[duckson]

Looking at cancelling SkyHD and going to Freesat HD or Freeview HD, probably from Humax although open to other manufacturers but I’m new to this so don’t know of any!

I’m interested in being able to record a program on a certain FV/FS box in the house and being able to play back that recording on another box, they would all be networked via. Effectively one box would become a recording hub.

Am I correct in saying that if you have a couple of say Humax recorders/viewers networked together you can do this?
Obviously I’m expecting that you would need a HD capable device to playback recorded HD content on a remote box on the network?
Can you playback content from say a Freesat box to a Freeview box (or vice versa) on the same network or must they all be Freeview or Freest boxes to “talk” to each other?
Can 2 remote Humax (or other) boxes playback recorded content from a single Humax (or other) box at the same time?

Thanks for any help.

[grahamlthompson]

Phew.

Firstly HD recordings are encrypted (there are ways round this on both the Freesat and Freeview Humax pvrs). Apart from the following exception only the Box that recorded it can play back the recordings.

Take the Freeview recorders. These encrypt both HD and SD on recording. copying SD to USB decrypts the files. The HDR model can be persuaded to do the same fot HD. The custom firmware is capable of decrypting both by enulating a virtual usb drive within the box.

Taking the standard boxes. A HDR FOX T2 will stream both HD and SD to another HDR FOX T2 or a HD FOX T2 (HD FOX to HDR FOX isn't possible).

The Foxsat-hdr has no media streaming capability at all. The custom firmware adds the capability to stream SD and unencrypted HD from the box. Compatibility with DNLA kit is mixed. You can't stream video to the Foxsat-hdr at all. Non native video has to be converted by AV2HDR and uploaded to the HDD or replayed from USB.

[duckson]

Thanks.

I wouldnt be streaming anything but recordings from one HDR to a HD / HDR.

I assume the Humax Freeview and Freesat boxes wont allow streaming of recordings between each other, it has to be either Freeview to Freeview or Freesat to Freesat?

[grahamlthompson]

Originally Posted by duckson

Thanks.

I wouldnt be streaming anything but recordings from one HDR to a HD / HDR.

I assume the Humax Freeview and Freesat boxes wont allow streaming of recordings between each other, it has to be either Freeview to Freeview or Freesat to Freesat?

A humax foxsat-hdr with customised firmware should be able to stream SD recorded content to a HDR FOX T2 but not vice versa. I can stream SD recordings from my foxsat-hdr to a PS3 no problem. I can also stream HD recordings made without encryption (and the buffer file used for time shifting) to my laptop. The timeshift buffer file isn't encrypted even for HD channels. It's not the fact that ones a satellite box and other isn't. The Freeview pvr was built with media streaming capability, the satellite one was not (In age terms they are poles apart). The fact that Freeview-HD uses a different sound compression codec to satellite further complicates the issue (aac/ac3).

Basically if you want the flexibility to view the recordings of one on the other and vice versa then two HDR-FOX T2's are the way to go if you use Humax kit.

Not a clue about other similar kit so can't really help with what you can and can't do.