Good luck finding 4 programs worth recording at once on freeview.

Christ some of you lot are bores. Who cares about your viewing habits? Is this just a competition to see who can fill up comment threads with the most irrelevant bullpoop?

The hardware in these devices is slower than you think, slow CPU, slow RAM and not much off it, the slowest drives still available (designed for 24/7 on while streaming rather than random access). Capturing a single full mux would fill 500Gb in less than 2 days - just over 1 for HD muxes, so that's not an option if you actually want channels from more than 1 mux (you do). Even using the tuner PID filters you still need enough CPU power to sort out the mess they decode. You don't want those streams interleaved either so the drive will be seeking like crazy or fragmenting the drive if you try.

And they have to leave plenty of unused margin to cope with the worst case.

For reference: my PC with 3 tuners, 32Gb RAM, fast drives and a 3.3Ghz hex core started to struggle above 10 simultaneous SD recordings, started dropping channels at 14. They're doing pretty good getting 4 out of low end hardware. Especially if they're HD streams.

You've obviously not discovered BBC4, BBC2, or even BBC1 and BBC3. There are huge numbers of excellent programmes just on the BBC channels - let alone Channel 4, Film 4, E4 and all the other Freeview channels. No need for Sky in this house!

I've had 2 Humax boxes for over 6 years no trouble at all very well made product

Had a Fox pvr for 5 years , about the best device I've bought.Pity these latest models don't have a proper display, a retrograde step.Three tuners is one good improvement but surprised not 1Gb's drive as standard by now.
Didn't realize this just out this week,thats new that is.

3 hd tuners & only a 500gb hard drive seems a bit undergunned.

£229.99 for the 1TB model (Coming Soon)

Good luck finding 4 programs worth recording at once on freeview.

It's probably not the hardware limitation - if you can pick out one you can pick out all TSs, there's no transcoding, it's direct broadcast stream to hard disk..

the shortfall would be the software - dealing with timer clashes becomes much more complicated.

Reasonably sure the timer is no issue, just record everything from £599
http://www.promise.tv/products/lite.html

The hardware in these devices is slower than you think, slow CPU, slow RAM and not much off it, the slowest drives still available (designed for 24/7 on while streaming rather than random access). Capturing a single full mux would fill 500Gb in less than 2 days - just over 1 for HD muxes, so that's not an option if you actually want channels from more than 1 mux (you do). Even using the tuner PID filters you still need enough CPU power to sort out the mess they decode. You don't want those streams interleaved either so the drive will be seeking like crazy or fragmenting the drive if you try.

And they have to leave plenty of unused margin to cope with the worst case.

For reference: my PC with 3 tuners, 32Gb RAM, fast drives and a 3.3Ghz hex core started to struggle above 10 simultaneous SD recordings, started dropping channels at 14. They're doing pretty good getting 4 out of low end hardware. Especially if they're HD streams.

​This is FreeVIEW remember not freesat....

Maybe somebody with more spare time than myself can show a timeline cost comparison of this unit against the 4-tuner smart streaming unit provided "free" with EE TV, phone & bb. https://broadband.ee.co.uk/ee-tv

How can it record 4 things at once with only 4 tuners?

I wasn't aware of the Promise Lite, so thanks for the link. Has it or the Promise Seven been reviewed?

I have! I'd value that 3rd tuner - but not with a 500GB HD!

Nice, thanks OP

​I built a quad tuner setup works a treat.

Hope this thing boots up faster than the 1000s version!

How does this work? Can it take all it's video for the tuners via the ethernet cable? Just asking, as could be interested in using it abroad via a VPN router.

Ok, cheers for that.

I sometimes can't find one thing to watch on Freeview. How on earth would there ever be 4 things to record all on at once?

I can only think of Jeremy Kyle, Bargain Hunt and Judge Judy at the most!

What do you lot watch on TV? I find myself watching the news for 15mns and then watching things on youtube in the evening or anything on 4od or iplayer. Sky only exists in our household for the foreign channels that my mother watches. But that's it... All other channels or the content atleast can be seen online.

Oh I have. No sly in this house! I wouldn't say I watch the BBC, or TV for that matter, every day but I get value from the licence fee for the BBC's online services alone. Smart devices with all the catchup services, though iPlayer is the only one I use, Netflix and Amazon Prime video. I still maintain there would not be 4 simultaneous Freeview broadcasts of interest to me, but if it suits someone...

Christ some of you lot are bores. Who cares about your viewing habits? Is this just a competition to see who can fill up comment threads with the most irrelevant bullpoop?

I have the previous 2 channel version with 500GB. There are many times I needed three tuners (Luckily I have a satellite to do the third one) but one device only would be better. Even though we use it a lot, we have never come close to filling the HD. I do however use an external HD to export programmes to that I want to keep.

Yup - and you just won it! :stuck_out_tongue:

Can get a brand new style Sky HD box with Freesat for £175, granted it will only record 2 channels but after having Sky I find the Sky guide above and beyond anything found on any other freeview/freesat box

£7 delivery fee as well

What PVR software (I'm hoping Windows) do you use please?

