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Disposal of PVR's

VileReynard
Hero
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Registered: ‎01-09-2007

Disposal of PVR's

I am shortly going to be disposing of two PVR's - one very ancient one that is starting to suffer with intermittent picture breakup
and one reasonably new Youview that has never worked for longer than a few days, consecutively.
It has just occurred to me that I will have:-
2 hard disks (with power supplies)
3 digital tuners
miscellaneous connections - USB, HDMI, SCART, ethernet, coaxial etc
Is it possible for me to make use of any of this stuff?

"In The Beginning Was The Word, And The Word Was Aardvark."

9 REPLIES 9
w23
Pro
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Registered: ‎08-01-2008

Re: Disposal of PVR's

You really need to open them up and have a look.
Please let us know if you find anything good.
Call me 'w23'
At any given moment in the universe many things happen. Coincidence is a matter of how close these events are in space, time and relationship.
Opinions expressed in forum posts are those of the poster, others may have different views.
shutter
Community Veteran
Posts: 22,206
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Registered: ‎06-11-2007

Re: Disposal of PVR's

You could try and make a Linux computer out of them.  Grin 
ejs
Aspiring Hero
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Registered: ‎10-06-2010

Re: Disposal of PVR's

They probably are Linux computers already.
picbits
Rising Star
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Registered: ‎18-01-2013

Re: Disposal of PVR's

You may find the picture breakup on one of them is due to a failing hard drive anyway - always worth bunging a working drive in to see if that gets it going again.
Apart from that, they will be pretty much junk.
HairyMcbiker
All Star
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Registered: ‎16-02-2009

Re: Disposal of PVR's

I always remove the HDD, about the only useful bit of kit in them. You can sometimes get them repaired but the cost of the repair vs a new one is negligible.
My last one a 320Gb Dion had a nice little 320Gb sata 2.5" drive in it. PSU's are usually the first thing to go on them (capacitors drying out)
HPsauce
Pro
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Registered: ‎02-02-2008

Re: Disposal of PVR's

I've fixed them in the past with additional/replacement capacitors, and as suggested always take the HDD out as that's usually still fine in a PC of some sort or external enclosure as a backup unit..
Anonymous
Not applicable

Re: Disposal of PVR's

Most PVRs contain a HDD that is designed for continuous running as opposed to speed.
As such a PVR HDD makes a good candidate for a home build NAS project - probably as a FreeNAS or SAMBA configuration.
HPsauce
Pro
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Registered: ‎02-02-2008

Re: Disposal of PVR's

The ones I've looked at seemed to have pretty standard HDD's in them. The only noticeable property is that they were all low-noise types.
CX
Grafter
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Registered: ‎16-09-2010

Re: Disposal of PVR's

Sometimes they're worth repairing. Topfield, for example, are great feature wise (shame they stopped making UK models - I'd love to have a Freeview HD Toppy) and have good build quality (overall) but have appalling reliability after about 2 years of use due to the manufacturers choice of capacitors. Easily repaired as long as you catch it in time, before other components cook due to way out of spec voltages.