Sky+ or HDD Recorder?

Magentasue

I have Sky+ with the family pack (£29 per month) but have just got a digital TV. After some debate, we as a family have decided we would be quite happy with just the free channels especially as we can get E4 on Freeview.

But we don't want to be without Sky+, or at least the ease of recording and pausing live TV. I think I could cancel Sky and pay £10 a month for Sky+ - or do I have that wrong.

Well, that works out at £120 a year. Would I be better off looking for a HDD Recorder and selling my Sky+ box? I still have my old Sky box.

Liquid_Stool

try this - i just bought one and i'm mightly impressed - and save a hundred quid too! :money:

http://http://www.currys.co.uk/martprd/store/cur_page.jsp?BV_SessionID=@@@@0607656519.1117999542@@@@&BV_EngineID=ccdgaddekmkffjjcflgceggdhhmdgmi.0&page=Product&sku=324200&category_oid=-21030&fm=null&sm=null&tm=null

bbb_uk

The link that Liquid Stool posted has a typo in it but you can access it here.

You can't get E4 on Sky though unless you subscribe.

It is possible though to get freeview boxes that have harddrives built-in as well.

See here (scroll down) for ones that Comet have - although other retailers may have other ones or sell them cheaper.

I don't know if you can record one freeview channel whilst watching another freeview channel though on all the freeview boxes that have hdd built in. Would advise you check the manufacturers website of the individual freeview boxes first.

joshm_2

Hi,

I thought I would butt in with an opinion or two and an alternative.

Having owned the LiteOn 5045 I can say that it's a good unit for it's main purpose (HDD & DVD recorder) but falls short on a few features if you are after some more advanced functionality (or even basic functionality if you're used to Sky+). The main gripe is that this does not have a freeview tuner built in so if you want to record from a digital source you need to have a seperate freeview box (or whatever) AND have it powered on and tuned to the correct channel! So if you want to record something on BBC3 and then follow it with something from BBC4 you have to manually switch channels on your digital receiver at the right time. There are some other problems with it too, but I won't go into detail. Suffice to say that I don't think this is even designed as an alternative to Sky+. I returned the unit after a few weeks for a refund as I thought it still needed some time on the market to mature.

If you are determined to ditch the Sky subscription I can recommend a unit called a TopField 5800 PVR-T (see https://www.turbosat.com and https://www.toppy.org.uk for a large user based discussion and development area). It has twin freeview digital recievers (e.g. you can record one thing on one channel whilst watching something else - and in some circumstances it is even possible to record two things on different channels simultaneously whilst watching a third and getting a PiP view of a fourth!!), 'pause' live tv, built in EPG (extended 7-day program guide for all freeveiw channels), multi event timer linked to the EPG for easy setting, and lots more. It has an on-board 160GB hard disk and even a USB connection out so you can link it to your PC. It's not the cheapest around at about £290 but I think it's a good solution. I have owned one for a short while and am impressed with it - although it's quite new to the UK it has been in circulation in Australia for some time so has had time to develop. It also has a CAM slot so you could plug in a TopUp TV card if you wanted.

Anyway, I don't work for TopField, but at the moment I'm very happy with the product and thought it might be of interest to you.

Cheers, JoshM

charlieheard

I am researching this at the moment, and agree wholeheartedly with JoshM. All I would add is to consider the Inverto IDL7000T as well as the Toppy. It has come down to a toss-up between these for me, with broadly similar specs. There are differences (not least in price!), but some seem to prefer the functionality of the Inverto. They are both new to the UK, but have a strong reputation elsewhere.

You pays your money...

gm_xone

I am also considering a Freeview HDD unit.
So far I'm just reading up on the various possibilities.

There's a lot of information available about Dual-Tuner Freeview PVRs here

Digital Spy also has a forum dedicated to Digital Video Recorders which is quite extensive.

nickinoo

Can I just ask a (probably dim) question? Do you need to have a really good picture via your aerial to use a machine with a freeview tuner? We only watch TV through Sky digital as our reception is so bad. Also would this mean Sky+ would be no good for us?

Thanks

Nickinoo

joshm_2

Sky+ is transmitted via satellite (I think!) so there's no issue there since you'll have a dish.

Probably best to borrow a freeview box to try before taking the plunge with your terrestrail signal. Either that or buy one from Argos and take it back within 14 days if it's no good (I think they still offer the no-quibble moneyback offer..).

Woby_Tide

joshm wrote:

Either that or buy one from Argos and take it back within 14 days if it's no good (I think they still offer the no-quibble moneyback offer..).

Freeview boxes are specifically excluded from money back guarantee at Argos so be careful, Tesco/Asda/Sainsburies on the other hand.....

Boojum

Getting back to recording from Sky - my VCR is on the blink and I'm looking for something hard-drive based to replace it. The only things I've found so far are DVD recorders with HDDs starting at around 300 quid. Apart from subscribing to a Sky+ box, it this the only option available to me? (I could buy 10 replacement VCRs for that price!)