Well, the nice man came and installed my huge (Freeview-capable) aerial with amplifier today, and the $ky subscription is just about to run out, so the next step is to get myself a PVR. I'm 99% sure I'll go for the Toppy, but the question is when? Normally you'd have to be mad to buy anything just before Christmas since prices always drop immediately after, but I wonder if the Toppy is such a "specialised" product, not normally seen in shops, that this might not be the case? Is empiredirect's £243 going to be as good as it gets for the medium term?

Frankly I am not sure I can wait 6 weeks, since it will be such an improvement on what I have now, but I am loathe to get one and then find I could have saved (say) £50 by waiting a few weeks!

Any thoughts?

Tony
I paid £299 for mine with Top Up CAM from Turbosat some months ago, admitted that it cost more than what Empire Direct is selling now, but for the use that I have had so far and the enjoyment that I got, it is worth more than the difference. I am sure a lot of toppy owners will agree with me.
Tanya

I doubt the toppy price will fall below £240 any time soon ( I bought mine @ £243 )

If it does, i'll buy another

I agree with the others - go for it... I doubt it will drop too much in price, and even if it does, you will be having so much fun trying the different TAPs, you won't notice!

All anyone can do is speculate; anyone who had actual information that there would be a price drop coming would very likely work for the companies selling it, and therefore be pretty stupid to kill off sales.

It's worth bearing in mind that, these days, aside from some major things that stores flag to make you think you're getting a good deal, many shops have a more or less permanent sale on, so you'll find fewer relative bargains after christmas.

If it were my money, I'd just splash out now; how much is it worth to you to avoid the aggro and hassle of juggling VHS tapes over Christmas?

Nigel.

Several in this thread too:

http://forum.digitalspy.co.uk/board/...d.php?t=301337

Cliff

Buy it! At £243 it's excellent value and whilst the Humax comes close, you're stuck with whatever features they decide you need. I think the extra £20 or so is worth it for the ability extend its features with TAPs.

Juggling VHS tapes over Christmas, fortunately a dim & distant memory for me too. I've had my Toppy for a few months now and I've had my money's worth. Just got a new laptop so can't wait to get rolling with TAPs.

With the usual surfeit of decent films over the Christmas period, now is surely the ideal time to buy a Toppy, or indeed any PVR, so that you have time to get to grips with it beforehand.

I've already got a Toppy, but need to transfer or delete quite a few recordings before the festive season gets underway, (a SpinPoint 250GB hard drive would fit nicely under my Christmas tree).

I think a few well timed hints are called for.

ceejbee.

Exactly. That's how I'm thinking, I just wanted some confirmation before "splashing the cash"
Only trouble is, it's supposed to be a Christmas present, so I'll have to pretend not to use it or something...



Quite right. I have spend dozens of hours on these Forums, and others, trying to choose between these two - in fact, I also considered a Media Centre PC because it is customisable, but the Toppy lets me get my C book out again and "get my hands dirty", without the cost and hassle of a full-blown MCE PC.


Many thanks to all for the advice!