Recording from TV

MJ6987

MJ6987

New Member
Hi,
First time poster...

I am thinking of cancelling my Sky Entertainment package and, instead, getting a Smart TV (either Samsung or LG), a FreeSat Humax box (such as this one) and a Netflix subscription. This was I figure I can get a similar amount of choice and functionality for a fraction of the cost.

Firstly, any thoughts on this plan?

Secondly, and apologies if this is a silly question, but will the Humax box be able to record directly from the Smart TV (eg. It's Freeview output or its On Demand output) or can it only record what the box itself receives (I.e. Freesat)?

Thirdly, am I right in thinking that a device such as the one linked below is the easiest / cheapest way to distribute the Humax content, including recordings, to other TVs in the house? Out of interest, how does this work?

Thanks,
MJ :)
 
I can't post the link sorry, but the product I refer to is a "TRIAX TRI-LINK Kit" from Amazon
 
The Freesat box will only be able to record from it's own satellite tuners. The smart TV most likely will be able to record to a usb drive attached to the TV. The Triax tri-link is designed to allow a Sky magic eye remote TV set up to work with other kit.

To use it to allow remote control of the Humax box you will need to add a magic eye (Skylink) compatible distribution amplifier and a magic eye at each remote TV.

It sends the pictures by creating an analogue PAL TV signal and adds this to your transmitter signals. The remote TV's use their internal analogue tuners to tune this extra channel. A cheap rf modulator will do this job.

Remote control works by the magic eyes converting infra red into a vhf signal it sends back (normally to a Sky box which internally converts this to remote control instructions). The TRI-link converts the VHF signals back to infra red and transmits these to the kit being controlled (using small stick on ir repeaters).
 
MJ6987 said:
I can't post the link sorry, but the product I refer to is a "TRIAX TRI-LINK Kit" from Amazon
Click to expand...

Here is the link:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/TRI-LINK-Control-Freesat-Freeview-around/dp/B002R634DU

Second question: no. My Samsung TV can record too, though, from either Freeview or Freesat.

First question: sounds fine, but the recordings will possibly be encrypted and unwatchable elsewhere. If you can get a Foxsat HDR still and put the custom firmware on it, that is a far better proposition.

You may not need the distribution system if everything is networked.
 
Thanks both. This sounds very complicated!

Mike...when' you say that your Samsung TV records, is that via an attached HDD or USB? Or does it have internal memory? Not seen any with that, although I am looking at the £500 mark so maybe that's why!
 
MJ6987 said:
Mike...when' you say that your Samsung TV records, is that via an attached HDD or USB? Or does it have internal memory? Not seen any with that, although I am looking at the £500 mark so maybe that's why!
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I appear to be coming from the opposite understanding. I thought all UK Samsung and LG recent TVs recorded to an external USB 2 compatible drive and that most, but not all, other recent rival models also could do this.

So my question is similar. What is the current situation for TVs being able to record?
 
If you want to record on your TV, buy one which specifically advertises this feature (there are plenty of rumours on the Internet about being able to enable the facility via the service menu, and plenty of people who have bricked their TVs by playing in the service menu). However, the recording facility on a TV is pretty crude compared with a dual-tuner PVR - and don't imagine it would be able to record anything coming in on an HDMI.
 
Any TV able to record in HD from it's HDMI inputs would be illegal, and certainly not available at any normal retail outlet in the EU.
 
Ezra Pound said:
It is possible to get a TV that records to USB for as little as £100, please note I have no idea if Finlux TV's are any good, as I have no experience of their products
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Finlux is probably similar to Celcus, Techwood and Telefunken. Finlux is a brand owned and used by Vestel since 2006 for some of their TVs.

(I'm note sure if every Telefunken TV is made by Vestel.)
 
MJ6987 said:
Mike...when' you say that your Samsung TV records, is that via an attached HDD or USB? Or does it have internal memory? Not seen any with that, although I am looking at the £500 mark so maybe that's why!
Click to expand...

