Recording Radio Overnight - that does not invole leaving a PC on/use much power

[cmr_for3]

Hello all,

I used to record through the night on a cheap Chinese freebox (it's not an official freeview box just a DVB2 recorder) I had that allows you to record to USB. However I got a new model and because it was such a faff to set up the first time (the menus are not user friendly) I had not bothered to set it back up. I have just set it up again to do TTN and CoTW but it was a real faff. Are there any official freeview boxes that allow you to record to usb. I know that internet recording is the way to go but that relies on a PC always being on and that is not practical.

Any other suggestions gratefully received!

[Dave2002]

I'm not sure about "official" Freeview boxes recording to USB, but there are some which allow you to record to hard drive, then copy the programme files to USB. There are also some which don't - as in our moderately newish YouView box - which I assumed would allow some form of file export, but in fact doesn't, unlike our Humax FreeSat PVR. I think the Humax FreeView PVRs do still allow export via USB, while I think that some of their set top boxes do allow an external drive to be connected to save the programmes. However, one problem with that might be that they might just require an unusual drive format - so look at the manuals before buying or trying that route. The PVRs with an internal drive and a USB should be able to export easily enough - though perhaps only to a an external hard drive, which can then be connected to a computer to extract the audio files. A memory stick might not work - depends on the model and manufacturer I think.