Freeview/Freesat?

[MashBag]

We record loads, mainly because we don't want the adverts. Don't want to subscribe and always have loads of things to watch...on our terms. Stream occasionally but not very often.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

We record loads, mainly because we don't want the adverts. Don't want to subscribe and always have loads of things to watch...on our terms. Stream occasionally but not very often.

That's what we do i hate adverts.
My Freesat box is the main player i record stuff we like to watch together and stuff she doesn't like to watch Bangers and Crash etc, her box is mainly full of old films she likes to watch over and over, something i have never got.

 

[scottydog.]

I have used Humax freesat boxes for around 5 years now and trouble free. 1st one is the expensive inbuilt 500gb hard drive 2nd one is the cheaper freesat only one but added a 500gb external drive and use it for my static caravan,bought from ebay £17 and works just as good .
You can buy a sky dish off Amazon if needed.

 

[Clint]

Can you run them through the Internet?

 

[Rodcx500z]

Likei said earlier we have a dish with 3 lnbs 2 feeds upstairs and one down, car insurance has gone up so sky is going to pay that

 

[MashBag]

Can you run them through the Internet?

Whaaaaat.

Help.. I am getting off my nosebleeds again.

 

[MashBag]

I have used Humax freesat boxes for around 5 years now and trouble free. 1st one is the expensive inbuilt 500gb hard drive 2nd one is the cheaper freesat only one but added a 500gb external drive and use it for my static caravan,bought from ebay £17 and works just as good .
You can buy a sky dish off Amazon if needed.

Dishes are cheap as chips now and easy to install (get the phone app.. dish directional tuner ewgitt )

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Can you run them through the Internet?

Not 100% sure what you are asking @Clint you need to be connected by Wi-Fi or ethernet to watch programmes in the tv guide you may have missed earlier in the week and to watch streaming using the built in on demand services

............

 

[Clint]

Plug it in,not just WiFi or get the signal without a dish?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

 

[MashBag]

Plug it in,not just WiFi or get the signal without a dish?

Clint have you been drinking?

These boxes will stream TV (over the Internet) and record freesat TV through the dish (or freeview via the ariel)

 

[Clint]

I've never used one so I didn't know.

 

[soupdragon]

Still not decided which box to get. I no longer have reservations about the Arris Freesat box. The other under consideration is the Manhattan T4-R that's not even available yet. I'm not particularly worried about it being full of bugs to start with as the T3-R was pretty usable right from the off. I just have to decide how long I'm prepared to wait hmmmmm

Cheers Tom

 

[soupdragon]

Just out of curiosity, can anyone with a recently purchased Freesat box tell me if they've changed the ITV hub button to an ITV X button? All the pictures I've seen of the remote have a hub button

Cheers Tom

 

[Twostage]

Just out of curiosity, can anyone with a recently purchased Freesat box tell me if they've changed the ITV hub button to an ITV X button? All the pictures I've seen of the remote have a hub button

Cheers Tom

I know its different but on my Firesticks it changed from hub to X a while back. Might just be out of date pictures.

 

[soupdragon]

On screen? I'm actually asking about the button on the remote control itself. I should have been more specific, sorry

Cheers Tom

 

[Graz]

I have a Humax Aura and have owned it for at least a year, possibly more.

It's ok.

Early days it did seem quite buggy and would often reboot itself, it does seem much better now but still not perfect.

Main gripes at the moment:

ITVX often freezes and then causes the box to reboot. Only does this when you've finished watching whatever you want to watch and try to exit the app. Might be the app itself though not the box.

Still haven't figured out the resolution and frame rate switching into my TV, sometimes I'll be playing something that will pop up in the Aura's UI as 1920x1080 24p (24Hz), but then the TV screen blanks and then comes up 1920x1080 50P. So as far as my TV is concerned it's not playing it back at the intended frame rate. I need to fiddle with the settings more to see if there's anything to sort that. I know the TV is fine with pretty much any HD format as I used to run a home theatre PC and that would playback whatever in the original resolution. It might be something to configure on the Aura or on the Kodi install that I use to playback media off my NAS. I run a Nvidia Shield (also Android TV) to a projector in the other living room in our house and that will output the media in the format it is encoded in though I do remember Kodi needed a bit of convincing.

The other thing I was hoping it would do is stream live TV and anything recorded to my projector system, don't have a TV tuner in that system. It will do this but transcodes everything to a low bit rate that looks terrible on a 100" screen. I guess the developers were assuming you'd be doing this on a mobile. I do have another device that would stream HD TV over a network to clients made by a company called VBox Link but that was buggy as hell as well so it got mothballed, might dust it off for another look at some point. Doesn't solve the issue of watching recordings from the Aura though, there may be a fix or workaround but I haven't had time to look.

