Advice on Freeview+ Recorders

Lennys_Shinpad

Hi, I'm looking to cut down my bills and one obvious way to do it is to get rid of Sky and buy myself a Freeview Recorder Box. My OH is very keen on making sure that we buy one that is very reliable so she doesn't miss any Sex in the City repeats. I have done some research on the web and like the look of these three:

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5322271/Trail/searchtext%3EFREEVIEW+RECORDER.htm

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5322192/Trail/searchtext%3EFREEVIEW+RECORDER.htm

http://www.richersounds.com/product/freeview-freesat-pvr/humax/pvr9300t/huma-pvr9300

which I may buy for slightly more at John Lewis (due to their great customer service):

http://www.johnlewis.com/230496339/Product.aspx

Can anybody on here advise me to which of these is the best deal? Or do you have any other suggestions (budget is £200 tops).

Thanks,

Lenny.

amcluesent

The only ones that are remotely reliable are Humax and Topfield.

Lennys_Shinpad

amcluesent wrote: »

The only ones that are remotely reliable are Humax and Topfield.

Cheers, do you know how Humax compare to the Sky+ boxes?

macman

Lennys_Shinpad wrote: »

Cheers, do you know how Humax compare to the Sky+ boxes?

Humax 9300T is by far the best box on the market IMHO. The PVR functionality is basically the same as a Sky+ box, except they don't crash and burn out their power supplies all the time, and the Humax interface is excellent.
However, if you don't already have an aerial, it would be cheaper to just use your existing dish, feeds and LNB to get Freesat via a Humax Foxsat HDR box. This is a straight box swap, no other work required.

Hammyman

+1 for Humax. Topfield are also very good as well, there's not much to choose between the two.

Lennys_Shinpad

macman wrote: »

Humax 9300T is by far the best box on the market IMHO. The PVR functionality is basically the same as a Sky+ box, except they don't crash and burn out their power supplies all the time, and the Humax interface is excellent.
However, if you don't already have an aerial, it would be cheaper to just use your existing dish, feeds and LNB to get Freesat via a Humax Foxsat HDR box. This is a straight box swap, no other work required.

Thanks for the advice. I was thinking that the Humax would be the best way to go.

I do have an aerial so I guess my best best would be just to buy the 9300T box. Is that right?

macman

The Freeview Hummy PVR is about £80 cheaper than the Freesat version, the only downside with the 9300T is that you will not get the HD channels. If you want to get Freeview HD, then the Humax Freeview HD PVR box is imminent. But Freesat would still be the cheapest way to get HD.

yorkie18

We have the Sharp Freeview + box which you linked. To be honest it is shocking. Constantly freezes, not just in the middle of programmes but even when I'm just in the menus. It's really infuriating. I wouldn't recommend it.

tweeter

http://www.avforums.com/forums/pvrs-vcrs/

scotsbob

You can compare all those available on this web page

http://www.pvrjunction.co.uk/resources/compare-freeview-pvrs/

As mentioned previously Humax and Topfield are most reliable, bear in mind that Topfield has literally hundreds of Apps that can be added to customise the receiver.

penrhyn

I would of thought that given OP has a satellite dish then the best way forward would be a freesat box. They may need to upgrade their aerial to get a half decent freeview signal, which would negate the price advantage of a freeview PVR.
In which case and a bit of future proofing then the best route would be to get a
Humax FOXSAT-HDR Freesat+ 320GB HD Digital TV Twin Tuner HD Recorder, around £250 ish.