Freeview box decision

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2886 posts

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#982781 9-Feb-2014 16:17

I doubt you will get a unit that has an external hard drive and doesn't encrypt the recordings. Plus, your budget is a bit on the light side for your preferred feature list.

Your four options are:

1. The Panasonic XW390 that I recommended to you. Take material off either over the LAN (using Twonky as B1GGLZ advised) or by burning a DVD only (which will restrict you to SD) - and then ripping the disk using a computer to compress/archive the material. I do the DVD->Rip option quite a bit, using DVD-R and DVD-RW, and it's not that hard.

2. The Panasonic BWT720 BluRay recorder B1GGLZ recommends. Same as (1) above, but you can burn the material in HD to a Blu Ray instead if you want. Ripping it would obviously require a PC with a Blu Ray drive.

3. A PC based solution using a tuner. If you already have a laptop, a USB dual tuner will set you back about $120 and probably come with a remote control. Not as user friendly as the Panasonic solutions, but by far the most powerful and flexible. Plus, avoids all the mandatory crippling that infects Freeview-accredited boxes.

4. Find a non-accredited STB that records to an external hard drive. These used to be available, I don't know if they still are. Since they aren't Freeview-crippled they likely don't encrypt recordings, or restrict useful features like 60-second skipping. The downside is support can be patchy, and they likely don't have a working Freeview EPG.

Other than a tuner for an existing laptop, you will almost certainly overshoot your $350 budget to get a good solution.

B1GGLZ

1961 posts

Uber Geek

#982806 9-Feb-2014 16:42

What JimmyH says.
Pay the extra and get a Panasonic. Well worth it.
The old adage holds good with PVRs "you get what you pay for".

Edit oops, spelling.

markboynz

45 posts

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#983103 10-Feb-2014 00:26

Thanks guys, I'll look into the Panasonic, see what I can work out.

bazzer

3438 posts

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#983265 10-Feb-2014 12:27

B1GGLZ: The old adage holds good with PVRs "you get what you pay for".

You'd think so, right? The JCMatthew Freeview-approved DVR320T that retailed for $800 is now an expensive paperweight. I'm hesitant to buy any PVR now for fear that Freeview will make in obsolete within 2-4 years.

B1GGLZ

1961 posts

Uber Geek

#983323 10-Feb-2014 14:07

bazzer:
B1GGLZ: The old adage holds good with PVRs "you get what you pay for".

You'd think so, right? The JCMatthew Freeview-approved DVR320T that retailed for $800 is now an expensive paperweight. I'm hesitant to buy any PVR now for fear that Freeview will make in obsolete within 2-4 years.

Well if it's no longer fit for the purpose as advertised you can always claim a refund under the CGA. If enough people did so the manufacturers just might get their act together.

bazzer

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#983363 10-Feb-2014 14:40

B1GGLZ:
bazzer:
B1GGLZ: The old adage holds good with PVRs "you get what you pay for".

You'd think so, right? The JCMatthew Freeview-approved DVR320T that retailed for $800 is now an expensive paperweight. I'm hesitant to buy any PVR now for fear that Freeview will make in obsolete within 2-4 years.

Well if it's no longer fit for the purpose as advertised you can always claim a refund under the CGA. If enough people did so the manufacturers just might get their act together.

I'm trying, but the retailer is being a nuisance. I suppose if I don't have any luck with them, I can try the manufacturer but that seems more difficult to me because I am trying to reject the goods and get a refund. Does this come under Section 27 where the goods could be considered worthless now and therefore the damages amount to the price paid?

bfginger

1268 posts

Uber Geek

#983388 10-Feb-2014 15:32

The Freeview website says the XW390 doesn't support Freeview Plus which means you may be unable to watch future Freeview content on IPTV.

Lenovo

Shop now for Lenovo laptops and other devices (affiliate link).

