Media Center or Freeview PVR?

trippy

We are moving house so taking the opportunity to cut the strings with Sky. We have Sky+ so are looking at alternatives for the recording facility (which really does change your life!)

I've costed up getting a media center system which a good friend will build for about £400. Or we could just get a Freeview PVR for £180. I'm sure on paper it looks like a no-brainer, spending an extra £220 isn't very MSE. But we know people with the Freeview PVR we'd get and it seems really fiddly compared with Sky+.

There's also the added factor that our telly doesn't have a HDMI port so getting Media Centre will neccessitate geting a new telly too. The money's not the problem but I want it to be worth the extra costs. So is it worth it?

macman

I would recommend the Humax PVR 9300T, not fiddly at all.
Or wait a couple of months for the Freeview HD version.

will-in-estoril

Or go down the non-$ky, non Freesat route. Technomate HD would be my recommendation. They even have a dual satellite-terrestrial receiver available!

almillar

A Media Centre (by which I mean a Windows 7 PC) holds great promise, and is great for a geek, but maybe not quite ready for the living room. I've had to use the mouse too often in the past. Big improvement in 7, and I haven't used it, but just a warning that it may not be as living room friendly as a purpose built box.
£180 seems expensive for a Freeview PVR BTW...

brewerdave

I built myself a media centre PC a couple of years ago based around Windows Media Centre - total waste of time - so fiddly my wife couldn't use it and I frequently had problems with recording programmes using the Hauppage TV card I had chosen - much easier to get a good DVD/HDD Freeview recorder. I now have a Toshiba and its no more complicated than the Sky+ system to use.

wattywattwatt

I have had a Humax pvr for the past couple of years and it's great, really easy to use, the only thing is you can't connect to cable services (virgin media) so I'm missing out on being able to record some of my pay per view channels.

smithysaver

Humax Foxsat HD PVR, its a freesat receiver, so your'll need a dish and quad lnb. Gotta be the best alternative to sky HD. Best price I found was amazon £238.99.

david39

I use Windows Media Centre for recording programmes, transfer them onto DVD RWs and watch them on our main TV in another part of the house.

I found that Media Centre (in Vista) took a long time to recode and transfer to a DVD, so I started using Video ReDo, which also allows you to edit the recording and remove the adverts, as well as the end and start of the programmes before and after. Takes about 20-30 mins to edit, recode and transfer a 1-hour program to DVD that way. Also, consecutive programmes on different channels sometimes get their starts and finishes lopped off.

I must say that it is a bit fiddly if you are not too technically savvy and there are a few rough corners (like it will go on recording later transmissions of a programme even after you recorded the original - sometimes months afterwards. A bit annoying with The Great Escape which turns up at almost every Bank Holiday. There must be a way to stop this but I haven't found it yet).

However, if you're not too worried about those drawbacks and you have a computer with a TV card or a dongle, it's worth trying out. Picture quality is good as long as you don't try to cram too much onto one DVD - I've used it for several months now, know its quirks and live quite happily with them. I haven't examined the implications of HD yet, though.

david39

Sorry - just reread my post above - the problem about the starts and ends of consecutive programmes getting lopped off is a problem with Media Centre not Video ReDo - I added the comment in at the wrong part of my posting.

brewerdave

david39, the problem with using a PC equipped with Media Centre is that everyone in the house who likes to record programmes has to be "technically savvy" - as I quickly found out daughter and wife couldn't cope and too many rows ensued with the wrong (or no) programme being recorded !!!
Also your method seems remarkably long winded to record the odd episode of "Holby City"!! lol

david39

"Also your method seems remarkably long winded to record the odd episode of "Holby City"!! lol"

Hi brewerdave,
I agree that it is more complex than using a straight forward video recorder but the OP was asking for experiences of using Media Centre and I was giving him mine - it's probably put him off though!
In my house, there is just the two of us and my wife shows no interest in recording programmes, so the complexity doesn't matter and, yes, I have missed the odd programme because it failed to record as expected.
Unless you are trying to record consecutive programmes, though, the EPG seems to work very well and the Windows 7 version may have ironed out a few of the snags.