Personal Video Recorders now under £50

goldcroft10

Could someone more expert than myself tell me if there is any PVR (apart from the expensive Sky Plus recorder) that can record programmes (non sky) from my Sky digital box?

I do not want to go to the expense of mounting a traditional aerial on the roof, plus cabling, to get Freeview and in any case would like to take advantage of the superior reception from my dish and Sky box.

I would appreciate any guidance.

Woby_Tide

goldcroft10 wrote: »

Could someone more expert than myself tell me if there is any PVR (apart from the expensive Sky Plus recorder) that can record programmes (non sky) from my Sky digital box?

I do not want to go to the expense of mounting a traditional aerial on the roof, plus cabling, to get Freeview and in any case would like to take advantage of the superior reception from my dish and Sky box.

I would appreciate any guidance.

No, PVR's work on recording teh signal they receive direct from the aerial/tuner and not from via a scart connection. DVD recorders are the closest to what you want, and then you still need to use something like videoplus to ensure timed recordings work, unless you build one using a Sumvision Zengo caddy or something similar but that won't help with timed recordings.

strawberryberry

renegade wrote: »

DannyboyBoy
I have just read in a Which Magazine, that if you have a freeview digital tv then all you need is a single tuner not twin!

Since reading this I have been trying to record two things at the same time on the dvd which has a hard drive and a disc recording facillity. The dvd has freeview and the telly has freeview. Rang panasonic and they said as dvd only had one tuner i could only record one thing as a time.

Did the which magazine give any more info ?

lizdav

Woby_Tide wrote: »

No, PVR's work on recording teh signal they receive direct from the aerial/tuner and not from via a scart connection. DVD recorders are the closest to what you want, and then you still need to use something like videoplus to ensure timed recordings work, unless you build one using a Sumvision Zengo caddy or something similar but that won't help with timed recordings.

Unfortunately none are now being sold new in the UK, but the Series 1 TiVo WILL record from a scart input source e.g. a Sky box. They are still readily available from ebay as a second hand buy.

goldcroft10

Can't see any Series 1 TiVos on ebay at the moment, but there are a couple of what are described as Sky Plus boxes - a Thomson SE 8210CSR Sky+ box Version 3 and another Sky box plus 1 box. If I can get one of these, or another one if they come up again, will that work via my Sky digibox, without my paying sky a monthly rent?

dc

goldcroft10 wrote: »

Can't see any Series 1 TiVos on ebay at the moment, but there are a couple of what are described as Sky Plus boxes - a Thomson SE 8210CSR Sky+ box Version 3 and another Sky box plus 1 box. If I can get one of these, or another one if they come up again, will that work via my Sky digibox, without my paying sky a monthly rent?

Unfortunately NO, you will have to subscribe to the Sky+ service.

goldcroft10 wrote:

I do not want to go to the expense of mounting a traditional aerial on the roof, plus cabling, to get Freeview and in any case would like to take advantage of the superior reception from my dish and Sky box.

IF you get a good Freeview signal then the pics being digital, should be as good as those you get from your dish.
Sometimes a larger aerial in the loft is as good as one outside and cheaper. You will need extra gain to overcome the attenuation of the signal caused by the roof., again it depends how far you are from the transmitter and its power.

Edinburghlass_2

vjain wrote: »

Can someone help me please. I would like a PVR to replace by old VCR and I would like 1 that is really easy to use and value for money. The smaller hard drive is fine but I would like to be able to watch 1 channel and record another. What would people recommend? Can you use an LCD monitor with 1 of these boxes? Or best to get a LCD TV? Thanks!

I bought the Thomsons one from Tesco online when it was reduced to £80, it is a twin tuner so you can record two different programmes at the same time and watch your TV on a different channel using your terrestrial channels. You can also use this one on TopUpTV but you need to subscribe and pay for this service which I don't. Its really quite easy to use and you can set up either an individual programme or if its a series set it to record the whole series. I use it on a Samsung LCD monitor which I use as a tv, bought when a good offer came up on here You can set the remote so it operates the recorder as well as your tv.

You can Google Thomsons and get various opinions on it, the above is just mine and I believe it has been superseded with a newer model now. Down side for me is it doesn't show the programme you are watching while you set record etc whereas a single tuner one that I bought, reconditioned from BigPockets I think another offer I spotted on here £50, has the little box in the screen showing what programme you are viewing at the time. With a single tuner you can still record and watch another programme using your TV rather than viewing through the pvr.

If you can find and afford a twin tuner it is probably worth going for that but I'm no expert, I'll leave that to others

Edinburghlass_2

Tesco instore, well mine has, a Sharp twin tuner at half price down to £99.50. Don't shoot the messenger by saying its not worth £199 I'm just saying the price it is now

Bella_b

I used to have a Digifusion but it broke and was told that they had stopped making them when I went to get a replacement, so had to get a Sagem instead. I've had a couple of freeview boxes.. they stop working sometimes and if you buy it from a store then you can easily change it for free, not so easy if you buy it from a website though. Good price though

Sid_Harper

goldcroft10 wrote: »

Could someone more expert than myself tell me if there is any PVR (apart from the expensive Sky Plus recorder) that can record programmes (non sky) from my Sky digital box?

I do not want to go to the expense of mounting a traditional aerial on the roof, plus cabling, to get Freeview and in any case would like to take advantage of the superior reception from my dish and Sky box.

I would appreciate any guidance.

Actually there are two alternative solutions I know of personally that both have infra-red zappers and can therefore change channels on Sky boxes to record programmes...

1. Media Centre PC - obvious benefit being tonnes more functionality over a PVR, great if you are thinking about a new PC, or want an all-in-one media setup (i.e. radio, photos, downloaded movies, DVD playback, recording to DVD, and a PC to boot).

2. Archos personal DVRs can schedule and change channel on Sky (AV700 is the one I know that can do this, and has a nice remote+docking station); again pricey but you can take the thing off the docking station and watch recorded programmes on its 7" display.

Before I get flamed by anyone, I'm not saying these may be viable or cost effective for you, BUT they are alternatives to Sky+ for the Sky owner that wants to record.