recommend me a set-top box?

[bigegg]

I'm in the market for a TV box.
Needs to record from Free to Air - preferably to an external hard drive, but if not, recordings need to be accessible over LAN to PC.
Need to be able to pause "live" TV (I realise this will only work when hard drive is plugged in)
HD compatible - HDMI output(?)

Ideally, will also have a browser for streaming from other sites - youtube, my LAN server, iplayer

budget of £50-£150, including 500gb/1tb external drive if neccessary.

 

[pedrobedro]

Do you want it to run from an aerial or satellite dish and have twin tuner as well ? Try the Humax site for manager specials. We bought a HDR1000S for just a bit more and it is brilliant.

 

[bigegg]

aerial, and twin tuner

 

[ajlelectronics]

Humax YouView (2 year warranty) £199.95. Bit over your budget, but buy cheap, buy twice. Don't be tempted to buy from the Dixon's group as they have, how shall I put it?... A slightly different spec.

 

[pedrobedro]

For all the smart stuff you want a £30 google chromecast dongle if you haven't got a smart tv

 

[ford34/2]

seconds on a Humax, a much older model by todays standards, I have the Humax Foxsat HDR, yes it is Satellite freeview, but the dish and LNB were a few quid and I put it in myself with out any major problems, gets a signal up in the 90% + and never had any problems, unlike the Samsung Telly it does ITV i Player as well. HDMI out + scart options, Thumbs up from me For Humax. Came from Richer sounds who price matched and matched the 5 year G/Tee offered by John Lewis at the time.

Stan

 

[bigegg]

Humax YouView (2 year warranty) £199.95. Bit over your budget, but buy cheap, buy twice. Don't be tempted to buy from the Dixon's group as they have, how shall I put it?... A slightly different spec.

link? I've had a search and there seems to be several different models of youview.
ta

 

[pedrobedro]

seconds on a Humax, a much older model by todays standards, I have the Humax Foxsat HDR, yes it is Satellite freeview, but the dish and LNB were a few quid and I put it in myself with out any major problems, gets a signal up in the 90% + and never had any problems, unlike the Samsung Telly it does ITV i Player as well. HDMI out + scart options, Thumbs up from me For Humax. Came from Richer sounds who price matched and matched the 5 year G/Tee offered by John Lewis at the time.

Stan

I got a dish and quad LNB plus cable for under a tenner but I had to buy some more cable. Compass and directions from dishpointer and an afternoon fiddling about and watch a few videos an how to fit F plug connectors and the world is your marine mollusc of choice.

 

[bigegg]

I actually run a dreambox 500 at home - connected to my old sky dish, then to my TV and PC (so I can record).
This is for a friend, who needs the same sort of connectivity, but "plugin and go", and without the satellite dish

 

[ajlelectronics]

Well, I can supply if you would like me to?

 

[wookie]

Another vote for Humax here, I got the satellite version and installed it for my in-laws, there are total technophobes but easily picked it up and love it to bits. You can get Humax boxes to talk to each other over a network so you can stream recordings from one box to the other for watching.

I have had a Pace Twin and various Topfield TF5800 and TF5810 and I wouldn't recommend either, they were all sensitive to an iffy signal and would loose all your recordings from time to time.

I now use a low-power computer running XBMC and that has both satellite and terrestrial tuners in, that does all my tv recording duties plus it's got all my music and films loaded on it all available at the touch of a button, very slick

 

[bigegg]

Well, I can supply if you would like me to?

you have PM

 

[tlovatt]

You could look at the Youview boxes from Talktalk or BT. They are available on Ebay for around £80 (talk talk Huwai box with 320GB HDD) or £100 for the BT Humax box (500GB). I got some of the Humax boxes for myself and my parents, the menu is a little slow, but its a great box will built in catch up services as well as storage at a low price (you do not need to subscribe to Talk Talk for the boxes to work)

 

[armalites]

I have a Humax, it's been really good. You can record 2 channels and watch something you've already recorded at the same time. In some cases it is possible to record two channels and watch a 3rd if two of the channels are on the same mux(think that's what it's called)

I recently moved my router so I got the ethernet connected to it so I we can watch Youtube, no adverts either.

 

[ford34/2]

I recently moved my router so I got the ethernet connected to it so I we can watch Youtube, no adverts either.

excellent idea, I pulled through two cables for ethernet, upstairs computer room down to telly and Humax, outlet on the wall with two short cat5 cable things to connect both appliances to upstairs router, --also got another one hardwired in our bedroom too for the bedroom telly.-- Smart tellys!!!!!!!!!!!!-- and I done even watch the things.

Stan

 

[brewdexta]

MythTV?

Almost any old PC, a hauppage twin tuner or similar and it will do just about what other set top boxes will do and more besides.

Having said that, I've just bought a freeview Humax, not because they are particularly good but because the old freesat humax FOX PVR was on its way out and it was too close to Christmas, plus I have too many projects on the go. I will do it later this year if I get chance. We didn't get a terrestrial signal when we first moved in hence the freesat but we do now courtesy of a new local transmitter. Also I was getting sick of brushing the snow off the LMB, its high up on the gable end and lashing a brush to a piece of 20mm box works but not when you've had a few, its pitch black, its snowing and your stood on a steep banking

 

[wookie]

MythTV?

Almost any old PC, a hauppage twin tuner or similar and it will do just about what other set top boxes will do and more besides.

Forget MythTv I've tried it, granted it's good for recording tv, and it's got a great search facility, but the actual user interface is quite poor

XBMC on the other hand blows it out of the water, it's the most configurable user interface I ever seen, you can change just about everything via options and different skins, it gets fan-art from the internet to match your programs automatically, downloads trailers, plays internet Tv, etc etc

Xbmc is well worth a look if your thinking of going down the route of a HTPC

 

[brewdexta]

Thanks for that Wookie, I shall have a look at XBMC, I've heard of it as lots of small fanless PCs seem to be bought for it and I bought a similar PC recently (gigabyte Brix) but I've never had chance to explore further.
Cheers
Andy

 

[tlovatt]

XMBC has been renamed Kodi for about 6 months now.

An HTPC is a very different proposition from buying a set top box, but personally if you go down the HTPC route I would always advocate using a base linux distro (such as mint) and configure the media functions yourself - you can get a far more customised device and the understanding of how it works - which you will tend to need at some point with an HTPC.

 

[bigegg]

Forget MythTv I've tried it, granted it's good for recording tv, and it's got a great search facility, but the actual user interface is quite poor

XBMC on the other hand blows it out of the water, it's the most configurable user interface I ever seen, you can change just about everything via options and different skins, it gets fan-art from the internet to match your programs automatically, downloads trailers, plays internet Tv, etc etc

Xbmc is well worth a look if your thinking of going down the route of a HTPC

I actually run a dreambox 500 at home - connected to my old sky dish, then to my TV and PC (so I can record).
This is for a friend, who needs the same sort of connectivity, but "plugin and go", and without the satellite dish

I run XBMC on my PC (fedora linux), but as I say, need something "plug and play"

I'll take a look at myth TV any way...