Best Freeview Option/TV Capture - Pause/Record Live TV etc.

Dirk Diggler

Dirk Diggler

Dirk Diggler

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I've just given Sky their 30 days notice and now looking into options. We're going to get box sets, kids TV and movies from Netflix, Amazon & Disney Life which is why I'm getting rid of the £70/month payment to Sky for a package that doesn't even include sports.

Anyway, one thing we're going to miss is being able to watch, pause and record live TV. What's the best options for that? I'm happy to integrate a PC/Plex solution if it's worth it.

TIA
 
You can switch to a £10 per month sky package which lets you just watch freeview/HD and still use the HDD capability of the sky box ?
 
I think you need to ask CS its not advertised for obvious reasons but it should still be there lurking in the background it was a month by month contract.
 
Probably loads of second-hand/barely used BT TV boxes on eBay for cheap, they're just rebranded Humax YouView boxes. If you can get a UHD one even better, they're a bit quicker and have more storage.
 
Many TVs will let you stick a HD into them, and just hi pause on freeview/freesat and record to the TV HD.
It would be free, all Samsung have offered this for years.
What model have you?
 
My mother has just done the same thing. She doesn't have an internet connection, so streaming isn't an option. I've bought a basic Freeview recorder for her. It's a Humax HDR-1800T. I'll install it for her in a couple of weeks, so I'm using the intervening time to play around with it, and so far, I'm impressed.

She never bothered with a recording Sky box, I don't know why, so this will be a step up for her. It will pause live TV, and rewind as far back as that channel was being watched from up to 1 hour. There's also the "record two and still watch one live" feature which is an improvement over a normal Sky HD box. This is also why we've ruled out recording via a USB drive on the TV; it's often no-good if you want to watch another channel while recording. The TVs don't support it.

My criticisms so far are only two things: The lack of HDMI control, and no ability to unify the TV and Humax control together from the Humax remote because it doesn't have a code programming feature. For that I should have got the HDR-2000T, but TBH these are minor niggles. It's still possible to change the TV volume from the Humax remote, and pressing the TV remote power button is hardly the end of the world.

Everyone has different needs, but one common for a lot of people is the need for simplicity. Any system you install can be as sophisticated as you want, but if it's not simple to use and fairly bomb-proof then you're going to be in Tech Support hell as you'll be the go-to guy if it all goes belly up just at the wrong moment. Sky HD was pretty good in that respect. The Humax is designed along similar lines. Sky Q (IMO) isn't quite as logical. Quite how easy in reality it will be for the family to live with a PC hosting a bunch of TV tuner cards to run Plex or some other techy solution is anyone's guess.
 
varkanoid said:
You can switch to a £10 per month sky package which lets you just watch freeview/HD and still use the HDD capability of the sky box ?
Click to expand...
You haven’t had to pay that for quite a while now. It’s just a matter of going into the sky box settings and enabling recording again - but think you need to keep the deactivated sky card in the box.

Not sure that works for Sky Q though.
 
I use a HDHomeRun TV tuner, sits in the loct connected to the network, mostly use it with Emby but Android TV picks the tuner up and will use it also. Can record onto my server, Emby TV guide is really good too and the live TV performance is way better than Plex.
 
Thekwango said:
You haven’t had to pay that for quite a while now. It’s just a matter of going into the sky box settings and enabling recording again - but think you need to keep the deactivated sky card in the box.

Not sure that works for Sky Q though.
Click to expand...

even better. although you are right you cant on Sky Q because when you end the contract you have to give the Sky Q box back ?? Wasnt it always in the small print you didnt "own" the box ?
 
Destination said:
Many TVs will let you stick a HD into them, and just hi pause on freeview/freesat and record to the TV HD.
It would be free, all Samsung have offered this for years.
What model have you?
Click to expand...

My LG OLED can do this but it's rubbish, I went back to using my BT TV box within days.
 
Samsung recording from TV is limited; e.g. it can't play a recording of it's recording something else.

The HDHomeRun CONNECT QUATRO looks interesting - according to this thread.

It doesn't look like it plugs into the TV via HDMI; it streams over LAN? Is that how Plex records from it, over LAN? Are the recordings just normal MPV files? I'd like to be able to transfer the files to my tablet for work.

Is there a better PVR solution?
 
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HDHomeRun is not ideal as it's relying on network traffic, I think it'll be heading back for a refund.

Could anyone suggest a good TV capture card? Is a USB solution OK or would it have to be PCI?
 
String said:
HDHomeRun is not ideal as it's relying on network traffic, I think it'll be heading back for a refund.

Could anyone suggest a good TV capture card? Is a USB solution OK or would it have to be PCI?
Click to expand...

Usb and pcie aren't as well supported by Plex or emby. HDhomerun is the best option for either platform.

Not sure why network traffic is an issue?
 
Armageus said:
Usb and pcie aren't as well supported by Plex or emby. HDhomerun is the best option for either platform.

Not sure why network traffic is an issue?
Click to expand...

Hmm, I think it's because I have Google WiFi plugged into my BT Hub. I think I might need to persevere a little more and reconfigure the network.

Example - HDHomerun app can't see the signal unless I plug it into the Google WiFi unit as opposed to the BT router.
 
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