I'm looking for a box. This is a special sort of box, and I'm wondering if you can help me find it.
Now, I like to think I don't watch an excessive amount of TV, but the TV I watch, I usually watch time-shifted thanks to our V+ box.
I've done some maths, and because my wife and I are on a special retentions deal, it doesn't make sense to change to any other package, as anything else would cost just as much and we wouldn't get the same functionality.
I've done some maths, and because my wife and I are on a special retentions deal, it doesn't make sense to change to any other package, as anything else would cost just as much and we wouldn't get the same functionality.
At some point however, we will probably want to get rid of V+ to reduce our monthly outgoings.
If we do, we would still like to time-shift our TV watching, so the box I'm looking for would have to come with some special functions. I'd also like to be able to archive certain recordings, so there are other features that would be a must have in this new box.
The complete list (as far as I can think of at the moment), is:
Must haves:
- Dual tuner (so we can watch one programme while recording another, or record two programmes while watching something recorded)
- Hard Drive recording (at least 80 hours to match what we have now, but preferably more)
- DVD recording (to archive certain programmes, and copy home movies I hold the copyright to onto DVD from VHS)
- Freeview+ (for the series link functionality)
- Reliability (in that it won't skip set recordings or just mechanically break down (I've read a few reviews of products that tend to do this recently!))
This list makes certain assumptions (like a decent, English language EPG and standard video outputs (should have Scart and HDMI), but you get the gist I hope. The main reason I have not found the right box so far is the need for dual tuners. There appear to be plenty of boxes that only have a single tuner, but I don't see the point in that: I don't want to have to have box set to the channel it is recording, as then I wouldn't be able to watch something else at the same time!
Nice to haves:
- Freeview HD (not that it is coming to our area for another couple of years, but it would be nice to be ready)
- Upscaling of Freeview and DVD content
- Blu-ray (recording or just playing)
- VHS playing/recording
- USB input/output
- Any form of Internet functionality, such as viewing YouTube content
- On-Demand services, such as iPlayer, 4oD and Demand 5
- Skype (when I can plug in a USB webcam and my separate USB microphone)
- The ability to act as a Slingbox receiver (and not just from Slingboxes in our house)
So, do you know of a box that has the above "Must have" features, and any of the "Nice to have" features? If so, please let me know if the comments box. If there isn't anything like this at the moment, then I'd like to make this a call out to the industry: please make something like this! Is it too much to ask to have a dual tuner?
Anyway, TV is not the most important thing in the world, but I'd like to know if this technology does exist yet.
Photo by: sindykids
