Remote record options

geraint83

Hi,

I'm going abroad for a month in November, and have already thought about my option about how to record TV programmes when I'm away. I know it's early, but there are some good offers at the moment (e.g. half price Sky) so I'm giving it consideration now.

What I'm mainly concerned about is howI'll be able to programme my PVR from abroad.

At present, I have a Humax 9200T which works fine except for a few missed recordings and the box being slow (Humax are supposedly preparing an update for this, which should hopefully solve the problem).

I'm therefore considering two options:

1 - Slingbox
I could purchase a Slingbox Solo for around £95 on Amazon, and use that then to control my Humax box while abroad. This is obviously the cheapest option and I'm thinking of taking a netbook with me abroad, but would that be powerful enough to run the specialist Slingbox software needed to communicate with the box back home?

2 - Sky
This is obviously a much simpler option because I could sign up to Sky and then programme things to record via their website. However, the cost is much higher. I'm quite happy with my normal Freeview channels so the extra channels as part of the subscription would be a bonus, and I'd probably cancel after 12 months because I only need the remote record feature. However, over 12 months I'd probably have to fork out £216 for just the basic 1 variety package deal (or £168 if I take out the half price for a year deal with the half price HD subscription).

Can anyone offer any advice? The Slingbox route is obviously the cheapest, but it's also raises the most concerns over whether it'd actually work on my netbook in the end.

Thanks!