A PVR Tthingie

[aidso]

Hopefully such a thing exists, but i am looking for a little hard-drive thing that will connect to my TV and allow me to record programs similar to Sky+. I deally i would just leave the Channel on BBC1 or whatever and it would record at whatever time i tell it. (Turn to Sky1, press record or do it automatically etc).
Does such a thing exist and would be the same size as the current portable media players which play divx etc? I dont really care what type of format the content is saved to, as long as it can be saved to the drive and doesnt require a pc for the recording.

TIA,
Aidso

[Tarffie]

Freeview or Sky? I'm not 100% about Sky but aren't you limited to just the Sky+ box if you want any PVR functionality? I bet you could get it upgraded to Sky+ for next to sod all anyway.

If you're talking about just freeview, then the Topfield TF5800PVR and Humax PVR 9200T were the popular choices last I checked.

[aidso]

I have Sky+ downstairs and an extra DigiBox upstairs. I was hoping to plug something in upstairs and have it record for example Prison Break and then i can carry it over to a frriends house and plug it into his TV and watch it there

[chrestomanci]

I have Sky+ downstairs and an extra DigiBox upstairs. I was hoping to plug something in upstairs and have it record for example Prison Break and then i can carry it over to a frriends house and plug it into his TV and watch it there

DVD recorder connected to the output of your Sky box?

Quality won't be great, but thanks to Sky's closed system and strong crypto, it is quite hard to make digital rips of Sky broadcasts.

If you are on freeview, then as others have said, a Topfield TF5800PVR and Humax PVR 9200T would be ideal. Both allow you to download recordings from the box to a PC, where they can be converted to DVDs without any analogue step. I have a Topfield box, and I am using it to build up a DVD collection of films recorded from live TV. In the past 2 years that I have had it, I have accumulated nearly 200 films.

[speardane]

I've just set-up MythTV on a spare computer. Very impressive. Definitely not the easiest setup - but read enough Howtos. Seems to have fairly low power requirements.

If I were to do it again - I would research which tuner cards were best supported first. Can also be used to distribute recorded programmes to other computers and media devices.

[abeacock]

I believe that only sky+ can record sky programs, normal PVRs don't know how to decode the signals.

You want a DVD recorder if you want to record sky programming.

[capt_cornflake]

In your original post you mention that you plan on leaving it tuned to a particular channel, and just need the timer functions?

There was a recent thread which mentioned these zengo drives: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zengo-Drive-...134632-0382347

If I understand what you're asking this sounds like just the job

[s_kinton]

A DVD Recorder, with a built in HDD would do the job. Just hook it up to your Sky box and it'll record whatever you tell it to.

[aidso]

In your original post you mention that you plan on leaving it tuned to a particular channel, and just need the timer functions?

There was a recent thread which mentioned these zengo drives: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Zengo-Drive-...134632-0382347

If I understand what you're asking this sounds like just the job

Dude this is exactly what im after. The reason i said about leaving a channel tuned was just to make what i was doing simpler but obviously i can leave it recording on Channel 6 and let Sky do an "Autoview" when a program is about to start.