bought one of these from Aldi for mother in law. It claims up to 120 hours recording time. I know you need to deactivate the Top Up TV options to get max recording time. I've done that but it still only says about 80 hours recording.
Anyone know what is up - have I missed something?

Thanks

Ron

Ron,

I'm considering buying one for my mum-in-law too (she still uses VHS at the mo).
Aside from the capacity issue you raise I'd be really keen to know what your mim-in-law thinks of it & can she cope ok with the EPG etc - basically is she getting on with it ok?

Cheers

Bo

some channels have a higher bitrate than others - for example bbc1 is a lot higher than itv1. Apparantly some of the tutv channels have a really low bitrate.

you should expect about 70 hrs average once tutv is disabled - 120 is probably the absolute max if one only records off the really low bitrate channels.

As for the box - mine is going back - it is the worst I have ever had!

Hi Bo,

she is really happy with it and getting on very well. She initially had a couple of minor questions but seems to have got to grips with it quite quickly. EPG she finds simple, been doing recording and deleting and when she spoke to my wife this morning after having it for the weekend she was full of it.
Having said that - despite being in her 80s she is a switched on old bird who will have a go at almost everything.
Hope your mother in law finds it so easy.

Ron

This PVR is an ideal present for your mother-in-law !

Perhaps I should have started a new thread - or maybe this has been answered elsewhere. I installed a Thomson 160Gb PVR with Top-up TV for my sister in law, and although it has been working just fine for a month or so, it has suddenly started to suffer from picture freezing and pixelating. I suspected an aerial weakness (but see later comment), and bought an aerial amplifier. It made no difference, but here is the rub, the aerial goes straight into the PVR, than loops through to the TV (a Sony 32"), but the TV does not suffer from pixelating at all (with or without the amplifier). I carried out a rescan for both TV and PVR, and ended up with the PVR no longer finding ITV1 or Channel 4. BBC1 and 2 are fine, Channel Five suffers from freezing. The very local transmitter, Storeton, is undergoing some maintenance at the moment, but actually the aerial points to Winter Hill. Any thoughts or ideas, anyone, please?

Do you use the RF Modulator?...if not turn it off....see if that helps

Cheers Ron - I'll definitely take the plunge & get her one.