The HDR FOX-T2 I have now has worked very well for a few years, though lately it has been giving trouble (posted elsewhere). Things I like are how the scheduled recording mostly just works, things I don't like are how the pop up messages are not clear enough, how the option to switch to HD blocks other functions, and the perpetual problem of consecutive recordings getting cut short, surely by now someone should have come up with a way of having a five minute "splice" that is added to both recordings.
It's my second Humax box, the first one was a disaster and went back within a month, I forget which model it was but I think it was another one that was released with rough firmware then fixed later.
I'm not a "power user", I've played with the idea of having a media server but then I'd have to copy stuff onto it.
I did experiment with converting down some recorded files a year or two ago, but gave up when I found that I was stuck with out-of-sync sound. A tool called Haali media splitter could convert "TS" files and maintain sync but it introduced annoying video artefacts and outputted "mkv" files that were difficult to process further. "Handbrake" looks promising though.
