Suggestions please for an easy to use Freeview+ PVR for my 90 year old neighbour.

Come on guys, can't believe that no one has responded yet.

Hi, I have only just seen this thread and seeing no-one else has answered I will. From your OP I have to guess I would be right assuming that your neighbour doesn't have Freeview HD and doesn't want a wireless connection, and the size of the hard disk isn't important. You don't say how much you want to pay either or whether subtitles or audio description is required, given the age of your neighbour. This paucity of information may be why no-one has replied. Also ease of use and EPG navigation is highly subjective.

Well, looking through the 3 non Freeview HD and no wifi Which? tested PVRs and taking ease of use and EPG navigation as the priorities, the only one that comes close is the twin tuner Goodmans GD11FVRSD50 with a 500GB hard disk. It score poorly for picture quality though.

Looking through the Which? reviews none of the 42 PVRs tested are particularly easy to use. Which? liked the Humax ones in this respect and rated them highly, but the customer reviews say the opposite. I'd be tempted to look through customer reviews on a big site like Amazon myself. Another avenue that might be worth consideration is Age UK. They may have knowledge of PVRs that they can recommend for the older generation.

I thought I had replied asking what it in particular your neighbour needed. Not all 90 year olds are the same. Do they suffer from visual, hand or mental impairment?

Thanks to you both for responding. To answer a few questions:
No, HD is not necessary.
No to wifi, she doesn't have internet.
Yes, she often uses subtitles.
No audio description not necessary.
HDD size not important. (probably only recording Downton Abbey each week - lol)
Price range - well, nobody wants to pay any more than they need to but price is not a deciding factor.
For a 90+ year old she is pretty active and has no dexterity problems.

Goodmans and Bush used to be good makes but have gone downhill in the past few years and are now part of the same group.
Although both are cheap to buy and are sort of still ok I would avoid both.
LOGIK L5SSTB13 Freeview+ Recorder looks ok from Currys.
http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-dvd-....html#longDesc
I do agree with evil c about Humax. Humax has also got a lot better in the last few years but Humax is not the cheap side. The cheapest Humax I found was about £150 and that also had Freeview HD.
Why some places still have non PVR Freeview boxes on sale I don't know. For I would have thought that sales of non PVR Freeview boxes would have been well down as most now want something to record TV.
Also I could not do without the pause/rewind and fast forward now on live TV as I have got used to it in the last 5 years and it has come in handy.

Darren

Thanks Darren. I had noticed the Logik PVR on the currys website and wondered if might be a candidate. Why is it though that you rarely get a view of the remote control on these websites. Currys show 2 views of the box itself but nothing of the remote. For me it's often the layout of the remote that makes up my mind when buying this type of equipment. It's just as bad in their shops too, the remote is never displayed next to the item.

Goodmans and Bush have just been badges stuck on boxes, (often the exact same one internally), for years. Certainly none of the Freeview kit bearing their names has ever been made by either brand.

In fact the Logik unit you linked to is quite likely also available with a Goodmans or Bush badge on it, as well as any number of other badges. At that price level most of the boxes are churned out by the container load in Turkish or Chinese factories.

So to some extent it doesn't really make a huge amount of difference what "make" it purports to be you are very likely just buying the same thing whatever badge is on it.

Which? have tested the Logik and it only got 2 stars for ease of use against the Goodmans 3 stars. Picture quality is the same for both, poor. Which? say about the Logik -

'It's one of the more difficult PVRs we've seen to set up and once it's up and running things don't get much better. The remote control is difficult to use and the on-screen electronic programme guide is not very responsive, meaning it's quite frustrating to navigate around.'

Looking in more depth at the Which? reviews I think value for money wise as well as ease of use, you won't do much better than the Echostar HDT-610R. It's got Freeview HD admittedly that you don't want, but then again as I said in my first post, there's only 3 PVRs that don't have it.
Which? say this -

'In general, this PVR is easy to set-up and use. You need to download the instructions from the website, but they are easy to follow with good screenshots. The remote control is well laid out, although the volume and programme +/- buttons are set a little low.

The electronic programme guide (EPG) is intuitive to navigate and easy to read with good contrast, bold text and is intuitive to navigate. Recording and playback are straightforward.'

So, if you can download the instructions and set it up for your neighbour, providing you like the look of the remote, this would be worth a go. One of the Which? customer reviews mentioned the following tip -

In the box is a Quick Start Guide which has basic instructions for setting up the unit. On p1 there is a connections diagram. Under the RF output picture it is stated "Not active in low power standby". There is no further reference to standby power in the guide. The full guide is available as PDF via the Echostar website. No help whatsoever in this instance.

The default power setting for standby seems to be the LOW POWER setting, this means you can only view the TV via the PVR. There are 2 power options for standby, low and normal. To watch TV without the PVR on you need to CHANGE the standby power option from low to normal. Do this by accessing SETTINGS via the main menu button and you find POWER OPTIONS, change low to normal and you can view the TV with the PVR on standby.

