After deciding that i can no longer afford a massive subscription to watch "Ross Kemp on gangs" for 462nd time i am reluctantly coming round to the idea of losing Sky Plus.

What am i looking for to replace it is a twin tuner Freeview Hard disc recorder with built in DVD recorder, any suggestions?

Just a thought, but have you tried to get a better deal out of Sky.

Not quite the same situation, but I rang a while back and was quoted

Just a thought, but have you tried to get a better deal out of Sky.

Not quite the same situation, but I rang a while back and was quoted

There are no twin tuner freeview boxes with DVD recorder.

Sony do a couple of single tuner ones with DVD-RW , and there are plenty of twin tuner hard drive only models such as the Humax PVR9200T which I have.

That one has a USB output so you can copy files onto a PC for burning to disk if you want to keep it

get a dvd recorder with HD (Lighton are fairly reasonably priced and well specced) then use unsubscribed Sky box (that will still recieve free channels) to tv and DVD. If you want to tape and watch something different get a cheap freeview box to link to one or other.ie tape one whilst watching other HTH

I've got a Thomson twin tuner PVR, it's very good apart from the small-ish HD although THB I haven't got to a situation where it's too full for ages. It hasn't got a built in DVDR though, as the Dr says I don't think there is one on the market.

get a dvd recorder with HD (Lighton are fairly reasonably priced and well specced) then use unsubscribed Sky box (that will still recieve free channels) to tv and DVD. If you want to tape and watch something different get a cheap freeview box to link to one or other.ie tape one whilst watching other HTH

Doing it that way would mean setting two timers to record a single program.

Vastly more hassle than using the EPG on a decent PVR.

Doing it that way would mean setting two timers to record a single program.

Vastly more hassle than using the EPG on a decent PVR.

.....and of course you wouldn't have the benefit of pausing, rewinding etc.. of live TV. That's one of the features I really miss when at other peoples houses or watching TV upstairs.

Phew! Food for thought there, thanks everyone!

I've got a Thomson twin tuner PVR

i had one of those , the HDD cooling fan was unbelievably noisy and it ran all the time , :thumbdwn: just seen a Panasonic DVD recorder with single Freeview tuner and 160GB HDD , i think i read that it would record to all formats inc DVD RAM , about £400 aswell

.....and of course you wouldn't have the benefit of pausing, rewinding etc.. of live TV. That's one of the features I really miss when at other peoples houses or watching TV upstairs.

FYI the DVD recorder I mention will pause live tv, why would you have to set 2 timers? set station on sat/freeview and set timer on DVD.

FYI the DVD recorder I mention will pause live tv, why would you have to set 2 timers? set station on sat/freeview and set timer on DVD.

What if you want to record a few programs on different channels (not necessarily at the same time) or you set the timer to record something in advance but then forget to leave the set top box on the right channel because you've been watching something else?

FYI the DVD recorder I mention will pause live tv, why would you have to set 2 timers? set station on sat/freeview and set timer on DVD.

True enough , but thats only if you want to record a single program.

If you want to record a couple of things through the evening you have to set the digital decoder to swap channels as well as scheduling the timer on the recorder.

You'll end up with missed recordings because someone left it on the wrong channel or set the timer incorrectly.

Compare that to using a decent hard drive PVR. Press the guide button - scroll back and forth through the program guide picking the programs you want with a single click and thats it. You can record two channels at once and also play back an existing recording at the same time , plus pad a few minutes onto each end to take schedule drift into account..

Cabling everything together is also much simpler.

Oh ,and the buffering of live TV happens automatically unlike having to manually do it with a DVD-RAM disk.

What if you want to record a few programs on different channels (not necessarily at the same time) or you set the timer to record something in advance but then forget to leave the set top box on the right channel because you've been watching something else?

Set dvd recorder for programme times, switch programmes over on set top box using Auto View. DVD will allways be recording from same source so no probs. The original post was to get rid of SKy + and possibly Sky subs all together, IMO getting a HD DVD recorder and a simple Freeview box alongside the existing Sky box (without subs, free to air only) will be the cheapest method of doing what was originally asked. Also this way if a component fails the whole lot does not have to be junked unlike in an integrated set up.

Set dvd recorder for programme times, switch programmes over on set top box using Auto View. DVD will allways be recording from same source so no probs. The original post was to get rid of SKy + and possibly Sky subs all together, IMO getting a HD DVD recorder and a simple Freeview box alongside the existing Sky box (without subs, free to air only) will be the cheapest method of doing what was originally asked. Also this way if a component fails the whole lot does not have to be junked unlike in an integrated set up.

That's about right, in essence a cheap version of sky plus, but obviously with less channels...