Mum has a Dish 1050 Freeview box and is getting annoyed with it randomly recording / not recording things, and has asked me what's around that will let her just tell the box what channel to record and when instead of going through the EPG like she did with the good old bulletproof vcr.

I've spent the morning trawling around and have found the Panasonic boxes which would do it nicely (and also posts from people who have had nothing but trouble with them), what else is out there ? 

Thanks