Not being able to record on minibox or watch recordings

[DrPepper3]

We've just changed from Sky to EE. Upon setting TV up it looks like you can't record from a mini box but only from the main box, and if I'm right, what is more concerning is we can't watch our recordings on any other box other than the main one.  Is this correct? If we had another primary box, could we watch our recordings on that? 

I hope someone will clarify 

[Jane17muk]

Could I ask for pro box also in my bedroom as well as living room
Sent from my iPhone

[DarrenDev]

No - you're limited to a single TV Box Pro per account.

[Pmclaughlin01]

So, we’ve just littered switched from Sky and obviously did have the option of recording from the mini box. Is it definite that you can hook up an alternatively sourced ee tv box and record to it (i.e use two primary boxes). This might be a deal breaker for us, but I would be willing to shell out if it sorts out the issue. I do understand that you would only be able to watch recordings on the box you record to. I appreciate you can’t vouch for boxes bought elsewhere, but any confirmation/clarification would be appreciated.

[Chris_B]

@Pmclaughlin01 should you purchase a pro box elsewhere it will work.   

[PatrickWild]

I was also told that as well!

[Chris_B]

@PatrickWild  but the pro box is called the pro  box because it can record.    Why would the mini box be called the mini if it could record.   Surely it would just be called the pro box.    

Even the advertised products list what each can do.  

 

[PatrickWild]

It is about honesty from the seller or lack of knowledge, whatever you care
to choose!

[Gerryman]

So if buy pro box from a source you can record on it and use it in bedroom as well as my pro box in living room 

[PatrickWild]

I have attached a talk talk freeview box as well as mini box and it records
quite happily.

I also have a Humax HDR alongside the main BT box which can record as
well. Previously with Sky and second box could record I believe.

[Midnight_Voice]

@Chris_B 

In earlier days, boxes were DTR- or DB- and the R stood for Record. The r in Pro does not do that. I don’t know why the Box Pro is called that; it’s a consumer device through and through, a little superior to its predecessors, but hardly ‘pro gear’ as any professional in the field would understand it.

The Box Mini is called a mini because it’s smaller, logically. But both names are just marketing, and you can glean nothing about their capabilities from them; a backward step from the earlier boxes.

But the problem with the naming and positioning of the Box Mini is that anyone coming from the similarly-named Sky Q Mini likely assumes the EE Box Mini does the same. But it doesn’t; while the Sky Mini can’t actually record, it can set recordings on the full Q box, and play them back; so to all intents and purposes, excepting where the recording actually is, it can record.

Now, you can set recordings remotely on the Box Pro, using the EE TV app. But crucially, you can’t play them back through the Box Mini, which provokes everything from disappointment to disbelief; especially when inadequately trained EE staff say you can, or at least don’t explain that you can’t, to people thinking of migrating from Sky, where you can.

Such prospects are probably used to Sky Go as well; the EE TV app, with its peculiar, restricted, selection of what you can watch live, and Schedule and Recording sections that can’t punch through to live, on demand, or recorded TV, but just tell you about the programmes, or enjoin you to go and watch them on your box (very useful when you are away for the night and omitted to bring your Box Pro with you) doesn’t pass muster in comparison.

Not that EE TV should strive to match Sky; it’s its own thing. But the expectations of prospects thinking of migrating from Sky do need to be accurately set.

And as for those advertised product blurbs - “The UK’s only streaming box that can record live TV”? Wouldn’t Manhattan, with their T3 and now T4, and Humax with their Aura, have something to say about that?