It is a Samsung 8000 series. If you just want occasionally to record what you are watching on Freeview, or timeshift it, it is perfectly adequate. I have never tried to set anything in the recording schedule as I have no idea whether that stops me from using the TV as a monitor for my various boxes. It will not, of course, record anything coming in on its HDMI inputs.

I have an old flash drive plugged into one of the USB sockets. Recordings are encrypted and the file system is non-standard. The TV will play back video files stored on a USB drive formatted normally (Fat32?) but the "recording" drive has to be prepared and tested by the TV and can't be used for anything else.
 
Cheers. More newbie questions...

1. Can these boxes record / save downloaded On Demand content, like iPlayer, so that you can keep it for more than 7 days?
2. Can they access Netflix (obviously for a subscription cost)?
3. Can they access non-freesat channels, like the sort of foreign channels showing UK football in pubs?
4. I have read that freesat / freetime is not as good as Youview...is this true? If so, why? The reason I am thinking Freesat is that (forgive me if I'm wrong) Youview just seems to be Freeview channels, which I can get through my TV anyway.

Thanks :)
 
1 No freesat box afaik can. A HDR FOX T2 can record VOD content using the Custom Firmware
2 No, not sure if Netflix is available on a Youview box
3 Yes, but not encrypted content requiring a smart card (like your football example), in any case these require a dish pointing at an entirely different set of satellites.
4 Youview offers more on demand services, but only the same live channels and the pvrs capabilities is poor compared to many Freesat+ ones.
 
grahamlthompson said:
1 No freesat box afaik can. A HDR FOX T2 can record VOD content using the Custom Firmware
2 No, not sure if Netflix is available on a Youview box
3 Yes, but not encrypted content requiring a smart card (like your football example), in any case these require a dish pointing at an entirely different set of satellites.
4 Youview offers more on demand services, but only the same live channels and the pvrs capabilities is poor compared to many Freesat+ ones.
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Thanks for that. Looking around this forum, I get the impression that people prefer the HDR FOX T2 box rather than the 1000s even though the 1000s is newer. Is this right?
 
HDR-1000s is satellite, HDR-FOX is terrestrial - which do you want?

HDR-FOX and Foxsat-HDR have custom firmware developed, but the HDR-FOX is less restricted in what can be done. Again, which do you want?
 
Foxsat-HDR - Satellite box. Custom Firmware availability adds greatly to capability. Can export recordings to usb. Using CF can stream recorded content over your network. Can only play non native content after processing the video using AV2HDR. Limited VOD services

HDR1000s - Satellite box with Freetime capabilities - Similar to Youview in having all the major catch up services plus Youtube, accessed via the epg. Can't export recordings but has proper pvr features (unlike the many missing from the Youview box) . Is able to play back non native content from usb and via a network. No server capability at the moment

HDR FOX T2 - Freeview box. Proper pvr. Custom Firmware greatly adds to capabilities. Can export recordings. Has client and server streaming capabilities. Limited vod services

DTR-T1000/1o10 - Freeview box. Limited pvr functions. Full Vod catch up via the epg. No export of recording capability or streaming. As a pvr very poor compared to all the above.

http://myhumax.org/forum/topic/salient-points-from-faqs
 
I would add to Graham's list:
HDR-2000T - Freeview box. Similar to HDR FOX T2 but currently Custom Firmware is not available and there a few minor quirks that a future software update will hopefully resolve.
 
Black Hole said:
HDR-1000s is satellite, HDR-FOX is terrestrial - which do you want?

HDR-FOX and Foxsat-HDR have custom firmware developed, but the HDR-FOX is less restricted in what can be done. Again, which do you want?
Click to expand...
Thanks. Yeah, sorry I meant Foxsat rather than Fox. So would I be better getting Foxsat rather than the newer 1000s? Is the custom firmware stuff difficult to do as I am IT literate but not very technical?

Thanks Graham and Martin as well.
 
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