Thomson: PVR3

Ian, Leicestershire, on February 15th, 2008
Never had a problem with mine, the only noise I can here is a slight clicking from the hard drive when its recording and then only if the TV or radio is off.

Matt, Reading, on January 10th, 2008
Had this installed, and it's very noisy (Fan/HDD). Had it replaced (unfortunately with another Thomson) and it was exactly the same. Had this replaced with an Amstrad and finally have a box that doesn't hum, whine and distract from the viewing.

Fred, Telford, on November 28th, 2007
Got Thomson Sky+ today. Model DSI8210. Works well but will see how it goes. Didnt notice the noise until I turned the tv off when I heard a high pitched whine. Sarah's idea sounds great (Feb 2007) but can anyone point to advice on how easy it is to access the HD and to copy the necessary files accross? Eg can you cut and paste from windows or do you need some kind of clone app?

Richard, Edinburgh, on July 27th, 2007
I wish I saw these comments before I got Sky+. I got mine installed this week, 2nd cable and 2nd hole drilled through to the living room (nice). Now there's always a background hum and you guessed it, it's a Thomson. It seems great apart from that, but the noise spoils it. I got an engineer out but he just came with another Thomson, same noise. So I'm going to have to cancel. Shame really. If this has been an obvious fault for so long, why don't they er.. fix it??

Steve, Hadleigh, on April 5th, 2007
I just had sky+ fitted last Sunday. The engineer fitted it well (Thomson PVR3), but after he left there was a constant humming from the box. Thought nothing of it until the night time when it seems louder and still hums through the night. Keeps my kids up and they in turn keep me up. Phoned sky to sort it out and the engineer came to and replaced the box, with the same make Thomson PVR3. Same Problem.

dan, t.wells, on March 22nd, 2007
This box is so noisy and keeps crashing - why do they still send this out to customers knowing it is a faulty designed box? - Me “Is this box a good one?" Sky engineer “yes really good " ha ha ha what do they call a bad one? Box number 6 for me then this weekend!!

Sarah, on February 25th, 2007
The noise is due to poor design. The hard drive sits in a big plastic enclosure; the enclosure causes the heat problem so a fan is required. Remove the enclosure and fan, mount the HD on four cork legs (not too soon after drinking the four bottles of wine though) with some double sided adhesive pads. Why not put in a bigger and quieter HD at the same time (Samsung Spinpoint 250 gig). You now have a nice quiet Thompson box.

Andrew Dudley, on February 7th, 2007
I have just purchased a Sky HD box and generally I am pleased with the quality except for the humming noise, I got an engineer out the other week who replaced the box bit the hum is still there on the replacement. Two questions on the above, 1.Has anyone else been driven to distraction by this. 2. Does anyone know a way of getting rid of this hum, I was thinking that some sort of computer grade insulation for a hard drive might be the way to go but not sure what the insides of the Sky box look like to be able to get the right component.

Paul Thomas, Huddersfield, on January 10th, 2007
Had Pace PVR3 replaced with Thomson PVR3 when modem stopped dialing back. Thomson was much noiser so I complained to Sky and after much persistence I've had to settle for a Pace PVR2 replacement which although has less disk space is much quieter.

Paul K, Dublin, on January 5th, 2007
Nice piece of kit. Had it installed about a month ago - box responses in menus and channel changing is noticeably slower than my previous standard Skybox (Pace DS-430N), but its probably to be expected given the complexity of the sky+ aspect of things (having to clear live rewind cache for each channel change being an example). Latest software seems to have a few annoying issues with it: 1 - Fan runs constantly while box is out of standby and keeps varying the speed resulting in a very noticeable whine which keeps changing pitch and so is very hard to "tune out". 2 - Powering box out of standby takes the bones of half a minute, which involves the HDD spinning up, then down and back up again and the fan revving the life out of itself whilst displaying "There is a technical fault with this channel - Error 30" for the time the box does this. 3 - Box seems to misinterpret remote commands, although this problem seems very rare it can be extremely annoying. Overall though, the box is quiet enough - faint hum off the hard drive, but not loud enough to be audible even if the TV volume is pretty low (if only the bloody fan was as quiet!!!). No ticking or HDD seek noise, unless you press your ear right up to the top of the box (and even then it's quiet - or just drowned out by the fan). Haven't had any failed recordings or lockups since it has been installed which is great. Overall, very pleased with it - and sky+ really is as amazing as they let on (if only the boxes were a little quieter though it'd be nice).

