Freesat HD recorder options

[admin_exported]

i am looking for a freesat hd pvr / hdr and the obvious choise appears to be the humax foxsat HRD, however i am put off by the fact its narrower than normal and also know its afew years old and could be replaced soon, other options would be the soon to be released panasonic integrated blu-ray recorder, HDD & freesat tuner machine (BS880) does anyone know of a decent alternative with 2 freesat HD tuners, pvr/hdd storage anda full width case?

thanks

 

[Anonymous]

I was looking into this myself recently. The humax is not that old and is probably the best one available. Thats what i would buy.the panasonic is ridiculously expensive and not a good buy for that reason imo.

 

[daveh75]

redlion:
i am looking for a freesat hd pvr / hdr and the obvious choise appears to be the humax foxsat HRD, however i am put off by the fact its narrower than normal and also know its afew years old and could be replaced soon.other options would be the soon to be released panasonic integrated blu-ray recorder, HDD & freesat tuner machine (BS880) does anyone know of a decent alternative with 2 freesat HD tuners, pvr/hdd storage anda full width case?

thanks

The Humax HDR was originally due to be replaced by the HDR2 in Q3 of this year, but this has slipped and is now expected end of 2010/early 2011, so the HDR may still be around for a while yet!

The HDR is still the best Freesat recorder on the market, imo, and i personally think the Panasonics are overpriced.

 

[Anonymous]

thanks for the comments so far, i did spot news about the new humax model and im assuming its going to be the same size as their other boxes, now i know size isnt everything but i was hoping to buy a box of the same width as the rest of my kit.... i have seen the ranges from topfield, technosat, icecrypt & Vu+ but the reports on the performance of some of these devices seems to be a bit inconsistent.

i agree the panasonic option is very expensive but they are usually discounted quite a lot after launch, having just sold my media centre i am now just plugging a hard drive into tv for recording purposes but this is limiting due to only having 1 tuner....

has anyone else had any experience of full width topfield, icecrypt, Vu+ boxes?

 

[daveh75]

redlion:
has anyone else had any experience of full width topfield, icecrypt, Vu+ boxes?

These types of receivers are not 'Freesat" receivers...They are generic/non-platform specific/FTA receivers.**

And allthough can be used to receive the 'Freesat' channel line-up, are missing the rest of the features, like a proper EPG-You'll only get now/next channel data instead of full 7 day epg,which means no series linking etc and have rely on timer recording, plus you wont get the red button services,iplayer etc.

**The VU+ boxes are one range of a growing number of Linux receivers aimed at "satellite enthusiasts'...And as such aren't plug 'n' play/user friendly.

Ideally you need some knowledge of networking,using FTP and telnet etc, and be prepaired to experiment with flashing them with 'images', installing plug-ins/add-ons and loading channel lists etc to use them successfully.

Most people use these types of receivers for motorised/multi-LNB set-ups,and imo are wasted using them just to receive 'Freesat' channels.

If you're only interested in Freesat,then i'd stick with official Freesat receivers.

 

[Anonymous]

thanks for that....all of a sudden a light has come on

.... i had a lot of unanswered questions from my recent search and you have covered everything.... given i have spent the last 4 years building a number of media centres one of my objectives for this round of upgrades was simplification i think im just going to have to live with a narrower box, thanks for your help in clarifying all of this for me