Recommend me a Freeview PVR recorder please...

[mattb200]

just wondered if anyone has any recommendations for Freeview hard drive recorders as I have been looking at reviews online all afternoon and still none the wiser:rolleyes:.

I got one for christmas that until it broke a few days later (no sound, bad picture) seemed great and if i could find another would go for that again but seem out of stock everywhere. This is it: http://www.argos.co.uk/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?storeId=10001&catalogId=1500001151&langId=-1&searchTerms=hdr162&Submit=GO+%3E

it didn't seem to have any of the faults such as 'screen freezes' that so many others seem to according to reviews.

anyway budget is anywhere between 100 - 130.
Top up TV is not required.

thanks in advance!:)

[mister c]

TBH I bought one from Asda for £59 a few months ago. My daughter records loads of stuff on it & never had a problem with it.
They are cheaper now because of the VAT change
40 gig hard drive for very little money, so I wont complain :)

[mattb200]

yep from what i've been reading price does not necessarily seem to be a good indicator of quality with these things.

[Bluepete]

Humax are pretty much the market leader, they are available from £120 on Amazon (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Humax-PVR9150T-Freeview/dp/B001EBQGIO/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1231014753&sr=8-2)

Pete

[james160987]

been looking for a replacement for our thompson one, which cost 60 quid, 160gb harddrive and died after 18 months,

amazinly i looked at the two top boxes humaz and topfield, and both still had teething annoyences or problems, humax takes ages to load a epg up etc,

in the end i went for another 60 pouund thompson box, as it does what it sasys on the tin, its easy for my girlfirend to use,

topfield and humax, if i was spending 200 to 300 pound on a box, i want no problems,

only problem the thompson has is it occasionly skips back when your fast forwarding,

[Jester666]

Humax or Thompson are the market leaders. It'll be worth the extra cash to get one of them.

[Manguish]

Topfield are the best. Humax second, and wouldn't even rate the rest.

[tigersaw]

I have humax and Topfield. Humax is a pretty basic does what it says on the tin, but the Topfield is amazing. Fully programmable with custom applications to control the timers and searches. Want to create a search like 'record anything with Top Gear in the title but not after 10pm and not on thursdays and no repeats and delete it after 2 weeks but not if I havn't watched it' ? Easy.

Both the Humax and the Topfield can be hard drive upgraded by just a swapout, unlike sky+ boxes.

[injury_ian]

Humax are the danglies.

[james160987]

apart from having to load a epg everytime out of stanby

[injury_ian]

like any other freeview box.... and besides it only takes 1-2min.

You sound like you want the moon on a spoon! :smt064

[tigersaw]

like any other freeview box.... and besides it only takes 1-2min.

You sound like you want the moon on a spoon! :smt064

Not the topfield. Stores it on the hard drive.

[svdemon]

Humax sell reconditioned sets on their website, i paid £99 for a 160GB and am happy as larry with it!

[mattb200]

ok just a quick update....I went out this morning and got the Humax 9150 which is a 160GB model. I did consider the next model up as it had an HDMI connection and a 320GB drive however to be honest 160GB will be plenty for me.

Read reports of this having a very noisy fan but its not at all, maybe i got a good one?
One thing had me laughing though - the remote is MASSIVE!

So first impressions - well seems ok at the moment, easy to setup (automatic really). Sometimes on some channels i think the picture could be better but in all fairness this is almost certainly down to the signals its receving and not the unit. My old freeview box struggled with the signal on some channels.

[Bluepete]

If the signal isn't very good, have a mooch around this site;

http://www.aerialsandtv.com/aerials.html

and install a new aerial and wire from top to TV. I did and it has made a huge difference, it's like having a new TV and my Humax found several new stations too!

I think I paid £55 for a new aerial, mounting hardware including a pole and top quality co-ax wire.

Pete

[mattb200]

lots of info on that site i will definately take a look. cheers.

[startrek.steve]

No contest, the Toppy is the best on the market, had mine 4 years, 250gb HD, twin tuners, customisable with TAPs , link to pc with USB. Mine cost £300, bit cheaper now.
Also brilliant support on the forum at:
www.toppy.org.uk (http://www.toppy.org.uk)
Well worth spending a bit more for the best, I think I saw one in Currys for £250 a year ago, maybe even cheaper now.
£200 on Amazon, cheaper on here:
http://www.google.co.uk/products?q=topfield+5800+pvr&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&rls=com.ubuntu:en-GB:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&sa=X&oi=product_result_group&resnum=1&ct=title

[james160987]

just for the extra money none of the others seemed beeter than my thompson which was only 60 quid, epg on the humax is slow only shows 5 chancels at a time, and the thomspon epg is 14 days, and is sotred on the harddrive,

humax owners have been asking humax to do this for the last god knows how long and it hasnt been done yet, the noisy fan problem is now fixed with a over the air update, so one step closer i suppose

[svdemon]

the noisy fan problem is now fixed with a over the air update, so one step closer i suppose

Any info on where to find that?