[Closed] Any freeview recording boxes that you'd avoid?

Ones that record the same channel twice?

My mum had a Goodmans which was crap and changed to a Panasonic. Even she can use it easily and series link function works reliably.

I had a Hitachi which was pretty crappy, used to freeze alot.
Humax seems to be the favoured brand , but even mine sometimes forgets to record the sound.

We've just got a YouView box from TalkTalk, very impressive so far, streaming from all the on demand content is a doodle.
Humax boxes are great whilst there being supported with updates from Humax, after that there a bit 'clunky'.

I just bought a TalkTalk box off eBay & have been very impressed with it. Cancelled sky I'm that happy with it.

Had a Thompson one and it was utterly, utterly dismal in every respect. No redeeming features whatsoever.

Currently have a Panasonic one as hand me down from my parents, which allowed me to smash up the Thompson with relish. Better but still not brilliant. Certain aspects of the software are completely baffling as to why it's the way it is.

Example: say you're halfway through a programme/film and want to record the rest and go to bed. You hit record but there's no way to make it stop when that programme is over. It'll still be recording when you get up in the morning. Bizarre.

Another example: On the EPG you have to select the programme that is showing at the current time to change to that channel. There's no way to say 'yeah, OK, I know it's not on yet, just change channel anyway'. More irritating than it sounds.

This looks to be a belter on paper, not tested one yet so can't recommend but if I was in the market this would be at the top of my list. Includes an HDMI switch so you can use it as a hub to connect all your devices to the telly - really good idea unless you have an AV receiver doing that job... But I'd still be interested on UI and features alone.

[url= http://www.pure.com/product/avalon-300r-connect-vl-61771/ ]Pure Avalon 300R[/url]

500GB or 1TB options.

Humax have very slow remotes and programme menu ....

Humax have very slow remotes and programme menu ....

They have improved response speed in newer models, also you have to be very careful to remove all the protective plastic from the IR receiver ( some of which is hard to see/you might not realise is there ).

My parent's 9200 was certainly not very quick.
My Foxsat HDR ( note - a FreeSAT box ) was somewhat quicker, but not quick.
My parent's HDR Fox T2 is as speedy as you would want it to be.

logik. We're on our second and it's only slightly less shite than the first one they replaced on warranty.

Toshiba. Had one for a couple of years. Two major faults:

1) It's incredibly slow. The response time from the remote is often longer than a second, and it takes a while to turn on too (have no experience of other boxes, so can't compare startup times, but seems slow to me)

2) It's kinda buggy. Randomly, it will output everything in green. Like the old days of computer video when you had the wrong codec, everything coming out of the box is green. Also, it will freeze. Only way to fix both these problems is a hard reset, which then if you're mid-record, cuts that short.

Basically, not great.

All of them, except YouView

I spent about £35 on a USB stick decoder and use the iMAC as a recorder / player. Works really well and can save to remote drives etc...

Very happy with my BT Youview box, HD and all the catch up and on demand film if you want them.

comedyphil - Member

Toshiba. Had one for a couple of years. Two major faults:

1) It's incredibly slow. The response time from the remote is often longer than a second, and it takes a while to turn on too (have no experience of other boxes, so can't compare startup times, but seems slow to me)

2) It's kinda buggy. Randomly, it will output everything in green. Like the old days of computer video when you had the wrong codec, everything coming out of the box is green. Also, it will freeze. Only way to fix both these problems is a hard reset, which then if you're mid-record, cuts that short.

Basically, not great.

Have you upgraded the software? I have an LG box that I'd given up on, it displayed similar problems to yours. Apparently a lot of problems arose after digital switchover with some PVRs. I managed to find a software update, and now it's right as rain. It wasn't automatically updating by the way.

I have the BT Vision Youview and cannot complain once I had played with the settings to make it start up quicker really quick no complaints. I think they sell them at John Lewis