Cheap PVR's

[Allen]

I was looking at maybe building a cheap PVR for less than £100, so looked into all sorts of possibilities, then I stumbled across a thread about £9.99 PVR's from BigPockets.co.uk, so I went to their site and searched for PVR but it didn't bring them up. However, it did bring up this:

BigPockets.co.uk: Sony PVR 80GB HDD SVR-S500 Recorder £79.99 - Blank Media - Gadgets - Ink Cartridges - Free Delivery

Are they new or refurbished? It says they are part of a bankrupt stock clearance, but am not sure. When searching the web to compare prices I came across this:

dabs.com - Sony SVR-S500 80GB HDD Recorder (SVR-S500)

They definately are refurbished units, but a lot cheaper.

What do you think of these? They're pretty cheap, but am wondering if I could build better for less...

[Cozwin]

maybe look into the build your own prv? its dirt cheap and you just put own hard drive in and good to go.

[gss03]

With these PVRs so cheap...can you rip out the measly 80GB disk and whack in your own say 500GB disk?

[finlay666]

Not usually no

They normally have a max limit of IIRC 160GB or so, some need a firmware update

Best do your reasearch before you buy if you plan to do that

[Cozwin]

as said above no, some guy put a 250 gb in and it only read it as 123 or something like that