hard drive tv recorder? what to look for?

steveo3002

id like to purchase a hard drive tv recorder , one that allows fast forward/rewind etc too

i know nothing about these machines , can anyone advise any points to look out for or avoid ?

thanks

i8change

If you mean a PVR, reliability is important. Cheaper ones can be more problematic. Humax or Topfield have a good reputation, but some of the Topfields are having PSU failures after 2 years according to their forums.
The Humax PVR-9150T can record up to 100 hours of television, has "series link" so will record a whole series at the press of a button from its guide/menu. It can pause & rewind etc. Only £119.95 from the Richer Sounds website and a 5 year guarantee for 10% extra ( Humax guarantee it for 2 years anyway). I love mine and would not be without one now, you can grab the TV you like, almost effortlessly, and watch it as and when you want. They are now sold with the latest software which makes the fan quiet. Old versions were updated "over the air."
PVR's occassionally crash and have to be reset, but this should be infrequent with Humax and Topfields.

steveo3002

thanks for the reply..i was looking at the humax one

does the new remote take over from the old tv remote..or do you need to use both ? i hate having laods of remotes everywhere

is the new software fan noise almost nothing? i was thinking of having the unit in a bedroom so noise would a issue

i8change

You end up with an extra remote for it I am afraid!
Apart from a few seconds when the machine starts up, mine (Humax PVR-9150) is virtually silent. People ask on the forums "when will the fan come on?" When it is recording you can hear the hard drive if you move close to listen but it is like the latest ones in my new PC, not noisy like my old Dell hard drive. Saying that I have seen one with the new software that did make a little noise but it is the exception now, you could take it back to swap and say its faulty (30 days for this at Richer Sounds).
From what I hear, although you can't archive TV onto DVD for long term storage, they are better designed to capture TV programmes than HD-DVD recorders and are more efficient at what they do (series link facility and all that). You could compare manuals for both online to check the functionality of both systems.
These tuners are built into all the latest and most expensive LCD/Plasma TV's so I would not worry about the MPEG4 change mentioned by Paul_R. I can't see them being made obsolete anytime soon and you are only paying £120 for it.
Some people complain that the Scheduling signals set by the Channels (BBC, ITV etc) can sometimes result in a bit missed if the prog overruns, or the first minute or so. Not a problem if you are just capturing things may want to watch, but for your favourite programmes you can use "Padding" to add extra time front and back of the recording, just in case it overruns or starts early.
One last thing, not sure, but I think (from the forums) if you have it set to Auto Update the software it can come on at 4am to do this. You might have to set it to Manual update if you have it in the bedroom, some seem to prefer this anyway.
Depends if moneys tight but for the money I think they are worth a try, you can grab TV so easily compared to DVD/Video recorders.

roddydogs

Re not being able to "Archive".......How many VHS tapes did you keep..then never watched and threw away?