Can you get a Freesat HD recorder which can also record Freeview from a tuner?
Is there such a machine?
Is there such a machine?
Freesat HD + Freeview tuner?
Whilst it sounds a great idea for the 1st 20 seconds, some relection will sort out why this will never happen. Freesat was envisaged for people who couldn't get freeview, and didn't want sky for starters. Then having 1 tuner for each would never satisfy everyone, so you'd end up with 2, plus the processing power and disc size to do the job, the box would cost a fortune, and for what?
You can build a PC PVR to do this for under £500... (see here 
)
What's the point? Well, if there's software clever enough, such a machine will have a combined EPG, able to combine both Freesat (and FTA) and Freeview channels, and be able to provide brilliant recording conflict solutions. This is what I am hoping for
Just imagine, with dual Freeview and dual Freesat tuners, and +1 channels, etc., you will never not be able to record programmes due to conflicts again! (Well, maybe only occassionally...)
)What's the point? Well, if there's software clever enough, such a machine will have a combined EPG, able to combine both Freesat (and FTA) and Freeview channels, and be able to provide brilliant recording conflict solutions. This is what I am hoping for
Just imagine, with dual Freeview and dual Freesat tuners, and +1 channels, etc., you will never not be able to record programmes due to conflicts again! (Well, maybe only occassionally...
)
I guess there's no Freesat receiver that does it yet but wasn't sure if there was a FTA box that could.
It would be a good idea as it would be nice to have Zone Reality on the same EPG as Dave on Freeview.
Just had a look in Maplin and seen some about £200.
It would be a good idea as it would be nice to have Zone Reality on the same EPG as Dave on Freeview.
Just had a look in Maplin and seen some about £200.
Originally Posted by linkinpark875:
“I guess there's no Freesat receiver that does it yet but wasn't sure if there was a FTA box that could.
It would be a good idea as it would be nice to have Zone Reality on the same EPG as Dave on Freeview.
Just had a look in Maplin and seen some about £200.”
“I guess there's no Freesat receiver that does it yet but wasn't sure if there was a FTA box that could.
It would be a good idea as it would be nice to have Zone Reality on the same EPG as Dave on Freeview.
Just had a look in Maplin and seen some about £200.”
No. Well, it probably works but it won't do what you're asking of it.
Edit: The "No" relates to the product that you originally linked to before you edited your post. I didn't notice the edit when I replied, sorry. But, it's very likely that the the same answer applies to any FTA PVR unless you can find one that has an analogue input and analogue to digital converter (as in some DVD recorders) that you can plug into a Freeview STB. But that would make setting up a recording complicated.
Originally Posted by linkinpark875:
“I guess there's no Freesat receiver that does it yet but wasn't sure if there was a FTA box that could.
It would be a good idea as it would be nice to have Zone Reality on the same EPG as Dave on Freeview.
Just had a look in Maplin and seen some about £200.”
“I guess there's no Freesat receiver that does it yet but wasn't sure if there was a FTA box that could.
It would be a good idea as it would be nice to have Zone Reality on the same EPG as Dave on Freeview.
Just had a look in Maplin and seen some about £200.”
The Technomate 6900 combi has a DTT tuner and a sat tuner. Its not a freesat box of course
Not being freesat means no EPG of course, and a PVR without an EPG is like a house with no furniture, in a manner of speaking.
Originally Posted by grahamlthompson:
“The Technomate 6900 combi has a DTT tuner and a sat tuner. Its not a freesat box of course”
“The Technomate 6900 combi has a DTT tuner and a sat tuner. Its not a freesat box of course”
Yeah, that's possibly as close as you can get right now. Except that it is not actually a PVR. It's what's called "PVR ready". It doesn't include the HDD. You have to add this yourself. That's not difficult, but is extra expense and hassle.
There are a couple of other issues with this box that you should check first if you are interested in it.
1) Although it is "twin tuner", it's not clear whether each tuner can either be Sat or DTT, or whether it is one dedicted Sat and one dedicated DTT. If the latter (likely?), that will be more restrictive in what you can record and watch at the same time.
2) I have a Technomate 5200 PVR ready FTA receiver. Although it will take large disks, it requires that they be partitioned into seperate partitions not exceeding 32MB. If this is the same with the 6900 it would mean that, if you fitted a 500MB disk, you would have 16 partitions, only one of which can be used at a time. This is a severe limitation when it comes to usability, but it's possible that Technomate have improved things with the 6900. It's certainly worth checking. Otherwise, my Technomate 5200 is a good box for what it does.
3) As MAW pointed out, it doesn't have the freesat EPG and that is very important for a PVR. But it may be worse than this. It doesn't claim to be a Freeview receiver, just a DTT receiver. Not knowing how the EPG is implemented in Freeview, this may mean that there is no Freeview EPG either. It would almost certainly mean that Freeview's series and accurate record features would not be implemented. Something else to check.
