HUMAX Aura Android TV 4K Freeview Play Recorder with Google Assistant and Chromecast - 1TB

We purchased this model to replace an older Humax set too box. After about 7 years the receiver failed. This new Humax Aura is good, easy to setup following the on-screen instructions until completed which takes 5 mins. The version we chose has double the storage of 1TB. A simple but effective on screen display for the guide. Quite quick in it's operation and quiet too. It will record 4 different channels without watching any at the same time. Whilst watching a channel, it will record 3 separate channels. All black polycarbonate construction. Definitely would but Humax again.

Overall this is a good product. It was fairly quick and easy to set up. It does a pretty good job of using the regular TV aerial (which is old technology) and trying to have similar functionality to the Virgin V6/360 box or Sky Q. However the system does contain bugs. I've had the system for less than a week, and already I've had a few issues where the screen went blank and the system stopped, and also programmes not recording when they were meant to. I've found out that resetting the apps fixes the blank screen issue, although not everyone would be able to discover that themselves. The Humax Aura has been around since 2020 and they should've fixed these issues by now. Unlike Sky or Virgin, Humax don't need to rely on your continuous subscription to incentivise them to fix these bugs. I also think the Humax Aura is expensive for what it is, and it doesn't allow you to install Netflix or NOW which you can do on much cheaper devices such as the Amazon Fire Stick. But overall it's a good product and there aren't any rivals that contain so many things in one, and with a few improvements it could be great.

I was nearly put off buying this because of the negative reviews. I think the latest update has really done the job - this is a great box. I have had to return a Manhattan box (terrible lip sync and constantly crashing), a BT4k YouView box, which was really good but then kept getting stuck in standby, so third time lucky. The set up is easy but time consuming by the time it updates, scans for channels, sign into Google etc. and it sometimes seems like nothing is happening - you just have to leave it to do it’s thing. Once set up, it is a dream to use, with one caveat, you need to get used to the screens and menus. Once you do, you can zip through and it’s great. If all else fails and you think “how do I get out of this menu” you can just press the ‘live TV button’ on the remote and you’re back to the start. It has an android operating system with Google Play and most apps - they all work perfectly. Netflix is not available (yet) and NowTv can only be used via a phone or tablet via Chromecast (which works very well with no issues). Recording TV is easy - not one recording has failed. The recording are organised well - easy to find what you want. The app works really well - not sure what others are doing, but if you’re on the same network you can stream your recordings to a tablet etc. It works every time for me - as does remote record. Again, I’m not sure why/how others are having issues. The remote is Bluetooth - so no line of sight required and it has a massive range!! Overall, this is one of the best boxes you can by at the moment - it is worth the money. Just give yourself time to get to know the menus and its little quirks. It has never crashed once, you can record four programmes and watch another - I have done so several times to test it and it has never faltered. I really think the latest update has done the trick. It’s a shame Humax released this too early with bugs in the software, as this gave a poor experience for early adopters and put them off. It seems Humax have finally got their act together!

Our previous box was a Humax so we got the same brand assuming it would be good, but they’ve taken very large steps backwards. We’ve had nothing but trouble since we bought it, Humax asked us for error reports last year (I think they assumed we wouldn’t send them as the instructions were 2 pages of A4), we sent them & nearly a year later we still haven’t heard back from them. Whenever I email they just say they’ll look into it. It’s very rare we can watch catch up as it just says it’s not connected to the Internet (even though it is) then when we try to go to settings it just freezes & we have to restart it. It records about 90% of the things we set up but we’re lucky if we can watch a 40 minute program in one go. It usually kicks us out at least 4 times, it’s hard to explain how stressful & annoying it is when you’re watching a program & the screen just goes black & you’re back on the home page, then you go back to the file & it’s like you’ve never watched it, it’s just back at the start & you’ve to fast forward through to try & work out where you got to. By the time you’ve done this 4 or 5 times a 40 minute episode takes about an hour to watch. Save yourself a lot of stress & buy a different brand!!

I've read through all of the reviews for this box and I noticed they were back from November when the box first came out and since then it's had a few updates and it's working great for me. I've just bought this after trying three different Freeview boxes and this is by far the best. The picture quality is basically the same as you would expect from a TV aerial, it's not as good as Freesat but it's still good. The HD channels are spot on and good quality so no problem there. The android TV is good and so many apps to choose from so definitely worth getting if you like having a play around on some games or just finding something to keep you busy as there is tons to choose from. Yes this box does no have Netflix yet which is annoying but loads of other Freeview boxes don't but this makes up for it with everything else that comes with it. This is great for Plex users, I run a Plex server on my pc and I can play all my media and see photos on my TV that I took that same day. It also has Amazon prime video as well and I am very much stuck in the Amazon ecosystem and so it's great having a dedicated Prime Video button on the remote which is great for the kids. Also the kids have there own section (again with its own button on the remote) and they can choose from live TV and stuff on demand from BBC, ITV, All 4 and 5. Also just to note this beast has a Chromecast built-in and I've set it up with the Google home app on my phone so it acts like an actual chrome cast as I have a few of them in other rooms of the house. I work in IT and I'm very much up to date on the latest tech and this Aura box is definitely the best alternative to sky which I just got rid off last month as it was too expensive.

