Quick Freeview question...

Ambermile · Post by **Ambermile** » 25 Nov 2008, 11:42am

Hi all, hoping someone can help here. We currently have a Philips Freeview box with a hard drive and a Topup TV subscription and to be honest, it's cr*p. The Freevies part is fine but the Topup part is not real channels at all, simply recording from the aired programmes when we were expecting to just be able to click the channel number and sit back and watch. This is annoying for many reasons, eg. you cant rely on published programme times, not all programmes are available, the recorder freezes 99 times out of a hundred anyway, etc.

What I want to know is does anbody know how I can just get the extra channels available from the remote without all the faffing about with recording and so on? I realise this will mean a new box and so on but I am going mad here - so are the rest of the family since it was my idea to go this route in the first place! Help!

Arthur

hulver · Post by **hulver** » 25 Nov 2008, 11:51am

I ditched top-up TV. The channels are rubbish, as they're only on air at weird times of the day. So on the rare occasion the channel is showing something you want to see, you can't see it because it's not being broadcast on top-up at that time.

I found it Junk, and got rid of it.

Ambermile · Post by **Ambermile** » 25 Nov 2008, 11:52am

Mainly true, but they pretty much come as part of the Setanta package - and with an 11 yr old footie freak we need the peace!

Arthur

hulver · Post by **hulver** » 25 Nov 2008, 1:09pm

Ah. Not a football fan, so I wouldn't know about that.

I've got a (non-freeview) hard disk recorder box though, and that's very good. Never had a problem with it. It's currently connected to a set top box, so it's possible to record freeview channels.

byegad · Post by **byegad** » 25 Nov 2008, 4:09pm

I wa with Top up and ALL three different boxes they supplied me with were crap. I eventually got all my money back from top up and decide to stay with Freeview.
I bought a Technika box which was marginally better than the rubbish top up supplied.
I have just bought a Goodmans Digital Recorder and it is brilliant. I'd suggest, tell top up to go whistle and buy the best digibox or digirecorder you can afford.

pigman · Post by **pigman** » 25 Nov 2008, 4:26pm

i bought a cheapo digital recorder and agree its great. Also, to record you just click on the guide and mark. If there's a delay cos F1 takes precedence over cycling, the marker moves and automatically records when the show is aired.
But I'm only linked to freeview - no setanta, top-up or satellite.

thirdcrank · Post by **thirdcrank** » 25 Nov 2008, 5:35pm

Ambermile

You seem to be jumbling three separate things together.

I've had Freeview a while, mainly because my wife is a tele addict. If you work on the babsis that most tele is rubbish, then a lot of the obscure digital channels are superlatively rubbish, but if you watch a lot of tele then the Freeview platform -f that's the treny way to describe it is, IMO, OK.

We've had digital recorders in the same Freeview box for several years and it seems to me to be a good system for recording off air to watch later - compared with the heath robinson mechanicals in a VCR/ DVD it's got to be better. My wife uses it a lot to ensure continuity with the wall-to-wall soaps she likes to watch, although now she is retired, they seem to be repeated a lot during the day.

The downside is that it's obviously not the best way to archive stuff and unless you have a combi system with VCR and or DVD no way of sharing stuff. We do have a library of bits and pieces on the hard drive, mainly to entertain others. Our 3 y.o. grandson loves Fireman Sam and we have half a dozen programmes for if he gets bored playing with his boring old grand dad :oops:

We also have a recording of the three tenors at one of their concerts. My elderly mother is a big Pavarotti fan - her memory is poor so every time she sees it it's like a first for her. The point about this is that for the very very young and the very very old you need it to be dependable and it is just that. Ours certainly never freezes up.

I can't speak for top-up programmes - as I said, I rarely watch even the basic stuff.

axel_knutt · Post by **axel_knutt** » 27 Nov 2008, 4:43pm

I've just bought a new digital TV for no ther reason than that the 30 year old analogue one just kicked the bucket. With the exception of BBC4 most of the rest is rubbish.