Ideally with plenty of storage, twin tuners/recording, pause/rewind for live TV and wifi for a little future proofing.

So, what’s good and why?

(Already have directional cables made from plaited unicorn’s pubes, thanks.)

(Already have directional cables made from plaited unicorn’s pubes, thanks.)

Is that Unicorn Pube Mk1 or Unicorn Pube Mk1 SE?

Humax youview box.
Can get a 500gb or a 1tb box.
Twin tuners.
Record pause rewind etc.
All the catchup channels, Iplayer, 4od etc.
Had one a few weeks and been great so far and easy to set up

Thanks, Alan, will check that out.

I was thinking of a Roku box and a Netflix account. Why store anything?

this is a good deal
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-SVRHDT500B-Freeview-Personal-Recorder/dp/B004MPR0V6

we have an older sony one, great picture and very reliable

if u have a sony tv/ps3 bravia sync works well too

Humax +1

There are a few threads on this subject, and it always ends up with Humax.

Had my 500Gb box for over 2 years and it’s flawless with the best menu system available imo.

+1 Humax . Nice user interface . Sometimes crashes and needs a hard reset .
Then again , why with all the Youveiw stuff around , like Demand5

Thanks, everyone. Looks like Humax are winning here.

This one and a dongle for the Wifi, I think.

Just bought that one, afraid it’s going back after one day.
I have to switch TV to a different input and then back to the HDMI for the unit to be recognised every time I switch it on. After googling, it appears the Humax can suffer ‘HDMI handshake’ problems, particularly with Sony TV’s. Mine’s a Toshiba that doesn’t have a problem with anything else that’s been connected. Also, it won’t output 1080p to my TV, even though the input broadcast says it’s 1080p [BBC HD – Africa] and the Humax has a setting for 1080p. No idea if this makes a jot of difference, but annoying at that price. Just my luck.
I’ll probably try to pick up a cheap model and wait to see how the youview version get’s on – after reading reviews, it seems to be a bit flaky at the moment .

I have to switch TV to a different input and then back to the HDMI for the unit to be recognised every time I switch it on.

Why are you switching it off in the first place? Just leave it on?

Our (ancient) Humax box never gets turned off. That way it can record scheduled stuff, the guide is always up to date and you can rewind a couple of hours of telly (invaluable for Cbeebies in our house).

Why are you switching it off in the first place? Just leave it on?

Apologies. When I said ‘off’ I meant ‘standby’ [Both TV and Humax].

Humax are the biggest brand for PVR’S, so will most likely get the greatest number of recommendations. Doesn’t mean they are the best though. I have seen more than one LCD TV with a Humax Freeview HD box connected over HDMI and can confirm that the picture in SD is ropey. In HD it was acceptable, but seriously, my 10 year old Pace Twins with RGB connection obliterates the Humax boxes I’ve seen. Or perhaps the two LED backlit LCD TV’s were rubbish (Samsung and Panasonic) – I doubt it!

The proof of the pudding is in the eating, so I won’t be buying another PVR until I’ve seen it in action.

The big names were too slow to bring in dual tuners, assuming people would have bought a TV with Freeview built in. At that time, a set top box was the source of digital TV, so they lost out to Humax and the like.

At the price the Sony is going for, I’d have a look.

Day to day practicality matters, so there’s another good reason to try before you buy. Things like being able to skip a minute of video with the press of one button is extremely useful for skipping ads. Can you build a channel list and reorder the channels. Does the volume have variable output. Is there optical audio out. Can you archive to USB devices. Can you connect to a network and stream to other devices. Can you get iPlayer and other Smart TV functionality. These are some of the questions to ask, but if the user interface is unintuitive, slow, buggy, the device isn’t worth having.

In my experience, the choice of quality hardware that has a good UI and that just worked, was very scarce last time I looked.

I would start by scanning the net and build a short list. Then the hard bit, find an outlet that can demonstrate the devices. I’ve not found a single retailer that does this. If you do, please let me know.

10 Freeview PVRs for starters

Just to point out BT have a deal on at the moment where you can get the Humax box for £49.99 if you take out a BT vision subscription (from £5 a month) for 12 months.
By my calculations that makes the Humax youview box £110 and you get a pair of home plugs thrown in too.
I think you need to have BT broadband and not already have a BT vision subscription to be able to get this.
As far as I can tell, the box is exactly the same but it has a bit of additional functionality with a BT vision menu which I’ve not even looked at so far. With all the catch up stuff there doesn’t seem to be much point.

I’ve got that Sony one linked above. It’s been reliable and the bravia sync thing is useful, not sure I’d recommend it though as it is frustratingly sloooooooooooooooow to turn on/off (it’s like waiting for a 5 year old laptop to boot up). Deleting things from the HD takes am eternity too (and it won’t do anything else whilst deleting so you have minutes of staring a blank screen unless you switch back to the TV’s built in tuner).

This is a well timed thread for me as I shall be buying a Freeview PVR tomorrow having moved off Virgin to Freeview. I want iPlayer too so was all set on the Panasonic (to match the TV) but having read the thread and done subsequent googling I’m now swaying towards a Humax Fox T2. The Humax You View also looks good but appears to have a number of bugs.

I use a Humax for Freesat. It is ranked as the best there is – the picture and sound are good. The interface and living with it is rubbish.
It freezes, it crashes, the remote is achingly slow, it is a PITA to update with firmware. And it will not recognise my ethernet connection.

Personally I’d take the ABH route …

I have a Humax Fox HD for a year and it has been brilliant.

I have looked at the Youview boxes but they seem to lose a lot of the functions that make the T2 so good. If I was buying a new box I would still go for the T2.

my (older) sony is a bit slow-not as slow as ross describes but has none of the crashing problems my mum in laws humax one does and the picture quality is better too

Topfield used to be very good. You could customise these and there was/is a whole community of likeminded people sharing their efforts. Don’t know whether they have anything exciting out these days.

Toppy.org

I’ve got a 500gb Humax thingy and it’s brilliant. There are a few niggles, but very minor things.

Mine needs a dongle for wi-fi, but perhaps newer ones have it built in?

Can’t comment on connection to a flat screen telly ad we are still using a Sony crt via scart. This was one of the reasons we went for the Humax, as I think the Panasonic & Sony we looked at only had hdmi connections.

An HTPC would be nice, but I’m unconvinced about the ease of UI, especially for Windows driven packages..