What do non Sky or Virgin subscribers do to record / pause live TV?

[steinooo]

Hi

I've been using a virgin media TV box for over 20 years and find that I can now get a higher bandwidth for a lower price with lilaconnect.

Question is, what do you do about recording and pausing live tv? It's not as simple for me as just using catch up apps, I like series links and pausing live tv, and use it all the time

What's your go to solution please? P.s. I can't see the main satellites so a Freesat box is out of the question

 

[MissChief]

A free view PVR box. Higher initial cost but no cost to use. https://www.cordbusters.co.uk/best-freeview-boxes-recorders-tv/

If you've had Virgin for so long you may need an aerial upgrade.

 

[stoofa]

My FreeSat box allows me to Record 4 channels at once and I can also pause Live TV. However, as you've said FreeSat won't work for you - a few FreeView boxes will do the trick.
"Freely" which will include broadcast over IP at some point this year will also almost certainly offer those features - but info on boxes very sketchy at the moment.

 

[Awahwah]

I don't, stream and catchup works for us.

 

[TheVoice]

A 4K Humax DTR-T4000 BT TV box. I haven't had a BT TV subscription for years but the box still works fine as a regular Freeview (Youview) recorder.

 

[rodders]

I have a HDD plugged into my TV, but I can't see series link.
But I can pause live TV and record 2 channels at once.

 

[steinooo]

(duplicate post in error)

 

[steinooo]

I must admit I need to try this as my TV does have a usb port.

I have a HDD plugged into my TV, but I can't see series link.
But I can pause live TV and record 2 channels at once.

 

[steinooo]

A 4K Humax DTR-T4000 BT TV box. I haven't had a BT TV subscription for years but the box still works fine as a regular Freeview (Youview) recorder.

Are there any 4K Freeview channels?

 

[VincentHanna]

No.

BBC iPlayer has UHD content though.

 

[Orcvader]

P.s. I can't see the main satellites so a Freesat box is out of the question

If it was a Sky dish, I bought a "freesat LNB" years which replaces the receiving part of the dish and allowed it to receive Freesat channels.

 

[TheVoice]

Are there any 4K Freeview channels?

No but BT TV has 4K streamed channels. The 4K box is much quicker to use than the standard one too, my parents have had a couple of the standard ones and they're very sluggish.

 

[Barry Smalley]

How come you can’t see the satellites? You only need a dish pointed at 28.2E.

I use a combination of E2 Linux sat box with FBC tuner and Formuler Z11 Pro Max.

 

[steinooo]

How come you can’t see the satellites? You only need a dish pointed at 28.2E.

I use a combination of E2 Linux sat box with FBC tuner and Formuler Z11 Pro Max.

Big trees in the way, I bought a dish and a satellite finder about 7 years ago to try it, even had Sky out to try and erect a dish and they said no point.

 

[Fr0dders]

I just don't see the need for pausing live TV anymore. I'll either watch it live if I have to (because it's sport or whatever) or I watch it catch up.

I've completely the cut the cord on sky / virgin and just make do with freeview and our family's 2 favourite streaming services Netflix and Disney +

 

[theone8181]

It would be interesting to know how many people do just stream. We do as I couldn't be bothered to run a cable for either Freeview or Freesat.

 

[Tavis75]

I just don't see the need for pausing live TV anymore. I'll either watch it live if I have to (because it's sport or whatever) or I watch it catch up.

I've completely the cut the cord on sky / virgin and just make do with freeview and our family's 2 favourite streaming services Netflix and Disney +

I record everything and watch when I want, and have done for almost 25 years since I first got a TiVo PVR, trouble with streaming catch up is that nearly all services other than iPlayer have massive amounts of unskippable ads (obviously that applies to the free services like Channel 4 and ITV etc. though ads seem to be becoming more prevalent on the paid services as well, so I assume it wont be long until they're unavoidable). Have actually ditched streaming completely since the start of the year and rely on broadcast TV and physical media now.

In regards to the OPs original question, I gave up on Virgin myself recently and now use a HDHomeRun device, a 4-channel Freeview tuner that connects to your home network and lets you watch on any connected device with an appropriate app, then that is paired with Plex on my NAS allowing me to record with series links etc. (there is a £3.99 per month, or one-off lifetime fee of about £90 for the Plex PVR option). Seems to work really well, and means I have basically unlimited recording space if needed by just adding more drives into the NAS and can keep recordings as long as I like.

There are also several Freeview PVR boxes available; Manhattan and Humax being the two biggest players I believe, which will do all the basic PVR stuff like series links, pausing etc. Not as many features as Virgin's V6\TiVo box (as that has lots of really nice TiVo patented features), but easily comparable with something like SkyQ or Virgin's new 360 box.