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Thinking of buying one, have done for a while, everytime I look the reviews just put me right off. Over a hundred quid on something which keeps locking up and freezing and is useless after 2 years?! Is it just a case of people only post bad reviews?
Any positive experiences?
(the one I'm considering is the Humax 9150 and it does have some good reviews as well, just the bad ones are putting me off).
I have a 9150, have had for about 6 months. In that time I've had 2 programmes with the last minute or so lost, but we are in an area that seems to get fairly regular brown-outs. Initially it had lots of lock-ups but I updated it to the latest firmware and it's not missed a beat since, honestly the best £110 I've spent on electricals. It's a right pain though, I now have so much recorded I never get chance to watch them all!
One thing to note on it, every time you bring it out of standby it re-downloads its EPG, this can take a minute or so which can be frustrating. The answer to that is to use it's inbuilt timer to power it on as you arrive home from work and turn itself off after 2am, the EPG will be ready sat waiting for you when you get home.
I've just sold a Humax 8000T
Must have had it 4 years & it never missed a beat - great bit of kit
I've had 2 cheapo's, one 5+ years (now at my mum's) and one 2 years - both fine. Pal's hummy is fine after 6 years.
I've got a Panasonic one that burns DVDs too. Had it for about 18 months and it's been absolutely flawless so far.
The down side is that it's got one recorder (ie you can only watch the channel that's being recorded) but swap back to the built-in freeview and voila! Watch one channel, record another.
I've had various ones from Humax and I've been impressed with them. Until they break. Usually a hard drive failure. Fixed them a few times then got bored and just got the Virgin+ box instead. Not as happy with the user interface. But when the same thing happened to that box last week they came round and replaced it at their expense.
And I've never found a box where I'm completely happy with the user interface. The Humax' scored a [i]low OK[/i]. The Virgin gets a [i]dire[/i]. If only Apple TV recorded stuff. That's my project for the future, a Mac Mini with EyeTV.
I don't understand why they have to make these things so complex. The remote on the Virgin requires you to have a double jointed thumb. Jumping from one end to the other for buttons that should be right next to each other. Ha, rant.
PS3? Constant software updates too.
Ubuntu with Mythtv, the best things in life are free.
(You can ignore this post unless you're a computer geek).
PS3? Constant software updates too.
Most PVRs have constant software updates too, OTA.
Waderider - I looked at mythtv but the hardware to output to my CRT was very displeasing - svideo output is horrific and nvidia tv-out doesnt cover widescreen on my cards, add to that the fact that it'd be running in a PC I'd have had a system that idles at about 90W and produces an inferior image quality. Binned that idea!
waderider - sounds like nonsense speak to me... 😉
cheers. reading more about it, sounds like the Humax issues were linked to digital switch over and has since been sorted with s/ware updates.
might just bite bullet and get one.
sky + has a pretty decent UI
My current box is glitchier than the old one though (which was replaced whenits hrad drive died)
I'm moving soon and think I will be giving virgin a try - more for the fibre optic broadband than the TV. Disapointed to hear their UI is bad though
I'm moderately geeky - have been messing with Linux from the days of Redhat 5.2.
I found MythTV to be a complete nightmare. Even GB-PVR is a pain and that runs on XP.
Eventually a Humax came up brand new second hand - a PVR-9150T. Interface is pretty good (EPG etc. is better than Virgin, perhaps close to being on par with Sky), and it seems reliable enough to me, and the remote is good too.
Will have to look into that.Ubuntu with Mythtv, the best things in life are free.
If [url= http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Bargain-TiVo-PVR-DVRs-Digital-Video-Recorder-Boxed-/270586962504?cmd=ViewItem&pt=UK_AudioTVElectronics_Video_DVDPlayers_Recorders&hash=item3f003d6248 ]these[/url] really have a lifetime sub then they're a bargain at 80 quid delivered - probably worth a [url= http://www.tivoland.com/Tivoland/Spares.html ]disk upgrade[/url] but Tivo's probably got the best UI out there and are still reliable even though the supplier pulled out of the UK a few years ago. Virgin had done a deal with Tivo so you can expect the next V+ box to be a whole lot better.
I got one from Tesco - a refurbed 160Gb Thomson for £60 and it's OK.
It has locked a few times, but no more than the normal freeview box we had before.
And occasionally it misses the start/end of the program, but looking into this it's apparently due to the timings not being updated by the television company.
Only bad thing about it, is you lose the picture while looking through the guide (it doesn't stick it into a small window) so if you want to browse what's on later, you have to miss some of the program you are watching or wait until it's finished.
Our Panasonic has been faultless in about three years now. Can't recommend it highly enough. Brilliant piece of kit.
