Knowledge Base

FAQs

Can I use the outside the UK?

No, the T4•R is designed spe­cific­ally for use in the UK with Freeview Play.

If you try to use the T4•R out­side the UK:

  • You may not be able to receive TV sig­nals as the T4•R is built for the UK’s D‑Book TV spe­cific­a­tion and DVB‑T and DVB-T2 broadcasts.
  • Stream­ing ser­vices like BBC iPlay­er and ITVX will be blocked due to geo­graph­ic­al restrictions.
  • Pro­gramme guide data and inform­a­tion will not be available.

We recom­mend pur­chas­ing the T4•R only if you live in the UK.

Do I need to use the HDMI cable provided with the ?

We recom­mend using the HDMI cable sup­plied with your T4•R for the best performance.

Using an older or lower-spec HDMI cable (e.g., HDMI 1.4) may not sup­port the band­width required for 4K HDMI 2.0 sig­nals, lead­ing to issues like pic­ture freez­ing, pic­ture loss or HDMI-CEC fea­tures not working.

If Using a Dif­fer­ent Cable, ensure it’s a high-speed HDMI cable rated for HDMI 2.0 or HDMI 2.1

Can I watch Freeview channels without an aerial?

You’ll need an aer­i­al to watch most chan­nels on your T4•R. How­ever, a small num­ber of chan­nels can be streamed over the inter­net, but these can­not be recorded.

Freeview Play inter­net chan­nels #

When con­nec­ted to the inter­net, the T4•R can stream these chan­nels without an aerial:

  • 301 BBC Three
  • 302 BBC Scot­land
  • 303 BBC ALBA
  • 501 BBC News
  • 502 BBC Parliament

These chan­nels will appear if you con­nec­ted your T4•R to the inter­net dur­ing setup and selec­ted to receive them. If you didn’t have the inter­net con­nec­ted at that time but do now, you can per­form a retune by going to:

Home → Set­tings → Chan­nels → Auto Retune → Retune & Clear Pref­er­ences.

Please note that Freeview Play Chan­nel Man­age­ment must be turned on to receive these inter­net chan­nels. It’s enabled by default, but if you turned it off, you can switch it back on by going to:

Home → Set­tings → Chan­nels → Freeview Play Chan­nel Man­age­ment.

Learn more about Freeview Play Chan­nel Man­age­ment here.

Live TV through apps #

You can also find addi­tion­al live chan­nels from the BBC in the BBC iPlay­er app. Addi­tion­al live TV options are planned for ITVX and oth­er apps in future updates.

Hybrid chan­nels (aer­i­al and inter­net needed) #

Some chan­nels in the 200 range are hybrid chan­nels, stream­ing live con­tent via apps. For example, 254 On Demand 365 provides CrimeHis­tory, and Nature chan­nels, while 255 France 24 streams mul­tiple ver­sions of the news chan­nel. How­ever, you’ll need an aer­i­al to tune these hybrid chan­nels first, before access­ing their inter­net streams.

Import­ant note about aer­i­als #

For reli­able recep­tion of most Freeview chan­nels, we recom­mend using a rooftop or loft aer­i­al. Indoor aer­i­als typ­ic­ally don’t provide adequate sig­nal strength or quality.

How do I use the Web Remote to control my ?

You can con­trol your {{short­mod­el}} using a vir­tu­al remote on your phone, tab­let or com­puter through any web browser. Your device must be con­nec­ted to the same net­work as your T4•R.

To set up and use the Web Remote:

  1. Enable the Web Remote:

    • Go to Home → Set­tings → Inter­net → Brows­ing Options → Web Remote.
    • Press OK to turn it on.
    • A web address will appear on your TV screen..
  2. Access the Web Remote:

    • Make sure your device is con­nec­ted to the same net­work as your T4•R.
    • Open a web browser on your device.
    • Enter the web address shown on your TV screen into the browser’s address bar.
  3. Use the Web Remote:

    • Once con­nec­ted, a vir­tu­al remote will appear on your screen, work­ing just like your phys­ic­al remote.

