Freeview PVR options

[ChrisF]

Gonna call up Murdock today and tell him to stick his dish up his derriere.

What are the best options when it comes to freeview PVR's?

Dual tuners are a must really, and I am guessing it needs to be Freeview+. Are the Humax ones a safe bet to go for? I see the Topfield ones have TAPS or something but I'm not sure I want that? Besides they seem to be prices on par with MCE setups!

[MarioMark]

I'd save yourself the hassle of going the freeview route and get BBC Freesat. Your dish is already set up and it runs off of the same satellite reception as sky, as when you cancel your sky subscription you get to keep your dish.

Check out this post from earlier this week. http://ntsc-uk.domino.org/showpost.p...92&postcount=9

[ChrisF]

Don't really want to go the Freesat route as there aren't as many channels as freeview (well, wife watches Fiver) and part of the problem we have with Sky is that there's a honking great bit tree blocking the view. Plus the weather keeps on screwing up the picture on Sky... So Freesat is not much of an option really.

[Brad]

There is nothing better that PlayTV if you have a PS3. It has dual tuners but you can only record one and watch another, not record 2 so that may be a dealbreaker. Its best features are and excellent upscaled picture, the fastest, most responsive EPG out there and excellent stability. I've found other PVRs - including Humax - to be somewhat flaky and locks ups were common.

[ChrisF]

Alas, no PS3 here. Although given the extra power in them, you would hope they'd be more responsive!

[Brad]

Well, buy a PS3 as well then. Just think of it as a £400 PVR lol!

[yesteryeargames]

is there anyway to get freesat without a sat dish? or is it possuble to get a dish just put up in my room ?

[gunrock]

I've just ordered my mum and a dad a Humax 9300T PVR (500gb twin tuner freeeview PVR) as aprt of their new TV and Bluray package. The installers are puttig it in on Thursday, so I'll let you know once I've hada good look at it over the weekend.

I ordered that one for them as the Topfield seems to be a bit more for the techy, from what I've read and the Humax was 50 quid cheaper) at John Lewis.

[zipper]

Well, buy a PS3 as well then. Just think of it as a ?400 PVR lol!

I'm thinking about ditching sky and doing this.
One thing that puts me off slightly is whether the PS3 is happy to be left on 24x7 + streaming to the HD... I don't want to wear it out! Also, can you have Play TV auto-boot on starting up the PS3? As I would be using the PS3 mainly for TV, I'd like it to start playing TV until I hit the home button.

[CMcK]

I used my PS3 24/7 for Folding and it was fine.

The in-laws bought a Humanx PVR 9150T, IIRC, and it's been a good purchase. Easy enough for them to operate and well featured.

Personally I reckon the Virgin Media V+ box is the best PVR about but it obviously requires a cable subscription.

[Escape-To-88]

There is nothing better that PlayTV if you have a PS3

Agree with Brad on this one. To be honest my PS3 is only used as a PVR and Blu-Ray player - oh and as an attractively shiny doorstop. Gives a nice Freeview pic though Although it is a pain it cannot record two channels at once and booting up the old beast is a bit long-winded; there is a 'quick-start' option I beleive, but I may have just made that up.

I also use ps3mediaserver for streaming HD stuff wirelessly but this can be really hit and miss for some reason.

[Lyris]

Gonna call up Murdock today and tell him to stick his dish up his derriere.

Just laughed Coke (the drink) out of my nose

The PS3 has very nice scaling and deinterlacing of SD for DVD Video playback, and I assume the PlayTV uses the same. It sounds like a good option.

[samanosuke]

Gonna call up Murdock today and tell him to stick his dish up his derriere.

I've been wanting to do that because I'm so pissed off by Sky's yearly price hike (TV, phone and broadband hikes this time!) but when I phoned to cancel they offered me a 25% discount for six months so I won't we cancelling until that expires.

[EvilBoris]

I was tempted to use Play TV, but I was just concerned about both my leccy bill/my ps3/and my carbon footprint from leaving it turned on 24/7.

Can playtv record from standby?

[gunrock]

Can playtv record from standby?

You mean switch on and record at the right time? I don't think anyone has a system that record when the machine is effectively off!