Hard Drive Recorders with no sat signal

[cliffanger]

We are thinking of buying an HDD recorder that we can record stuff on at home, and then take it in the van to watch in Europe where there is no satellite signal.

My question is can we watch what we have recorded without a satellite signal? We took the sky box with us (when we had it - now on Virgin) and tried to watch what had been recorded but it wouldn't allow it because we didn't have a signal.

As the HDD recorder will be a Freesat one, do we still have to have the signal to watch stuff that has already been recorded?

Hope someone out there has done all of the above successfully - and for those who say read a book/watch the sunset/go out for a walk...... we do all of these things, but also like to watch telly!

 

[2657]

Doing exactly that at the moment in Spain just need the freesat box and scart lead. We have never been able to watch from the hard drive via the laptop, wrong codecs apparently, whatever they are. Just thought the one I am using at the moment is a freestanding hard drive via usb to the freesat box, I do also have a freesat box with integral hard drive, I will try that later and report back but I am almost sure that it has worked in the past

 

[BreweryDave]

I can only speak about the sky box - which will only keep the stuff you have recorded if the power is kept on. As soon as the power is cut - it's all gone until you get a signal again - albeit for just a few seconds to 'reload' it - then as long as you don't turn it off you'll keep all the recordings to view without the dish being up.
An alternative I guess is to record stuff onto an external hard drive and just play if off that.

 

[cliffanger]

Thanks for that Matamoros, if you could try it and report back we would be very grateful.

 

[cliffanger]

I can only speak about the sky box - which will only keep the stuff you have recorded if the power is kept on. As soon as the power is cut - it's all gone until you get a signal again - albeit for just a few seconds to 'reload' it - then as long as you don't turn it off you'll keep all the recordings to view without the dish being up.
An alternative I guess is to record stuff onto an external hard drive and just play if off that.

Thanks for that Dave. We tried it in France a couple of years ago, and couldn't watch the recordings, but maybe that was because we switched it off to pack it away and move on.

I think we will with the Freesat hard drive recorder, and if it doesn't work in the van it can work in the kitchen at home!

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[peter marshall]

Hi
We have the Sagem Free Sat Box recorder, no probs watching what you have recorded, we used to have the Sky box but when we stopped the service all pre recorded films etc wouldn't play back. Pete

 

[2657]

The other tuner is actually freeview not freesat and is a Hitachi HDR 255 twin tuner so you can record one channel and watch another, internal 250 GB memory and yes it does work without signal. Checked ours out and forgot how much stuff we had recorded whilst back in the UK, should keep us quiet in the dark winter nights.

 

[cliffanger]

The other tuner is actually freeview not freesat and is a Hitachi HDR 255 twin tuner so you can record one channel and watch another, internal 250 GB memory and yes it does work without signal. Checked ours out and forgot how much stuff we had recorded whilst back in the UK, should keep us quiet in the dark winter nights.

Thanks for that Matamoros and glad I have helped to make your dark winter nights more bearable!

 

[davidbaldam]

Have you tried recording onto a memory stick, might be easier.

 

[2657]

Have you tried recording onto a memory stick, might be easier.

That could be achieved in the same way as using a free standing hard drive and a tuner with a USB port, I have done that occasionally. The memory sticks that I have are only 4GB so won't hold a lot and free standing hard drives are now quite cheap and small with huge capacity.

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[hilldweller]

Our TV ( like most ) has a USB socket which is capable of running a USB hard drive. So everything is dumped to this by any means and this ( 1TB ) is plugged into the TV. One tiny little box that is in fact hung on the back of the TV with sticky clips.

 

[cliffanger]

Our TV ( like most ) has a USB socket which is capable of running a USB hard drive. So everything is dumped to this by any means and this ( 1TB ) is plugged into the TV. One tiny little box that is in fact hung on the back of the TV with sticky clips.

I tried doing this with a memory stick and the TV wouldn't recognise it. I may have been doing something wrong though, so the fault is probably mine and not the telly's. I think we are going to go down the route of a Freesat HDD recorder, so that we can easily see whats on the EPG when we are away.

 

[2657]

Our TV ( like most ) has a USB socket which is capable of running a USB hard drive. So everything is dumped to this by any means and this ( 1TB ) is plugged into the TV. One tiny little box that is in fact hung on the back of the TV with sticky clips.

Never thought of that, just looked at our TV and it has 2 USB ports so will try that when we are back in the UK next summer. I can't remember when we recorded the stuff on the freeview box, don't think it was this summer, would the freeview box record when connected to a digital TV? I know it will playback.

 

[Hymie]

Not all tv's with a USB port can record to an external drive, especially the more expensive ones.

The budget end manufacturers tend to throw in the software required to tempt you but the high end brands do not seem to bother on most models, the usb port is usually there to allow playback of pre recorded material unless the TV manual,says otherwise.

Hymie

 

[quickweh]

Our TV ( like most ) has a USB socket which is capable of running a USB hard drive. So everything is dumped to this by any means and this ( 1TB ) is plugged into the TV. One tiny little box that is in fact hung on the back of the TV with sticky clips.

Brian, do you record from your motorhome TV directly to the hard drive? If you do, do you use the EPG to record with the TV in standby mode or? I have a similar thread running at the moment re. file formats and a Freeview PVR and am looking for a better way of recording and storing programmes.
Thanks.

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[hilldweller]

Brian, do you record from your motorhome TV directly to the hard drive?
Thanks.

Never done that because we keep recording films etc at home than transferring them to a master HD at home then duplicate onto the MH hard drive.

I think the TV will record to HD or stick but never needed to try.

 

[PaulyP]

Just been thinking (scary) the sat signal comes into receiver/recorder and then hdmi to tv.
Set it up and record a prog, disconnect sat from receiver/recorder then switch on tv and see if it will play back.
If it does then it will play back wherever you are.
Cant see why it shouldnt work, the power to the satellite comes from the receiver, once the sat is set up then the power is turned off.

 

[Scout]

My humax foxsat box does just that.I oftain watch stuff without geting the dish out. I have other foxsat boxs at home and I can use a usb stick to move stuff from one box to the others. However if its been recorded I HD it may be incriped and not work. I just record stuf I want to transfer in SD

edit I also use the usb input on the foxsat to carry mp3s the port the output to the vans radio input to play music

 

[peter marshall]

Hi
We have the Sagem Free Sat Box recorder, no probs watching what you have recorded, we used to have the Sky box but when we stopped the service all pre recorded films etc wouldn't play back. Pete

Hi Just an after tthought on my post, if you have Sat/conection when on a site you can use the Sagem box to record if you are out for the evening, I have also had 2 cables coming to the van so able to watch and record, I know thats sad but hey ho lol Pete

 

[SuperMike]

If using a Sky box, the recorded planner is available for up to 12 hours after the box looses the satellite signal. To quote the sky web site.

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[JockandRita]

Brian, do you record from your motorhome TV directly to the hard drive? If you do, do you use the EPG to record with the TV in standby mode or? I have a similar thread running at the moment re. file formats and a Freeview PVR and am looking for a better way of recording and storing programmes.
Thanks.

Hi Mike,

Rita and I do that both via the freeview built into the TV, or via the Freesat receiver, either of which has to be on standby after being programmed to record. There is a maximum of 2 x hours per recording.
The recordings are of excellent quality.

Cheers,

Jock.

 

[Funnymunny]

We have a Phillips digital recoding box and have used it for a couple of years now, we record films and anything else we fancy at home from a ordinary TV arial then when we are away and cant get TV we just plug the box into the TV via a scart lead and watch what we have recorded. We must have about 100+ films and other bits on there now ready for the next trip.