In short – can anyone recommend me a freesat recording box, say 1GB capacity? Been over on Techradar and most seem to have lots of niggles! Anyone got a freesat box that they love? Tell me about it!

I had a lovely Mythtv server (basically a home made freesat/DTV Tivo and television network streaming device), until this evening, when I seem to have suffered simultaneous hard drive and motherboard failure i.e. probably a power supply failure. Multiple bits fried.

Anyhow, big bucks to buy a new computer and lots of hassle setting mythtv up again. I’m not time rich at the moment so I’m wanting an off the shelf solution.

(Dream device – 2GB of storage, dual freesat tuners, dual DTV tuners, 2GB storage, low power consumption, network streaming to linux, windows, kindle and android clients. Bet you my bikes it doesn’t exist off the shelf).

Thanks in anticipation……

My Humax Freesat PVR is pretty good. Nowhere near as slick as Sky+ but reasonably intuitive and very reliable. Not sure what storage it’s got but I haven’t run out in the last 3 years!

TS

Humax Foxsat HDR, I have one, upgraded the drive to 1TB (a lot sell on ebay like that now)

Dual tuner, HD, has a low power saving mode and I have installed custom firmware (can’t remember the name but easily google-able) that let’s me stream from a media server and copy files to computer!

I have a Humax Freesat PVR and no problems over the four years I’ve had it. I would agree with Tartanscarf, not as good as the Sky box but no major complaints other than the programme guide which I find a bit slow to use.

Humax Foxsat HDR – I put a 2Tb drive in mine, but it wasn’t easy and I have never come close to filling it.

Edit: don’t forget to put Raydon’s firmware on the box, and then you can do all sorts of nice things with it, like install Twonky and stream live TV to a client via “smb://<<ip address>>/media/Video/0.ts”

Raydons firmware!! That is the same as I use… Couldn’t remember the name thank you cranberry!

another vote hear for Humax with Raydon’s firmware.

You can then mount a NAS drive on your home network to the box, so no need to worry about how big the internal drive is.

With the modified firmware you can access the box remotely to set up recordings etc, stream and download content, ftp access plus quote a bot more.

Humax here as well – damn site more reliable than the Sky HD box which often needed a complete re-boot. Non of them seem ultra reliable so I bought mine from Richer Sounds as the extended 5 year guarantee is relatively cheap from them – overall cost was better than john Lewis as their extra guarantee on set top boxes was only 2 years at the time- that may have changed. I would never normally entertain the idea of an extended guarantee but all the boxes around come with a fair few reports of issues.

I have a spare Sky+ box if you are anywhere near Surrey and want to collect it if that helps

Sky+ user here and am thinking of switching. If I get a Humax box can I watch Netflix on it? i.e. does it have a web browser or an app?

There’s no web browser/app on the Foxsat.

There’s no web browser/app on the Foxsat.

Oh well it would have been a bonus. I’ll probably still switch as it’ll pay for itself in about 10 months.