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

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!

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.

Really ease to set up. and what a free view box. it does everything except making a cup of tea.

What an amazing peice of kit the Aura is. It does everything you could want and looks amazing under the TV.Unfortunately the Aura is full of problems because it's trying to do everything. I had to send mine back as the picture was unwatchable, every two seconds it would freeze for a micro second, on recordings, live TV and app streaming. It made me actually sea sick. Very disappointed. I bought the Mahattan T4 and its 100% better by doing 100% less. Picture is amazing, so simple. Every day of the week I would choose the T4 over the Aura.

Could do with a technical, booklet, how to set it up, I had a humax before, but it was playing up. I set up remote, and eventually did it all. Next day the remote didnt work, so I phoned them up, they sent me an email, to try some of these thing's, and it worked. But think they should have a troubleshooter section, in the setup booklet. Other than that it's fine,

The humax Aura Set top box is a very stylish and decent freeview box with freeview play built-in.But it stops there as far as I'm concerned, with the built in android/Google assistance it works and looks decent but it is very very buggy and the software needs a massive update. After looking around on the Internet and humax website the last update was 17th June 2021 and doesnt look like there will ever be a newer update and this has started to cause issues with the built in apps like Disney, prime and the rest with a lot of bugs and clitches and with apple tv that no longer works due to errors that me and other are getting while watching. If you want Netflix on the box you are out of luck as this box doesn't support Netflix due to being an unsupported box, crazy i know.As far as this freeview recordable box goes it is good but not excellent and definitely a good alternative to paid tv like sky Q because let's be honest no one wants to pay for tv that's free with freeview.

I got his to replace a BT Youview box which ailed suddenly. We tried surviving using streaming TV but really missed the recorder. This unit has everything the BT box had and more. The 4 channels means more recordings, the FreeviewPlay UI is better than the old system and I haven't even started on the Android features (I need to spend some time in the manual I think!) so there is probably loads more I could do.The only criticism is that, just occasionally, it pauses or jumps slightly on recorded material when playing back (I haven't noticed if this is only when recording at the same time or not...). The remote could be better laid out (the old BT one was better in that regard) so I've taken a star off for those 2 niggles. But I'm really glad I bought this, ad-free TV and easy retrievable recordings beat streaming every time!