[chinky]

these do look very nice but are the any good http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...ctiveda3029-21

[lostinspace]

If you look around this forum, you'll see some people have had problems with this box. But that seems to be true of every box on the market.
Personally, mine works well apart from one glitch, and I'm happy with it. The bug is that sometimes, when fast forwarding through a recording, it jumps back to the beginning. But I can live with that.
It records two programs at once, but beware of using the padding feature as I made the mistake of trying to record 4 programs that way, and lost them all.
The fan runs all the time, but is quiet.
I bought mine from Asda-full refund anytime in the guarantee period swung it for me. So if I wanted to exploit that, if anything better comes along I could just change it.
I like the box, and based on MY experience, would certainly buy again.

[cobrastang]

Only problem i have is that i cancelled all the top up tv stuff to give more recording space and in the last couple of days my epg has stopped working.anyone know if this is the cause of the loss of epg?Apart from this the box is very easy to use.

[dynamiccoins]

I also have the jumping to the beginning problem that lostinspace mentions. It is a real pain when it happens, and we've also had to reboot a few times, but to be honest for the cash its OK.

The only thing I can compare it against was the Homechoice stb I used to have and that was fab in comparison.

Having had this for a few months now, aside from the jumping back to the beginning issue, the only other two things that I would love to have is the ability to jump forward a set amount of time on a recording rather than having to fast forward each time and a better way to view the epg when scrolling through whats on at a later time.

Oh and one other, but this isn't a problem with the Thompson as such, but there have been a couple of times when the abilty to copy a recording to DV D would have been nice.

I have to say the main reason I got the unit was for Setanta....and they are terrible; the last thing I would do is recommend them.

Would I buy again....well it does the job so unless something better has come along in the meantime, yes.

[cobrastang]

My EPG has now sorted itself out(maybe it was an update or something that made it dissapear?)Anyway its working well now and I can recommend this box.

[parklaner]

I too have just installed this box, and by and large it does what it says on the tin, with minimum fuss.
Only gripe is that the colour scheme used on menus is naff, and the "pop ups" are white text on pale blue background & are nearly unreadable.
Any comments ??

[big-al123]

Originally Posted by chinky

these do look very nice but are the any good http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/...ctiveda3029-21

thats what the posts about - each to there own, my mate had nothing but trouble.
ive got a humax pvr9200 - quality bit of kit

[p101chap]

Im getting fed up with this box, i get the FFWD problem too, but some programs that i have recorded will crash the system when you highlight that program in the library. Id like to delete the offending files, but cant (as i cant highlight & delete before it crashes) anyone overcome that problem? Maybe i can format the drive?

[Beaker]

I had this problem. The first recording in the library is corrupt. Use the remote to record something off the telly, not a timed recording just record 10secs of something so the corrupt one is no longer the first. Go into the library and it will start to show that 10 sec clip in the little window. Now as fast as you can and I mean fast, you can't push a button and then look up at the screen top see if you did press it. Press down, delete, confirm in rapid succession and you should purge the corrupt item before it tries to preview it in the little windows.

Cheers
Beaker

[big-al123]

total junk, save the extra and get a humax

[lostinspace]

Originally Posted by big-al123

total junk, save the extra and get a humax

Stupid comment.
Look through the threads and you'll see lots of problems with ALL available systems. Humax included.
I've come to the conclusion that half the problems people have with freeview boxes are down to the quality of the signal. I have a Thomson box and apart from the zipping back to the beginning of a recording it works fine. My friend brought his Humax down to check a fault on it and the picture was very average and in the week I used it, it missed a recording.
TBH, if you want something completely trouble free, don't ever look at anything electrical.

[Steve Balcombe]

Originally Posted by lostinspace

Stupid comment.
Look through the threads and you'll see lots of problems with ALL available systems. Humax included.

I've just returned a Thomson box. I don't think I have ever owned a piece of equipment with so many faults. Lock-ups, missed recordings, skipping back to start, disk space unaccountably vanishing, series recordings cancelling themselves, even one recording which claimed to be over 200 hours long. And whose idea was it to make the remote that shape? Every time you press a button it tries to twist in your hand.

My advice would also be that the Thomson is total junk, and I have now paid the extra for the Humax. The only stupid thing I did was to buy a PVR on impulse because it was cheap - without checking here first.

[mattharesign]

i too have just returned one of these.

it kept locking up, missing recordings, doing the annoying jump back 20 mins whilst fast fowarding. got fed up, took it back.

cheers

[jerryq7777]

Same here returned after 2 weeks similar problems.Amazed Thomson get away with selling this box with all its faults.

[Steve Balcombe]

One more thing I ought to have said - full marks to Comet for taking it back after 9/10 weeks without any problem at all. Helpful customer service both on the phone and at the branch. I was so impressed (shocked in fact) that I bought the Humax there even though I could have got it cheaper online.

[spike99]

Got mine from Tesco a month or two back, initilly impressed then got the skip back issue and now locking up. It will be going back this week. But what to get in its stead!

[jerryq7777]

Humax 9200.

[lostinspace]

Originally Posted by spike99

Got mine from Tesco a month or two back, initilly impressed then got the skip back issue and now locking up. It will be going back this week. But what to get in its stead!

Mine's been Ok apart from the skip back thing which is annoying but not too bad.
If mine does go wrong, I'll not replace it with anything. I'll put up with my DVD Recorder for a few months until Freesat boxes with recording capability arrive.

Don't know much about the Humax except my mate had one. Took it back because it missed some recordings.

[Chadruharazzeb]

I'm close to chucking this piece of junk in the bin. It has taken it upon itself to lose all BBC channels. No matter how many time I re-scan it never picks them up. I have tried retuning it on three different aerials and it still won't work. There doesn't seem to be any way of manually tuning this crap box.

I have reverted to factory settings and I have gone back a software version, I have formatted the HD (for what it's worth).

Any tips before it's reduced to ashes?

[Chadruharazzeb]

The fire is prepared to cremate this piece of crap.

[jerryq7777]

Originally Posted by Chadruharazzeb

The fire is prepared to cremate this piece of crap.

Dont blame you mate its full of bugs get a refund if you can.

[pxr5]

Mine does work OK apart from the ff/rw problems. But the biggest pain is it locking up. It seems totally variable too - it can last weeks, then lock up every day for a few days then be OK again for a bit. I wouldn't mind too much if it had a power toggle switch somewhere, but pulling out the mains lead at the back is a total PITA for me.

I certainly wouldn't recommend one of these to anybody, despite their cheap price. I also can't believe they are allowed to get away with selling these, so many people must be returning them Thomson must be making a loss.