Has anyone found a way of copying HD recordings off one of these Freeview Play/Youview boxes so that they can be stored on a NAS or PC? Some of the older Humaxes had custom firmware which worked around the HD encryption and allowed this, but I haven't seen anything similar for the newer boxes.

It says “Coupon code "HUMAXBD1" is not valid.”

Nope, just a one off charge of £175 which includes the box/dish/installation and a freesat viewing card which unlocks all the record/pause/etc functions of the Sky box. 100% no monthly subscription.

Personally I've got no idea what the extra channels you get with Freesat are over Freeview but for the same money it seems like a no-brainer

Well... s**t.

I agree 500 GB is too small for multiple recordings. I wonder if I can copy videos onto USB stick or external Hard drive?

There is a port on right hand side of the unit towards the front edge about an inch back, no clear picture but guessing this will be the second usb

I'm affraid for your £175 you will not be getting a recordable box from FreeSatFromSky. Those are 'Sky HD' boxes and not 'Sky+ HD' unfortunately. http://www.sky.com/shop/freesat/home/

If going with Sky you'd be better off getting a 50% 12 month deal on the Original Bundle instead. They crop up quite regularly and you'd get the same dish and warranty but with a Sky+ HD box and a shed load of entertainment channels including Sky One, Living and Atlantic for £10.75 a month = £129 for a year instead.

Code not valid, voted cold.

​Windows is not really very good at being a PVR I'm afraid Linux is king when it comes to PVR setups.

A little off topic but what software do you use for an EPG? I did use the one built in to Windows Media Centre (in Vista) but then well over a year ago I couldn't get one of the channels any more (think it was ITV), no matter what I tried, so have loss interest in it..

I'm trying to build a HTPC to replace an ageing Sony HDD/DVD-Recorder; ideally recording Freeview HD to HDD and then archiving to BR if needed. What would you recommend for tuner cards & software? TIA!

​I have two DVBSky S952's (2 tuners in each) in mine I use TVHeadend to serve live TV and recordings to Kodi clients (can have several kodi clients sharing tuners and recordings) I have had it recording 4 HD channels at once without problems.

They are satellite cards by the way but same principle can be applied to freeview albeit with less channels.

Agree there, my shift pattern means i don't watch alot of TV but when i do get the chance i like to watch something good so record alot. Worth getting with the more tuners

As previously stated code no longer valid, anyone got a working code?

What ugly things, they won't sit anywhere useful & look nice.

Taken from AV Forum :-

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

500GB and 1TB versions

Triple tuners - record up to 4 and view a 5th depending on Mux used.

Archiving of HD and SD recordings to usb - Similar to earlier Humax Freeview pvrs. HD remains encrypted so will only play back on box that recorded it. SD is encryption free.

Record direct to attached usb storage.

DLNA server for SD content, (including live TV to tablets, smart phones etc)

DLNA client and media player via usb.

Two USB ports

No scart but has RCA Composite and analogue audio out. (Can be used to feed a modulator for a rf distribution system)

Live TV pause

Forward reverse skip facility

Stick favourites selection.

Unlike Youview
Manual Tuning - handy for areas in range of multiple transmitters
Auto Padding
Manual Timer capability
Edit existing timers
Remote control capable of using up to 6 other Humax boxes in the same room.

Catch up and Freeview IP delivered channels.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Looks good to me :sunglasses:

I regularly have 2 or more radio channels to record at once. Luckily on Mediaportal that only ties up 1 tuner :wink:

There's more on Freeview than poor time fillers and endless repeats (though I'm enjoying quite a lot of really old TV repeats all over again).

In previous years BBC Glastonbury coverage was spread across BBC3,4,301 and a little on 2. 3 way clashes for a whole weekend. Now they've punted most of it online but it's still a problem.

Mediaportal on Windows. Current build handling 5 tuners (3 USB HD + a 7010ix PCIE card) on a cheap Lenovo E50 with Win8.1 with Bing. MythTV for Linux has similar capability (inc network playback) but you need a lot more care choosing tuners for it.

anyone having any issues with the on demand / catch up services - got it all set up really quickly updated over the internet but when click on any of the on demand services - just goes to black screen

seems to be really slow on wifi - connected by lan and all works fine, think this is one of those boxes that's needs to be hard wired

After many years and setups I find it much better than Linux due to better support for TBS drivers. ArgusTV/Win10 is rock solid. I find Windows as a front end more problematic as Kodi cannot maintain focus so here Linux based OSes are better IMHO. I run FireTV/Kodi and OpeneElec boxes with a 4 tuner TBS DVB-T2 card on the backend.

Can't comment on Argus TV as I haven't used it but a headless Linux server that does everything, file server, Dlna, PVR, cloud backup etc. Is what I use and it has been faultless.

I also use kodi clients for true multiroom that can all access shared recordings, live tv etc independently. I tested recording four channels whilst playing 4 movies and it didn't fall over.

​Also fire tv kodi and openelec are both Linux based.

HUMAX Live TV App

itune

Google Play

expired

Spammed as code doesn't work