I'm trying to talk the wife into getting Freesat+ and was wondering wich of these boxes people would recomend

This one or This one. I know that the Sagem one has got a bigger HDD than the Bush one but if there is anything that makes the Sagem one better than The Bush one and visa versa other than the HDD size would be helpfull in convincing her on wich box we should get if she agrees?

We've already got a Humax Foxsat-HD and I'd go for the Humax Foxsat-HDR if they were a little cheaper and didn't have the EPG bug that the latest software has introduced. But these two are about in our price range.

Roland

I would buy neither.

The Samsung seems a better choice.

http://www.froogle.richersounds.com/.../sams-smts7800

http://www.samsung.com/uk/smartcashback/

Automan.

The Samsung one that you linked to is way out of our budget, as the Bush and Sagem ones that I linked to are jus about in our budget. If I'd got a bigger budget I'd have probably gone for the Echostar PVR.

Roland

I can't understand why you say that. The link Automan provided for the Samsung shows a price lower than the Argos Sagemcom. Granted it is higher than the Bush but IMHO you will come to regret getting the Bush if you buy it. Search this forum for Bush and Harvard (the makers of the Bush) there are a great deal of negative comments. Again IMHO, Argos prices can usually be beaten easily on the internet. Argos IMHO are overpriced.

Search the forum for the Samsung, sure it had issues at time of launch. Automan has done lots of testing and posted results. Many people on this forum now rate the Samsung as better than the Humax HDR, now that Samsung have done a lot of work updating the software.

EDIT: I forgot to add, Auntoman's reply also showed a link to a £30 cash back offer. This brings the Samsung down to about £140

I wish companies would advertise the real price you have to pay. The Richer Sounds price is actually £199.95, and only available in store, not by post. The £30 cashback comes by Samsung after you have paid for it.

It makes it difficult to compare prices when some show the headline price as the real price & some show the headline price after the £30 cashback.

Nope. As mentioned above, the price is misleading. You have to read it carefully. It's £169.99 after the cashback. The price you pay Richer Sounds is £199.95. This kind of advertising should be banned.

Thanks for correcting me. At £169.99 after cashback it's still £10 cheaper than the Argos Sagemcom, subject to a Richersounds shop being near the OP.

This place is £1 cheaper! and will deliver for free.

http://www.hispek.com/samsung/freesa...ng-pd-9390.php

I only saw the £279.99 SRP not the one with cash back.
To get to my nearest Richer Sounds is two bus rides away from where I live, then it comes to them actually having one in stock after I've got there, also having to mess around with claiming the cash back mw=eans that I've got to [pay £199.99 up front then wait for £30 back to make it £169.99, where as Argos have discounted the Bush and Sagem box from £199.99 to £126.99 and from £199.99 to £179.99.

I was actually leaning towards the Sagem box as we've already got a Sagem Freeview+ box and are quite happy with that.

I knew that the Harvard SD and HD boxes had got bugs/issues, but I was unsure if the PVRs had got issues.

I've now got the tough decision of do I just go for the Sagem box as there is no fuss involved to get it cheaper than the £199.99 price or streatch the budget and get the Samsung.

Then again I'm not sure that we would have any need for a 500GB HDD for mostly recording SD content with the occasional HD stuff like X-Factor, Corrie, Hollyoaks etc.

Roland

I appreciate that Argos gives you the convenience of having a store to collect over the counter and a store to return goods to if problems arise, but going the mail order route is probably the only way to save money. Zenith's link appears to be £168.95 including delivery after claiming the cash back option. Yes it's a £198.95 up front payment, but I would have thought that it should only take a couple of weeks to get the £30 refund.

Alternatively, a couple of bus rides to your nearest Richersounds seems reasonable, and a phone call before hand to check availability and reserve seems prudent.

Personally, I never buy electronics over the counter I search and Google for the best price. So far, touch wood, I have never had a problem. Washing machines, large screen TVs, DVD, Blu-ray players etc, they have all been bought via Internet shopping. I have only once had to return an item under warranty. The retailer I used, had an excellent courier 'one for one' exchange process.

I'm sure someone will shoot me down in flames if I'm wrong, but I believe that Harvard who make the Bush box have lost the Freesat contract to make them. Hence why they are currently being heavily discounted to use up current stocks before going obsolete. Most forum users are of the opinion that long term support for the box will be non-existent. They have also been reported on the forum to not be able to make scheduled recordings of HD broadcasts that use the new S2 encoding and because of the lost contract will probably never have this important bug fixed.

Personally, I use the Humax HDR and have no experience of the Samsung, but there are many Samsung fans on this forum who prefer it over the Humax.

You should check eBay - plenty of new STBs on there, with occasional bargains.

Some decent boxes available cheaper than the ones you're looking at in Argos. Some exceptional ones at far far less than RRP.

Cheers,
David.

I looked at this Bush freesat box at argos a few weeks back when it could have been picked up for £10 less with a voucher that was valid at that time. I decided against it as there were numerous reported problems with the box.

The new Argos paper catalogue includes a new Bush freesat recorder for around £159. However I note that even this new box appears to have been pulled from the online catalogue.

In the end after much research on this and other forums I purchased the Samsung box. It's still early days with the box but so far I am more than pleased.