Mr T Hill, High Wycombe, Bucks, on November 20th, 2006
I too have a Thomson PVR3. Installed today, I was really looking forward to using the extended 80GB capacity etc. So what do I get for my £480 per annum?? Fan, VERY noisy. Hard disk, VERY noisy. It is almost impossible to view a station without being distracted by the awful fan noise and clicking hard drive. I am so angry, I will be terminating my agreement. I think SKY are playing the numbers game here. Ship a sub-standard cheap box and see how many people send them back. Nice margin.

Lizzy East Midlands, on November 20th, 2006
Just had a SKY HD Thomson box installed together with new Panasonic Viera LCD and matching DVD recorder with HDMI. The experience has been an anti climax to say the least. The original installation was not performed correctly and I was getting a ghost image of BBC TV behind all the satellite channels. It took a visit from Skys subcontractor engineers at 715am on Sunday to sort out the image problem and I now have a fantastic picture - truly jaw dropping HD planet earth! A big BUT, the Sky HD box seems to come complete with its' own wildlife installed. The constant hum of the fan (is this necessary?) together with the constant clicking and intermittent 'Wasp' noise during Sky plus functions is enough to send you around the bend! Engineers said this was normal (my previous Sky plus box didn't do this). I can’t really see the point of having enhanced sound and vision only for this to be spoiled by an unacceptable level of noise coming from the Thomson box. Not sure whether a new box will make any difference judging from some of the previous reviews. Does anyone know whether another company will be making these HD boxes in the near future?

John Goodby, London, on November 13th, 2006
I had one of these for about a year, it worked brilliantly for 13 months, then the problems started happening, missed recordings, recorded programs would stop and start so much they were unwatchable, the box would crash occasionally etc.... The problem, bad sectors on the hard disk, A quick copy of the contents onto a new disk and problem solved without losing any recordings and some of the ones that wouldnt play are now ok... You cant really blame sky for hard disk failure, though maybe a more expensive choice of disk would prevent these failures

Paul Middlesbrough, on November 4th, 2006
Just had Sky+ installed. Bought a new Sony LCD TV last week to improve viewing experience which has now been ruined by the racket coming from the Thompson box. Okay, it's a PC but the constant whine is unacceptable. Wish I'd stuck to the normal box and video recorder.

farty, on October 29th, 2006
Had Thomson HD box fitted yesterday. Within a couple of hours it crashed & had to disconnect from the mains to reset. Hope this is not the Norm. Picture quality is fine & operation speed is no better than my pace Pvr1. BUT the hard drive and fan noise is awful. There is no way you could run one of these boxes in the bedroom. I am missing my old pace pvr1 already. It is still working fine after 4yrs or so of service.

shaun, denton, on October 10th, 2006
Had 3rd amstrad sky+ box installed today (3 in 3 months)this one has a noisy drive with clicking and a high pitched whistle, phoned sky and got the usual rubbish, well it should make a bit of noise, give it a couple of weeks to quiet down an all that, told them that unless a new fully working and quite box is installed that i shall withdraw the contract on grounds that the product is unfit for purpose, I am having a new box fitted on saturday, hopefully.

Mihir Asser, London, on October 7th, 2006
This box is awful, I have had it a day and I despise it. I have an old PACE PVR2 and a PACE PVR3 that are both a million times quieter, the piece of rubbish keeps me up all night. Also, the picture quality is poor, and this is the second least responsive box I've ever used, with only the V1 PACE DigiBox that came out on launch 10 years ago being any worse.

Steve, Harrogate, on August 15th, 2006
SKY HD (Thomson box )1 week old - good god its loud! Bought all new kit (sony bravia tv, hdmi dvd etc) but the HD box is clicking away like a distressed grasshopper (it is louder than my old laptop). Fan is loud but bearable but the clicking is loud enough to intrude on tv sound unless v.loud. Also had image/sound sync problems that would cure if stopping and restarting recorded item. Engineer says normal (without hearing).

Mike, Near Cambridge, on August 10th, 2006
I have just had a Thompson to replace a Pace as the hard drive sometimes didn't 'kick in'. Its so noisy that I decided to open it up and disconnect the fan... problem solved! I have it elevated and will make sure it's well ventilated until I find a fan to replace it.