Catch up TV v HD recording.

[kennyh]

Guys, bit of a daft question maybe but here goes anyway.

Needed a new TV for the dining room and bought one of those "off the wall" TV stands to mount it too. Bought the TV today.

Now the shelves on the new stand are diminutive and too small for the "full size" Humax freeview/Hard drive recorder we have in there now, so we thought we'd buy the more modern and much smaller Humax to fit as it is a lot sleeker.

Anyway the person in the shop said "why buy a HD recorder when you have Freeview play on the new TV"

She reckons she just has the TV on its own in her house and uses catch up instead of recording.
I'd not really dabbled with catch up before so took her word on it and never bought the Humax as intended, however I'm certain that when I've tried briefly with catch up TV it was taking a week for recently aired programmes to be available.

We don't watch much TV and most of the stuff we do watch we have recorded it.

Mostly we'll record something whilst we're cooking of an evening then sit down at 8.30/9.00 and watch something that maybe finished at 8. Is this possible with Freeview/catch up or would something that recent not be available?.......as I suspect.

Many thanks chaps.

 

[Bob McC]

What make is your tv?
Not all catch up channels are available on all TVs.
My LG smart tv for instance has BBC iplayer and channel 5 catch up but does not have ITV catch up or Channel 4.
I have to access these via my amazon fire stick.
BBC iplayer lets you watch programs almost immediately. You can also watch programmes that have started from the beginning. They don’t let you watch MOTD afterwards though.
I also stuck a hefty USB stick in the back of the tv and can record stuff when I am out.

 

[kennyh]

Cheers Bob, went in for another Samsung as we have in the living room but switched to an LG also after what the guys said in the shop, and after a favourable report from a friend. It has the "Freeview play" tuner which we were told has catch up for anything, as I say I was dubious about that and can't see it taking over from a Humax.

I've got Amazon prime too so it'll be interesting to see a 4k broadcast. However it's this HD recorder thing I need to sort, I reckon we will need to buy one the more I think about it.

Carpets go down tomorrow so I'll set the stand and TV up and have a play.

Thanks again though.

 

[SamS]

If you don't like adverts catch-up only can be a drag for ITV and Channel 4 as you can't fast forward past them. To be fair there are fewer adverts on the catch up vs. live TV but it may only be a matter of time before that changes. But it is still very handy when you missed something and eiher forgot to record it or found out about a good program too late.
Enjoy your new TV.

 

[Pine Marten]

Catch up is fine on BBC, broadcast quality,in HD via IPlayer. ITV is low def, full of adverts and you cannot FF them. C4 is HD, but long ad breaks that cannot be skipped. I mainly watch er, shall we say, more serious programming, and the HDR is a boon, especially as it may be a month or two before I get chance to view it. Use catch up or I player when I've not noticed a good programme in RT, or forgot to set the HDR to record it. It may be that your new TV has usb record playback and can be set to record via the epg. Just use a portable laptop type self contained HDD or memory stick. My tiny Humax FreesatHD box also has usb record ability, it is tiny and gives you all BBC regions, I like BBC Alba, keeps me in touch with things Hebridean!

 

[jy3]

Go with the recorder, must be worth being able to fast forward through the adverts. 1hr programmes watched in 40 mins.