I’m updating my review here, after using the box for a year now. INITIAL REVIEW: While it's not perfect and has a few issues, this is a good Freeview box and I'm very happy with my purchase. Navigation around the EPG is fast, and having 3 tuners is a huge bonus. You can record 3 shows simultaneously while watching a 4th if it's on one of the same multiplexes. Can it be improved? Definitely. For instance, it would be nice to have the show information available while browsing in the EPG, as there's plenty of room for it on screen. Currently you need to press the Info button to bring up the show information. Integration with the various On Demand services is good too, and I've had no problems there. The mobile app is okay too. Not brilliant as it doesn't always show things you've set to record, but being able to remotely set recordings is a killer feature that many Freeview boxes don't provide so I'm not going to complain too much. There are a few bugs that appear from time to time. If you're viewing a recorded show, and while viewing switch into the EPG to check something, then when you return to your show there will be issues with the time-shift/viewing position bar. Pressing the button to bring up your current viewing position will initially be wrong and jump all the way back to the beginning of the show. If you wait a couple of seconds then it will be refreshed to the actual viewing position, but this issue catches me out constantly and I find I'm always jumping back to the beginning of the show - which is very annoying. Additionally, I've had further issues with the time-shift/viewing bar, with it randomly jumping backwards. But, apart from the issues I've raised above, this is a really solid Freeview box and I'm very happy with it. It gets daily use for hours in my house. I've not experienced a lot of the issues raised by other reviewers, but I suspect that many of those issues have been fixed with software updates. As long as this box continues to get software updates then it will remain my go-to for Freeview. UPDATED REVIEW (02/04/23): Having had this STB for over a year now, I'm finally coming back to my original review with a few further thoughts. This could easily be the best Freeview box in the UK - it's got the hardware capability, for sure - but it's hampered by below-par software, and with the lack of any software updates for almost 2 years now it feels it's been abandoned by Humax while they work on something else. Since the June 2021 update, there've been no further fixes or improvements. While the box records content more reliably than it did with earlier software, it doesn't record shows 100% of the time. I usually have at minimum, one failed recording each week. Additionally, there are a number of other usability issues, like the aforementioned issues with trick-play, which 99% of the time will surface when skipping ads. These can be worked around, as I outlined, it's annoying as hell when you forget and then have to scrub through the recording just to get back to where you were previously. Today, turning the box on I was met with the bootloader screen, from which I couldn't exit. I had to power cycle the box multiple times before it booted again, but it wouldn't let me watch anything because apparently now my TV doesn't support HDCP (which is just another bug because nothing has changed). I had to do a further reboot to fix this. I think it's working now and have a couple of recordings scheduled for later, but to be honest, I'm not sure how much I trust things will work properly. Previously I gave this 4/5 stars. Now, my review has dropped to 3/5. My recommendation? If you don't need Google on your TV, don't need a mobile app for setting recordings, and you can live with 2 tuners instead of 3, go for the Manhattan T3-R. I personally found it a much nicer experience, with a good-looking UI, cheaper, a nicer remote, and more stable. Like the Humax, the Manhattan hasn't had an update for a similar amount of time, but with fewer issues, that would be my personal recommendation if anyone asked.

I read many reviews on this Humax model and I decided to try it out for the 30 days, so far everything on my 1TB model has worked very well, I have not had any of the problems that other reviewers mentioned, such as, broken recordings, rebooting by itself or crashing. Setting it up was easy and I updated the firmware to version 00.09.21. The Humax Aura internal HDD can be accessed from a PC, and Filezilla can be used to upload and download from the HDD, but it is not always able to connect, the server will often refuse connection, I find that if I stream a recording to my PC, then Filezilla will connect again, also turning off the Aura and back on again will often allow Filezilla to connect to the Aura again, an annoying problem but it can be circumvented. The menu system is Android, so it's a very familiar layout, and is easy to navigate, the picture quality of recordings is excellent on my Sharp QLED Android TV, and the sound is also very good. There are two USB ports on the back of the Aura, one is USB 2.0 the other is USB 3.0, both performed very well even when playing 4K content from my external HDD, the external HDD can be formatted to exFAT on a PC but not NTFS for the Aura, but the exFAT filing system supports very large files, so no problem there. I have had a pleasant experience using this Humax Aura so far, I will definitely be keeping it, and I can recommend it, the price for the 1TB version of the Humax Aura has just dropped to £217 on Amazon.

Arrived next day only just set it up seams to work well.

RE: Humax aura The advert for this product on Amazon states that this product may not work in other countries. According to HUMAX UK this is incorrect as this a UK specific product only, and will not work in other countries. The advert of this product should reflect this. I have recycled the packaging so I will not be able to return. Regards GD