It's cheapest at Amazon marketplace £122, and I doubt you'll find one better for this price: http://www.amazon.co.uk/EchoStar-Ult...oStar+HDT+610R

Trusted Reviews review (and bear in mind it was £260 when this was published in 2012): http://www.trustedreviews.com/echost...dt-610r-review

TBH I would suggest the older Humax Fox T2 as a well established, widely used model and should be available for a good price compared to their newer (and for many not as good) current models.

I was looking at this site: http://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/Direct/...1c37c5#reviews
I know its an older model but it is covered by a Humax warranty.
I seems a good deal if you do not want HD.

I would avoid, it has issues with epg refresh times.

The UI isn't very different from a HDR FOX T2 anyway. Even connected to a SD TV by RGB scart only the HD channels should improve the picture significantly.

Thanks, it does look a good bargain buy. Anyone got a pic of the remote please?
By the way it's not that I don't want HD, I said it's not necessary. Means that I'm not really bothered whether it is or is not HD.

This doesn't make any sense to me!
Have you made typing errors or am I being particularly thick?

The 9300T in my opinion isn't a good buy. The HDR FOX T2 is a much superior pvr and it's not any more complicated to use. UI - User Interface.

I think the 9300 uses the same remote as the 9150 I had. If so it is a masterpiece of design (not! )

The main function of a PVR is to record telly programmes so that you can watch them at a time more convenient to you is it not? So it makes sense does it not to have a button giving you quick access to the list of recorded programmes, agreed?

So why on earth bury this button in amongst a bunch of other small buttons with cryptic labels underneath a sliding flap! Who ever thought that was a good idea?

The Fox T2 may be dearer (about 50 quid more from Humax Direct than the 9300) but it is a better piece of kit and has a much more user friendly remote.

I would consider the BT DTR-T2100/2110, it is available retail as well as to BT broadband customers.
This is a Youview box made by Humax, so it has the Youview interface.
Without the internet connection, it is a normal Freeview PVR.
It does have HD, this is an advantage in that some channels (eg. currently Motors TV) although SD are only available to an HD receiver.
It does have various optional UI enhancements, ie pretty or optional high-contrast menus, AD and subtitles.

My parents having recently changed broadband supplier due to unresolved bandwidth issues, are using it alongside a HDR Fox T2, one for timeshifting/catchup and the other for archiving/streaming.

Which although it may be aesthetically pleasing on the eye is a bugger to use in practise. Just consider the number of button presses it takes to get to and start playing the recording you want.

Saw a Sagemcom RTI95-500 for £129 in Tesco today. What's that like?

We have the Philips-badged version of this. Having been used to Humax and Topfield boxes, the Philips/Sagem is one I would not recommend - I found the menus sluggish and unpredictable.

Perhaps your neighbour would be better off in getting a BT Vision box, (the plain black ones) I use it just as a PVR only as I have not hooked it up to a router, They are reasonbly priced on Ebay or Cash Generator. My friend gave it to me because his contract with them ended and he did not want to renew, he was not happy with it or them, so he went back to Sky,

Considering you totally ignored my post recommending the Echostar OP, I'm tempted to forget this thread altogether. However Which? have tested the Sagemcom and it got quite a poor score largely due to its unpredictablity. They found the picture quality good and about useability they said -

"Recording and playback is straightforward. The EPG was well presented and easy to read, although it could become slow when used over longer periods. The buttons on the remote control are well sized, making it easy to navigate.

During testing, we also experienced times where the PVR crashed or locked up and was unresponsive on several occasions.

Pros: Good picture quality, media player and DLNA functionality. Cons: Software stability issues, latency with the EPG, poor audio quality."

However the Echostar is a lot better or the £129 refurb Humax Fox T2-G from the Humax site linked to by witham1. For comparison the Humax Fox T2 remote and the Echostar 610R. Not much to chose between them: http://www.aerialsat.com/images/prod...ges/RM-F04.jpg
http://connecteddigitalworld.com/wp-...-launch-21.jpg

Just because I didn't rush out and buy the echostar doesn't mean I ignored your post. However, thank you for your suggestions and thanks especially for the remote control pictures.

I have decided to get the Humax HDR-Fox T2-G from the Humaxdirect website. Unfortunately I haven't been able to see the echostar anywhere local but I have found a friend with the Humax. So I was able to try it out and see how it worked and I liked it.
The other thing I liked was the fact that Humaxdirect offer a 1 yr ON-SITE warranty. Don't get that at Currys, Amazon etc.

That is my main gripe with the YV interface and the reason why I discounted one for my Neighbour. However after setting up the Humax Fox T2-G for her (which looks almost the same as my BT box) I have to say I think the YV interface and remote control are better than the std Humax ones in every way except the access to recordings. I don't see any difference in speed either.