Alternatives to Sky for recording/pause/rewind

tomahawke

Hi.
I ditched my sky tv bundle recently and now looking for a simple alternative way to record/pause/rewind tv programmes. I'm just interested in recording the channels available to me on saorview rather than getting additional channels. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks

r3nu4l

Not sure if you can hook an external hard drive up to the existing sky box but if you can't then you could buy a Humax Freesat box and connect that to your satellite cables, getting rid of your sky box.

That way you would have no "blank" channels and could pause, rewind forward and record live TV. You would also have a full 7 day EPG, with series or single episode recording. My Humax box also had twin tuners, meaning I can record two channels at the same time, while watching a third channel.

Ten Pin

What make / model is your TV?

A lot of TV's allow recording to a USB connected drive. Not as user friendly as sky but still functional.

Johnboy1951

tomahawke wrote: »

Hi.
I ditched my sky tv bundle recently and now looking for a simple alternative way to record/pause/rewind tv programmes. I'm just interested in recording the channels available to me on saorview rather than getting additional channels. Any advice would be much appreciated.
Thanks

So you only want to record the Saorview channels and not anything from Satellite?

decor58

If it is just the Saorview channels you want to record, I use a Samsung HDD, I don't know if they are still available, the unit I have has 7 day epg, allows series link, Netflix YouTube, RTÉ, 3, TG4, players, very reliable. There are similar Panasonic units but I don't know how they compare. I use a Humax unit for sat, a one for all remote works all.

tomahawke

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

So you only want to record the Saorview channels and not anything from Satellite?

No, I also wish to pause/rewind. And, yes not particularly interested in satellite channels

Johnboy1951

tomahawke wrote: »

No, I also wish to pause/rewind. And, yes not particularly interested in satellite channels

A lot of TVs provide that functionality with the addition of an external HDD connected to it via USB cable.
You need to determine if your TV provides this function.

That is the simplest option.

tomahawke

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

A lot of TVs provide that functionality with the addition of an external HDD connected to it via USB cable.
You need to determine if your TV provides this function.

That is the simplest option.

Many thanks for the suggestions. Much appreciated.....

funnyname

What's the model name of your Samsung?

I currently have a Humax for satellite but nothing for Saorview bar the TV so am interested in the yoke you have rather than buying a half baked solution with the connect box.

decor58 wrote: »

If it is just the Saorview channels you want to record, I use a Samsung HDD, I don't know if they are still available, the unit I have has 7 day epg, allows series link, Netflix YouTube, RTÉ, 3, TG4, players, very reliable. There are similar Panasonic units but I don't know how they compare. I use a Humax unit for sat, a one for all remote works all.

decor58

funnyname wrote:

I currently have a Humax for satellite but nothing for Saorview bar the TV so am interested in the yoke you have rather than buying a half baked solution with the connect box.

It's a BDH8900m, 1Tb of storage, epg, channels in regular sequence, players, Netflix, YouTube, Internet radio, WiFi, auto updates. Got it in Curry's last year, 1 remote operates Samsung, Humax and tv.

JB81

Hi There

I was writing a long post with a load of questions, but thought it might be easier to say what I have and what I want, and maybe someone could help me. Im not great with this new stuff.

I have Sky, and a panasonic 'Smart' tv, although not sure how smart, as I can't seem to do much with it through browsing, apps etc...
I have an old freeview box, and an old saorview box, which I used prior to sky. They are still working.

We are hoping to get a box which allows us to record 1/2 programmes at a time while watching.
We would like to have the Irish channels, and other free to air channels from UK, but with the ability to record.
We would also like access to RTE player, TV3 player, ITV Player, BBC player etc... and if possible netflix and any other relevant apps that we could get.

I don't know if this is even possible, but maybe someone could help.

I came across the - Humax™ HDR-1100S Freesat+ HD Box (WiFi & 1TB w/ FreeTime)
But not sure how this would work with irish channels and RTE player etc...

We also only have mobile broadband from 3 with a dongle, although it is not to bad speedwise,

Any help would be great, would love to get rid of the monthly subscription to Sky.

Regards
JB

decor58

JB81 wrote:

We are hoping to get a box which allows us to record 1/2 programmes at a time while watching. We would like to have the Irish channels, and other free to air channels from UK, but with the ability to record. We would also like access to RTE player, TV3 player, ITV Player, BBC player etc... and if possible netflix and any other relevant apps that we could get.

The Humax is a good unit from my experience, you can't get the Irish channels on it on a sky dish. You can not get BBC or ITV players here in normal circumstances, you may be able to mirror the Irish players onto your TV from a smart phone if the apps aren't on your TV.

Capt'n Midnight

For Irish channels get a usb stick or usb hard drive and stick it in the TV to give you "PVR"

+1 For the UK channels get the Humax.

While the Freesat box won't show or record Irish channels there's a lot of overlap, so you can use it as your main recorder.

mackersdublin

Ten Pin wrote: »

What make / model is your TV?

A lot of TV's allow recording to a USB connected drive. Not as user friendly as sky but still functional.

Remember though you can't rewind live tv with a external harddrive on TVs. Only Pause and Record work

I've seen videos on Curry's website claiming you can pause, rewind and record on new TVs

cc

mackersdublin wrote: »

Remember though you can't rewind live tv with a external harddrive on TVs. Only Pause and Record work

I've seen videos on Curry's website claiming you can pause, rewind and record on new TVs

You can certainly do that on TV's, my LG is a 2017 model and this works well

tomahawke

r3nu4l wrote: »

Not sure if you can hook an external hard drive up to the existing sky box but if you can't then you could buy a Humax Freesat box and connect that to your satellite cables, getting rid of your sky box.

That way you would have no "blank" channels and could pause, rewind forward and record live TV. You would also have a full 7 day EPG, with series or single episode recording. My Humax box also had twin tuners, meaning I can record two channels at the same time, while watching a third channel.

Hi. Thanks for the advice. I went for the Humax option and pkeased with that. Just need rte to go to freesat now