Humax T2000 as a sky replacement 9 April 2019 at 8:24PM in TV MoneySaving 23 replies 3.3K views

BWFCAaron

Hi - firstly, what a brilliant forum, it's really helped find a solution for binning off sky.

Looking around it seems the Humax T2000 is an almost like-for-like replacement for the skybox - I wanted something which has a similar planner and recording function, access to apps like sky store (where we've already purchased kids movies which are repeatedly viewed) and things like Netflix, iPlayer etc

There's two things I'm just not 100% sure on:

- Is the picture quality any good? I'd (presumably) be going from using the sky satelite to the TV aerial, and wouldn't want to make the leap and pick up the box if it was to look terrible or have picture quality issues. It doesn't need to be cinema quality, just watchable on a standard HD TV.

- Would there be a way to use an external USB/Hard drive to play content via the box? I can't seem to find a straight answer on this elsewhere. One thing which would be a grind from getting rid of the skybox is losing some of the content recorded on there, which I wouldn't want to lose - would there be a way of using an external drive to play content via the Humax box?

neilmcl

BWFCAaron wrote: »

Hi - firstly, what a brilliant forum, it's really helped find a solution for binning off sky.

Looking around it seems the Humax T2000 is an almost like-for-like replacement for the skybox - I wanted something which has a similar planner and recording function, access to apps like sky store (where we've already purchased kids movies which are repeatedly viewed) and things like Netflix, iPlayer etc

There's two things I'm just not 100% sure on:

- Is the picture quality any good? I'd (presumably) be going from using the sky satelite to the TV aerial, and wouldn't want to make the leap and pick up the box if it was to look terrible or have picture quality issues. It doesn't need to be cinema quality, just watchable on a standard HD TV.

- Would there be a way to use an external USB/Hard drive to play content via the box? I can't seem to find a straight answer on this elsewhere. One thing which would be a grind from getting rid of the skybox is losing some of the content recorded on there, which I wouldn't want to lose - would there be a way of using an external drive to play content via the Humax box?

The DTR-T2000 is a Youview+ receiver. If you want a "direct" replacement for a Sky+ HD recorder then you need to be looking at the Freesat HDR-1100S.

Edit, having just re-read your post it seems that you'll be ditching the satellite feed altogether for the TV aerial. In which case , if you get a good signal then I'd definitely go for a Youview recorder such as this, although you can get the BT recorder for less and it'll have the same functionality.

BWFCAaron

Fantastic - thanks Neil

I'm not too fussy about going for aerial or satellite - latter I'd imagine has more reliable signal, and I've never used the aerial at this property so don't know if it's any use or not. Functionality of the box is more important to me, and the T2000 seems to tick all the boxes.

I did look at the 1100S, but it didn't seem to have as much in the way of functionality - and, as petty as it sounds, I hate the now and next layout of the planner - I couldn't get over losing the layout of the current Sky planner, which seems to be mirrored in the T2000. More than happy to be proved wrong on that though.

neilmcl

I must admit the Youview boxes have a lot going for them, personally I'd get the much cheaper BT branded Humax boxes of the DTR-T2000 as they have exactly the same innards and functionality. Although the Humax one does look sexier.

The Youview boxes also have the advantage of having more of the on-demand apps such as Netflix, NowTV and Amazon Prime in one place and there is rumours that in the near future you may be able to record NowTV Sky content but I'm not sure if this will only be available to BT customers.

BWFCAaron

Ah OK - so something like this is essentially the same product but £50 cheaper?
As a new user I can't post the link - but it's this from the BT website: bt-youview--box-077328-9C5J.html

What would be the advantage of being able to record NowTV - just having it available on your device when it's no longer available on the in-app store - in the same way as a SkyBox works now?

Along those lines - do you happen to know whether playing off an external drive on either of those options is possible - essentially using a USB or an external drive to play some stored? We've a small number of kids TV shows which are on rotation and would be a pain to re-record.

JJ_Egan

At present you can not record Now TV .
Near future how far away is to be decided .
BT do two YouView boxes the 500GB DTR 2000 and the 1TB UHD DTR 4000.

neilmcl

JJ_Egan wrote: »

At present you can not record Now TV .
Near future how far away is to be decided .
BT do two YouView boxes the 500GB DTR 2000 and the 1TB UHD DTR 4000.

This year I believe, ready for the 2019/20 football season but as I mentioned, you'll probably have to be a BT customer
- https://www.a516digital.com/2018/10/sky-and-bt-expand-partnership.html

The BT box (well the 500Gb vers.) comes in 2 flavours I believe, the DTR-T2100 supplied to BT customers, and the retail version DTR-T2110 supplied by the likes of Argos, Amazon etc.

JJ_Egan

BT customers boxes are £49.99 + £9.99 p&p
.

neilmcl

JJ_Egan wrote: »

BT customers boxes are £49.99 + £9.99 p&p
.

Link please?

JJ_Egan

You will have to go through your BT account and upgrade pages or via new order .It wont let me as i already purchased two .




My bill Sept ( note the £49 offer has been on web site for about 3 years , always sorry dont know )
Bought one circa 2016 bought one with new contract Sept 2018 .


Equipment charge w7 Aug 18 You added your YouView+ Ultra HD Set Top Box - so this is the charge for it YouView+ Ultra HD box £ 49.00
Other one-off chargesw8 Aug 18 £ 9.99

neilmcl

Ah, so it's only £49.00 if you're a BT customer.