Is FreeSat recording to a NAS a thing?

Bongowhack

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Hi all, I currently have a Humax 2Tb box but when I move to a new abode I want to be able to access recordings from around the house. If possible, I don't want to have to be in the room where I recorded a show to be able to watch it.

I've already got a 6Tb Synology NAS with a bunch of media on it that I can access from any networked TV in the house and want to do more with it in the future.

So - is there a solution out there that can record programmes (including via series link etc) from either a satellite dish or terrestrial aerial? I'd ideally like it to do so over an ethernet cable but USB is a viable alternative. Is there an off-the-shelf box that would suit these requirements or will it be a lot more involved if it's even possible at all?

Thanks in advance for any help you can give.
 
Yes there is.
Vbox Xti series.
Both freeview and freesat, models as well as one covering both.
They take in aerial ( dish or terrrestrial) and output onto a lan connection.
They can record onto a network debice such as NAS.
They do series link recording, although not very well as they just use times from EPG, but you can pad out at start and finish.
You can record in HD, but I recall that only one sat tuner us dvb-t2.

Vboxcomm.com. An Israeli company, quite helpful answering queries.
 
Humax Foxsat-HDR - with the Custom Firmware and Nowster patch - and the Humax Fox-HDR-T2 with CF also are the only boxes that can do what you want.
Both are pretty ancient now.

Enigma boxes or custom media PCs do the same / similar with a variety of plug-in tuner modules. BUT these boxes are NOT freeview nor freesat - in that they aren't licensed and run customised firmware images.
The sat side can't access the freesat EPG (encrypted) as a result, so special internet provided services are used instead for EPG data.

They are unlikely to be plug and play and will need regular fettling as services move transponder frequency etc.,.

HDHomeRun is one DVB-T2 device that may be more plug and play but needs a subscription for recording I believe (I'd consider that a big fat NO). Also not Freeview certified.

To be frank with the UK broadcaster catchup and live streaming services now available, a lot of these PVR type facilities are slowly becoming defunct.

These options have been discussed before so use the site search feature to find some recommended systems / users?
 
Yes there is.
Vbox Xti series.
Both freeview and freesat, models as well as one covering both.
They take in aerial ( dish or terrrestrial) and output onto a lan connection.
They can record onto a network debice such as NAS.
They do series link recording, although not very well as they just use times from EPG, but you can pad out at start and finish.
You can record in HD, but I recall that only one sat tuner us dvb-t2.

Vboxcomm.com. An Israeli company, quite helpful answering queries.
Thanks Jonoro, this bad boy seems like it'll do the trick!
 
Just a word of caution before you take the plunge.
You may have EPG issues with the sat VBOX unit.
I believe that the Freesat EPG is encrypted and VBOX do not have a licence for it.
IF this is the case then to get more than "now and next" programme info you would need to grab EPG data online and save it to somewhere on your network for the VBOX to use.

I have the freeview VBOX and I had to do this until VBOX enabled channel matching. ( Freeview HD 's EPG is encrypted but the SD one is not. You can apply the SD EPG to the HD channels)
 
Thanks again Jonoro. I've found this guide explaining the steps to periodically pull the XMLTV guide and make it available on my network for the VBox to read. It's strange to me that you have to manually do that and there isn't a way to get the VBox unit to pull the data from the XMLTV API directly.

I've also found a few repos kicking around in GitHub that apparently do this directly on a Synology NAS without the need for a separate PC to be powered on & connected to the network, so that may be the better option for me. It's a shame I won't get this thing working out of the box but it still seems like a decent shout for a configurable set up which does what I want.

I have seen some rough reviews of the VBox, its apparent unintuitive menu systems and dodgy streaming quality. How have you found it? I can't imagine I'd be using it to cast around the house or further afield. It's likely only going to be used to watch live satellite feeds, record satellite feeds to my NAS and then replay those recordings directly from my NAS. If I want to watch anything anywhere else around the house, I'll probably have satellite cables feed the TVs directly rather than stream from the VBox and just hook into the NAS for recordings.

Thanks again for your help & advice.

Mike.
 
Hi Mike
I had seen the VBOX doc you referred to but I vaguely recall having some problem with it but sorry can't remember what!
I did store the downloaded file on my router and it was refreshed by an on bootup task on my pc.
There is a thread discussing the sat options here

I have found the device good, I use it to save programs which I the access over the lan. Had no issues at all with this use.
Never really used it for streaming.
 
Was having a chat to a guy on another forum who is swapping over from a VBox to enigma2, before you take the plunge with the VBox if I were you I would look into that option 1st
 

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