Hot backup for postgres 8.4

Hi there,

I have been looking for a good solution to backup a postgresql 8.4
database server (not pg_dump) and the only options that it seems that I
have are either a Omnipitr or a custom-coded solution.
I am a little bit afraid about setting up omipitr in production for
archiving & backup, even though it has been running seamlessly on a
testing environment.
I wish I could use pg_basebackup but unfortunately it is V. 9 oriented.

Does anyone have production experience with Omnipitr ?
If not, is there something out there trustworthy enough for production use ?

Thanks in advance,

A.A.