hdd recorders

Ken68

Would the readers recommend an hdd recorder, doesn't need to be more than 80gb. Am in a muddle having just bought and returned a machine from Tesco, that said Freeview aerial needed.
Don't have this and reception is poor anyway.
Have a working Grundig skybox from a lapsed Sky subscription. Wouldn't mind looking at one programme and recording another at the same time.
Like the idea of a Grundig, dig the brand.
One in John Lewis £149 but one review says Freeview and most don't. Thanks for reading.

buglawton

http://humaxdirect.co.uk/product.asp?ProdRef=20032 £130 - I got one after seeing this link in MSE and it's brilliant. However it still needs a signal of some sort to feed it. Mine is connected to a 20 year old aerial and works fine (the Humax PVR gets 200% better reception than the cheap Freeview box that preceded it).

lynneinjapan

You need twin tuners for watching one channel & recording another.

We had one from Argos originally - I think it was the Digihome PVR80, which appears to have been superseded by this one now. It was fine, but in January - when we'd had it 12 months and 2 days - it suddenly went "whump" and died. (I Freecycled it and the recipient later told me that the main capacitor had blown, taking most of the motherboard with it, but he'd been able to salvage the hard disk and install it in his computer.)

We replaced it with this one (Thomson 160GB TUTV recorder, but we bought from Tesco Direct for just under £80) but I don't like it as much: the programme guide only shows half-hour slots and you can't get the programme info up while you're in that mode, and you also can't get rid of the Top-Up TV ads at the bottom of the screen. It's noisy in standby mode too, but the instructions tell you to leave it on standby overnight to receive the TUTV data. We don't want TUTV so I've turned it off a couple of times (only possible by doing so at the plug), but then you have to wait quite a while for it to reboot when you turn it on again. And it's less than reliable at recording - I recorded something last weekend and each time I try to either watch it or delete it, the machine freezes up and then reboots itself... and a couple of other recordings haven't worked properly either. So it's going back, and I'm looking for a replacement too.

One feature that would be nice to have would be a USB socket allowing connection to a PC to copy recordings to the computer's hard disk and/or a DVD - are there any reasonably cheap DTRs / PVRs / HDD recorders that have this feature?

Edit: The Digihome ones and the Wharfedales, as well as numerous others, are made by Vestel in Turkey - this page is an interesting read: http://www.futaura.co.uk/vestel.html

buglawton

The Humax solves all the above issues having twin tuners, USB and near silence in it's favour. For £130 it it lasts 2 years then dies it would be worth every penny - notwithstanding the environmental consequences! (and maybe the Topfield is as good someone else would have to confirm that)

Ken68

Sounds good Bug, like the idea of a usb connection, can then transfer to pc and disc up for my t.v.'less neighbours.
As long as it works orf my sky box.
It begs the question tho if I have to ask which model etc, would I have the nous to work it, when I get it... :-))

Fifer

All the recommendations seem to be for Freeview PVRs, but the OP said:

Ken68 wrote: »

Am in a muddle having just bought and returned a machine from Tesco, that said Freeview aerial needed.
Don't have this and reception is poor anyway.
Have a working Grundig skybox from a lapsed Sky subscription. Wouldn't mind looking at one programme and recording another at the same time.

Sounds to me like he wants to record Sky, not Freeview. The only options I'm aware of are a Sky+ box or an analogue HDD recorder recording the output from his Grundig Sky box. Watching one channel and recording another using an analogue recorder will need a second Sky box and a dual LNB I think.

You can't record Sky on any of the options recommended in previous posts.

buglawton

If OPs Sky sub has lapsed, it hints that they are only watching Freeview channels now (apparently, these remain after the lapse) and the the OP wants to record one while watching another...

Personally I have steered well clear of Sky+ since I don't have the time to enjoy any any subscription channels, Freeview is enough.

For Sky+ have to pay a minimum Sky sub like £10/month, have 2 LNB cables all the way to the dish (drill a new wall hole and pass cable right round the house in my case), get a multi LNB block and connect you sky box to the telephone system (Sky box not wifi enabled? - so last century!).

Easier to get the £130 Humax, plug it in (it's tuner is so good it will probably pick things up on a piece of string), done.

BTW you can use http://www.bluedelta.co.uk/phantom+.html to record from the EPG on Sky boxes.

Fifer

buglawton wrote: »

If OPs Sky sub has lapsed, it hints that they are only watching Freeview channels now

Technically, what he's watching is Free Sky which includes most of (but not all of) the Freeview channels. Most people mean DTT when they say Freeview though, which this isn't.

buglawton wrote:

Easier to get the £130 Humax, plug it in (it's tuner is so good it will probably pick things up on a piece of string), done.

Don't mean to pick a fight (:)) but I beg to differ. We have a reasonably good wideband loft aerial and still required amplification to get a decent signal on our Humax. At our old house, we even needed a masthead amp with a new external roof-mounted wide-band aerial and we are in a Freeview area.

Ken68

Can get lots of channels excepting Five which needs a new 'card', and of course Channel 4. Don't pay owt and fell out with Sky adverts long ago.
I too have a loft aerial for terrestrial tho only for 1 2 3 and 4. Better sound and brilliant reception. Works off the Sky remote too.
Just been reading Argos and Tesco Direct catalogue. Confused even more.
Many thanks for the input, probably give it a miss. Just bought a DAB radio, will give that a go. Well...not the Archers.

Marty999

buglawton wrote: »

For Sky+ have to pay a minimum Sky sub like £10/month

Sky have recently dropped this subscription charge for Sky+, you only pay it now if you have Sky HD.

buglawton

You still have to subscribe to a Sky minimum package and connect the box to the phone line, AFAIK

http://www.dtg.org.uk/news/news.php?id=2445

"From July 1 (2007) all Sky subscribers will be able to take Sky+ for no additional charge, regardless of which package they subscribe to or how long they have been a customer."