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Grundig 500GB Freesat + PVR on offer at Costco |
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#1 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Posts: 3
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Grundig 500GB Freesat + PVR on offer at Costco
Costco will be doing the GUFSDTR500HD for £174.99 (£205.61 inc VAT) from March 1 - 21, which is £25 off their normal price. Tempting.
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#2 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,593
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Contemplating this for an elder relative who is currently on Sky and her old faithful video recorder has just packed in.
Anyone know if she can simply cancel her Sky subscription and plug in the pvr? Presumably it would just work for most channels, so what would be lost? From what she says, she has the basic Sky package(s). Sorry, I guess that is a bit vague but it is pretty much all I currently know about her set up so what questions do I need to ask and where can I look for more information online to help her make an informed decision? Thanks |
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#3 |
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Join Date: Mar 2000
Location: Snowdonia
Posts: 2,725
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http://www.freesat.co.uk/ gives all the information you need about channel line up on Freesat and http://www.sky.com/shop/tv/ gives you details of channels that are in various Sky packages. Basically, she will lose whatever she is paying for in the basic Sky package, together with any free channels that have not paid to be included on the Fressat EPG. But as long as she's not particulalry interested in the more minority channels then that won't really matter.
Yes, the Freesat PVR can simply replace the Sky box, however it will need two feeds from the dish as it is a twin-tuner recorder, allowing you to record one channels while watching another. I don't know if the Grundig will work with just one tuner. If your relative's Sky box is actually Sky+ (which I doubt, because you mentioned the VCR) then she will already have two feeds from the dish, otherwise she will have to get the LNB replaced if it's only a single-feed unit. |
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#4 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Redditch Worcs
Posts: 17,289
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First thing is that you can cancell the sky subscription the sky box will continue to be able to view the free channels anyway and will have a few extra channels that you can't get on a freesat box. Clearly you could not record anything without a vcr or dvdr. If you go for a freesat pvr then as the sky is a basic install then if you go for the Grundig than the lnb on the dish will need changing for a quad lnb and an additional cable run to supply the twin tuners. A Humax Foxdat-hdr can be made to work pretty well (with some 2nd channel recording and third channel viewing restrictions) using only a single lnb. A Grundig pvr requires two cables and can't offer 3rd channel viewing when recording two.
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#5 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jan 2007
Posts: 19,460
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Quote:
Costco will be doing the GUFSDTR500HD for £174.99 (£205.61 inc VAT) from March 1 - 21, which is £25 off their normal price. Tempting.
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#6 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2003
Posts: 6,622
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Quote:
Can you explain how Costco works- I looked at their website and it seemed to indicate only people who work for certain companies/professions can shop there- is that correct?
Entry is via a membership card. |
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#7 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2010
Posts: 27
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Quote:
Can you explain how Costco works- I looked at their website and it seemed to indicate only people who work for certain companies/professions can shop there- is that correct?
The list of proffessions is fairly broad though and seems to include anyone who works in the public sector and many different trades as well your usual business owners. You also have to pay an annual fee - I think its £25 plus VAT and you can have additional card for family member but for additional cost (spouses get one free though). Best way is to pop into your local costco and go to their membership services |
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#8 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,593
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Thanks for the responses. It sounds a bit techie and if it were for myself I would probably go with it but not confident of persuading and getting it all to work well enough for someone else.
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#9 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: South Beds
Posts: 189
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Quote:
Can you explain how Costco works- I looked at their website and it seemed to indicate only people who work for certain companies/professions can shop there- is that correct?
My local Costco had no Grundigs left yesterday. |
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#10 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2004
Posts: 2,593
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Quote:
My local Costco had no Grundigs left yesterday.
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#11 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: South Beds
Posts: 189
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Quote:
Perhaps there will be plenty of returns when customers realise they need a quad LNB.
![]() As it happens, Costco has these Grundigs on a display stand which explains, quite clearly, what is required and offers various alternatives for installation from plug into an existing Sky dish to a full install. However, mine is going back. After setting it up I found it had been a return. The "new install" was missing from the menu and a local postcode had already been entered. In addition, two programmes were set up to record and one already recorded. The fan is extremely noisy, no doubt the reason for the return and definitely the reason for my return. I shall call into Richer Sounds en route to listen to a Humax for comparison. |
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#12 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Redditch Worcs
Posts: 17,289
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Quote:
Why a quad, my twin does nicely?
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#13 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Sheffield
Posts: 96
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Quote:
Why a quad, my twin does nicely?
As it happens, Costco has these Grundigs on a display stand which explains, quite clearly, what is required and offers various alternatives for installation from plug into an existing Sky dish to a full install. However, mine is going back. After setting it up I found it had been a return. The "new install" was missing from the menu and a local postcode had already been entered. In addition, two programmes were set up to record and one already recorded. The fan is extremely noisy, no doubt the reason for the return and definitely the reason for my return. I shall call into Richer Sounds en route to listen to a Humax for comparison. |
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#14 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2007
Location: South Beds
Posts: 189
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Quote:
Correct but twins are near impossible to source for Sky minidishes and so many quads are made they are cheaper anyway.
True, I have had my twin for a couple of years pending a change of receiver.. My local Sunday boot sale has a satellite stall (read Sky installer) selling the new Sky quads for £10. A bargain methinks and much smaller than the earlier versions. I bought the Humax and it is quiet, nay silent, but sooooo,slow....25 secs to boot, is that normal? |
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#15 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: Sheffield
Posts: 96
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Quote:
I bought the Humax and it is quiet, nay silent, but sooooo,slow....25 secs to boot, is that normal?
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#16 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2000
Location: West Yorkshire
Posts: 2,424
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Quote:
True, I have had my twin for a couple of years pending a change of receiver..
My local Sunday boot sale has a satellite stall (read Sky installer) selling the new Sky quads for £10. A bargain methinks and much smaller than the earlier versions. I bought the Humax and it is quiet, nay silent, but sooooo,slow....25 secs to boot, is that normal? |
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#17 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2005
Location: Redditch Worcs
Posts: 17,289
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Quote:
I bought the Humax and it is quiet, nay silent, but sooooo,slow....25 secs to boot, is that normal?
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#18 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2004
Location: Hampshire - Rowridge TX
Posts: 523
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Quote:
As others have said yes it takes about 30 sec to boot which seems a long time to anyone used to a sky box. Console yourself with the fact that a Sky box really is not in sby and consumes a lot of power, the hdr in low power sby using less than 1 watt is essentially starting from scratch. If you boot in the 15 mins before a recordimg is due or during recording it's near instantanous.
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#19 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Apr 2010
Posts: 2
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Expensive
Quote:
Costco will be doing the GUFSDTR500HD for £174.99 (£205.61 inc VAT) from March 1 - 21, which is £25 off their normal price. Tempting.
Kevin
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#20 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2009
Posts: 3,981
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Quote:
This seems to be very expensive! Got mine through Amazon for £110 with superb back up, but model quite noisy!
Kevin ![]() |
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#21 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Nottingham
Posts: 935
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I had one of those from Costco. First one went back after only a few weeks due to reliability issues, the second box was similarly unreliable, but we persisted with it for a while until one day it wiped the entire library. So it went back and I was really glad to have the Costco no quibble refund. The many software bugs never got sorted, which is a shame as it had quite a nice and easy to use interface.
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