Hi

I'm looking at buying a new harddrive recorder to replace a sky HD box.

I'm just wondering if freesat or freeview is the way to go.

In my area I can get freeview HD but I notice freesat seem to have alot more channels.

Which way would be the best to go? Which hardware is best? I assume I can use a freeview box and be able to record 2 channels with only 1 arial going into the box?

Will either of them have a better investment over the next few years?

Any recommendations on hardware?

Do all boxes come with a arial out so I use a single booster.

Any news on boxes getting an RF2? (to use a magic eye)

Any views would be great

thanks

Do you have freeview built into your existing telly? If your answer is yes then definitely Freesat is the best option as you will then have all bases covered. And I don't think it is likely many people record Dave or the other channels that are Freeview exclusive.

If not then consider if you can live without the freeview exclusives and compare to the Freesat exclusives + the ability to watch FTA channels not part of the Freesat EPG.

None of the boxes come with an aerial.

Humax Foxsat, Samsung S7800 and Echostar are the three Freesat recorders to consider.

I can only get freesat,but I have found great lot of channels a good epg, I have a foxsat humax hdr it is easy to us great for recording, I think it is a lot better than sky + and would totaly recommend it as for freeview I think if you have a good signal it's worth having both

Thanks for the replies

Good point about having freeview in my tv already. I do have it so do have every base covered.

Thinking of this. Good choice?

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...pf_rd_i=468294

Very good choice. As I said in my reply to your other thread I have had one of these since dumping Sky last August when I realised we were watching FTA TV 95% of the time. The Foxsat has been very stable in that time. I have only had two lock-ups and not one missed recording (the lock-ups are EPG related and Humax are aware of this and are supposedly working on a fix). Contrast that with the clunky Sky software that required me to re-boot my Sky+HD unit once a week to get it to be moderately reliable.

IMHO, The Humax is the best of the FreeSat+ boxes, however, I feel it only fair to inform you that it is nearing the end of its' product life (due for replacement by the end of the year), also there is no R.F. (TV aerial) output so you cannot use the RF2 system that Sky offer without purchasing extra kit. I was aware of this last August and it did not stop me, don't be put off by the end of product life, the build quality is pretty solid, certainly better than many Sky+ HD units and the software is stable so there is no reason why it should not last. There are bonuses too, it uses less that 1 watt of power in stand-by (compared to my old Sky+HD box which used 22 watts), you can watch 4:3 material in the correct aspect ratio and not in stretchy vision. Also, in certain circumstances, you can record two and watch a third live programme (eg: Record both Channel 4 HD and BBC HD while watching BBC 1HD live). Another useful feature is the programmable skip feature on the remote which I have set mine for + 4 mins and - 15 seconds, really great for advert skipping.

The Humax is a great unit, for me the plusses far outweigh the minuses and I have had no regrets since I bought mine.

It's worth buying the Humax just to use the hacked firmware. This allows you to FTP to you PC, Stream and copy files. You can also backup and set your recording scedules on the PC and with a bit of knowledge also set recording schedules from your mobile phone. The Sky RF2 doesn't really matter when you can stream from the hard drive on the humax to any PC or a PS3.

Thanks for this. Useful to know. Dont think I'll be hacking anything soon though. Just wanna buy it and enjoy it

The triax tri-link kit enables sky magic eye type control of freesat boxes.

Certainly having both Freeview and Freesat provides a great set of channels for anyone not willing go the pay route. Now if a box manufacturer were to come up with a combi-recorder then that would be perfect!

They exist ... at a price Dreambox DM800HD for one circa £900.

Neither wait a few months and select YouView.

Glad someone else said it, I'm trying hard not to keep posting that - I have Freesat, enjoyed it for several years, would NOT buy it now. Q3 2012 is going to be the right time to make the choice at the easrliest ... should be good time for Android tablets around then too.

I have been waiting for more you view news to, but their website has not been updated since sept 26th, a little worrying
I would have said go for the Samsung S7800

From you view page ( if you didnt know what it was )

A Vu+ Ultimo with an additional DVB-T tuner would be cheaper than that. Alternatively you can put a DVB-T2 stick into the rear USB port of a number of Linux Tuners.