Recording TV

[stuartpaul]

We're about to move away from Sky and we'll be losing the ability to record programmes.

I've seen PVR's but know very little about them. Definitely want the option to watch one while recording another which apparently isn't common on some. Not looking to spend a fortune but wondered if anyone has any recommendations?

Thanks

 

[novocaine]

Humax
anything else is a pale facsimile.

 

[thick_mike]

+1 for Humax

 

[bugbear]

Humax
anything else is a pale facsimile.

Topfield owners have "an opinion" on that!

BugBear

 

[Gerry]

I have a Humax HDR1000 and it does everything you require. It even let's you rewind the planner, record full series ect.

Gerry

 

[garethharvey]

I also have a Humax, but don't like the interface though. I find it a little frustrating and not as easy to use as Sky

 

[ColeyS1]

Humax- its amazing Hdr fox t2

Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk

 

[novocaine]

Humax
anything else is a pale facsimile.

Topfield owners have "an opinion" on that!

BugBear

yep, but the 4 (used to be 6 but 2 bought a humax) of them don't get together very often in order to shout about it.

 

[NikNak]

Yep +1 Humax again. Just unplug the sky box, plug the Humax in using the sky cables and away you go. Easy....

 

[Doug71]

Think sky do a subscription for something like £10 a month where you can keep using your sky+ box as a recorder. Some people find sky the most user friendly.

If you try and cancel they will probably do you a good deal.

Doug

 

[AndyT]

If you get your broadband/TV service from BT they throw in a YouView branded Humax PVR.
Virgin do much the same with a Tivo box.

There are also diy options based round a Raspberry pi and SD cards, but I guess they might need a bit more effort than the appliance options.

 

[user 4112]

And another vote for Humax, literally a 1 for 1 swap. Bigger hard disk but the interface is not nearly as slick as Sky's.

 

[fezman]

if your looking to save a few quid - try Humax Direct. They have manufacturer refurbished with 2 yr guarantees. Bought mine from them about 3-4 yrs ago and never had a problem.
As others have said, the interface isn;t as slick as sky's. Depending how techy you are, you can (on some models) setup the PVR as a ftp server and access all your recordings from any FTP enabled device.

 

[Harbo]

+1 for Humax we’ve had a 1Tb one for yrs with no problems.

Rod

If you still want to see Sky stuff, get a NOW box - no long term contract required.

 

[bugbear]

We're about to move away from Sky and we'll be losing the ability to record programmes.

I've seen PVR's but know very little about them.

You had one. A Sky box IS a PVR!

BugBear

 

[stuartpaul]

We're about to move away from Sky and we'll be losing the ability to record programmes.

I've seen PVR's but know very little about them.

You had one. A Sky box IS a PVR!

BugBear

Very funny! Sky are the spawn of the devil and they can shove their box and their extortionate monthy subscription where the sun doesn’t shine. Been with them for years and they will offer new customers fancy gifts and they wouldn’t even upgrade our old box.

In any case retirement means a reduction in outgoings so they provided us with the ideal incentive to tell them to get stuffed.

We’ll have a look at humax. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[MrTeroo]

Good luck shaking them off. They hound you for years trying to get you to sign up again.

Not sure why anyone needs a pvr with so many catch up options.

Buy a NowTV box for £20 and away you go.

If you really have to have a PVR have a read of the reviews on WhatHiFi of their award winners

https://www.whathifi.com/products/digital-tv-boxes/freeview

 

[JSW]

Not sure why anyone needs a pvr with so many catch up options.

So they can watch again at a later date.

Buy a NowTV box for £20 and away you go.

NowTV is a streaming service though, so you can't 'save' it to watch again.

I have two Humax Foxsat HDR's, you can pick up a 500GB* version for well under a £100, once a programme is recorded, I FTP** in to the Humax, copy the programme onto my computer, edit out the ads and intro/outro with Avidemux, save, then re-encode what was originally a 4.75GB (ish) file into somewhere around 8-900MB using Handbrake (this is for HD 1080p -> 720p, which I find more than adequate on a 50" Samsung TV) Typical example of something I may want to watch again would be Grand Designs, but i do this with a LOT of TV, I'm an archiver i guess!

* Mine are both the sat dish version, yes I have two dishes!
** You don't actually need to FTP (File Transfer Protocol) into the Humax, just open up My Computer/My documents or whatever, and type into the address bar the Humax's local IP address, ie: \\192.168.0.whatever

 

[Beau]

Another Humax user here. We tried sky for a year but have gone for a Humax freesat which uses the old dish. Sure it said you could record two things at once or watch one and record another but does not seem to be that straight forward. Our old regular Humax freeview was better to use than the freesat version.

The old Sky PVR we had was no match for the Humax IMO

 

[MrTeroo]

Not sure why anyone needs a pvr with so many catch up options.

So they can watch again at a later date.

Buy a NowTV box for £20 and away you go.

NowTV is a streaming service though, so you can't 'save' it to watch again

The NowTV box has BBC iPlayer / All4 etc, so for at least a month after broadcast you can watch programmes again.

On All4 many programmes are archived for good. eg Peep Show