Cheap set top box with decent HD recording to USB?

[Sam Birbeck]

Hi all,

I'm looking for the above as a solution for grabbing the occasional Rage special, things like that. I have a USB TV tuner stick thingy, but there are a lot of reasons I'd rather not use a computer for this, not least of which is the fact that 7 or 8 hours is a long time to tie up a laptop and hope that the software doesn't crash or something like that.

Assuming I want to be lazy and just grab something from store shelf, I'm looking at a few options in the $40-50 range from JB, Dick Smith etc. I really don't want to spend more for a full-fledged PVR - I only need one tuner, wouldn't use it often, and recording to USB is actually convenient since I want to get the files onto a real computer afterwards.

So I'm looking for advice here - anyone use a similar device and have any brand recommendations or caveats? I'd really just like to grab something and be fairly confident that I can plug in a 32gb USB stick, press record, and end up with a high quality full-HD .TS file without major issues, reception permitting.

Cheers,

Sam

[Ken]

I have the JVC $40 HD set top box.  It records to USB, however I suspect the file format is unusual, so only plays back on same.
Haven't tried to import it to a PC, since I have a full dual-tuner PC as my HTPC.
What do you need to know? I can have a go.

Ken.

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[Sam Birbeck]

Where did you get the JVC? I don't remember seeing that as I was flipping through the various catalogues :)

I've also just realised a flaw in my brilliant plan, in that ABC1 is only broadcast in dazzling 576i anyway. A shame, but for my main purpose (recording all-night Rage guest programs), I guess it means smaller filesizes and hopefully less that might go awry.

[Ken]

Apologies, JB HiFi, not JVC.  Dunno the brand -cheap Chinese.

[Steven Pickles]

I bought my brother the DGTech HD2104AND Android set-top box for $100 on eBay. It does fugly things with interlaced content... although that might only be because he is using the analog output into a CRT, and things are getting interlaced twice.

pix

[Damien P]

I have an akai combined STB/DVD player.  It actually seems to be two completely separate devices inside (the OSD looks different in TV and DVD mode).  It records to .TS files, but splits them to work with a FAT filesystem.  I thought someone recently had a box for $20 with USB, maybe it was the Good Guys?

This one is for $54 delivered, if you use the code KOGANOFFER:

https://www.kogan.com/au/buy/twin-tuner-hd-digital-set-top-box-pvr/

I can't imagine it would be that great though.

[Andrew Helgeson]

I've been using an MSI usb tuner for ages, found no issue with falling asleep and recording rage all night!

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[Sam Birbeck]

Well I can report that I ended up grabbing the cheapest option, a Dick Smith-branded one for $40. Recorded a couple of snippets of TV to a spare USB stick, and though there were a couple of minor stutters playing back on the box itself, they look fine on my laptop.

The mpeg stream is saved into a .ts container file at original quality, including subtitle & audio for sight impaired streams (though these were empty for the snippets I grabbed). I thought that was an interesting feature, even though I don't think the box lets you play them.

ADVENTURES WITH GOOGLE! On the Dick Smith product page they offer a firmware update. Searching for the filename of the update indicates that Teac and Bush have released versions of essentially the same hardware over the past couple of years, at higher prices of course :) The Teac model JB are currently selling for $59 seems to be different, but at that price I can't imagine it would be vastly so. A search for what I figured was the manufacturer's product number turned up wholesalers on Alibaba offering the Dick Smith model, unbranded, but only for a few dollars less on massive wholesale orders...

Anyway, first impressions are that this is pretty solid for a $40 HD set top box with USB recording, assuming you don't want to be able to record one channel while you watch another, etc. Glad I didn't pay more.

[Damien P]

On Wednesday, September 26, 2012 7:16:31 PM UTC+9:30, Sam wrote:

ADVENTURES WITH GOOGLE! On the Dick Smith product page they offer a firmware update. Searching for the filename of the update indicates that Teac and Bush have released versions of essentially the same hardware over the past couple of years

I'd imagine most of the cheap boxes are very similar.  But if they change one component or wire the CPU differently, the other firmwares won't work.