Final thing to be aware of, it's very sensitive to signal strength. If you live in a high signal area then get a variable attenuator and plug it into the aerial via that. You don't want more than about 80% signal strength on HD otherwise it causes problems. Our aerial is covered by a transmitter maybe 10-15 miles away and pretty much has line-of-sight so gets blasted. Made worse by the fact they turned up the power on Freeview after analogue got switched off.

There are a few good Humax forums where you'll probably find more up to date info.

I'm kind of fine with the Aura now as it does most of what I need and is wife / kid friendly.

It's about time Freeview was offered over IP though with the ability to record. I have Gb fibre into my house, I shouldn't need an aerial anymore. Yet it's only Sky that offers Freeview streaming and no record from what I can gather, just the catch up services but sometimes broadcast stuff isn't always available after, can't always be watched from the beginning or is delayed by a day and I don't want to give Murdoch enterprises any of my money

 

[soupdragon]

I have a Humax Aura and have owned it for at least a year, possibly more.

It's ok.

Early days it did seem quite buggy and would often reboot itself, it does seem much better now but still not perfect.

Main gripes at the moment:

ITVX often freezes and then causes the box to reboot. Only does this when you've finished watching whatever you want to watch and try to exit the app. Might be the app itself though not the box.

Still haven't figured out the resolution and frame rate switching into my TV, sometimes I'll be playing something that will pop up in the Aura's UI as 1920x1080 24p (24Hz), but then the TV screen blanks and then comes up 1920x1080 50P. So as far as my TV is concerned it's not playing it back at the intended frame rate. I need to fiddle with the settings more to see if there's anything to sort that. I know the TV is fine with pretty much any HD format as I used to run a home theatre PC and that would playback whatever in the original resolution. It might be something to configure on the Aura or on the Kodi install that I use to playback media off my NAS. I run a Nvidia Shield (also Android TV) to a projector in the other living room in our house and that will output the media in the format it is encoded in though I do remember Kodi needed a bit of convincing.

The other thing I was hoping it would do is stream live TV and anything recorded to my projector system, don't have a TV tuner in that system. It will do this but transcodes everything to a low bit rate that looks terrible on a 100" screen. I guess the developers were assuming you'd be doing this on a mobile. I do have another device that would stream HD TV over a network to clients made by a company called VBox Link but that was buggy as hell as well so it got mothballed, might dust it off for another look at some point. Doesn't solve the issue of watching recordings from the Aura though, there may be a fix or workaround but I haven't had time to look.

Final thing to be aware of, it's very sensitive to signal strength. If you live in a high signal area then get a variable attenuator and plug it into the aerial via that. You don't want more than about 80% signal strength on HD otherwise it causes problems. Our aerial is covered by a transmitter maybe 10-15 miles away and pretty much has line-of-sight so gets blasted. Made worse by the fact they turned up the power on Freeview after analogue got switched off.

There are a few good Humax forums where you'll probably find more up to date info.

I'm kind of fine with the Aura now as it does most of what I need and is wife / kid friendly.

It's about time Freeview was offered over IP though with the ability to record. I have Gb fibre into my house, I shouldn't need an aerial anymore. Yet it's only Sky that offers Freeview streaming and no record from what I can gather, just the catch up services but sometimes broadcast stuff isn't always available after, can't always be watched from the beginning or is delayed by a day and I don't want to give Murdoch enterprises any of my money

The new Freely service is due to start sometime this year.

https://www.everyonetv.co.uk/news/press-release/new-free-tv-service-via-ip
Up to now only new Hisense TVs will have the Freely tuner/software inside but the forthcoming Manhattan T4-R will support "Freeview over broadband" so may get permission in time from the powers that be.

Cheers Tom

 

[Graz]

The new Freely service is due to start sometime this year.

https://www.everyonetv.co.uk/news/press-release/new-free-tv-service-via-ip
Up to now only new Hisense TVs will have the Freely tuner/software inside but the forthcoming Manhattan T4-R will support "Freeview over broadband" so may get permission in time from the powers that be.

Cheers Tom

Interesting, thanks for the info.

Here's hoping there will be a supporting Android TV app with a record to local storage capability. This would be perfect. One can dream

 

[soupdragon]

Interesting, thanks for the info.

Here's hoping there will be a supporting Android TV app with a record to local storage capability. This would be perfect. One can dream

I've already asked Manhattan via email about the recording option and they said no He didn't go into detail. Maybe the Freely people don't want us to be able to record from their streams? Technically it can be done as the old BT TV box, now EE TV box can do it via their own service but then there's a subscription involved

Cheers Tom