Recommend a freeview STB. Please

[SI70]

Hi Guys,
My freeview STB has died! can anyone recommend one which is on sale at present.
I've looked on tivoportal but they all seem discontinued.

All help appreciated.

Simon

[DX30]

There are a few in this thread

viewtopic.php?f=16&t=893

[SI70]

Thanks

[rupertbear]

Is there not a simple Freeview STB, known to work with TiVo, currently available from Argos/Tesco/Currys/etc ?

[socrates]

Wish I could recommend a good Freeview STB but I doubt such a thing exists. I've had a Humax PVR for some years ( not connected to Tivo ) which is tolerable but still prone to freezes - only last night it was set to record something while we were watching something else via Tivo. I noticed it was still recording after the programme had finished so I switched over to see what was happening - frozen, nothing recorded. So had to reboot, something that happens every two or three weeks.

As I say, that's tolerable compared to the Phillips DTR220 which has driven the Tivo since switchover. That freezes around 2 -3 times a week, typically when changing channels. Particularly annoying when using the Tivo to auto record. Another common problem is loss of sound and/or picture particularly on channels such as BBC4 which are off air part of the day. Changing channel then changing back usually sorts it ( unless it freezes ) but again a problem with unattended recording. You have to remember to leave it on a different channel the night before. This also affects the Humax so may be an inherent Freeview problem.

The Phillips also attempts OTA updates ( always unsuccessful ) even when you are watching or recording though it is only supposed to do this in standby mode.

No doubt Freeview will be sorted but only when it becomes obsolete. And don't get me started on digital radio..........

[ByTheCringe]

Socrates, Off-topic, but regarding your Humax, it sounds as if you might need a new disk. But first, do a reset to defaults, which won't erase any recordings, but will clear the recording list. If you can wait till you have watched your recordings, or backed them up, format the disk; that has a good chance of fixing any bad indexing on the disk.

[socrates]

Thanks Bythecringe - I'll try that. To be honest though it's the (mis)behaviour of the Phillips that is more annoying. I only got the Humax to get access to BBC4, Film4 and a couple of others. Now that our analogue signal is gone we have to use Freeview via the Tivo so now we watch those channels on Tivo as well. Its only on the rare occasion we want to record 2 channels simultaneously that the Humax record function gets used - it's generally reliable as long as you make sure there's enough space, something as a Tivo user you don't think about.

Had to reboot the Phillips again last night following an unreasonable request on my part to change channel.

To be fair even the Tivo freezes one or twice - every ten years.