Can anyone recommend me a good TV Box

[Clickem]

This is for the house and not the van. A while back we had BT TV and BT Sport and cancelled the Sport a year or two ago. We kept the BT YouView Box, but BT have just bumped the price up by 40%, so we have cancelled and the box will go back. I know that there has been some people who have kept the boxes, but BT have changed their T&C’s and are more insistent now that it must be returned. We have other services with BT and I do not wish to enter a dispute with them

We have a HumaxFoxStat HD box that we were going to use as a replacement. It is about 10 years old so has no Apps on it and is a bit clunky. We are using a Firestick to get the Catchup and Amazon Prime, but it is fiddly as we have to keep changing the “source”

Our TV does not have any Apps or Internet connection, but we do have both a dual Satellite dish feed and a Freeview cable available. So we are looking for a recording box that we can load and run Apps on. Always liked the Humax but they don’t seem to have such a good name anymore, and have stopped making Sat boxes and stick to Freeview only

Please can anyone recommend a good TV Box that will meet our needs?

TIA

 

[Lenny HB]

I use an H96 + Max, works well but the remote is a bit naff I use a wireless mouse with it. The version I have has 64GB of memory so good for downloading programs.
It's a rooted device some apps iPlayer being one of them you have to sideload.

 

[Vansflyer]

Freesat took hold of production some time ago and bought it "In House". Hence no Humax Freesat boxes anymore. Their own twin tuner unit gets very mixed reviews now and was / is a Currys / Amazon exclusive. I went with one of these units when we kicked Sky out, picture quality isn't as quite as good as Freesat but more than good enough for regular watching. Easy enough to use and get on with. Also use a Firestick for some "stuff". https://www.cordbusters.co.uk/manhattan-t3r-review-freeview-play-4k-recorder/

 

[Clickem]

Freesat took hold of production some time ago and bought it "In House". Hence no Humax Freesat boxes anymore. Their own twin tuner unit gets very mixed reviews now and was / is a Currys / Amazon exclusive. I went with one of these units when we kicked Sky out, picture quality isn't as quite as good as Freesat but more than good enough for regular watching. Easy enough to use and get on with. Also use a Firestick for some "stuff". https://www.cordbusters.co.uk/manhattan-t3r-review-freeview-play-4k-recorder/

That seems to fit my needs, if only it included Amazon Prime which is a major source of tennis for SWMBO

 

[Vansflyer]

That seems to fit my needs, if only it included Amazon Prime which is a major source of tennis for SWMBO

Hence the need for a Firestick as well. You can turn it on it's head and use the Firestick for everything but certain live stuff, catch up is on the stick and real time streaming. We used the stick extensively in the van pre Covid crap, never bothered to put the dish up and just streamed all of it.

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[the1andonly]

I use an H96 + Max, works well but the remote is a bit naff I use a wireless mouse with it. The version I have has 64GB of memory so good for downloading programs.
It's a rooted device some apps iPlayer being one of them you have to sideload.

I've recently got one of these boxes but no idea as to what apps to use tor even how to download and store stuff 128gb card or usb hard drive.
Captain sensible will know.

 

[Lenny HB]

I've recently got one of these boxes but no idea as to what apps to use tor even how to download and store stuff 128gb card or usb hard drive.
Captain sensible will know.

Most of the catch up apps you can download from Google play but Iplayer you will need to side load I use https://m.apkpure.com/

When using Prime, Nexflex & Iplayer you can download straight to the internal memory.
If you have films and videos on an SD card in MP4 AVI files etc., you can play then straight from the card or you can copy them to the memory. Depending on format you may need to download additional video players.

 

[the1andonly]

Thanks Lenny HB looking for ideas on storing free stuff from something like Pluto (wont allow me to download it)
So an alternative required.

 

[busbuddy]

Switch the box off and do something more interesting

 

[Robert Clark]

Why will the BT box go back ?

We cancelled BT tv years ago and kept the box as a Freeview player / recorder

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[Clickem]

Why will the BT box go back ?

We cancelled BT tv years ago and kept the box as a Freeview player / recorder

BT changed their T&C’s a little while back, so the box clearly belongs to them, and will now pursue you for the box, including continuing to charge you for it