Ubuntu with Mythtv, the best things in life are free.Will have to look into that.
Mythbuntu is already packaged
Humax recommended.
Whatever you do, don't ever, under any circumstances, no matter how cheap it might be, buy a Samsung. Just don't. Utter, utter rubbish. I had thought the days of consumer products being so badly designed were over. Apparently not.
I wouldn't buy anything made by Samsung after that.
My humax keeps freezing and losing stuff. Apply the updates when they are available. It has been slightly better recently but apparently our TV signal is only borderline strength and that might affect it.
V Good when it works but fails often enough to be frustrating. I will hang on to mine until I see one that works reliably for everyone.
Of course, all the manufacturers will be fighting to get decent freesat and HD recorders out there at the moment so you might find some excellent deals on bog standard PVR's if you wait a while.
Whatever you do, don't ever, under any circumstances, no matter how cheap it might be, buy a Samsung. Just don't. Utter, utter rubbish. I had thought the days of consumer products being so badly designed were over. Apparently not.
Aye, I made the mistake of buying one a few years ago. Complete unmitigated arse. Useless and highly irritating. Signal skips, useless timer, drops date & time, worst user interface in the history of anything ever.
Meanwhile the samsung 100hz led TV we've just bought, top dollar, utterly astounding. Interface is intuitive and flash, everything works seamlessly, astounding picture.
My humax was rubbish, but everyones elses appear to have been good.
Now have a recon Thompson from Tesco - £70 for 160Gb, excellent UI and never missed a beat. Just delete all the TopUpTV toss from it to get your HDD back.
Follow stumpy01's link thats the one!
Clubcard points too, thats almost a free meal at Prezzo!
No more responses please, just ordered the Humax!
My topfield has been very good. The user interface is very customisable and there are loads of geeks out there writing extra ad-ons and its own forum if you like that sort of thing. You download any updates and use usb to stick them on, better than OTA. 2nd what samuri said, with HD coming in there are new models due.
If only Apple TV recorded stuff.
I think there was a rumour on Gizmodo (or somewhere) that Apple TV might be relaunched at about the $100 mark with slightly less capability. I'd be interested. Apparently they're disappointed with its lack of success so far.
with HD coming in there are new models due
...with Tesco upseting the market with its pricing apparently:
[url= http://wotsat.techradar.com/news/fetch-tv-launches-freeview-hd-smartbox-03-06-10 ]http://wotsat.techradar.com/news/fetch-tv-launches-freeview-hd-smartbox-03-06-10[/url]
although I gather early versions are pretty buggy. We don't get Freeview HD until 2011, by which time most of the bugs will be sorted out and SD PVRs will be given away free with packets of cornflakes...
Don't waste your time with an LG one, ours constantly records the wrong channel (it seems to confuse the BBC channels with each other and the Channel 4 ones too), stops play back at a random spot in a recording and crashes the box, and will not play the rest of the show even if it has recorded the whole thing, also randomly cuts of recordings. Just hangs and requires unplugging from the wall to get it to restart. And also has the weird habbit of returning itself to factory default with sub titles on every channel which you have to then go through each channel to turn it off.
you want a sony one
mines brilliant and (touch wood) been 100% reliable for over a year now
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takes divx, 250gb, usb, hdmi, dvd recorder excellent picture quality, UI is best ive used on a freeview recorder/receiver
only negative i can think of is the remote is a bit cumbersome, but hey ho
My Humax box was pants - it froze every day without fail.
I now have Sky+HD.
Had a Humax for about 2 years.
It's locked up a couple of times - but way less than the Sky+ box used to.
Fairly good UI and large HDD.
I've now got more stuff recorded than I am ever likely to watch.
Reccommended !
Not sure if its been said already, but Humax are releasing their new software at the moment OTA, which is meant to sort their freezing issues out. Mine went from slllooooowwwww, to very fast last night after the update...9200T humax - great thing when its working.
+1 for Sony. I also have a Sony TV so I can operate the recorder and TV using just the remote fo rthe recorder. 🙂
+1 for Sony. I also have a Sony TV so I can operate the recorder and TV using just the remote fo rthe recorder.
We've got a Sony TV & our Thomson DVR remote lets us control it - you just stick a code in (comes in the manual) and off it goes.
I agree with Kimbers, Ive got the same sony as pictured and its been flawless. The UI is indeed very easy to navigate. My mother in law has also got the same one which I bought her for xmas and if she can use it then theres hope for you lot. 😛
I have got one of the older/first? Sony one's. Mine has never let me down yet - probably about 4 years old.
I've got a Humax Freesat recorder at xmas: been brilliant