Last edited by awo1949 : 05-03-2009 at 13:28
I would like ITV HD but the Freesat boxes are expensive and would require more wires and octo LNB for me. I may hold off for a Freeview HD box as it should come with the basics. I find sky full of repeats so wonder if it's worth it. I certainly don't think the £10 HD sub is that's why I stick to C4 HD and BBC HD but the content is a bit thin on the ground at times.
I've considered taking a wire out my Sky HD and getting a Freesat box as I want Football in HD but it would prove a bit much hassle. It would help if ITV HD could have been added even via add channels.
Shame there's no option for that.
I've considered taking a wire out my Sky HD and getting a Freesat box as I want Football in HD but it would prove a bit much hassle. It would help if ITV HD could have been added even via add channels.
Shame there's no option for that.
Does`nt really answer the initial question but this is along a similar line.
I`ve got the Humax LGB 32TPVR telly which I`ve had for over 2 years now. It has built in twin freeview tuners + a 40Gb hard drive for recording. Record 2 separate progs at once or record one and watch another. Cool piece of kit for the age. Now that it`s coupled with the Foxsat I can record 4 separate progs at once if needed. Don`t think Humax still make such a beast but they did superceed it with the same model but a 160Gb HDD.
I`ve got the Humax LGB 32TPVR telly which I`ve had for over 2 years now. It has built in twin freeview tuners + a 40Gb hard drive for recording. Record 2 separate progs at once or record one and watch another. Cool piece of kit for the age. Now that it`s coupled with the Foxsat I can record 4 separate progs at once if needed. Don`t think Humax still make such a beast but they did superceed it with the same model but a 160Gb HDD.
What's the cheapest place for a Freesat HD box? If I could get one cheap it may be worth it but I'd need to switch one feed out my Sky HD box.
Originally Posted by awo1949:
“Yeah, that's possibly as close as you can get right now. Except that it is not actually a PVR. It's what's called "PVR ready". It doesn't include the HDD. You have to add this yourself. That's not difficult, but is extra expense and hassle.
There are a couple of other issues with this box that you should check first if you are interested in it.
1) Although it is "twin tuner", it's not clear whether each tuner can either be Sat or DTT, or whether it is one dedicted Sat and one dedicated DTT. If the latter (likely?), that will be more restrictive in what you can record and watch at the same time.
2) I have a Technomate 5200 PVR ready FTA receiver. Although it will take large disks, it requires that they be partitioned into seperate partitions not exceeding 32MB. If this is the same with the 6900 it would mean that, if you fitted a 500MB disk, you would have 16 partitions, only one of which can be used at a time. This is a severe limitation when it comes to usability, but it's possible that Technomate have improved things with the 6900. It's certainly worth checking. Otherwise, my Technomate 5200 is a good box for what it does.
3) As MAW pointed out, it doesn't have the freesat EPG and that is very important for a PVR. But it may be worse than this. It doesn't claim to be a Freeview receiver, just a DTT receiver. Not knowing how the EPG is implemented in Freeview, this may mean that there is no Freeview EPG either. It would almost certainly mean that Freeview's series and accurate record features would not be implemented. Something else to check.”
“Yeah, that's possibly as close as you can get right now. Except that it is not actually a PVR. It's what's called "PVR ready". It doesn't include the HDD. You have to add this yourself. That's not difficult, but is extra expense and hassle.
There are a couple of other issues with this box that you should check first if you are interested in it.
1) Although it is "twin tuner", it's not clear whether each tuner can either be Sat or DTT, or whether it is one dedicted Sat and one dedicated DTT. If the latter (likely?), that will be more restrictive in what you can record and watch at the same time.
2) I have a Technomate 5200 PVR ready FTA receiver. Although it will take large disks, it requires that they be partitioned into seperate partitions not exceeding 32MB. If this is the same with the 6900 it would mean that, if you fitted a 500MB disk, you would have 16 partitions, only one of which can be used at a time. This is a severe limitation when it comes to usability, but it's possible that Technomate have improved things with the 6900. It's certainly worth checking. Otherwise, my Technomate 5200 is a good box for what it does.
3) As MAW pointed out, it doesn't have the freesat EPG and that is very important for a PVR. But it may be worse than this. It doesn't claim to be a Freeview receiver, just a DTT receiver. Not knowing how the EPG is implemented in Freeview, this may mean that there is no Freeview EPG either. It would almost certainly mean that Freeview's series and accurate record features would not be implemented. Something else to check.”
1 you get 1 sat and 1 DTT tuner. The DTT tuner I believe is full Freeview spec and will therefore get the epg.
