Advice needed for purchase of TV recorder

SnowWhiterThanWhite

I am hoping for some recommendations.....I have spent a few hours trying to research what I need to purchase but just seem to be getting lost!


My elderly mum has a TV with built-in Freeview via terrestrial aerial. She also has a basic old set-top box from Virgin with basic TV channels, which she uses mainly for catch up programs.
No Broadband (or any Wi-Fi available) in her house.


She wants to be able to pause live TV, set up recordings for one-off programs and series recordings.


Ideally, the recordings should be made to an internal drive rather than a memory stick.


She also needs to be able to use subtitles facility when playing back a recording (Is this possible)?


Any links gratefully accepted


Many thanks

wongataa

Get a Freeview Play or Youview Humax box. They will do what you want.

debitcardmayhem

SnowWhiterThanWhite wrote: »

....

My elderly mum has a TV with built-in Freeview via terrestrial aerial. She also has a basic old set-top box from Virgin with basic TV channels, which she uses mainly for catch up programs.
No Broadband (or any Wi-Fi available) in her house.
....

Confused how does she get catchup? Anyway Humax are fairly good, and you can always pick up unwanted BT/Talktalk boxes cheap too

SnowWhiterThanWhite

Many thanks - Ill have a look at those 2
I looked at a Humax box in Sainsburys today but, it said you needed a broadband connection?

Neil49

For catchup you would need a broadband connection.

As you don't have one then you are limited to recording the programmes onto a pvr and playing them back as required.

Humax have their website and sell refurbished units direct.

https://www.humaxdirect.co.uk

worried_jim

I’ve had a couple of Youview boxes from eBay for approx £30 and they are great for recording etc but you would need BB for catch up services such as iPlayer.

cookie365

If you get a Humax and don't want the catch up stuff that needs an internet connection, get one of the refurbished models with HDR in the name.

Those are traditional 'record what comes through the aerial' boxes.

And make sure the model features a T in the name, not an S. T for terrestrial TV, the S ones are for satellite connections.

I'm still using a Humax HDR-FOX-T2 in a similar way, really happy with it.

cranford

If your Mum has a Virgin media box to watch catch up she must be paying VM a subscription? You could check to see how much VM would charge as a one off and monthy to replace this old box with a TIVO one which can record. VM has a lot of these at the moment as customers are upgrading to the new V6. The advantage of using VM is that because they own the equipment they fix it for free if it goes wrong.

SnowWhiterThanWhite

cranford wrote: »

If your Mum has a Virgin media box to watch catch up she must be paying VM a subscription? You could check to see how much VM would charge as a one off and monthy to replace this old box with a TIVO one which can record. VM has a lot of these at the moment as customers are upgrading to the new V6. The advantage of using VM is that because they own the equipment they fix it for free if it goes wrong.

Thanks. She has this box around 10 years ago! It came free if you subscribed to one of their phone packages.
She does not pay anything for the TV - She only gets Virgin's basic TV which I assume is the same as Freeview channels.
Benefit is, she can access catch-up


I contacted Virgin before Xmas but they wanted £50 set up fee plus £15 a month. I'd rather just pay a one-off fee than pay Virgin £15 p/m just to have access to recording facilities.