Multi room without Sky

[Rotaree]

At the moment we're using Freesat with a Humax harddrive but we're soon(ish) going to be moving into the house that we're renovating and I wondered if it's possible to have a central hard drive that can be accessed from different TVs throughout the house or will we need a number of Humax boxes? As the title says I want to avoid Sky as I don't watch anything that would justify the monthly cost.

[tribalsurfer]

Off the top of my head you could have a computer with a tv/sat capture card and then share the saved programs directory over dlna.

[rscott]

Depending on your technical abilities/interests, you could go for a MythTv backend - supportd DVB-S2 and DVB-T2 cards, so can do Freeview & Freesat.
Multiple simultaneous recordings, schedulable via the web,.. Music sharing, etc.
Kodi has a very good front end too, which works well on budget Android boxes.

[Rotaree]

Thank you for your replies, unfortunately rscott's suggestion sounds great but I don't understand it! Any chance you could explain it in simple (and I mean really simple!) terms please?

[FarmyardPants]

That solution might be too technical/require too much expertise (no disrespect intended).

Depending on your budget, you could go for a HDBaseT-based HDMI matrix. This allows you to plug your source devices into it (like the Humax) and view and control them from multiple displays around the house. Network cable is used to convey the signal.

I use a 4x4 matrix system from HDAnywhere (have a google) and although it is quite expensive (you didn't mention a budget) and requires cabling (you are renovating the house so this may not be much extra agro) the system is absolutely brilliant in my opinion. Pause what you're watching in one room and continue watching in another, watch different things in different rooms etc. I have no affiliation with hd anywhere, I am just a happy customer.

[clockworks]

Another option if you have a decent home network - use a Humax Freeview Play box and smart TVs (or smart boxes). The newer Humax Freeview Play boxes have a built-in DLNA server, so recorded programmes can be watched on any smart device connected to the home network.

[Rotaree]

Thank you again for your help. Rog's suggestion looks to be just what we need as we've had Ethernet cabling put in during the rewire although Steve's idea might offer the same results with a smaller outlay. I now have a basis for further research - it's a shame that in West Cornwall we don't have a Richer Sounds or anything similar that I could go and talk to!

Thanks again to all and Happy New Year.

[clockworks]

Yes, living down here does have a few drawbacks. The shop in Tuckingmill used to be good for hifi, shame that Russ pulled the plug on the retail side of the business.

[scovette]

As you've got ethernet cabling you might want to look into the Wetek/Openelec Play. It has twin satellite inputs and will send live and recorded tv to any clients running kodi/xbmc. Costs about £80.

[Buzzlt]

I run a Gigablue plus and love it, Connected to a couple of network drives and you can also stream it to any PCs, macs and iPads. It's similar to a humax box but more configurable.

It's worth running cat5e or cat 6 to a gigabit switch/ router if you want HD but SD even works over wifi

All the info is at world of satellite I think for the enigma software it runs which is Linux based.

You can also send stuff to it from a phone.

Hope that helps

Cheers Greg