need a cheap used freesat or freeview pvr, is the foxsat hdr it?

canonbeck

New Member
Hello,
I'm cost cutting at the moment and have just cancelled the virgin tivo. Need to spend as little as possible to pick up a (probably used) recorder. I have both a decent aerial and an old sky dish with quad lnb.
Before virgin, we briefly had a hdr fox t2 which, on the whole, wasn't bad at all but didn't quite fill the shoes left by the old toppy.
Anyway, I notice that there appears to be a steady stream of foxsat hdrs selling sub £100 on ebay at the moment. Question is, are they any good? - versus the fox t2 I guess which seems to fetch more money used. I've heard that they are laggy (wife wont like that) and I know the remote doesn't have volume punch through (why??).

I would appreciate any advice you might have on the matter...

Cheers
 
The remote like the HDR FOX T2 is multifunction. It will control your TV but you have to press a button to switch the kit controlled. It doesn't have punchthrough because the box also has a variable volume output. It's not as fast as the HDR FOX T2 in remote response.
 
I was running BobD's MyStuff on the toppy rather than using the stock software. Mystuff gives all kinds of control that I've just never seen on another recorder. Just about everything is configurable!

I did intend to try the custom firmware on the hdr t2 but I didn't have it for very long before we switched to virgin (had high hopes for the tivo) and I sold it on.
 
I was running BobD's MyStuff on the toppy rather than using the stock software. Mystuff gives all kinds of control that I've just never seen on another recorder. Just about everything is configurable!

I did intend to try the custom firmware on the hdr t2 but I didn't have it for very long before we switched to virgin (had high hopes for the tivo) and I sold it on.

Nothing is as customisable as the topfield UI. The actual firmware is in effect open source and documented by Topfield. I doubt Freeview or Freesat would certify a box where the actual OS software is user customisable. Most likely the reason Topfield never came up with a UK HD Freeview pvr.
 
The biggest miss for me is the auto-scheduling of recordings based on series ids and / or keywords. Set and forget.

The daily irritation is the clunky Humax UI compared to the slickness of the Topfield/MyStuff.
 
Just to circle back around on this, I decided in the end to order another hdr fox t2. Used prices seem to be a little on the high side at the moment and I didn't think it worth the gamble. I'm looking forward to unplugging that awful virgin tivo box :)
Cheers​
 
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