As the title suggests I'm looking for a hd box without subscription ect ect, any good ones to get or bad ones to avoid? How much would I be looking at for one of these?

The Humax is pretty good, look on their website as they usually have grade A's or specials. do want just a box or a PVR?

Pvr? Sorry not up on technical terms!

PVR, personal video recorder, it's like a sky plus box. You can stop live progs, rewind etc and record direct to a the hard drive. We have 2 freeview pvr's and a freesat pvr.

I have the Humax HD PVR and it is pretty good. The Humax on line portal is a bit clunky, but I guess it will improver over time. The only gripe I have is the it can be a bit of a pain to delete files. If you don't stop a file before selecting to view another, then go back to delete the first file, you can't! You have to restart the first file and then then stop it before you can delete it. Not a big problem though.

Apparently L. Elanor is an expert on home technology, I seem to remember she has had every type of PVR going so should know a thing or two. I have a normal Humax SD PVR and can vouch for them, I guess the HD versions are just as good.

Apparently L. Elanor is an expert on home technology, I seem to remember she has had every type of PVR going so should know a thing or two. I have a normal Humax SD PVR and can vouch for them, I guess the HD versions are just as good.

I seem to collect PVRs for some strange reason, well those and shoes

I'd say pay the money for a brand name.

I know numerous people with cheap no-name ones, and they are horrendous, i don't know how people put up with all the issues they see.

If your not too fussed about recording stuff (the PVR part)

http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/icecrypt-t2200-hd-freeview-player-with-recording-update-44-95-turbosat_int_ltd-e/971070

or also some Aldis have got a i-can EASY HD for £49

I'd recommend a Humax as well. It's a bit too menu driven for my liking (like Lady E says, too many stages to delete things) and I don't find the remote all that well designed, but it's reliable. Quite too, which is also worth remembering. I've found cheaper options can be pretty noisy - which doesn't really cut it in an living room environment.

PlayTV for the PS3 is also worth a look, if you already have the console. A cheap add-on that's really quite feature rich. Only issue I find is the boot time for it from the XMB and the fact you can't multi-task between it and other areas of the PS3.

Another vote for the Humax HD PVR.

320GB FTW

I've always been a little underwhelmed by my Humax SD PVR, especially now that it is not 100% functional.

have you got sky HD at the moment?

if so get freesat HD from sky - for a Tenner they will give you the recording function and all FTA channels inc HD ones.

Topfield PVR, let the Toppy v Hummy battle commence

The Toppy is eminently customisable and there's a great users forum with tens if not hundreds of downloads so that you can get your Toppy just how you want it, to be fair the user interface isn't the best straight from the box but imo it's better than the Hummy which you can't change. There's also no fan like on the Hummy I had a Hummy once for a week before sending it back as I couldn't live with the constant fan hum and awful EPG.

Got a link to your Topfield alkip?

Sounds interesting - didn't know about these customisation options.

Steve, I got a reconditioned TF5800 from Turbosat about 2 years ago (free P+P and with 12 month warranty) however although Toppy do an HD model Turbosat don't yet have any in.

The forum is Toppy.org

Nice, cheers. Will take a look.

There's also no fan like on the Hummy I had a Hummy once for a week before sending it back as I couldn't live with the constant fan hum and awful EPG.

My Hmummy HD PVR is pretty quiet, certainly no louder than my SKY HD box. My previous Hummy 9300 SD did suffer a bit of a 'wind problem'. I have mine networked, but don't use it as my Sony S570 is a far slicker media network player.