Multiroom Freeview/Freesat Recorder

matt100

matt100

matt100

Soldato
Joined
31 Jul 2004
Posts
13,816
Location
Surrey
Hello all

I think I've finally reached the end of the road with Sky.. I'm moving house so being forced to do SOMETHING... I was paying £45 a month for the basic Sky Q thing with 1 extra box, UHD etc and Netflix premium.

That just went up to £86 and the best they'll do is £68ish.

If I take Netflix off I'm essentially paying about £50 for the privilege of being able to record things which is bonkers.

I have very little interest in their puck or sreaming options, I can get that functionality for the most part via my TV and I have limited interest in using 4 or 5's apps as they are awful in my experience.

However we do watch 4 and 5, we do like having scheduled recording to remind us to watch stuff/save a series etc.. Which got me thinking..

Is there a freeview/freesat recorder setup that is consumer friendly that would potentially allow me to watch the same recording in different rooms?

Given I'll be "saving" around £50 a month the cost of the box/setup really is borderline irrelevant, I just want it to be the sort of thing I can set up and forget, it cannot be an overly complicated solution.
 
Humax and Manhattan still sell Freeview PVRs, a quick look on the Humax site suggests that they offer multi-room on their current boxes.

I personally use Plex with a HomerunHD Freeview Tuner, which lets me record Freeview to my NAS box and then stream to any streaming device in the house or outside of it (which is very useful when visiting my GF), but that's probably getting into "over-complicated" territory, though once it's set up it works just like any other PVR system.
 
For many years I have used a VU+ Uno4K unicable satellite receiver that can record up to 8 channels at once.
My wife is the main user and uses 3 other rooms in the house for different things, so in each room I've bought a Firestick, put KODI on it and an Enigma 2 plugin and she can access the VU+ from all the rooms.
It works brilliantly.
 
Tavis75 said:
Humax and Manhattan still sell Freeview PVRs, a quick look on the Humax site suggests that they offer multi-room on their current boxes.

I personally use Plex with a HomerunHD Freeview Tuner, which lets me record Freeview to my NAS box and then stream to any streaming device in the house or outside of it (which is very useful when visiting my GF), but that's probably getting into "over-complicated" territory, though once it's set up it works just like any other PVR system.
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Thanks.. I couldn't see anything on the Humax site, able to link it? I Saw an "espresso" thing they sold but that was from 2016.

SexyGreyFox said:
For many years I have used a VU+ Uno4K unicable satellite receiver that can record up to 8 channels at once.
My wife is the main user and uses 3 other rooms in the house for different things, so in each room I've bought a Firestick, put KODI on it and an Enigma 2 plugin and she can access the VU+ from all the rooms.
It works brilliantly.
Click to expand...

So long as something works and isn't too geeky I'll be fine.. she knows how to use Plex and is fine with it... it's not that she can't work it out it's that neither of us have the patience for any of my hackier things these days.

So I am starting to think a freeview PVR linked to Plex might be the answer.. I have a lifetime pass but barely ever sail the seas anymore so it may as well get some other use.

Mind you.. the unbundling of so many services into half a dozen fragmented streaming apps has certainly warmed up my interest in going back 10 years.
 
matt100 said:
So long as something works and isn't too geeky I'll be fine.. she knows how to use Plex and is fine with it... it's not that she can't work it out it's that neither of us have the patience for any of my hackier things these days.

So I am starting to think a freeview PVR linked to Plex might be the answer.. I have a lifetime pass but barely ever sail the seas anymore so it may as well get some other use.

Mind you.. the unbundling of so many services into half a dozen fragmented streaming apps has certainly warmed up my interest in going back 10 years.
Click to expand...

My wife is 66 and has no problems programming it, it's just a normal EPG.
She then has no problems with KODI playing from the receiver.

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matt100 said:
So I am starting to think a freeview PVR linked to Plex might be the answer.. I have a lifetime pass but barely ever sail the seas anymore so it may as well get some other use.
Click to expand...
If you already have Plex and the lifetime pass then all you need is the tuner, I use one of these:

SiliconDust HDHomeRun Flex Quatro 4xDVB-T/T2/C Tuners - HDFX-4DT: Amazon.co.uk: Computers & Accessories

Free delivery and returns on eligible orders. Buy SiliconDust HDHomeRun Flex Quatro 4xDVB-T/T2/C Tuners - HDFX-4DT at Amazon UK.
www.amazon.co.uk

Just connects to the network and should be identified by Plex, then you can watch live TV through it on pretty much any device with the Plex app (including outside the house if you set that up) and it will record with a TV guide just like a regular PVR, and has 4 tuners, so generally clashes shouldn't be a problem. Programs are recorded to the system you store your plex stuff on, so I have a specific library set up for recorded TV (and in fact just use a single non-raid hard disk for that aspect). Because the recordings are just files then you can also back them up, move them around and edit them, just like you would any other video file.

I've been using this setup for nearly two years and found it works really well (though they did recently update the iPad\iPhone app and make it considerably worse, though they do seem to be gradually fixing it). Doesn't have quite all the bells and whistles of Virgin's old TiVo based boxes (which were pretty much the best PVRs we got in the UK) but easily competes with SkyQ and the various Freeview PVR systems around.
 
This is all really interesting, thanks for everyone's input I think I will go down the Plex route :)

Can Plex series link recordings?
 
matt100 said:
This is all really interesting, thanks for everyone's input I think I will go down the Plex route :)

Can Plex series link recordings?
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Yep, it has series link with the usual features, "New Only", "New and Repeats" etc. and it remembers the links between series so when a program restarts after a break it will be picked up automatically (which sounds basic but the original Sky+ system did not do that!)
 
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matt100 said:
Thanks, I'm actually excited to get rid of Sky now :cry:
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Hope it works out for you, I've been very happy since ditching Virgin.

One other nice feature the Plex PVR has that I don't think you'd ever get from Sky is auto detection of ads and credits and giving you a skip option, there's even an option to automatically delete the ad breaks, but the system does not always get it right so I tend not to use that, and we won't mention the time I recorded "Britains Favourite Ads of the 70's and 80's" with it turned on...
 
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