Maplin HDD 160 GB Twin Tuner with Freeview £99.98 (merged)

rizla01

Gondo wrote:

Might be a nostalgia thing - I'm old enough to remember the days when all Maplins 'projects' came in boxes like that...:D

Yep. Self assembly days. Bought from London Road, Westcliff.

Got a real buzz when you plugged it in and it WORKED!!!

Those were the days. And Scientific & Technical?

Minxz

GibsonSt19 wrote:

Well, fortunately for me, my mum doesn't mind how eletricals looks, so I bought this for her. She's over the moon that she can now record all her favourite soaps and dramas and movies over christmas.

Bless her, I love my mum.

It was a breeze to set up (i.e. just plug in and away it went), and everything's so easy to use. I think I'll so the updrage on it for her soon, it's just a pitty she'll loose the 7 day EPG.

Anyway, in my opinnion, it's as ugly as sin, but it works pretty well.

Do these work with ntl cable? Or do i have to view through the freeview box only? ( Don't know a lot about these things!)
What is 7 day EPG?
thanks!!
< i had a phone call from Empire earlier offering me 25% off anything on the book, so like a twit I ordered a dvd recorder + video recorder reduced down to £140.... but this hard disc type would probably be much better!>

hic36

Hi folks, just joined this thread, like the sound of this machine, I am not bothered about cosmetic looks as long as it works. Can anyone enlighten me as to whether you can play dvd's on this machine or is it purely just a recording device. Not very techie, so please excuse. Also the question posed above about it working with ntl would also affect me. thanks for the info so far

talkshop

I noticed that this machine is made by Vestel.

Vestel are a Turkish manufacturer, and make a lot of equipment for well known brands including Goodmans.

This is definitely worth buying in my opinion.

speedyjoe

talkshop wrote:

I noticed that this machine is made by Vestel.

Vestel are a Turkish manufacturer, and make a lot of equipment for well known brands including Goodmans.

This is definitely worth buying in my opinion.

Hmm, my Goodmans DVBT box was always a little buggy and now two years later it is slowly dying with increasingly erratic behaviour. I wouldn't buy Vestel again.

zackkilmer

is this as good as the goodmans in asda for the same price - hoping to buy one this weekend for parents...........

zackkilmer

is this as good as the goodmans in asda for the same price - hoping to buy one this weekend for parents...........

Fatal_Swan

hic36 wrote:

Can anyone enlighten me as to whether you can play dvd's on this machine or is it purely just a recording device. ... Also the question posed above about it working with ntl would also affect me.

Hi there. No DVD on this box I'm afraid, and in fact I don't think there are any twin tuner freeview HDD recorders on the market that have a DVD player/recorder built in.

As far as I'm aware none of the HDD-only recorders are able to record from any source other than their own tuners (like Sky/ntl). I'm not sure if some of the single tuner boxes which also have a DVD recorder built into them are able to - does anyone know for sure?

Oh, and in reference to the earlier question of the 7-day EPG it's an Electronic Programme Guide, like a TV guide with all the programmes that are on for the next 7 days. So if you want to record a particular programme, you just scroll through the EPG until you get to it and hit the record button (or equivalent) - no need for setting a timer etc.

Micky

I bought the Maplin's product, it's far too confusing for me, but it worked at first connection, which is a bit of a result. The last time I could make a video recorder work was 1989, I remember it well ;-)

The delayed viewing seems a bit jerky, is that usual? My 14 year old tells me that it records two separate programmes at the same time, I'll have to check this ... eventually.

Is it possible to transfer a saved programme to a PC for burning onto a DVD?

simes

zackkilmer wrote:

is this as good as the goodmans in asda for the same price - hoping to buy one this weekend for parents...........

I believe its the same box. Though i suspect the Asda model only has an 80Gb hard disc , so will only have half the recording capacity.

FOR ANYONE LIVING CLOSE TO NORTH NOTTINGHAMSHIRE:
There is a stall on the Thoresby sunday market selling the 80Gb versions of this box at £55 (the identical model is in Argos at £99). They have lots of other electricals cheap too - including DVD players for £8 ( these ones were without a remote though).