free sat boxes with usb recording

Frozen_up_north

psychic_teabag wrote: »

I mentioned that MIL had a TV that allowed a USB stick. I have a feeling that if you formatted it as FAT, then you could record and then see the files on another device. But (only) if you formatted it in a proprietry format could you use it for chase-playing, pausing live TV, etc. But I may be misremembering that.

Our new Samsung will only work with an external drive if you allow it to format the drive itself. It also mentions the files it writes are encrypted and can only be read on the same TV used to write them. I've not checked to see if it only applies to HD material.

The Humax terrestrial box records HD channels in an encrypted format and SD channels in plain, there is a work around to remove a flag from the HD files to allow you to view them on other devices, it doesn't decrypt them, it just indicates to the Humax box they are "not HD" and allows them to be saved to a memory stick in unencrypted - that can be read on other devices. I don't think their satellite boxes are that easily circumvented.

psychic_teabag

Looking back at the original question... I assume she is currently with sky, and plans to cancel the contract. Does she get to keep the sky box ? I've never been with sky, but I thought that once you left, you kept the decoder, and you could continue to use it to access free channels. (Though I dont know if that's the same set as freesat.) Can anyone comment on that ?

Also, is it definitely freesat she wants, rather than freeview ? I think decoders for freeview are more readily available, and might fit a small budget better.

And I'll mention in passing, though it's probably not appropriate in this case, that you can buy small usb decoders for use in a pc for £10 or so. Then you can use the pc's hard disk to do the recording. (One of these plugged into an rpi is the basis of my home-brew freeview PVR.)

almillar

My humax satbox,

There are lots of Humax satboxes - can you let us know the model number?

I've never been with sky, but I thought that once you left, you kept the decoder, and you could continue to use it to access free channels.

Yes, but there's no recording (they switch it off, the functionality is part of the sub), so it's not much use.