Help on choice of PVR or DVD recorder

Anyone out there had experience of DVD and digital TV recording? Any digital TV buffs out there??

I have a good quality analogue telly which I do not want to replace. Trouble is, we go digital on 8th April. Do I:

(a) buy a set top box for the TV and a Sony HXD HXD890 DVD/HDD recorder (with single tuner)?
or
(b) buy a Humax P9300T PVR with twin tuner?

(a) gives me ability to record on DVDs but is expensive option (Sony gets the best reviews) and (from what I understand) DVD records from what is buffered on to HDD, so some loss of quality.
(b) less expensive, but can't record on DVDs, and Humax gets dubious reviews because of noisy fan.

What should I do??

You could, of course, give up watching TV etc and read a book and listen to the radio.

You could go for a DVD recorder with hard drive - that way you've got the option to either record on disc or hard drive. I just got a Panasonic and I have to say, so far, I can't fault it. I've already got a Panny DVD recorder but wanted the hard drive too.

Not sure about the set top boxes. I've got an old analogue TV in the bedroom which is absolutely great and I went and picked up a set top box in Tesco yesterday (thinking that they must all be about the same). It's crap. I don't get any BBC channels on it and only about a dozen other channels. You might think it's my aerial, but the DVD recorder with built in freeview is rigged up with it and the picture on it is perfect. So I'm guessing that not all set top boxes are the same!

First rate advice from Swidders, though it's unlikely that you possess a strong enough constitution to act upon it. Even if you did declare Chez Handyman a TV free zone and renounced the magic rectangle you would probably placed under sentence of death by the family.

Alison's advice is, then, perhaps more realistic.

I bought a Panny recorder with HDD a couple of years back for my folks. It has been an excellent piece of kit and allows for pretty decent editing facilities - in the form of DVD-Ram which (at the time) were deemed superior to those offered by Sony. The 200GB hard drive allows for around 80 hours of recorded material in decent quality. The EPG (electronic program guide) makes for pretty straightforward timer recordings.

I think the current Panasonic models come with even larger hard drives but to see how they compare with the prevailing models from Sony and for that matter Pioneer, Phillips etc have a look here at this spot-on website.

Here's where they deal with the PVRs. I have heard some good things about the Humax and no complaints re fans.

The folks have a set-top box also. This is five or six years old but picks up pretty much the same channels as the Panny. If you are unsure of what stations you should be receiving in your area have a nose at these sites:

www.wolfbane.com/cgi-bin/tvd.exe?DX=L&HT=10&OS=

and
www.ukfree.tv/fullstory.php?storyid=1107051150]

Guys, brilliant. Thanks. Exactly what I wanted: some genuine experience. I will research the links you gave in more detail.

As far as giving up telly is concerened, that's a no-no. Even the dog would lynch me!

At the end of the day, I just want to watch (and record) the basic channels - at the best possible quality. I think we're getting 20 ch at switchover, which is probably 5 times more than I'll ever use.

I've got a Humax 9150T and, to be honest, it is fantastic - Does everything I wanted, and more.

Also, with the twin tuner, you can record two things and still watching something else (though admittedly from a reduced list - something to do with being on the same MUX as the recorded programmes)

The noisy fan has been solved now, with an over-the-air software update. It used to be on permanently, but now only when necessary.

I'd ask myself "am I actually bothered about archiving anything?".

It goes like this: every Christmas when I was a kid, my dad would buy some VHS tapes to record the Christmas films on. Pre-recorded videos were ridiculous prices back then (remember when it was more than £100 for a blockbuster movie on VHS?). Over the years we ended up with loads of tapes we watched once or twice and then put in the cupboard. They're all in the loft collecting dust now.

But now the Christmas films are mostly poo, and DVDs can be had so cheaply at the supermarket and online.

I find that a PVR suits me just fine as I just use it to set up recordings that I will watch when it suits me. So, I only watch things once (sometimes twice if I save it for the OH to watch later). I see no need to have last week's "Top Gear" on a DVD for posterity in years to come!

But, if you want to record things to keep (copyright laws may apply ) then a DVD recorder is easiest (although I believe Humax do ones that hook up to your PC via USB to archive recordings)

There's more to this than meets the eye, what with technicalities of "buffering limitations", "chase-recording", "bit-rates", and all sorts of other difficult-to-understand terms, but thanks to your comments and excellent link to AV forum (which I hadn't found before) I've made a decision: I'm going for the Humax 9300T option.

It intrigues me in some of these reviews how two people can have completely opposite experiences over the same issue. I can understand that subjective opinions may differ, but not with technicalities: either the machine does something or it doesn't! How can there be two opinions on that?! It's all very confusing for an AV virgin.

Anyway, its Humax PVR until digital transmission goes country-wide and HD becomes the norm. Then I'll get a new TV!

I believe the differing views are because the tv programmes are in different formats depending on the channel.

For instance, I use a hauppage card in my pc and some films can be put on dvd and played in my dvd player. But with others the dvd player stops playing after 30 mins, eventhough they play fine on the pc. I can overcome this by converting them to dvd format. Despite extensive searches, I've never really got to the bottom of the problem just found my own workround..

I think recording to DVD is a bit old fashioned now.
It's one thing if you want to play DVDs.

I've been keeping an eye on the Humax boxes for a while.
My concern is that an HD version will be out soon when they finally decide the freeview HD formats and make it a bit out of date.

I think these days you buy an external hard disk to back up your PC and media. You can even get ones that act as a basic player so you can plug it in and view your videos and pictures.

One thing to check with the Humax is whether you can transfer to PC easily.
There's a good Humax forum.
I think some of the later models had their usb port disabled from when I was looking into it.

I'm not sure what the fan noise is like.
Someone at work has an old model and said its OK.
My Playstation 2 is very noisy, but I don't notice that unless its late night viewing with the sound down

There was a time where Humax was your only real option, but it's a bit more difficult now.

The Humax ones upscale the SD broadcasts, so give something approaching HD anyhow; you can see the same effect between Sky+ and old Sky boxes (hawk, spit). There is a Humax Foxsat HD PVR which gets Freesat as opposed to Freeview, uses the same Sky dish and connections, but a bit like hens' teeth at the moment - £299 or thereabouts.

ETA available now and price is dropping: Linky