Thomson is a pretty big name on Mainland Europe - when I lived in France there were a lot of Thomson products available. I bought a Thomson PVR for a Christmas present for my sister last year. It was £79.99 from John Lewis, but I am pretty sure it was 250GB with one month's Top-Up TV, so I don't think the QVC price is a particularly good price 12 months' on. We had quality problems with it too - it wouldn't fast forward properly, so we ended up taking it back and changing it for a Humax which they are very pleased with. I bought my first PVR when the Freeview ones first came out (since I don't have Sky) - around the end of 2004, I think. They seem to be quite delicate pieces of equipment. The first three I had (a Humax, a Panasonic and a Digifusion) all worked perfectly for a while then gave up the ghost after a year or so, but fortunately I managed to get refunds/replacements as they were under guarantee. The current 2 I own (the replaced Digifusion and a Samsung combi Freeview/DVD/PVR) seem to be lasting out longer (touch wood), so maybe the technology is getting better!