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Best You view box + source? |
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#1 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Yorkshire
Posts: 4,391
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Best You view box + source?
I want to buy a You view box for my in-laws to use as a decent PVR and source of catch up content. They have broadband through their energy supplier but I understand any you view box will work OK for the regular catch up services using any broadband?
Is any box better than any other? Are any available retail, or is it better to buy the ex BT or Talk talk ones through eBay? Thanks for any advice. Cheers, David. |
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#2 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Feb 2004
Location: 54.98N 1.6W
Posts: 4,953
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Mine, a Humax DTR2100 with 500Gb hard drive, was via ebay. Cost about £60 and was brand new.
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#3 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,738
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Quote:
They have broadband through their energy supplier but I understand any you view box will work OK for the regular catch up services using any broadband?
Quote:
Are any available retail
There was a TalkTalk retail version, DN371T, but I don't think these are available new any more. Quote:
is it better to buy the ex BT or Talk talk ones through eBay?
The new youview software that TalkTalk are rolling out over the next couple of months should improve at least some aspects of the slowness. The BT non-retail versions are the DTR-T2100 and the DTR-4000T. The (non-retail) DTR-T2100 is practically identical to the (retail) DTR-T2110 but comes in a plan brown box and the label on the underside identyfing as the DTR-T2100 'model'. There is no other difference. If I recall correctly even the on-screen system information menu does not differentiate the two. If you want to avoid the chance of criticisms of it being slow you could consider a second hand DTR-T4000 (expect to pay about £120 to £130). Many of those on ebay and Amazon market place are classified as 'New' because they have never been used. Obviously you won't get the same guarantee on one of these compared to a new retail DTR-T2000 or DTR-T2110 from a recognised supplier. The other disadvantage of the DTR-4000T is that there is some noise fan noise. I think the noise is the air movement through the vent rather than the fan itself. Despite the fan it does get very hot and so I wonder about it surviving as long as one of the other models. Retail wise, a smaller option to the Humax DTR-T2000 but still available through normal retail channels with a normal guarantee is a DTR-T2110, but that does not have the Humax 2nd year guarantee as it is BT badged. If you want a DTR-T2110 on the cheap then you could consider a 'New' (ie. 2nd hand but not used) ex-customer DTR-T2100 (that is the one which is basically the same as the DTR-T2110 but without the pretty cardboard box). Although described as 'new' on ebay and amazon you'll need to balance the chance of it going faulty and the extra difficulty you will have if it goes wrong after the first month or two. For my DTR-T2100 I also paid £60 for an ebay 'Brand New' model. The DTR-T4000 cost me £100 and because of the fan noise and heat if I could only keep one of the two it would be the cheaper DTR-T2100 despite the DTR-T4000's faster processer and more memory potential with future apps. Quote:
I want to buy a You view box for my in-laws to use as a decent PVR and source of catch up content.
Quote:
Thanks for any advice.
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#4 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Jun 2002
Location: Scotland, Dunfermline Area
Posts: 10,698
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I have heard to many mixed reviews about the Talk Talk Youview boxes so I would not go for one of them.
I have both the older BT Humax Youview T1000 and the BT G4 Youview box. Both are 500gb. I find the BT G4 Yoview box that I also use for BT TV services to be a far better box than the older BT Youview T1000. My sister has the retail T2000 Humax Youview 1tb box that I got her for her birthday back in September from Currys and she loves the box and the Youview app. She just uses the box as a Freeview PVR and for the free catch up players as well as the Netflix app. Darren |
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#5 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: May 2011
Posts: 5,572
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I had a YV box with TalkTalk and it was terrible - constantly locking up, failed to record, really slow to respond to the remote etc. The funny thing is - as soon as I left TalkTalk, the box became far more usable. Oddly enough, using their TV service totally crippled by broadband and that too has been flawless and twice as fast since ditching them. Overall, I've had no problem with my box for months now and if it's "slow", that's definitely not noticeable in normal use. I'm not saying that it's better than any other box - just that I wouldn't refuse one and they do seem to be a lot cheaper on ebay.