2 It can be an advantage in having an external usb drive. You can simply transfer it to a computer to watch your programmes and it offers unlimited storage (just plug in another drive). I think you will find that all Technomates will work with a FAT32 drive of any size. The 32Gb limit is imposed by Windows XP (or lower) not having the capability of formatting a partition of larger than 32Gb. Free third party utilities can format FAT32 on very large drives. More annoying is FAT32's 4Gb file limit which means large recordings have to be split into 4Gb chunks.
Originally Posted by grahamlthompson:
“I think you will find that all Technomates will work with a FAT32 drive of any size. The 32Gb limit is imposed by Windows XP (or lower) not having the capability of formatting a partition of larger than 32Gb.”
“I think you will find that all Technomates will work with a FAT32 drive of any size. The 32Gb limit is imposed by Windows XP (or lower) not having the capability of formatting a partition of larger than 32Gb.”
The manual with the Technomate 5200 explicitly states that 32MB is the maximum partition size. It may be that this is due to a Windows limit and that the box would actually work with larger partitions, but I haven't tried it.
Still think a prospective purchaser should satisfy themselves as to any limitation in this respect. At the very least they should ensure that they obtain a suitably formatted HDD to go with the 6900, or have (or are willing to obtain) the ability to format the drive themselves.
Quote:
“More annoying is FAT32's 4Gb file limit which means large recordings have to be split into 4Gb chunks.”
“More annoying is FAT32's 4Gb file limit which means large recordings have to be split into 4Gb chunks.”
Not as annoying as the Foxsat HDR's inability to copy any recording larger than 4GB to a FAT32 device. The Technomate's 4GB chunks are invisible to the user when using it as a PVR and only become apparent when copying to a PC. Even then, VideoRedo handles them seamlessly.
Originally Posted by awo1949:
“Not as annoying as the Foxsat HDR's inability to copy any recording larger than 4GB to a FAT32 device. The Technomate's 4GB chunks are invisible to the user when using it as a PVR and only become apparent when copying to a PC. Even then, VideoRedo handles them seamlessly.”
“Not as annoying as the Foxsat HDR's inability to copy any recording larger than 4GB to a FAT32 device. The Technomate's 4GB chunks are invisible to the user when using it as a PVR and only become apparent when copying to a PC. Even then, VideoRedo handles them seamlessly.”
The foxsat is not restricted to FAT32 it can use EXT3 with a virtually unlimited file size.
Originally Posted by grahamlthompson:
“The foxsat is not restricted to FAT32 it can use EXT3 with a virtually unlimited file size.”
“The foxsat is not restricted to FAT32 it can use EXT3 with a virtually unlimited file size.”
But it is restricted to <4MB on a FAT32 drive, which is what I said. Many (most?) people, me included, will not want to mess about with EXT3 on a Windows system. I can understand Humax not wanting to implement NTFS, but it shouldn't be too difficult for them to split a >4MB file on the fly when copying to FAT32.
Originally Posted by awo1949:
“But it is restricted to <4MB on a FAT32 drive, which is what I said. Many (most?) people, me included, will not want to mess about with EXT3 on a Windows system. I can understand Humax not wanting to implement NTFS, but it shouldn't be too difficult for them to split a >4MB file on the fly when copying to FAT32.”
“But it is restricted to <4MB on a FAT32 drive, which is what I said. Many (most?) people, me included, will not want to mess about with EXT3 on a Windows system. I can understand Humax not wanting to implement NTFS, but it shouldn't be too difficult for them to split a >4MB file on the fly when copying to FAT32.”
I entirely agree that the foxsat should split files, but as in Freesat you can only archive SD anyway, 4Gb is a very very long programme. In practice I have not seem a SD recording anywhere near this big. (Gone With The Wind maybe
)
Originally Posted by grahamlthompson:
“I entirely agree that the foxsat should split files, but as in Freesat you can only archive SD anyway, 4Gb is a very very long programme. In practice I have not seem a SD recording anywhere near this big. (Gone With The Wind maybe)”
“I entirely agree that the foxsat should split files, but as in Freesat you can only archive SD anyway, 4Gb is a very very long programme. In practice I have not seem a SD recording anywhere near this big. (Gone With The Wind maybe
)”
4GB equates to a little over two hours on BBC SD and considerably longer on other channels. So, you are right that it is not often a practical problem, especially as films on BBC are ad-free. However, films don't need to be as long as Gone With The Wind to exceed 4GB, and live sports programmes would do so frequently. Enough so that it would be nice to have the capability, but not enough for me to be inclined to mess with EXT3. That I discovered how well VideoRedo seamlessly handles the Technomate's chunks suggests that I must have encountered the limit at some time.
As it happens, I've had the HDR for over a month now and I haven't copied a programme to the PC until today. And I only did that to check that I could. There's much less need with the HDR than the Technomate. With the Technomate, recording was too much of a hassle for me to bother getting a HDD drive with it, so I made do with an 8GB flash drive.
