davyboy

I don't want much from the device.

- Twin tuner

- Reliable

It would appear reliability is the hardest thing with these things. I currently have one, and when it works is great but it does like rebooting when the Hard disk is called in to action.

...and I don't want to pay for Sky +

Nimbus

What do you have at the moment?

I have a Topfield TF5800 PVR. Has twin digital tuners so allowing the recording of two freeview channels at once and playing back another at the same time. While it does have some niggles, it's main feature for me is the ability to change the way it works with TAPs. These are small TSR programs that can change the EPG, time functions, MP3 playing and many more. You can also transfer the recordings to PC to make you're on DVDs.

Take a look at Welcome to Toppy.org.uk for more info.

I've also heard people recommend the Humax 9200T which my other choice when I was looking for a PVR, but the flexibility of the TAPs swung it in the Topfield direction.

davyboy

Some Goodmans thing I bought on impulse on a weekly shop to Sainsburys.

I think it's a great bit of kit, just a bit buggy and no twin tuner.

douglasb

A few months ago, I asked a similar question and Nimbus mentioned the Topfield. I bought it and am delighted!

I haven't used Sky since buying the Toppy so I'll be cancelling the Sky subscription thus the Toppy pays for itself within a year.

I'm looking at a DVD recorder now so that I can archive programmes that I want to keep.

Nimbus

Glad it's going OK. Have you added any TAPs yet or still running it vanilla?

douglasb

Still running vanilla. I've got the sound hooked up through an onld Sony amp and Acoustic Research speakers which makes music programmes sound amazing!

I get more and more impressed with the thing the more I use it. The way that it remembers how much of a programme you've watched and then goes back to that point when you select the programme from the list and press "Play" is cool.

Nimbus

I only updated the firmware to .25 last month and now have this as well (.09 which I had before did not). My main reason I did this was to use the patched firmware to set the correct time if there was a power cut. I think I'll wait for a while before going for the latest F/W, though I'm tempted for the improved EPG, especially as I've added UK Auto Scheduler to give me key word searches for timer settings.

It's certainly changed the way we watch television and can not imagine life without it now. All I need is a spare 40 hours to watch all the stuff I've recorded.

GC8

After all the arrogant snide remarks that you have made here about people buying cheap pikey kit; I have no sympathy for you.

Were you bullied at school?

davyboy

Yep I agree, it was a full on pikey mistake, just like buying a Subaru.

Buy cheap buy twice and all that.

Why the hell would I want sympathy? - I've kept my reciept and will keep using it until I make a decision on what to buy next, it's not like I'm £80 down.

I was bullied a little and did some in return