PVR?

"bugbear" wrote in message
...
tim..... wrote:
"Robin" [email protected] ndstuff.co.ru
wrote in message news
He did say "best", not easiest.

Bearing in mind also "Ideally I'd like to be able to record to DVD too"
I'd have to say that neither the Topfield (which I have used) and the
Humax (which I own) is "best" since they don't do DVDs. So you (OP)
might want to consider a PC-based solution.

Personally I think that the OP should reconsider his requirement
for a box that has both a disk and DVD recorder. Such boxes
are not easy to find.

I assume I'm missing something (at this early
stage of my research that's quite possible)

But this (2006) review found a few:

http://www.avreview.co.uk/news/article/mps/UAN/827/v/3/

Um, so it does.

But take a look in an Argos catelogue or walk around your
local (chain) electrical shop and see how many you see.

tim

WCZ wrote:
"Wilf" wrote in message
...

On 04/09/2007 11:52 am, Andy Dee wrote:


bugbear wrote:

So - is there a consensus best PVR
out there?

I

I have a Humax but I would not recommend it.
The firmware has always been "flaky" and mine and others suffer frequent
lock-ups requiring a power-off to reset.

A

On the other hand, I've been very pleased with my Humax 9200T. No
problems with lock-ups etc.



Touch wood, I've had no locks up either. It just works.


--
Wilf




Well, I am pleased for you and envious, as from the Humax forums, you
must be in the minority.
From the start, the firmware has been prone to lock-up.
Humax are good at "patching" the firmware to resolve a particular
problem but soon, another problem appears and the Humax starts to
lock-up again.
By "problem", I am referring to something in the stream (MHEG or
whatever) that causes the box to lock.
Badly written firmware I'm afraid :-(

A

On Sep 4, 1:23 pm, Andrew wrote:
On Tue, 04 Sep 2007 05:18:14 -0700, Woby Tide
wrote:

erm...which proves my point that out of the box, for useability/
interface the Humax is preferred, both yourself and Andrew earlier
have pointed it out that it requires extra work to have what a
Topfield user would regard as a useful system. It's rare to find
anyone using it straight out of the box yes?

It works just fine OOTB (which is a lot more than I can say for the
Humax), it just becomes something very special with a bit of
investment of time.

You evidently have an axe to grind with your views on the Humax so
it's pointless carrying this on really.

On Tue, 04 Sep 2007 05:51:10 -0700, Woby Tide
wrote:

You evidently have an axe to grind with your views on the Humax so
it's pointless carrying this on really.

Pardon me for having an informed hands on experience of the two units
and wanting to share it. I am sorry it doesn't fit in with your
blinkered view.
--
Andrew, contact via http://interpleb.googlepages.com
Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards,
please don't top post. Trim replies to quote only relevant text.
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WCZ wrote:
"André Coutanche" wrote
Dr Zoidberg wrote:

My humax has always "just worked"

Good. Done a rescan lately?

Yes, at the weekend. Was something supposed to go wrong?

Dunno, I don't have one. But look for the thread roundabout 26 August
titled 'ITV3 problem from Mendip this evening' to see that at least
one Humax owner came across the less-than-satisfactory response of the
Humax software to new LCNs coming and going. I was able to advise him
because my Topfield shares this flakiness.

André Coutanche

"Andrew" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 04 Sep 2007 05:51:10 -0700, Woby Tide
wrote:

You evidently have an axe to grind with your views on the Humax so
it's pointless carrying this on really.

Pardon me for having an informed hands on experience of the two units
and wanting to share it. I am sorry it doesn't fit in with your
blinkered view.

I've owned a Humax since January this year. It gets a fair bit of use
everyday and has yet to cause a single problem. It hasn't hung, forgotten
to record a programme or lost any programmes. I've updated the software
once and in all honesty don't have a bad word to say about it and I'm pretty
damn picky when it comes to deciding something 'works as advertised'.

--
Andrew, contact via http://interpleb.googlepages.com
Help make Usenet a better place: English is read downwards,
please don't top post. Trim replies to quote only relevant text.
Check groups.google.com before asking an obvious question.

"Andy Dee" wrote in message
...
WCZ wrote:
"Wilf" wrote in message
...

On 04/09/2007 11:52 am, Andy Dee wrote:


bugbear wrote:

So - is there a consensus best PVR
out there?

I

I have a Humax but I would not recommend it.
The firmware has always been "flaky" and mine and others suffer
frequent lock-ups requiring a power-off to reset.

A

On the other hand, I've been very pleased with my Humax 9200T. No
problems with lock-ups etc.



Touch wood, I've had no locks up either. It just works.


--
Wilf



Well, I am pleased for you and envious, as from the Humax forums, you must
be in the minority.

I don't know what forums you browse but www.hummy.org.uk doesn't show too
many obvious problems. It *did* have lock up issues with early firmware but
these were fixed ages ago.

From the start, the firmware has been prone to lock-up.
Humax are good at "patching" the firmware to resolve a particular problem
but soon, another problem appears and the Humax starts to lock-up again.
By "problem", I am referring to something in the stream (MHEG or whatever)
that causes the box to lock.
Badly written firmware I'm afraid :-(

A

"André Coutanche" wrote in message
...
WCZ wrote:
"André Coutanche" wrote
Dr Zoidberg wrote:

My humax has always "just worked"

Good. Done a rescan lately?

Yes, at the weekend. Was something supposed to go wrong?

Dunno, I don't have one. But look for the thread roundabout 26 August
titled 'ITV3 problem from Mendip this evening' to see that at least
one Humax owner came across the less-than-satisfactory response of the
Humax software to new LCNs coming and going. I was able to advise him
because my Topfield shares this flakiness.


That was why I did the rescan. ITV2 and 3 weren't picking up the EPG. I
deleted the two channels. A rescan re-added them and that was that.

André Coutanche

"WCZ" wrote...
"André Coutanche" wrote...
WCZ wrote:
"André Coutanche" wrote
Dr Zoidberg wrote:

My humax has always "just worked"

Good. Done a rescan lately?

Yes, at the weekend. Was something supposed to go wrong?

Dunno, I don't have one. But look for the thread roundabout 26 August
titled 'ITV3 problem from Mendip this evening' to see that at least
one Humax owner came across the less-than-satisfactory response of
the
Humax software to new LCNs coming and going. I was able to advise him
because my Topfield shares this flakiness.


That was why I did the rescan. ITV2 and 3 weren't picking up the EPG.
I deleted the two channels. A rescan re-added them and that was that.

As the instigator of said thread, the point is that it shouldn't be
necessary to delete channels prior to a rescan.

Matti
-- a very happy Hummy user nevertheless

bugbear wrote:
I've been putting off buying one of these,
waiting for the costs to come down,
but last night my VCR blew up (stopped loading cassettes,
and made a nasty teeth stripped grinding rattle)

Get a second-hand lifetime subscribed TiVo from Ebay, and a cheap
freeview box that works with it. Upgrade the drive if your want. Bliss...

--
Adrian C