system, with the stereo wires plugged into the back of the Hummy.