folk, i lknow nothing about these so having just cacelled the sky, i need to get a recorder to replace the sky one. It need to get freeview and record. What are the better options out there (also are the ones woth blue ray players any good?)
cheers

Just buy a Humax

i have a sony one, (upscaling) dvd player/ recorder

been faultless for the last couple of years and generally top bit of kit

SD £159:

http://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/product.asp?ProdRef=10067

or HD £249:

http://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/product.asp?ProdRef=10095

you have got an aerial?

Have recently bought a top-end (ish) Sony HD/DVD/recorder and it is absolutely crap

The record/view/DVD parts of the machine have no integration it’s like they were designed by three geeky engineering types on crack who never spoke to one another.

The machine takes 2/3 minutes to boot up and if you press any buttons on the remote during this time, they are all cached so by the time it does wake up it executes a string of frustrated keypresses one of which is inevitably the on/off button at which point it promptly goes into its ‘power down’ routine which takes several more minutes arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggghhh

Absolute bag o’shite.

ive tried a good few and the best was defo a humax some other models were really really sh*t exactly what is described above, they can be pricey so check on ebay.

no aerial just using the dish that was put in when i first got sky, can i still use this if i buy a humax?

No – you need freeSAT.

Humax direct do those too – also recommened by me.

# Edit- Something like this:

http://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/product.asp?ProdRef=10087

Note you’ll need 2 cables (and dual lnb) from the dish to the box to record and watch separate channels. If you had sky+ you’ll have them already.

ok, so ive seen the HD box, what else do i need to get the thing up and running (link would be perfect as i’m a numpty!!)

or this:
http://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/product.asp?ProdRef=10103

If you had sky+ : that’s all you need. Plug and play.

We got our Humax box from the managers specials (refurb) section…

Humax Freesat is a goodun, ours is a few years old so no record option but it does have an ethernet port so we can get iPlayer etc also. Very handy, especially if you need Postman Pat on loop for the day while trying to shift a nasty hangover 🙂

My Panasonic has been faultless over the past 3 years.

Freeview + 80gb harddrive, breeze to use

One down from the top model with bluray hd record etc.

Buy the Humax and then put this Raydons file and media server package on the box ( all you need to do this is a USB stick ) – it changes the box from being very good to excellent – you can stream files to any PC/tablet in the house, use a tablet/browser as a remote control, link to a uPnP media server, and a bunch of other stuff.

Another vote for Humax!

just bought the 500gb freesat recorder, if it aint good, i’m coming after you all 🙂

like the postman pat on loop, could have done with it after sat night!

Humax!
Takes less seconds to swap the cables over, and a few minutes for it to sort itself out.
Top tips: Don’t immediately click OK to software upgrade but let it do it overnight. If you live in Scotland enter a Border’s postcode to get ITV HD.
Cranberry – thanks. I’m off to try that.