Freeview HD/Freesat HD deals discussion

TehJumpingJawa

Iconic wrote: »

I think the best value around at the moment is the Smartbox 8320 from Tesco http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.208-9147.aspx

At £200 it costs £60 more then the basic Humax but it's got a hard drive to record HD programs(and others) and can connect to the internet so you can watch BBC iPlayer, and other internet sites on your telly.

Beware though it's got a few problems http://www.avforums.com/forums/freeview/1264711-fetch-tv-tesco-04-06-2010-part-one.html
If you read though the whole thread above you will see they seem to have sorted most of them out and Tesco do give a 28 day money back guarantee.

I am just waiting a couple of more days before I take the plunge so if anyone wants to put me off this please do!

An interesting read!

Tesco's 28 day no-quibble refund policy makes it an attractive purchase, if only to watch the remainder of the world cup in HD

Plus 4 weeks for them to fix the remaining issues (of which there are still a lot!) gives a reasonable chance that it'll be fit for purpose before the return period expires.

the-fogey

Tesco have a freesat HD box for £38.99 (reduced). Aldi are doing a freesat complete set-up (box, dish, lnb, cable, compass and satellite finder) for £79.95. I've connected the Aldi box to my Sky dish with good quality cable and it works superbly.

jweb2k

the-fogey, are you sure it's a Freesat HD and not a Freesat SD box? If so, which one is it, the Goodmans?

TehJumpingJawa

This just appeared on hukd.

Toshiba HDR5010 500GB PVR, play.com pre-order @ £199.99

If Freeview HD PVRs are coming down to this price, i'd expect regular Freeview HD tuners are going to drop too.

oldtechy

Inner_Zone wrote: »

It's not a Freesat box, it's a generic FTA receiver.

Don't know what the difference is but I watched a world cup game via one of these B&Q dish/box sets and it was fantastic. The dish was self installed, temporarily stuck into the back garden for the game.
If you get family or friend over 60yrs to buy on a Wednesday the price is only £62.10 including all the fittings to plug and play. ( may need extra cable depending on route.)

interesting_person

I have a Full HD TV with built in freesat receiver. I also have a fully functional Sky+box with cabling and satellite dish and a current subscription to Sky's 2 packs which is out of contract. I want to be able to get Free HD BBC and ITV channels via Freesat. I am assuming that as my TV is already a freesat TV, I will not need a Freesat set top box. Is that correct? Also can I simply remove the cable from the back of the Sky+ box and plug it into the Freesat connection at the back of my TV to get free HD via Freesat? Please help.

RICARDOMINSKI

interesting_person wrote: »

I have a Full HD TV with built in freesat receiver. I also have a fully functional Sky+box with cabling and satellite dish and a current subscription to Sky's 2 packs which is out of contract. I want to be able to get Free HD BBC and ITV channels via Freesat. I am assuming that as my TV is already a freesat TV, I will not need a Freesat set top box. Is that correct? Also can I simply remove the cable from the back of the Sky+ box and plug it into the Freesat connection at the back of my TV to get free HD via Freesat? Please help.

That is correct. If your TV has Freesat built in just take one of the co-ax cables from the back of your SKY+ box and away you go! (you can give it a go now even before you cancel sky just to see how it looks - just plug the co-ax cable back into your sky box until you cancel your contract)

Keith:)

Anyone know of or had experiences with a PC Freeview HD PCI card?

ian-d

A word of warning, make sure if you are going the route of Freesat, that it has the Freesat logo on the front of the receiver if you want full 7 day listings on the tv guide etc. Many of these 'kits' from Aldi and B&Q etc are just generic receivers and you'll have to manually add all the FTA channels yourself; they are cheap and nasty.

The best buy according to the article is the Bush HD from Argos, but be aware this really is a cheap brand, riddled with reliability issues, so have your receipt handy just in case. It would be worth looking at the range from Satbuyer (http://www.satbuyer.co.uk/freesat-digital-boxes-c10.html), as they generally compete with the best priced stores, if your looking for cheap HD, then the Metronic or graded Humax are a good shout; alternatively the high end would be the new Humax or TechniSat models.

cepheus

I'm having a nightmare at the moment with the cheap Hitachi 165 Freeview HD recorder from Argos. I've had two of these both with exactly the same problem. Frames keep skipping on playback. Mostly this is minor and could be easily missed by the quality control, but in the worst cases several minutes can skip which is clearly unacceptable. I'm not sure if this is due to the recording or strength of the signal, although I have a strong signal according to be box, and rarely notice live problems with the signal breaking up since my new aerial was installed.

I have now bought a third recorder, a Humax HD unit, the ease of controls are far inferior to the Hitachi though. I'm still testing this. Hopefully I should be able to establish if the problem is external to the recorder or not.

I would be interested if anyone else has had similar problems with any HD recorders.