Best TV recorder box?

[vincentianpinner]

Our freeview box seems to have died. Looking for recommendations for something similar. And if anyone knows if the bt second hand ones need a bt contact at all. Cheers

 

[foxhole]

Maybe new tv time, recording built in, or freely tv no recording required .How old is you current tv?

 

[Rodders53]

Only currently made retail PVRs are:

Freeview: Humax Aura, Manhattan T4R

Freesat: freesat 4k recordable

BT, now EE, Pro box is in theory rented (like $ky Q and Virgin cable boxes) and should be returned at end of a Contract; but they appear on the second user market. No need for a BT/EE sub or broadband allegedly. Nothing to stop them from 'bricking' such non-returns in theory but no reports they have so far and people rave over them.

Other second user boxes are available: for Freeview the Humax HDR Fox-T2 with the custom firmware and for Freesat the Humax Foxsat-HDR with custom firmware (and encryption patch) are well supported in the Community.

The future is streaming / catchup via the internet. I've not found any TV with PVR features to be as user friendly as a dedicated PVR.

Non Freeview or Freesat alternatives exist - search for Enigma boxes or HDHomerun to find out more.

 

[vincentianpinner]

Maybe new tv time, recording built in, or freely tv no recording required .How old is you current tv?

Tvs fairly new. Got freely. Didn't know you can get built in recording.

 

[vincentianpinner]

Only currently made retail PVRs are:

Freeview: Humax Aura, Manhattan T4R

Freesat: freesat 4k recordable

BT, now EE, Pro box is in theory rented (like $ky Q and Virgin cable boxes) and should be returned at end of a Contract; but they appear on the second user market. No need for a BT/EE sub or broadband allegedly. Nothing to stop them from 'bricking' such non-returns in theory but no reports they have so far and people rave over them.

Other second user boxes are available: for Freeview the Humax HDR Fox-T2 with the custom firmware and for Freesat the Humax Foxsat-HDR with custom firmware (and encryption patch) are well supported in the Community.

The future is streaming / catchup via the internet. I've not found any TV with PVR features to be as user friendly as a dedicated PVR.

Non Freeview or Freesat alternatives exist - search for Enigma boxes or HDHomerun to find out more.

Thanks. Humax looks a safe bet then. CEX have plenty of used ones with a warranty.

 

[accelerator]

Also consider instead an Amazon Fire TV Stick, which would give you a lot of streaming channels and on demand content, but not recording I don't think, although you hardly need it. The HD one is only £39.99. Requires broadband.

 

[foxhole]

Tvs fairly new. Got freely. Didn't know you can get built in recording.

Most tv’s have record function , just need a memory stick .

 

[big-all]

Most tv’s have record function , just need a memory stick .

if you are used to freeveiw recorders like i am a memory stick serves no real purpose as a single tuner will only allow record or watch when in real life recording up to 2 channels and the ability to watch a recording at the same is crucial

 

[Lucid]

if you are used to freeveiw recorders like i am a memory stick serves no real purpose as a single tuner will only allow record or watch when in real life recording up to 2 channels and the ability to watch a recording at the same is crucial

^ This. USB stick recording doesn't even have the flexibility offered by VHS/Betamax in the analogue era. It's a nice idea, but very poorly implemented.

 

[mattylad]

I could never get the Freely recording to work so gave up to the idea.

IMHO Freely is garbage, sky Q has a much better interface and recording facility etc. - It's just damned expensive.

 

[Rodders53]

Only tried my GT60 for recording... freesat and freeview tuners... Only allowed ONE to be used for recording at any time and then you couldn't access the other for live viewing (doh!). It did allow replay of a recording while making another recording via the tuner {which is more than any VHS could do.)

My current TV has twin Freeview and twin satellite tuners... so one would hope better features; but with a HDR-Fox-T2 plus a Foxsat-HDR I haven't tried a usb drive in it to date.

NB very few USB memory sticks are designed and therefore suitable for PVR recording (continuous read/writes for a live TV buffer in particular) and will then suffer early failure. (There will be exceptions to any rule of course). Many TVs manuals specify the use of spinning hard disks to cover that.

 

[petebuiltit]

I use a raspberry Pi and TVHeadend software. Converts TV into IP TV and streams over local LAN . You can watch on any LAN connected TV and record to hard drive.

 

[pcaouolte]

I use a raspberry Pi and TVHeadend software. Converts TV into IP TV and streams over local LAN . You can watch on any LAN connected TV and record to hard drive.

What tuner do you use with the pi?

 

[SFK]

​

I like the

BT Ultra HD YouView Box UHD DTR-T4000/1TB Twin HD Freeview​

Box that you can get second hand on eBay.

Only issue I found with it is that it does not have the Disney app (it does have Netflix and prime.

You can also upgrade the hard disk if needed

YouView Box Hard Drive Replacement - Ionic Industries

How to repair your YouView box by fitting a replacement hard disk drive. We show how to open up your BT YouView box & fit a new hard drive.

ionicindustries.com

 

[petebuiltit]

What tuner do you use with the pi?

I use three tuners at the same time so I can record multiple channels at the same time. I use a Pi TV hat, plus two USB tuners. I'll have to check which I use and let you know.