Freeview box with twin tuners and hard disk

[Glosphil]

I need to buy the above. From reading reviews it seems that many of these units have problems with 'freezing' and only a re-set will get them working again - this can result in scheduled recordings not taking place.

Bought my mother a INVERTO IDL7000T that occassionally 'locks up'. And 'locking up' is reported in reviews of the Humax PVR-9300T and Hitachi HDR163.

Anyone experienced this? Can anyone recommend a particular unit? I was hoping to keep the price under £100 .

I actually need two units - one for myself in Gloucestershire and one for my father-in-law near Fareham.

Being able to record two programs at once, copy from hard disk to a DVD recorder and also be able to record sub-titles (for the father-in-law) are required features.

[headcase]

I have experiance of the Humax 9300, some of them do lock up, the 9150T seems to be more reliable. The only thing i dont like about them is that they do not remember the EPG when you turn them off so every time you power it up the EPG is blank and takes about 10 mins to fill up properly, but once working you can record 2 things at once, time shift, copy to dvd etc...

[Glosphil]

headcase said:

I have experiance of the Humax 9300, some of them do lock up, the 9150T seems to be more reliable. The only thing i dont like about them is that they do not remember the EPG when you turn them off so every time you power it up the EPG is blank and takes about 10 mins to fill up properly, but once working you can record 2 things at once, time shift, copy to dvd etc...

Thanks for the reply. Recent reviews from users seem to show that a software update in late November has screwed up the Humax 9150T - for some people to such an extent that their unit doesn't work at all.

Having the unit forget the EPG every time it is switched off and then taking 10 minutes or more to reload it when next switched on seems a complete pain and very poor design, particularly as the fan is rather noisy in a quiet room so the unit needs to be switched off when not in use.

I think I need to research other twin tuner FreeView boxes before buying. So any more suggestions or recommendations?

[TomS146]

I recently got a Humax 9150T, and has been pretty good so far. It froze once but usually is pretty quick and easy to navigate.

[marctwo]

I have a Topfield 5800 and it is brilliant. Highly recommended if you are willing to install some of the third party software available for it.

[telecat]

I have 2 9200's and a 9150. A colleague also has the 9300. Most Recorders seem to have had issues with the "Big Shift" that Freeview did at the end of August beginning of September. The Humax range was affected but they seem to have sorted out the problems with a number of Over the air updates. If you buy a new one without the update it can be updated by a download from a PC.

The problem appears to have been caused by Freeview activating a feature that although part of the DVB-T spec, was supposd to be avoided by Freeview maker.

[J500ANT]

I bought my grandparents one of these for Christmas - its a Which? best buy and they haven't had any problems with it.

Hitachi HDR253 250GB HDMI Digital TV Recorder. 532/1791 £94.99

[Tuna]

The Register just reviewed this:

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2010/01/12/review_hd_...

Very positive comments.

[Glosphil]

Tuna said:

The Register just reviewed this:

http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2010/01/12/review_hd_...

Very positive comments.

Thanks for the link to the review - I hadn't looked at The Register today.

£230!!! Also requires HDMI connection on the television - I don't have that. Alternatively, if I use the one SCART socket to connect to the television then I can't connect my DVD recorder to archive programs.

[Glosphil]

J500ANT said:

I bought my grandparents one of these for Christmas - its a Which? best buy and they haven't had any problems with it.

Hitachi HDR253 250GB HDMI Digital TV Recorder. 532/1791 £94.99

On the Argos web-site 12 out of 29 user reviews report problems with the unit 'freezing'. Is there a FreeView box with a hard disk for which 'freezeing up' hasn't been reported?. Is this a FreeView problem rather than a problem with the hardware?

Edited by Glosphil on Wednesday 13th January 10:00

[bonsai]

Glosphil said:

J500ANT said:

I bought my grandparents one of these for Christmas - its a Which? best buy and they haven't had any problems with it.

Hitachi HDR253 250GB HDMI Digital TV Recorder. 532/1791 £94.99

On the Argos web-site 12 out of 29 user reviews report problems with the unit 'freezing'. Is therre are FreeView box with a hard disk for which 'freezeing up' hasn't been reported?. Is this a FreeView problem rather than a problem with the hardware?

It is a side effect of the hard disk based ones. And don't think that the more expensive ones will not do this, I have the Humax 9300 and it has done this twice in a month.

[-Pete-]

I have two refurbished Thomson DTI-6300's (£50 each from Asda a while back) and can tell you they freeze almost every day since the last software update. Good value for money if you're not that bothered, but I can't recommend them.

[jshell]

Topfield. Great machine, but does freeze from time to time! Massive hard disk and multiple tuners.

[aberdeeneuan]

I've got a humax 9200, few niggles but in the main very happy with it. It's now been replaced by virgin as I needed new broadband and went hd at the same time. Mine's had the update and till works a treat.

[headcase]

Every freeview box i have come across freezes up and not just the HDD based ones, seems to be a poors state of affairs. It must be possible to get it right because you just dont get the same problems with lots of integrated TV's (some do though), its mainly STB's that suffer.

[anonymous-user]

Sony here. Had it 2-3 years never gone wrong.

[poprock]

We’ve got a Thomson DHD4000 and it’s been outstanding for year after year. No problems, ever. Unfortunately the model is long discontinued … but you may well find them on eBay from time to time.

[Glosphil]

headcase said:

Every freeview box i have come across freezes up and not just the HDD based ones, seems to be a poors state of affairs. It must be possible to get it right because you just dont get the same problems with lots of integrated TV's (some do though), its mainly STB's that suffer.

If this is true what the hell is going on. Is the technology used by FreeView really that bad?

I could just buy 2 of the cheapest single-tuner no-hard disk FreeView boxes that I can find. Connect one to my existing television (28" CRT JVC about 8 years old) and one to my existing DVD recorder. But then I can only record from the channel to which the second FreeView box is set at that time. My Pioneer DVD recorder with hard disk hasn't missed a beat in 3 years and NO freezes!

Annoyingly I don't actually want more than the 4 channels that I currently receive via 'analogue' signal but in mid-March that will be switched off and replaced with digital. No digital until then so can't test in advance.

And the switch to digital is meant to be progress?