record stuff from Channels 4 and 5?

Cornucopia

Manxman_in_exile wrote: »

(But you may find that things like F1 have rights restrictions that mean they can't be downloaded).

I think that's extremely likely. I'm not even sure that F1 appears in full on catch-up.

A.Penny.Saved

A TV card for your Mac should do what you want. Not cheap though. Then you can record any free to air TV either via satellite or Aerial depending upon the card. There are cards which have either/or/both Sat & Freeview tuners. Some software would be needed to record the shows and wake/sleep your computer at the appropriate time.
DVBViewer is what I have used on Windows, this link has some alternatives for Mac
MythTV is Open Source
Kodi might be worth a look

I do not know anything about Mac's or whether they have PCI-e slots? If not a USB tuner, preferably USB 3.0 for a multi channel card ie recording/watching more than one channel at a time.
This Hauppauge USB dual tuner is USB 2.0
Software would be needed because the provided software (for windows) does not sound too good.

I hope that I have supplied a few options for your consideration.

knightstyle

OK thanks for all your answers. My DD is going to give me her Humax Satellite box she no longer uses so I will connect this to our dish and record stuff to take away with us. Hopefully this will work as I found our Sky box does not allow me to watch stuff recorded unless connected to a dish!
Yes we have two spare outlets on the LNB to connect to.

debitcardmayhem

knightstyle wrote: »

OK thanks for all your answers. My DD is going to give me her Humax Satellite box she no longer uses so I will connect this to our dish and record stuff to take away with us. Hopefully this will work as I found our Sky box does not allow me to watch stuff recorded unless connected to a dish!
Yes we have two spare outlets on the LNB to connect to.

Out of interest , which Humax model is it, if it's a FOXSAT HDR then you could put the custom firmware on it and you can use it to record progs and transfer them to your other pcs/macs/ipads etc.

Neil_Jones

knightstyle wrote: »

I found our Sky box does not allow me to watch stuff recorded unless connected to a dish!

It's not so much "connected to the dish", it's more about receiving a signal - no signal, no recordings. You can watch recordings if you've had a signal in the last 12 hours, so if somebody sticks some scaffolding up for a day and it blocks your dish it'll be okay providing you don't restart the box in the meantime, and when the scaffolding comes down it'll be as you were.

Also on a related note: If your Sky subscription lapses or you cancel it, you won't be able to watch any recordings or make new ones, the software is set up in such a way that the only thing the boxes do without an active subscription is wave "come back to Sky" notifications at you and get the FTA channels. Nothing else.

womble12345

knightstyle wrote: »

OK thanks for all your answers. My DD is going to give me her Humax Satellite box she no longer uses so I will connect this to our dish and record stuff to take away with us. Hopefully this will work as I found our Sky box does not allow me to watch stuff recorded unless connected to a dish!
Yes we have two spare outlets on the LNB to connect to.

That is very unlikely to work as the recordings you do on the Humax box will be encrypted and you wont be able to view on any other device other than that Humax box (unless you hack the firmware). I suggest you give it a try to see though.

Cornucopia

womble12345 wrote: »

That is very unlikely to work as the recordings you do on the Humax box will be encrypted and you wont be able to view on any other device other than that Humax box (unless you hack the firmware). I suggest you give it a try to see though.

I think the OP is suggesting physically taking the entire Humax box with them on their travels. This will work, IMHO.

womble12345

Cornucopia wrote: »

I think the OP is suggesting physically taking the entire Humax box with them on their travels. This will work, IMHO.

If that's what the OP meant then I agree it ought to work, however they mentioned a macbook....

knightstyle

Yes that is what I meant. I plug the Macbook in to the TV with HDMI lead and will do the same with the Humax. Think it is a 1000s?