Anyone know if there is or will be an alternative freesat PVR. A bit of competition might bring prices down. To expensive for me currently.

There are none yet, but should be in the not too distant future - but Humax are well known for producing high quality products at a reasonable price, and generally don't drop their prices to compete with cheaper, lower quality, products.

Agreed it took their Freeview box years to come down from £200.

£300 is way to rich for my budget, and I may have to go for a new cheaper (less good) one.

I've tried googling but found no news of alternatives. Any details as to what and when?

There is sort of an alternative ATM, the Fortec Star Passion HD that allows you to record to a USB connected drive, USB stick etc. but I think it only has one tuner so if you are recording something, you can probably only watch something on the same transponder.

Supposedly Metronic are bring one out?, no idea of price or timescale though - but an HD PVR is an expensive item.

I would imagine by the middle of this year there may be a couple of alternatives?.

Thanks for the info.

I actually don't care about the HD bit- can't afford an HD tv anyway, but I doubt anyone'll bring out a budget HD-less PVR.

I always thought that it was silly not bringing out an SD only PVR, and still do - there's hardly any HD anyway, and many people still don't have HD sets or any interest in HD.

A twin tuner SD PVR at £150-£200 or so would have sold well.

Whereas I can't argue with that the problem is always going to be the Hard Drive Costs on a box at that level. A 320GB hard drive costs around £70 for a PVR version. Less to Humax no doubt in quantity, but still a lot before any other manufacturing components are considered and before distribution and profit margins.

Same price as the Freeview Humax. Which I've got. I'd love a Freesat for the same price.

Satellite card(s), a PC and DVBViewer.

You could upgrade a PC to be the equivalent of a Humax for about £180.

..although you wouldn't currently get Series Link.

That is possibly going to change, at least with mediaportal as DJBlu is sniffing out the code.

There will be: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/s...4#post30814154

Alba will surely produce a carpper and cheaper PVR... The Technisat PVR will surely be more expensive!

Thanks for the info.

Agreed. I've got an HD set, but it's only 23", so HD is pretty pointless...plus so little on it really...we never watch it.

What I really want is a FreeSat receiver, HDD/DVD Recorder and built-in VHS player. Expect I'll have to wait years, but I couldn't wait so got the Humax as soon as I could.

Yup, I'd say there was definately a call for a non HD version of freesat PVR. My Mother doesn't have HD tv and would have bought a PVR but doesn't want to pay £300. She would have paid around £150 for SD one though.

You'll have to wait longer than that - VHS is dead, no one is going to release any built-in VHS players.

There are several alternative player/recorders already in the market - at least via Maplin (the only place I've checked so far). There's a list here - people with some experience of any of these please add your notes!

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?k...UOUp5pTg&hl=en

None of those are freesat+ boxes, besides the Humax. They may be able to receive the same channels as freesat, and they may have a 7 day EPG, but that doesn't make them freesat+ boxes. Not that that means they aren't useful beasts, they may well be. But with a freesat branded box you are getting a known entity which will work to a minimum specification. With boxes that are not branded as freesat+, it is up to the buyer to check that the box will do what they want it to do. They cannot expect it to behave like a freesat+ box. For most people, a freesat+ branded box is the safest option. For a minority of people, the other brands may have advantages that are important to them.

Well there does seem to be a significant price (and availability!) differential between the official Freesat+ box from Humax and other boxes. For those who don't mind a little experimentation, the fact that you can choose and attach your own HD instead of relying on the internal one provided by Humax would itself appear a good reason to look around a bit or wait.

I am assuming that this forum topic is for discussion of boxes that record and help you watch the range of Freesat channels rather than simply for Freesat+ branded boxes. Though doubtless most free satellite DVR boxes coming to market will eventually be Freesat+ branded.

I agree with you that it should be. Not so sure that the mods will agree, though. I've seen threads relating to FTA boxes being moved from the freesat forum. But, I'd guess that a relevent post in a thread that is clearly fressat+ will be OK.

However, I do think it is important that discussion of non-freesat+ branded boxes makes it clear that they are not freesat+. The distinction is not going to be obvious to a number of people, and I remember seeing posts on the freesat forum where people have bought a generic FTA box thinking it was freesat and then been disappointed.

No, it's ONLY for Freesat+ boxes (of which there is currently only one model) - the clue is in the name of the forum

If you want to discuss FTA boxes then this is the wrong forum.


Only if they are UK specific boxes, and they wish to take out a licence and meet the conditions imposed.

I think it should be quite legitimate to discuss non freesat+ branded boxes in the contest of comparing them with freesat+ branded boxes and their ability (or otherwise) to provide a freesat-like service. Where else could such a discussion take place?

Agree.

Yes but as it's already been pointed out freesat is a platform, hence the freesat+ forum. Unless a box is produced under licence from freesat it won't offer a freesat-like service. It will offer a FTA Satellite HDR type service which is not what this forum is based on.

If you want to discuss the merits of freesat+ HDR's then you currently have a choice of Humax, Panasonic and Technisat.

If it is produced under license from freesat, it will offer a freesat+ service. Some boxes, not under license from freesat, mimic some of the major features of freesat+ and are what I referred to as freesat-like.

As I said before, some people may be fooled into thinking they offer an actual freesat+ service and will be disappointed when they discover the freesat features that are lacking. Others (a small minority, I suspect) will appreciate the benefits that they offer by not being freesat+. Either way, it is important that there is a forum in which these issues can be discussed. This is the best forum as it is the one in which there is the greatest knowledge of freesat+.

As has been discussed in another thread, freesat is not widely publicised and there is a lot of confusion in the general public as to what freesat is. A number of people (some members of DS and, I suspect, a larger number of lurkers) use this and the freesat forum to find out about it. Discussion of freesat-like boxes in comparison with freesat+ boxes will inform them, and perhaps prevent them from making an expensive mistake.