More expensive TV recording device

[Proto]

My BT Vision digi box has gone bang and no longer works at all. It did have the ability to stream programmes and films from the BT website for reasonable prices, although to be honest we hardly ever used it, merely using to record and replay favourite programmes, or time shifting.

So we need a new one to work with our Samsung HD tv and Sony DVD player. We don't have Sky or Freesat and don't want any subscription services, but we do want to be able to use BBC iPlay

I think I want HD recorder and pretty sure I want a twin disc recorder.

I hear good things about the Humax Fox T2. Anything better I should consider.

Help!

 

[StuAff]

I assume you mean twin tuner recorder? There's a review in the current issue What Hi-Fi magazine of four Freeview HD PVRs, the Humax didn't actually win, but all four got good ratings (they said there were all worth buying) and the Samsung 7800 that they rated best couldn't record two programmes at once (which to my mind defeats the object of having two tuners).
If it was me, and I probably will buy one when Meridian region switches over, I'd get the Humax. None of the newer rivals seem to match it overall.

 

[tubbystar]

We've had Freesat for 18 months or so and are very happy with it. The initial outlay is perhaps higher but it is subscription free, although of course you have to have a dish.

 

[marinyork]

My BT Vision digi box has gone bang and no longer works at all. It did have the ability to stream programmes and films from the BT website for reasonable prices, although to be honest we hardly ever used it, merely using to record and replay favourite programmes, or time shifting.

So we need a new one to work with our Samsung HD tv and Sony DVD player. We don't have Sky or Freesat and don't want any subscription services, but we do want to be able to use BBC iPlay

I think I want HD recorder and pretty sure I want a twin disc recorder.

I hear good things about the Humax Fox T2. Anything better I should consider.

Help!

Humax are a respected company for the simple reason they are still knocking around. If like me you saw the earlier days of their PVRs where their software wasn't what quite what it was now, but how they kept plugging away month after month improving it, you would understand why they have the legendary status they currently do. Many other companies are fair weather manufacturers and come and go or don't put in the work. It's quite possible that someone else could come along and build something better at a cheaper price, but people are generally sceptical of this with the STB market - it'd be more of a one off fluke.

If you are satisfied with BT vision, something which I would describe as a very unremarkable service that has the backing and marketing of a big company, then I imagine you would be perfectly happy with virtually any on demand/catch-up service out there.

I'm not really seeing the 'point' of freeview HD. Digital Terrestrial television (frequently named incorrectly 'freeview') simply doesn't have enough bandwidth for HD. 1 multiplex is taken up by HD at the moment. Unless the sold off spectrum is gifted to tv to make something like 8 national muxes, it's not that certain that there will be more than 5 HD channels on freeview for as long as you can look into the future - looking at 10 years really. Whereas with freesat, Astra 1N become operational recently. This and it's replacements is about the biggest deal in tv out there. It could mean that in a few years time (when contracts run out) freesat races ahead with who knows how many hd channels, 10, 20 compared to freeview's miserly 5.

 

[Proto]

Bought a Humax HD Fox T2 last night. Took out the old BT box and put the new on in its place. Very easy to set up, just language, screen options and then scan for channels. Piece of cake.

I did however have problems getting it connected to my home network. I have been using BT Powerline adaptors, and they have been fine, but when I powered them up last night one of them failed. Fortunately I had a back up pair and they worked perfectly, connecting easily to my BT Home Hub router, so now I have BBC iPlayer and so on. Humax sell a WiFi dongle for the Fox T2 for £30.00, and I may well give that a go, so I can get rid of some more clutter off the shelf (the Powerline adaptor and a length of Cat 5 cable)

As MarininYork suggests, the HD bit is possibly a bit of a white elephant, only four channels showing HD, and when switching between say, BBC1 and BBC1HD, the difference is barely discernible, and certainly something I could live without. However, who knows what the future will bring and I was kind of hoping I'm futureproofing myself to a degree.

 

[marinyork]

As MarininYork suggests, the HD bit is possibly a bit of a white elephant, only four channels showing HD, and when switching between say, BBC1 and BBC1HD, the difference is barely discernible, and certainly something I could live without. However, who knows what the future will bring and I was kind of hoping I'm futureproofing myself to a degree.

You've got DVB-T2. You are future proof. At some point they'll make more muxes DVB-T2, but it can't be done without making a lot of people angry in some form or other (or the phone companies if spectrum gets gifted back to television). Although DVB-T2 gives them loads of extra capacity, they can't really utilise this because there are millions of DVB-T boxes out there so you run into mindless problems like running two systems at once (sound familiar) or making people bin equipment (sound familiar).