I am trying to identify whether a Freesat recorder would be a good replacement for my parents' Sky+ (they are fed up with paying a subscription for channels they never watch, but they love the ease of recording).

Could you answer these for me please:

1. Do all Freesat boxes have the same style and layout of EPG, like the Sky digiboxes do?

2. How does the equivalent of series linking work - does it look for matching programme titles like BT Vision (and possibly others) does, or does it rely on linking being done by the broadcaster?

3. Is there only one manufacturer/model of Freesat PVR? (I can only find references to one.) If there's more than one, could you point me in the direction of a list, please?

4. Is there a standard definition Freesat PVR? I can only find an HD model.

Thanks for your help.

Yeah they come with a Fantastic EPG very similar to the sky + - You can also search for movies or a name of a program just by typing in the program name, its a lot more advanced to the Sky+ planner.

The epg is also great for news between a movie, like tonight I set to record a movie on channel 5 it worked out there was a news program between them and automatically recorded then 2nd half of the movie after the news (Sky+ can't do this and I've missed many last half from movies).

Series Links work fantastic, if you have a clash recording 2 at the time you want to record a 3rd, it looks at the planner and works out when its available to record again maybe on a +1 channel or later on that night and gives you the option to choose that.

I have the humax currently the only freesat pvr on the market, but there is another model out soon thats cheaper, but may not have the quality of the humax, just not 100% sure.

Another feature with the humax, I could be recording 2 channels at once and depending on what channels are recording you can actually watch a 3rd one.

Most of the channels we watched have always been the free ones, for us its perfect - fantastic quality pvr, worth every penny, with sky it was just repeats and American tv, we very rarely watched anything that sky offered.

1. EPGs from different manufacturers contain the same information but may vary slightly in their actual presentation.

2. The EPG contains a hidden code, known as a Series CRID, for programmes that are part of a series. When you schedule a programme with a Series CRID to be recorded, you will be asked whether you want to record the whole series or just the individual programme. If you select the whole series, the box will do just that. Future episodes do not need to be in the current EPG as the box will remember to record programmes with the same Series CRID until you tell it otherwise, even if they are (say) a month apart. This works very well and the way CRIDs are used prevents a repeated episode being recorded twice and enables the box to find alternative instances of an episode (to avoid recording clashes) even if these are on a different channel.

3. At present the HDR is the only freesat+ PVR. Panasonic are soon due to bring out a range of freesat+ boxes with built-in DVD and BlueRay recorder/players, but these are rather pricey. There was a rumour of a Metronic PVR coming out around now, but nothing has appeared as yet. Technisat are due to bring out a non-PVR freesat box this month and, given the other products they make, this suggests that a PVR version could be on the way, but not for a while as there has been no announcement.

4. All the real and rumoured freesat+ boxes are HD.

SD boxes may soon become a thing of the past. According to Join Freesat, Argos has said its no longer stocking Bush SD boxes which might not seem significant if they didn't allegedly own Bush themselves!!!

To put it simply, a survey late last year showed nearly 80% of all Freesat boxes purchased are the HD versions.

There's also very little reason to purchase SD when HD boxes also do SD and insure you against a future upgrade following a new TV purchase.

As AWO said though to answer your question specifically, there isn't an SD PVR and there aren't any plans to produce one to my knowledge.

Argos currently own the rights to the Bush name, but it's not been said how long this deal is for, or if it might be permanent? - such deals are normally only for a limited time though.


We've found completely differently - the vast majority of Freesat sales have been SD - but we're almost completely non-Freeview, which I suspect is what makes the difference. If you live in a Freeview area, there's little reason for Freesat SD - but it's worth it for a little sample of HD.

I can certainly see SD boxes been in a minority though, there's little profit in selling them, and their reliability has been (and continues to be) pretty poor.

Not had any problems with reliability of SD units here; but they are selling well because they are so hard to obtain otherwise. HD sales are by far the larger chunk from my side.

