richms: How about changing to non approved firmware to remove them from needing to adhiere to crazy limits on what you can copy and what you can skip?
IMO having freeviews name on the box is more of a warning than a feature.
Yep will add features but will sell hardly any PVRs. I know that loads of us, especially those on the forum, will buy non-approved receivers from online resellers if they have the features and work well. But the reality is that it is just not enough people for a big manufacturer. The only way they can sell enough to make it pay for itself is to have Freeview approval and sell it in the retail stores.
Catch 22!!! There are other options of course but none are quite as good as the approved ones because the approved ones sell enough to allow the manufacturers to add Mheg-5 and the booking features that come with it. But these same approved models have the other restrictions that Freeview is obliged to demand, obliged by the broadcasters/content providers.