Recordable Freesat box

tenreds

Think my Humax freesat box has died after about 10 years, are the new Freesat boxes any good or should I take a chance and buy a refurbished box. Any recommendations on what’s best

NIMAN

I changed from the original Foxsat HDR to one of the newer ones a couple of years ago.

After habing zero issues with the oroginal, the hdd failed on the new one. I changed out the hdd, and still same issue. I read online that often the boxes can stop recognising the drive. Tried a 3rd to be sure, and also no good.

so now my fancy new box is basically a view only no record option. I have often thought about putting my old one back in place, as I kept it. But there's nothing I really record any more, I haven't bothered

Manc-Red_

What’s the best box to work with the Sky Q lnb automatically that records too?

icdg

The Arris Freesat 4K is the only other box (apart from Sky Q itself) that works with the Sky Q wideband LNB, as far as I know.

I have it, it’s fine, the “we are setting up your dish” and need to change the channel immediately afterwards is the most annoying thing, I know that I could even avoid that by turning off power saving. It is not a solution if you want Irish and UK channels on the one EPG, but it is the only plug and play solution if you are moving from Sky Q.

c2r

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058357301/recordable-freesat-box

I've got a couple of old foxsat HDRs and they seem virtually indestructible…

waywill1966

I got rid of Sky and got one of those 4K Freesat recordable boxes from Currys in Enniskillen last year! No issues with it and have the ITV and Channel 5 family of channels which Sky didn't. I have the Irish channels on saorview which is fine as there is never anything on them that I want to record!

Just plug it into the existing dish and off you go!

Manc-Red_

Thanks, heading up to Belfast next week and might pop into a Curry’s to see what’s on the go with these Arris boxes.

HPMan

my Humax freesat box of a similar age recently within the last few weeks stopped working for recording - would accept instruction to record but on playback would give an invalid format message. left it a few hours and the failed one would play for 10 mins then go back to live tv. Looked at the settings page showing size of hdd, amount used etc and all 0.00GB - clearly wrong as it showed 80% odd filled. Read somewhere not to do anything for say 15 mins after switch on to fully boot up. then tried to delete failed recording and wouldnt delete. left it 1 hour and it deleted. I deleted other stuff from 85% filled to about 80% and did a 30 min record and playback worked. Now shows size of hdd and accepts a hdd cleanup which trimmed it by 2%. Seems to be ok now.

Atlantic Dawn

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122306902#Comment_122306902

Argos also stock them if you can't get one in Currys.

Doodah7

Richer Sounds will deliver if you don't want to travel in the first place.

NewClareman

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/2058357301/recordable-freesat-box

Those Humax boxes were very good, even better if you installed the modified firmware. I gave mine away and really regretted it. They were slow, but othjust worked. It's almost certainly the electrolyte capacitors that have failed. If you knows anyone who knows a little about electronics they are cheap and easily replaced.

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122306937#Comment_122306937

Would you not say this is more a bad hdd issue rather than the software on the nox deciding to fail after many years of working perfect?

Try changing out the hdd, it's cheap to do, see if it brings box back to good again.

NIMAN

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122305165#Comment_122305165

A good combo for recording, plus a lot of the newer tv sets, and indeed some old ones as well, allow you to insert a USB drive round the back and record saorview channels if you need to.

Best of both worlds.

But I find with rte player, bbc player, 4 player etc now, I do so little recording as things are always available on catchup

waywill1966

Yes, I can get the RTE and Virgin Player on my smart tv and the Channel 4 app on the Freesat box but alas I can't access the BBC,ITVX or Channel 5 player due to being outside the UK!

tenreds

Thanks for all the replies, the box is working again, unplugged it plugged it back in and it came back on. I find the recordable humax box with saorview a great setup and easy to use

DublinWriter

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/122311752#Comment_122311752

Check for system updates if it's connected to the net.

bido

Would a new lmb to replace the q lmb work.to get freeview channels.?

decor58

The Sky Q lnb will work with the the newer Freesat box, Arris, you should only have to change lnb if you are looking to use the older, Humax / Manhattan, Freesat type box.

thebo

If you can get some of old Humax 1000s boxes that allow attaching external hard drive to record.

If you attach SSD instead much faster rewinding forwarding skipping.