Thinking of packing in Sky. They have put up their fees yet again. A friend has a Digibox and although an older model seemed pretty good. Reasonable choice of channels and all for free!

What I would like is a simple user-friendly on screen menu, plus if at all possible, an internal hard drive for recording.

What I want, therefore, is a Digibox equivalent of the Sky+ system, but without the £10 per month subscription for the recording option and the subscriptions for all the channels.

Any ideas, please?

I use the Nokia Mediamaster 221T, it's small and easy to use/has a good navigation system and easily available. Sound/picture quality is probably as good as you are likely to find (anyone know of better?). It costs slightly more than most Freeview boxes at around £120/£130. I don't know if there are any Freeview boxes out there that can record ala SKY+

"Be my lover, don't cause me pain, just play me John Coltrane"

I have slightly amended Richard's words because they are so close to those used by my youngest (18 year old) last night, when she respecified her latest Xmas wish list. (only God knows what it will be tomorrow....she certainly doesn't...)

What I would like is a reasonable choice of channels and all for free! a simple user-friendly on screen menu, plus if at all possible, an internal hard drive for recording.

What I want, therefore, is a Digibox equivalent of the Sky+ system, but without the £10 per month subscription for the recording option and the subscriptions for all the channels.

So, no help to Richard, but bright ideas could help quite a few of us out in the next day or two!

Cheers

Don

Well, there's the Pace Twin at around £227 [http://www.pvruk.co.uk/] which offers some of the functionality of Sky+ [live pause/rewind/twin tuners etc] but is rather hampered by its very stingy hard drive [20gig, as opposed to Sky's fairly stingy 40gig], and the fact that the planner [EPG] only covers two days, compared with Sky's fourteen. Maybe there's a manual record function for longer periods? There look to be some alternatives coming next year which might be more tempting, but with Sky's dominance and undeniably flashy features, it's hard to see the Japanese majors being that interested in the UK market until the rest of Europe has embraced digital TV.

As part of the remit of Freeview, a proper EPG is on its way, but even that will only cover the next 7 day period. The Pace unit hasn't had brilliant reviews, but is the only current choice if you want to watch one channel while recording another without using an analogue signal as well.

I think the problem is that as Sky sells its boxes at cost or slightly below, the market for competitors is rather tenuous. Also, EPG's cost serious money to create and maintain. Even when a good alternative existed [Tivo], the extra whack you had to pay as a one-off to avoid the subscription didn't tempt many people, [or maybe they didn't actually realise what the box did] and Tivo has withdrawn from the UK.

Microsoft [don't laugh] is developing a bells & whistles EPG to support its XP Media Centre TV/computer things, but even if anyone wants it, it will be supscription based, and I'm not entirely sure whether having a choice of meglomaniacs to throw money at is likely to expand the market.

throb

Not sure there's any Freeview boxes with the capabilities of the Sky+ box.

For a good Freeview box though, I totally love my Netgem i-player (www.netgem.com).
It's exceptionally fast, with a good picture and sound and there's something rather cool about browsing the music room here and being able to click on a music sample and listen to it through the system!

Andy.

I wonder if a suitably specified PC would make sense (assuming such a thing exists). There's an efficient processor available that doesn't need a cooling fan [I think it's called Crusoe] and you can get special outer cases for hard discs to keep them quiet. I have no idea what sort of DVD drives and digital TV tuners are available, though, and expect such a PC would cost well over £200, even if self built.

But perhaps it's worth a thought - opinions anyone?

--J

Don't make the mistake that I made. Make sure it comes with 2 scart sockets so that you can still hook up a video without having to switch to a specific channel.

The only advice I can offer is which Freeview box NOT to buy. We have a Panasonic and it's pants. Good reception (duh!) and very user friendly but clunky and buggy, requiring frequent power downs when it locks up. Avoid.

RE Sky + you can minimise your costs by cancelling the program subscriptions and only pay the Sky+ subscriptioon - this will give you the FTA programs eg the BBC offerings and depending on what Sky card you have Channel 4, ITV and 5

For more dtailed discussions on these topics I suggest you lurk on the

uk.tech.digital-tv newsgroup where this type of question comes up frequently

Also check out the following web sites

http://www.dtg.org.uk/

http://www.digitalradiotech.co.uk/ actually this is about DAB

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/

http://www.itc.org.uk/the_digital_age/free_to_view/index.asp

http://www.consumerdeals.co.uk/freeview.html

http://skydigitalfaq.cjb.net/

http://www.freeview.co.uk/howtogetfreeview/aerialsandreception.html

http://www.bbc.co.uk/digital/channels.shtml


Some of these are commercial sites some are informational

There may be other sites so a good thrash on Google will keep you busy for a while.

Derek

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[This message was edited by Derek Wright on SATURDAY 13 December 2003 at 12:32.]

Another caveat

Most of the cheap ones do not display the channel number - they just show a red or green light for on/off.

I'm very pleased with my Nokia Mediamaster (which does show the channel number)

This box looks interesting - Richer are selling these for circa £80, it offers a similarly fast CPU to the Netgem and some reports I've read look promising in terms of speed and stability.

I like the fact that the remote is in effect a universal remote that can be programmed to operate the TV too, saving the remote population rise a bit

http://www.pioneer.co.uk/uk/company_news_pressrelease.jsp?category=Freeview_receiver

The manual is here

quote:

---

The only advice I can offer is which Freeview box NOT to buy. We have a Panasonic and it's pants. Good reception (duh!) and very user friendly but clunky and buggy, requiring frequent power downs when it locks up. Avoid.

---

I second this. The green screen of death. And not cheap either.

Mike

i think sky have abandoned the extra £10 monthly fee now and all you pay is the initial purchase price and the chosen monthly subscription.

what were barn owls called before barns were invented?

Jason G - The £10 subscription for Sky+ is only cancelled if you take a premium channel package subscription ie lots of money per month

If you only have the entry level or no package then you still pay the Sky+ subscription

Derek

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