Sky+, Tivo or PVR ?

hotnuts21

I have been offered a good deal by Sky to get Sky+ essentially for free, providing I of course sign upto Sky. The basic package I can get away with is the £16 per month for one entertainment mix although we will probably go for two mixes which will cost £17 per month.

Now we have been quite happy with our freeview and could live without the extra channels, what we are really keen on is the advances a sky+ box brings, record programmes over the web, watch one channel and record another (a major problem).

Min subscription is a year, so after that we will have spent just over £200 and I suppose if we give it up, we will go back to just the sky+ box and free channels.

But I was wondering would it not be better to buy a good quality PVR (or tivo if its still about) for around £200 and save all the hassle of going with sky?

Any thoughts?

Thanks
Paul

timbim_2

I believe that the joining sky idea is a bad one as they lock the sky+ functionality if you no longer subscribe to their packages. You can get plenty of HDD freeview recorders if that's what you're after, or for similar money to the sky, a slingbox, which works with your computer and allows you to acess the programs from anywhere in the world, but I'm willing to be proven wrong on this one.

espresso

One of these here should suit your requirements. Remember that HD Freeview is just around the corner.

mymatebob

There is always the option of Freesat, which has HD but I don't think the boxes with hard drives are on the market yet

toasterman

espresso wrote: »

One of these here should suit your requirements. Remember that HD Freeview is just around the corner.

I'll believe HD Freeview is around the corner when the boxes are available, and there are adverts on tv for it. Until then, it's a way off if you ask me.

It's worth noting that product linked is a factory refurb.

I've not tried a Humax (although a friend of mine has one and has no problems).
The Freeview PVR market is mostly split between Humax and Topfield. I've got a Topfield (one of these -> http://www.topfield.co.uk/TF5800PVR.html ) and they sell for around £200 if you have a look around online.
I can very much recommend mine though - in some ways it's better than Sky+ (you can copy programs off via a usb cable for one), plus it has no monthly subscription.
The signal is also infinitely better than I got on my old Freeview box...must be better tuners.

There is good information about Humax and Topfield's from http://www.hummy.org.uk and http://www.toppy.org.uk

It's worth noting if you go the Sky+ route, that if you record a film onto the box, then cancel the subscription to the film channels, you can no longer watch that film. It records programmes complete with the encryption (of course some channels are no longer encrypted).
There is no way of copying programmes off of it either, but their menu system, remote, programme guide.. is easily one of the best, if not the best.

hotnuts21

Thanks for the feedback guys, turns out the GF is quite keen on some Sky channels so we are going to look into and the 'toppy' PVRs a little more.

Thanks
Paul

leehal

Tivo was the bees knees in my opinion, I hung on to mine as long as I could but Sky HD was a big temptation I gave in to.

Strange that Sky initially promoted Tivo but then dropped it in favour of the very buggy Sky+

Marty999

Don't forget that the Sky package also includes free broadband and phone calls at weekends and evenings. I think it's a good deal.

bethsdad

We went down the route of DVD/HDD recorder, first with a Wharfedale (had to take it back to Argos twice), so gave up on that and went with a Samsung (also broke down after 2 weeks), so now have a Sony, which seems to be an excellent bit of kit. Seems to do a lot of things that Sky+ does, such as Series Link etc. Also seems a lot quieter than the other two machines. Costs £250 from Argos, but you may be able to get it a bit cheaper elsewhere. If you have freeview on your telly, you can watch one thing while recording another.

espresso

hotnuts21 wrote: »

Thanks for the feedback guys, turns out the GF is quite keen on some Sky channels so we are going to look into and the 'toppy' PVRs a little more.

Think that you have misunderstood as the Topfield is a digital terrestrial PVR, nothing to do with Sky.

1961templar

espresso wrote: »

One of these here should suit your requirements. Remember that HD Freeview is just around the corner.

HD Freeview is a long way off yet! It should also be noted that HD Freeview will require new equipment to receive HD transmissions.

For HD the new Freesat service offers HD programmes now!

http://www.freesat.co.uk/

Unfortunately the Freesat HD digital TV recorders are not yet available.

http://www.humaxdigital.com/uk/freesat