HD alternatives to SKY pvr?

[Bill Hicks]

Having been a sky plus owner for the past 2 years i now want to upgrade to HD television but i don't want to buy a sky hd box (unless i have to!) What alternatives to the sky hd pvr are there on the market? I still intend to use my paid sky viewing card but i want to access the free HD services (BBC, C4 etc!) If there is no other HD pvr manufacturer other than the Tomson sky hd pvr & i have to get it, can i just connect the 2 coax cables from my mini dish, insert my existing sky plus card and away i go, or will i have to subscribe to a sky package? Many thanks....

[Smith2004]

There are two HD PVR boxes from Technomate, the 6900 and 6800. The 6900 has a satellite tuner and a Freeview tuner, with the 6800 possessing the satellite tuner only. Both are able to record HD broadcasts (and SD) if you add a hard disk via USB2. You can then transfer your recordings to a PC for archiving if you wish (something you can't do with Sky). You don't get a satellite EPG like Sky, however, only 'now and next'. There's also a new box from Topfield (TF7710) which has 2 satellite tuners and a hard disk already built-in. This box has the advantage of being able to record two channels at once (or record from one channel and watch another at the same time), but I'm not sure whether it allows you to off-load your recordings to a PC- it's manual appears a bit vague on this matter. All of these boxes will receive the free to air HD channels (as well as the SD ones of course), but I'm not familiar enough with them to know whether you can use an existing Sky card with them. AFAIK, you will need a particular CAM, and I believe that you will will need to place the card back within an Sky box every so often to keep the card 'active' as it were. I'm no expert on card matters (I'm only interested in free to air stuff myself), but others on the forums should be able to advise you.

There should be more HD PVR models by Spring when the BBC / ITV/ C4 / C5 freesat service launches.

[zag2me]

Thanks, I just came to these forums to ask exactly the same thing.

I live in a newbuild flat that has a sky connection for free channels but I have no intention of paying sky a subscription. I just want BBCHD and C4HD thats all as freeview looks complete pap on my 46" LCD

Will look into those boxes.

Sky are charging £399 for their box without a subscription which seems very high and you cant copy recordings to your pc as far as I'm aware.

[Mildoo]

Currys are doing sky hd for £99 at the moment.

Maplins have a few HD freeview boxes and one of them upscales sd pictures as well.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...e=14&doy=14m12

[Starburst]

Originally Posted by zag2me

Sky are charging £399 for their box without a subscription which seems very high and you cant copy recordings to your pc as far as I'm aware.

You can buy them much cheaper via third parties and since you don't need an installation so you are all set for BBC HD, buy a £20 Freesatfromsky smartcard and that gives you CH4HD and the box will continue to provide FTA HD channels as and when they appear.

Of course no DVR functions (without paying SKY for at least one service) so if you want a fully fledged HD DVR with a viable EPG then Freesat will be the answer (although no Ch4HD until a few months after the expected launch sometime Spring 2008) but at this time no idea on prices but probably more expensive than their DVR Freeview counterparts thanks to limited production and ore expensive HD components.

Looking forward to a HD DVR Freesat box, good alternative for HD and certainly I believe far more practical and viable than waiting for DTT HD.

[digitalpete]

if you are a sky subscriber purchase a sky hd box from ebay for about £250 but dont upgrade your subscription to hd. this way you will recieve the free to air hd programming whilst keeping the sky+ function for all channels and also then have 160gb of storage for your recordings.

[Smith2004]

New Humax freesat HD PVR coming soon, see link:

http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/ne...h-hd-box.phtml

Not much in the way of detail yet, but here's hoping it'll be something like the Icord HD box Humax sell in Germany and elsewhere. If it is then it looks like I'll be booting Sky HD into touch early next year.

[zag2me]

Originally Posted by Smith2004

New Humax freesat HD PVR coming soon, see link:

http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/ne...h-hd-box.phtml

Not much in the way of detail yet, but here's hoping it'll be something like the Icord HD box Humax sell in Germany and elsewhere. If it is then it looks like I'll be booting Sky HD into touch early next year.

That sounds awesome Guess we have to wait for next year!

Does anyone actually have the Freesat HD box from Maplins? Not bad for £160 quid but I think I will wait for the humax to be released.

[Starburst]

Originally Posted by zag2me

That sounds awesome

Does anyone actually have the Freesat HD box from Maplins? Not bad for £160 quid but I think I will wait for the humax to be released.

There is no such thing as an official Freesat box on the open market as of yet.

While it's semantics the Freesat service (BBC/ITV venture along side major manufacturers) provides a full EPG at both the broadcast and viewers ends as well as full interactive elements (as used on SKY and Freeview) so a generic FTA satellite box on the market now has no guarantee it will support the EPG and Interactive.

If you buy a FTA box now just be aware of what it can and can not do

[zag2me]

Yeh just been reading about the Freesat stuff, guess its worth waiting until "spring" 2008.