Would you recommend buying a SKY+ box or a DVD recorder with harddrive?

[99redballoons]

Hi, we see more and more people with Sky+ in their homes and it looks great. We only have a VCR atm and we want to upgrade but can't decide where we should invest our money- Sky+ or a DVD recorder with harddrive.

-do you have experience of both and which do you prefer?
-we want the ability to pause play
-want to transfer at good quality to dvd (mainly the kids programs)
-it would be nice to record one sky channel and watch another.
-advice please on what features to get, and reliable makes/models etc.

Thanks for your help!

If you want Sky+ with all the regular channels, movies and sports it'll cost:
£99 for the box
£60 installation
then £21.75 a month for the first 3 months
and £43.50 every month after that.

If you go for the cheapest channel package it's:
£99 for the box
£60 installation
then £17.50 a month for the first three months
and £25 a month every month after that.

My brother got himself a DVD recorder about 9 months ago and wasn't that impressed with it.

We got sky+ about 6 months ago and have loved it from day one, not just because you can record but because you can pause and rewind the telly as and when you need to.

My brother came round saw the sky+ in action and ordered it and the DVD recorder went into his sons bedroom for him to watch his DVD's on. Also 2 more of my brothers have also got it after seeing what it can do. We all love it.

i have the movies and sports package, how much would it cost to upgrade to sky plus if thats what you do?

I don't know - your best bet is to ring them and say you're thinking of leaving Sky and getting a Freeview digibox - then they start offering you the special deals!

(Oh, and we rarely lend out recordings (no-one seems to ask us ) and we don't have in-car dvd players.
If we wanted to watch DVDs whilst travelling I guess we'd take the laptop, but we do Amazon DVD rental by post so would probably take those - you can rent discs from series as well as films.)

prettymum - it's the same if you're an existing customer except the 1/2price deal, so
£99 for the box
£60 installation
They waive the installation if you go for Multiroom at an extra £10/month.

(Hadn't thought about amazon rental, will look into that, thx!)

Forgot to say if you have the movies/sports you don't have to pay the £10/m for the sky+ (but end up paying the same amount for multiroom if you want free installation)

If you want to go with Sky+, a few other things you need to know (if other people haven't said already).

1). You need 2 cables to the box instead of the one you have with normal sky. I saw you said the cable is under the floor, this may be a problem

2). If you have a subscription with premium channels (can't remember precisely, but we only have movies and don't pay), you don't pay an additional £10 for the Sky+ features. Otherwise you do

3. Even after you have the box for a year and your contract is up, to continue to use the Sky+ features, you need to pay Sky £10!, even if you don't want any of the pay channels. It is not like a Freeview box, where once you pay for the box the recording features are always enabled.

4. On the upside, Sky+ is the best integrated for recording, better than any of the freeview/DVD alternatives.

This sounds like I am saying don't go for Sky+, but we have it and wouldn't do without it. I just think that you should have all the facts before choosing one way or the other.

There are good forums out there, who can advise in more detail:- www.digitalspy.co.uk/forums/
www.avforums.com/forums/index.php

i have used them in the past as a good resource for information (and there are some v knowledgeable people on there too )

Agree digitalspy etc are worth checking out - it's one of those things where it pays to be a bit geeky.

Do you have a DH you could entice into doing the research?

I'll keep saying how much better than Sky+ a freeview PVR is - we cancelled normal (non-Plus) Sky and got the PVR instead.
Within a year we'd saved money (£200 PVR vs £20 a month on Sky), had all the pause / recording features of Sky+ and (crucially) didn't have to spend any more to keep the PVR, whereas we'd still have been paying a subscription for Sky.

Really, it's a no-brainer if you're budgeting.

Thanks for the extra info. I have stumbled across one of those forums so will look at them in more detail. Dh will do some investigating but I don't trust him deciding! His brother has Sky+ and I'm sure that's what he wants!

The Freeview PVR sounds really good, especially as we do need to budget but dh won't give up his Sky sports so I won't give up my Sky movies!!!

A bit more investigation required me thinks

Silly question, but does a PVR record from the Sky Channel aswell or just freeview channels?

eg. if we kept our full Sky subscription would I be able to record programs off that AV2 channel onto the freeview harddrive? (we get the Disney channels on Sky and I do record programs off them for the kids onto VHS atm).

hmm, not sure if PVR records off Sky - will check tonight as we still have our old Sky box in situ.
Have a feeling you can put the output of the Sky box into one of the inputs of the PVR - we haven't done it but it's the kind of thing the people on digitalspy would know.

TBH if you really want to keep Sky with sport and movies your best bet is probably to do as I advised Prettymum - ring Sky and tell them you're thinking of cancelling completely and getting a PVR because Sky+ is too expensive.
They'll often offer special deals to try and get you to stay. I think they offered me free Sky+ installation and free movies - I didn't take it because I didn't want it but they sounded pretty desperate!

hi
I have Sky+ and I want to buy a dvd recorder/player for xmas (as my son has already used half of the memory with his cartoons), but we are not sure if any dvd recorder will plug easily in the sky + box to burn all those episodes onto a dvd. Can you give us some advice? Will any brand just 'plug and burn'? I need something that my 8 year old can do by himself (i.e. very user friendly!). Thanks