I've just bought a couple of the Alba T845R based recorders from Argos after having had a T810 for the past 4 years or so.

The T845R seems to be a great machine, finally a Vestel that can reliably do series recording and is stable to use. But as these are now being phased out by Argos, does anyone know of any other PVR models out there that use the T845R version?

I recently bought a T835 chassis manufactured by Luxor from ASDA. As it was only £70 I presume these were end of line clearances too.

T835 is the only current model that Vestel make AFAIK. The Hitachi and Bush models that Argos currently sell are T835 boxes, and last time I looked the Hitachi HDR165 was on offer for £70 too. IIRC, the Luxor was one of the first T835 models released, so as you say, perhaps Asda have decided not to buy anymore of these and are getting rid of old stock, perhaps concentrating on Freeview+ HD boxes.

AFAIK, other than the Alba, there are no other boxes based on the T845R, and it seemed to be a stopgap model between the T825 and T835. It wasn't available for very long at Argos (a few months, when it silently replaced the T825 Alba, before it disappeared from the catalogue and was replaced by the T835 models). It's still a mystery where these T825 and T845R Albas that Argos have currently been selling (despite them not being listed in the catalogue) have come from - could just be old stock (or even customer returns) that has been updated at Vestel UK or something, or maybe just old stock in the factory in Turkey that Vestel wanted to clear out and Argos got them on the cheap.

I thought that might be the case. I've been able to source a couple from Argos and one on ebay. Argos even have some of these boxes with the T825 hardware still for sale.

Does anyone know what the differences were between the v0.5 and v0.7 software? And is it possible to source the v0.5 software from anywhere?

There was never an OAD for the T845R, so no chance to grab the software files that way, and I don't have either of the 0.5 or 0.7 files unfortunately. The differences are likely to be quite small... Does v0.5 have 4 favourite lists, and extended programme info on live tv (i.e. double press the INFO button)? If so, then it's possible those features have been removed in 0.7 along with the other "Gemstar" features.

I've not come across a T845R with v0.5 on it so I can't say whether the very useful Gemstar features have been removed. All the boxes I've seen are v0.7. I was hoping to be able to get hold of v0.5 to give it a try and see if the features come back.

I've since sourced myself a T845R with v0.5 installed on it and I can confirm that it does have the favourites lists and the further program info feature. Both of which are missing in the v0.7 software.

Am I right in thinking there is still no way of obtaining the v0.5 software for installation on another T845R?

Thanks for the info on 0.5 vs 0.7. Maybe somebody else has the v0.5 file, but unfortunately I don't .