Free from the shackles of VM, what now??

[bairdyboy1980]

For the last 8 years i have had the displeasure of having services from Virgin Media. Now that we are moving house, I am sick of having to pay £70 a month for something i can get for free from freeview.

The question is what is the best freeview PVR out at the moment? It needs to have slick user interfaces. Or is it worth waiting for abit for a particular advance??

New to freeview so dont have clue really.

 

[Tight Git]

Sorry to disappoint you, but the selection of channels available on Freeview will be considerably less than your £70 per month from cable.

If you're happy with those, why didn't you get Freeview at your last address?

 

[bairdyboy1980]

Lol i know the channels will be less but there is so much crap on VM. I didnt get freeview as i want the V+ box as there wasnt any freeview ones at the time. This isnt really what this thread is for... i just want advice with what freeview PVR's are the best...

 

[grahamlthompson]

Do you want Freeview+ HD pvr or just a Freeview+ SD pvr ?

 

[Gavtech]

Do you want Freeview+ HD pvr or just a Freeview+ SD pvr ?

Perhaps at this stage of development it is worth advising the OP that he should be looking for an HD unit - even if he cannot yet receive it as it will not be long in coming.

bairdyboy1980 - Do you know in advance that the location you are moving to is a reception area for Freeview ... and if the area has yet undergone the digital switch over?

 

[bairdyboy1980]

Do you want Freeview+ HD pvr or just a Freeview+ SD pvr ?

Want HD to future proof

 

[bairdyboy1980]

Perhaps at this stage of development it is worth advising the OP that he should be looking for an HD unit - even if he cannot yet receive it as it will not be long in coming.

bairdyboy1980 - Do you know in advance that the location you are moving to is a reception area for Freeview ... and if the area has yet undergone the digital switch over?

Yes and yes lol

 

[lbear]

The normal reply for this is the Humax HDR Fox T2. Still judged the best by Which (tho that does not say much given the howlers in their latest review where again they managed to rate two clones differently). Cheapest retailer will be Richer Sounds and note their refundable five year warantee for 10% of the purchase price.

Box has a lovely version of BBC iPlayer through the Humax Portal via broadband - in HD 720p if your connection is fast enough. Comes with either a 500Gb or 1Tb hard drive. You can backup/archive to a separate USB hard drive if it gets full. Also recognises the trailer booking facility from the BBC and C4 and the BBC HD simulcast flag.

 

[lbear]

A further consideration. Check your new property in the postcode checker at digitaluk.co.uk , ticking the "I am in the aerial installation trade" box. If the result shows green results in the six or seven columns for each mux, you will be OK with an external aerial. If you only get three columns, you will be in a 'Freeview lite' area served by a relay and you will only get a limited number of channels.

An alternative, which will give you one more HD channel (OK, its an English language news/documentary station from Japan) but many more other channels, is Freesat, now including all the Five channels and their +1 versions but not Five HD. For a Freesat PVRyou will need a satellite dish with at least a 'dual LNB' installed with two leads to supply it. An old Sky+ setup will do but otherwise the cost of installation should be about 120. The equivalent Humax Freesat PVR is the Foxsat HDR although that only has the standard BBC iPlayer and not the extras on their portal like Flikr or internet radio. It does however have ITVPlayer.

If you want to get really into it and upgrade the dish (or a second one), the Humax Foxsat will let you access other satellite 'clusters' at different positions so you can get foreign language channels or even Formula 1 racing without having to pay Sky.

 

[bairdyboy1980]

A further consideration. Check your new property in the postcode checker at digitaluk.co.uk , ticking the "I am in the aerial installation trade" box. If the result shows green results in the six or seven columns for each mux, you will be OK with an external aerial. If you only get three columns, you will be in a 'Freeview lite' area served by a relay and you will only get a limited number of channels.

An alternative, which will give you one more HD channel (OK, its an English language news/documentary station from Japan) but many more other channels, is Freesat, now including all the Five channels and their +1 versions but not Five HD. For a Freesat PVRyou will need a satellite dish with at least a 'dual LNB' installed with two leads to supply it. An old Sky+ setup will do but otherwise the cost of installation should be about 120. The equivalent Humax Freesat PVR is the Foxsat HDR although that only has the standard BBC iPlayer and not the extras on their portal like Flikr or internet radio. It does however have ITVPlayer.

If you want to get really into it and upgrade the dish (or a second one), the Humax Foxsat will let you access other satellite 'clusters' at different positions so you can get foreign language channels or even Formula 1 racing without having to pay Sky.

It says freeview HD is "not available" but maybe available in the future. I ideally want freeview as i didnt want a dish...

 

[Rodders53]

Click on the Trade View link on the rhs of the digitaluk page to get your fully detailed predictions and dates.
This gives the coloured squares referred to in earlier posts.