In terms of what really matters to most people - picture and sound quality are absolutely fine. It's silent in use. It gets fairly hot but that seems to apply to all YV boxes. The box is pretty basic - no led display to tell you what channel you are watching, for example, but I've never really seen a need for that anyway. Am using the latest firmware which sorred out a lot of well documented issues (problems with surround sound being the one that bugged me the most). The new firmware that is starting to appear looks good but no idea or info on how well that works with any particular box as yet. All in all - if you see a TT box (the 372 model) at the right money, don't be put off by some saying that it's not as good as some other box - it's not at all bad. |
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#6 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Mar 2016
Posts: 807
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I bought a BNIB BT 'G4' youview box (DTR-T2100) earlier this year as a 'distress purchase' off ebay for around £80. It's a very competent Humax DVR, only let down by the shortcomings of the locked down youview software platform (inability to create folders or manually set any recording timers, edit recordings, no USB media player or DNLA functionality).
It has a external plug PSU, so has no fan and runs quietly. You can program the remote to control the TV volume, and it has 4x the RAM on board than the first youview boxes which improves the streaming video experience. It has no built in WIFI, but you can attach a cheap USB powered WIFI router like the TP-LINK TL-WR702N to work in 'client mode' IIRC. |
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#7 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,738
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Quote:
I had a YV box with TalkTalk and it was terrible ... the box became far more usable...... Overall, I've had no problem with my box for months now and if it's "slow", that's definitely not noticeable in normal use. I'm not saying that it's better than any other box - just that I wouldn't refuse one and they do seem to be a lot cheaper on ebay.
... All in all - if you see a TT box (the 372 model) at the right money, don't be put off by some saying that it's not as good as some other box - it's not at all bad. I'd also bought a DTR-T2100 a fornight before and initailly had them both scheduled to record the same porgrammes for a few weeks. Unlike the DTR-T2100 the TalkTalk box did not miss one recording. It turns out that Humax have ported their freeview boxes' multiple transmitter issue to their Youview boxes. It doesn't impact everyone within range of more than 1 transmiatter but it does impact some. Once I had pursuaded the DTR-T2100 to only tune to 1 transmitter (by hiding the second one when tuning!) the Humax then worked fine. I've since played a lot with hiding and not hiding transmitters with the DTR-T2100 and it is no coincidence. For some the DTR-T2100 just is a non-starter and the TalkTalk will be much better. |
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#8 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Yorkshire
Posts: 4,391
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Oh dear. Just bought a DTR-T2100 for them. They can receive three transmitters. The first one scanned is the weakest.
Any ideas? Cheers, David. |
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#9 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2004
Location: Buckingham
Posts: 28,534
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Did it not come up with an option to select which region / transmitter you want to keep the channels for? It should have.
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#10 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,738
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Quote:
Did it not come up with an option to select which region / transmitter you want to keep the channels for? It should have.
It will only store what is told for the multiplexes with PSB content. For the others it appears to choose the one it comes across first. The TalkTalk ones also pick and choose and can end up with different channels from different transmitters. But the TalkTalk is programmed to cope with that situation - the Humax is not. Its tuning and missed recording pattern is exactly the same as the HDR-2000T/1800T but they have manual tuning. |
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#11 |
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Forum Member
Join Date: Oct 2007
Posts: 1,738
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Quote:
Oh dear. Just bought a DTR-T2100 for them. They can receive three transmitters. The first one scanned is the weakest.
If they put it into standby when not in use savagely reduces the number of programmes not recorded, and if they only tend to watch channels from the PSB multiplexes they might not even notice as some channels will still record whichever other channel is being watched or recorded. But it is definitely not ideal. I find it annoying because this has never been fully fixed on their DTT models despite it going on for years and the TalkTalk Youview boxes, in this respect, are just magic in comparison. |
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