An alternative to the Humax Aura

What delivery option did you choose and how long it took you to receive the box?

Also

I see the same numbers on the website but the currency is euros

Standard delivery. Came by Royal Mail 48. It took about 4 working days to get to Royal Mail. So about 7 days in total. Came from the EU (possibly Germany). No custom charges we are still in the EU till the end of the year. Packet says Return to vbox.comm,EU XBS G3 CZ), GREENFORD, No idea where that is.
 
czech?

I am a bit doubtful atm to pull the trigger what with not waking up to record a program . I would absolutely resent being a beta tester again.
 
I have found a issue with the implementation of CRIDS. Currently on Channel 5-HD there are a lot of split event Xmas movies with a news break in the middle. The Humax FVP and HDR G2 units. Correctly record both halves. The Vbox does not and not having a manual recording workaround produces a failed recording. Awaiting an answer from customer support.
 
I have found a issue with the implementation of CRIDS. Currently on Channel 5-HD there are a lot of split event Xmas movies with a news break in the middle. The Humax FVP and HDR G2 units. Correctly record both halves. The Vbox does not and not having a manual recording workaround produces a failed recording. Awaiting an answer from customer support.
If they do fix the problem I hope they do it properly unlike Humax and don't schedule repeats that are more than 3 hours apart
 
Box is now working very well. Live and recorded content can be viewed on Android tablet and Android phone. Content can be viewed on laptop using Kodi add on V Box TV Gateway PVR Client. Can also stream to x box one. Laptop HDMI out can connect to other TV's using HDMI out. Recordings can be downloaded to mobile devices for off air viewing anywhere.
 
Standard delivery. Came by Royal Mail 48. It took about 4 working days to get to Royal Mail. So about 7 days in total. Came from the EU (possibly Germany). No custom charges we are still in the EU till the end of the year. Packet says Return to vbox.comm,EU XBS G3 CZ), GREENFORD, No idea where that is.
I also chose standard delivery and so far it has taken 4 days to gently amble 165km across southern Czechia before reaching Prague where it has has apparently sat since Sat 28th Nov, It has now been given a Royal Mail tracking number but it hasn't reached them yet 😭

Talk about 🐌 mail! I now wish I had spent the extra for courier delivery, Standard delivery is listed as up to 25 days, presumably the shipping company (Packeta) only have infrequent trucks to England and are waiting to accumulate a lorry load.
 
Box is now working very well. Live and recorded content can be viewed on Android tablet and Android phone. Content can be viewed on laptop using Kodi add on V Box TV Gateway PVR Client. Can also stream to x box one. Laptop HDMI out can connect to other TV's using HDMI out. Recordings can be downloaded to mobile devices for off air viewing anywhere.
Have you tried remote streaming yet?

Does it have any Accurate Recording support? As far as I can tell from the Vbox forums (which are very quiet) it uses crids for series scheduling but doesn't use AR for recording control.
 
Have you tried remote streaming yet?

Does it have any Accurate Recording support? As far as I can tell from the Vbox forums (which are very quiet) it uses crids for series scheduling but doesn't use AR for recording control.

Not yet. I had the older TV box and used remote streaming using that. It was fine for SD but upload speed is not high enough for HD.

It doesn't mention accurate recordings but so far not lost any of the programme content. I only record HD anyway,
 
If you are currently testing this box how about give us the login details so we can test the streaming capabilities on the app . I presume the most you'd be risking is some deleted test recordings?
Without the box what are you going to login to. It sets up a webserver on the box on your own private network ? It's the box that serves on your own network
 
My box eventually arrived last week,

Had problems with initial set using the 2.66 software level - lots of mis-numbered channels, huge gaps in the epg and time resetting to 1970 on every boot.

Contacted support who gave me 2.66.19 level which has resolved most of those problems,

Still a number of issues:
  • Voice control doesn't work (not that I expect to use it)
  • TV guide is excessively slow to reload (> 30Sec)
  • Changing channel is awkward with no number buttons on remote
  • Vbox live app doesn't play TV on windows, (Web interface does work)
  • Kodi works quite well but lots of "Not responding" messages on windows
Haven't tried remote access yet but my upload speed is likely to be too slow.
I have found a issue with the implementation of CRIDS. Currently on Channel 5-HD there are a lot of split event Xmas movies with a news break in the middle.
I found I could record both halves as separate programmes - not correct behaviour but less annoying than the Humax recording every repeat of the movie
 
My box eventually arrived last week,

Had problems with initial set using the 2.66 software level - lots of mis-numbered channels, huge gaps in the epg and time resetting to 1970 on every boot.

Contacted support who gave me 2.66.19 level which has resolved most of those problems,

Still a number of issues:
  • Voice control doesn't work (not that I expect to use it)
  • TV guide is excessively slow to reload (> 30Sec)
  • Changing channel is awkward with no number buttons on remote
  • Vbox live app doesn't play TV on windows, (Web interface does work)
  • Kodi works quite well but lots of "Not responding" messages on windows
Having had the vbox for a while now I do not recommend the vbox XTi 4144 for DVB-T/T2
There are still far too many serious issues considering it was actually released in 2019 and is a follow on from an earlier box so should have been largely resolved.

There are still large gaps in the over air EPG and they don't handle the encoding of the HD channel EPG data well
They are now offering a Premium EPG service (price unknown after free offer period) which does provide a full EPG but:
  • The Premium epg doesn't have correct series crid,
  • Instead Title is used as Crid,
  • This prevents series recording for series with variable title and times, e.g. F1 races, BBC evening News
  • The Premium EPG also doesn't contain unique programme crids for each episode
  • Many broadcasters repeat series in different slots, but premium EPG uses same series crid for each showing
  • Therefore without correct series and programme crids the vbox can't detect whether an episode has already been recorded and prevent filling the disk with duplicate recordings

There is no accurate recording support, no search facility for the EPG (need to use Kodi), and no ability to file recordings into subfolders.

I sent vbox support an email detailing over 20 issues with the software but I got a four line reply that only addressed one issue and they have ignored follow up emails, I have now asked for an RMA to return it.

It could be a good box, there is no recording encryption to contend with and it does have an API that would allow most of the issues to be worked around but do I really want to have to be reinventing the wheel so completely.
 
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