B1GGLZ

1961 posts

Uber Geek

#983428 10-Feb-2014 16:24

bazzer:
I'm trying, but the retailer is being a nuisance. I suppose if I don't have any luck with them, I can try the manufacturer but that seems more difficult to me because I am trying to reject the goods and get a refund. Does this come under Section 27 where the goods could be considered worthless now and therefore the damages amount to the price paid?

I haven't read the act thoroughly but I would think that would be between the Retailer and the Manufacturer if you are dealing with the retailer. They can recover costs from the Manufacturer. I think you'll find most retailers will give in if faced with a Small Claims Tribunal summons. Maybe visit your local neighbourhood Law Office (if you can find one) for some advice?

JefWright

85 posts

Master Geek

#1001881 9-Mar-2014 20:43

Am I the only person who finds 2 tuners to be very limiting? How does everyone else get around the broadcasters' desire to compete head-to-head by airing their highest quality material at exactly the same time every week?

B1GGLZ

1961 posts

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#1001888 9-Mar-2014 21:06

JefWright: Am I the only person who finds 2 tuners to be very limiting? How does everyone else get around the broadcasters' desire to compete head-to-head by airing their highest quality material at exactly the same time every week?

Well I have a Panasonic which has 2 Tuners and as a backup for the very rare occasion when this happens I use the HVR2200 in my PC which also has 2 tuners.

JimmyH

2886 posts

Uber Geek

#1001906 9-Mar-2014 21:37

It's not that common. Quite frankly there's so little good material on Freeview that I rarely find there's material worth watching on two channels at once, let alone on 3. In fact, often there's nothing I want to watch on FV in a whole evening.....

On the rare occasions it happens (usually when one tuner is busy with the Sky box feed), I either record it later off one of the +1 channels or do without. If I really need it, I have a STB upstairs that I can also use for recording.

richms

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#1001908 9-Mar-2014 21:39

I would just use pirate bay or possibly on demand if I was really desperate, but to be honest there is nothing on freeview that I haven't already seen usually that would warrant that effort

Richard rich.ms

markboynz

45 posts

Geek

#1032270 27-Apr-2014 22:45

Just to follow up on this, I eventually managed to make the budget stretch a bit, and picked up a Panasonic BWT835GZ from JB on special for just under $500.

2 tuners, 1TB HDD, UHF, plus bluray player, and ability to burn to DVD, which looks like it'll be the best way for me to back up content. Ability to remotely set it to record is nice. And I'm going to mess around to see if I can get the content via the Wifi via DLNA etc on this model.

Only had it a few hours, but relatively impressed so far.

HiroProtagonist

47 posts

Geek

#1035326 2-May-2014 10:33

JefWright: Am I the only person who finds 2 tuners to be very limiting? How does everyone else get around the broadcasters' desire to compete head-to-head by airing their highest quality material at exactly the same time every week?

I got sick of the restrictions of a freeview branded PVR [HD programs can be copied, but they're encrypted, +- 10 min skipping etc], plus I decided I didn't want to be tied to a single room. My house is networked, why should I be forced to watch something in the same room it was recorded?

So I rolled my own. I now have a Raspberry Pi powered box with 3 USB DVB-T tuners running TVheadend. In addition it also runs NFS serving other content. This cost a fraction of the price of any freeview PVR, while providing facilities you can't buy for any price.

Each TV has it's own Pi running Raspbmc which can access the TVheadend server, or content on the NFS server, or streaming via the web.

Anyone contemplating this sort of setup should avoid wifi. Although you can serve HD content over wifi, more than one user trying to do so at once doesn't work too well.

SumnerBoy

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#1035328 2-May-2014 10:37

Hey Hiro,

I run a very similar setup. Except I only have a single tuner PCI card in my home server which runs TVHeadend and serves a couple of Pis running Raspbmc.

I am interested in upgrading the number of tuners as I just recently dumped MySky so need the ability to watch one channel while recording another etc.

Unfortunately where I am I can only get a satellite feed (i.e. no DVD-T).

What version of TVHeadend are you running BTW?

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