The 1100S will be a lot more capable as the box can use both tuners with some limitations what you can do with tuner 2.

It depends on what channel tuner 1 is using. For most channels tuner 2 can use around 50% of the total channels.

https://myhumax.org/forum/topic/what-can-i-record-and-watch-using-1-or-2-cables

unionfan – 3 hours ago  » 

Hi. We need some advice please… we only have one LNB cable from our sat. dish and want to record HD programmes. Watching multiple channels simultaneously or recording multiple channels is not really an issue so which box would forum members recommend please?

Rather than the single tuner HB-1100S you could consider the HDR-1100S. Although most people would use 2 cables with the HDR-1100S it is also designed to work with a single cable albeit with some further recording restrictions compared with using 2 cables.

When you take into account that the HB-1100S and HB-1100S models will require the additional of an external hard drive the price difference isn’t as great as it may first appear.

Menu wise the HB-1000S, HB-1100S and HDR-1100S are virtually identical. Both the 1100Ss have Wi-Fi built in.

unionfan – 9 mins ago  » 

Thanks all for your pointers… unfortunately, you lost me at “tuner 1, tuner 2 etc”… I don’t share your technical vocabulary and cannot translate what even those follow-on articles are telling me into a series of actions we can understand So, which box (don’t want to plug in extra hard drives)? If extra cables are needed to link tuners/ports/sockets (???), what are they and how do we set it up to work with our one satellite cable (single LNB) please?

Again, very grateful for you translating your technical expertise into laymen’s

terms

UF

A 1100-S box has two f type input sockets marked tuner 1 in and tuner 2 in and an internal Hard drive of varying size depending on which model you buy (the minimum size is 500GB and will accomodate Hard Drives up to 2TB). You connect your single cable to tuner 1 in leaving nothing on tuner 2 in. Connect the box hdmi out to a hdmi input on your TV. Turn on the TV and select the hdmi in port you connected the 1100-S to. Power on the box and follow the set up prompts. The box will detect that you only have a single cable and set up a internal link connecting the single cable to tuner 2 thus giving you two working tuners. The box is setup in single cable mode. You just use it as normal. as there will be some 2nd recordings or 2nd channels you can’t use the box will tell you that combination is not possible. While tuner 1 is recording the channel up down buttons will cycle through all the channels you can watch while recording two.

Here’s an example based on a West Midlands postcode.

Say you set a recording on channel 106 BBC1-HD all the following can be viewed while the recording is being made.

unionfan – 2 mins ago  » 

That’s incredibly helpful, thanks very much

You are welcome.

Photo of the rear here (it happens to be a white one) Press the right arrow on the photo till the rear view appears.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjf65_t6c3kAhUOTBoKHXGFDrUQjRx6BAgBEAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.ebay.co.uk%2Fitm%2FHUMAX-HDR-1100S-W-Freesat-Smart-TV-HD-Recorder-500-GB-Currys-%2F123072848072&psig=AOvVaw0a4nvwg9tmcjYli2ArVuv6&ust=1568465033433058

The two satellite inputs are at the left hand side.

Nope. Internal is much neater and convenient.

Remember that the ‘many’ HDD failures that you read about here and elsewhere is really a tiny minority when compared with the total number of recorders sold. Added to that, it is a simple matter to change a HDD, just a few screws and a couple of plugs. And a new HDD is a lot cheaper than a new box.

The main reason that you hear ‘so much’ about it is that people can’t bear to lose their recordings and are desperate to get them back. But if you take the attitude that ‘it’s only telly’, then that’s overcome that problem.

Even if you are a recording lover, the latter ‘problem’ is still valid even if you have an external HDD and it fails.

The external drive has nothing going for it (unless you already own a non recording box).

Go for the tidy option. You know it makes sense.

unionfan – 1 hour ago  » 

Morning again… just re-reading some of the posts and was a bit unsure as to whether the HB1100S or the HDR100S was being recommended??? Internal hard drive would suit us better I think but have read that many seem to need replacing so perhaps an external device is better?

Thanks in advance

Kevin

HDR-1100S has an internal hard drive and two tuners (HDR stands for high definition recorder).

HB-1100S has no hard drive and only one tuner. To record and pause live TV using a HB-1100S you have to connect an external portable hard drive.

The 2TB drive in my Foxsat-HDR dates from 2008.

The hard drives in pvr’s are designed to be quiet and have low power consumption and to save digital data continously. When on live TV is constantly being written to create the live pause capability.

The portable usb drive is much more likely to fail especially from the constant writing and re-writing of the time shift buffer file.