Argos are expected to stock again, must have been a CS error in the email supplied. The only issue is that Alba Group are building to order only, so quite often distributors are without stock whilst waiting on next batches.

We had three in a single week, and talking to the trade everyone is VERY unhappy about their poor reliability.

Usual fault is they are completely dead, and according to another dealer who took one to pieces, the power supply was working fine, with all HT rails running correctly.

I am in exactly the same positition as your parents, I had Sky+ purely for recording purposes and was paying them £10 a month. The Humax is great, it does everything the Sky+ box did only better. I can thoroughly recommend the HDR. If you want HD it's there, and if you only want SD, that's there too. The only thing is, if the parents are not very technically minded they may have to sit down for a while and play with it to get used to it (the manual is not great)

Installation is dead easy if you have Sky+,it's just swap over.

In answer to the original post.
Your parents Sky+ box can be used as a "Freesat from sky" box. To enable the recording feature costs just under ten pounds per month. Given that the the Humax PVR still has bugs and costs £293, or the equivalent of 30 months SKY+ recording subscription, I would go down that route and wait. A lot of new boxes die after 2 or 3 years anyway.
The equivalent Freeview version of the Humax box, or other similar ones, costs half the price of the sat version.
I would wait a year and test the market then.

and spend an extra £120 on the Sky recording?


The quicker he switches, the better off he will be unless the box comes down in price by more than £10 a month, also the Humax is already considered more reliable than the sky+ box.

I got my box with a 5 year guarantee for £330.

Sky would cost £600 for that time. If the box lasts that long. If the Humax lasts longer than the guarantee, I save even more money.

i would get the Humax pvr its very very good compared to sky+ if you look around you can get it cheap and the only other pvr that has been announced so far to come is the panasonic witch will cost a lot more then this.

Where are you getting your facts from?

So you are committed to £5.50 a month for the next 5 years for a buggy Humax that has an inferior remote control and a poor EPG. Based on the experience of flat screen TVs and Freeview boxes in general, over the next 12 months the price of Freesat PVRs could halve and there will be both more choice and more features.
It never makes sense to be an early adopter, particularly if you already have a PVR.

I'm quite surprised, I've had a few but in comparison to the number sold this was a very small percentage (baring in mind I'm selling more Freesat than any other independent). I'm more than happy with them, they are selling well at the moment whilst no one else has stock

Just wanted to add, according to an update on the Join Freesat website, the Metronic box is now delayed until the end of the year due to approval problems.

So it looks as if the choice is the Humax HDR or one of the Panasonic offerings. However the reported price of the Panasonics was I believe £1,000 for the 500GB box and £700 for a 250GB model.

Given that many of us have upgraded our HDR's to 1TB due to space issues, I doubt 250GB is going to keep you happy for long and its a lot more expensive than a HDR.

Yeah, Metronics have seemingly been screwed over and they are not happy

The panny's are expected to retail for £999, £899 and £699 but no trade prices have been released yet so it is unclear how likely those prices are.

Its still less buggy than the sky+ box. the EPG is fantastic, better than Sky. Its also less bugger than any freeview PVR Ive used.

Even if the price halves in 12 months (which is never will), that will cost you £120 in Sky fees anyway.

Id rather commit £5.50 a month for a better guaranteed product than £10 a month for one that is not. Also, you stop paying for the former, you never stop paying for the latter so the longer the Humax lasts, the even better the deal becomes.

In what way do you think they have been 'screwed over' - sounds more like they didn't do their job properly?, so failed to meet Freesat specifications.

Morning Nigel can you point me in the right direction for this news I'm curious to read up on this.

Thanks

I spoke to them yesterday, they weren't happy about the situation and gave their reasons, but I'm not going to publish the specifics as it is unfair to them and their future relationship with Freesat. I can see the issues from both points of view, but ultimately it is the consumer that looses out with less choice on the market.


GaseousClay, the news came from here, http://www.joinfreesat.co.uk/index.p...ic-pvr-delayed

Sorry satellitebadger for the complete thread hi-jack