Note: The Web Remote can­not cur­rently be used to wake your T4•R from standby mode.

Can I use multiple T4/T4•R boxes in the same room without remote interference?

Yes, you can use mul­tiple T4/T4•R boxes in the same room without the remotes inter­fer­ing with each oth­er. Each T4/T4•R can be paired with its own remote con­trol to ensure it only responds to that spe­cif­ic remote.

To learn how do this, please see: Pair your T4•R and remote to pre­vent inter­fer­ence with oth­er Man­hat­tan devices.

Can I browse the web on my ?

No, while the T4•R uses a web browser to run stream­ing apps like BBC iPlay­er and ITV Hub, it doesn’t sup­port gen­er­al web browsing.

This design choice helps ensure:

  • Stable and reli­able performance
  • Effi­cient use of sys­tem memory
  • Pro­tec­tion against secur­ity risks
  • Reli­able record­ing func­tion­al­ity (for T4•R)

The pre-installed stream­ing apps are spe­cially optim­ised and tested to work with­in the T4•R’s cap­ab­il­it­ies. Unlike gen­er­al web­sites that can use unpre­dict­able amounts of memory (espe­cially those with advert­ising or social media ele­ments), these apps are designed to work with­in spe­cif­ic memory lim­its to main­tain con­sist­ent performance.

How do I hide or delete channels from my ?

You can man­age unwanted chan­nels on your T4•R by either hid­ing or delet­ing them:

  1. Go to Home → Set­tings → Chan­nels → Edit Channels
  2. High­light a chan­nel you want to remove, then:
    • Press to hide the channel
    • Press to delete the channel
  3. Repeat for addi­tion­al channels
  4. Press EXIT when fin­ished and choose Save Changes

Nav­ig­a­tion Tips:

  • Use P+ and P– to skip through pages quickly
  • Type chan­nel num­bers dir­ectly using the num­ber pad
  • Fil­ter chan­nels using to find spe­cif­ic ones more easily

Restor­ing removed chan­nels #

To unhide chan­nels:

  • Return to Edit Chan­nels
  • High­light the hid­den channel
  • Press to unhide it

To restore deleted chan­nels:

  1. Go to Home → Set­tings → Chan­nels → Auto Retune
  2. Choose one of these options:
    • Retune & Keep Pref­er­ences: Keeps your favour­ites, hid­den chan­nels, record­ings, remind­ers and region set­tings. You can choose wheth­er to restore deleted channels.
    • Retune & Clear Pref­er­ences: Clears all set­tings and restores deleted chan­nels. Use this when mov­ing home.

Can I transfer recordings from my old Manhattan recorder to the ?

No, it’s not pos­sible to trans­fer record­ings from pre­vi­ous Man­hat­tan mod­els like the T2‑R or T3‑R to the T4•R. Due to con­tent pro­tec­tion restric­tions, record­ings are tied to the device they were recor­ded on.

How can I check the space remaining for recordings?

There are two ways to check the avail­able stor­age space on your T4•R:

  1. Record­ings Menu:

    • Press the RECS but­ton on your remote to open the Record­ings menu.
    • The avail­able free space is dis­played at the top of the screen as a per­cent­age. This per­cent­age includes space used by pro­grammes in the Recently Deleted section.
    • If you don’t see this inform­a­tion, press the Zoom but­ton on your remote to zoom out. The free space is not vis­ible when zoomed in.
  2. Detailed Stor­age Inform­a­tion:

    • Press Home on your remote.
    • Nav­ig­ate to Inform­a­tion → Hard Drive.
    • Here, you can see the total capa­city, used space, and free space in giga­bytes (GB). This free space does not include pro­grammes in the Recently Deleted section.

Under­stand­ing Hard Drive Capa­city:

  • A 500GB hard drive, when format­ted, provides approx­im­ately 465GB of usable space. This dif­fer­ence is due to how stor­age man­u­fac­tur­ers define giga­bytes (1GB = 1,000,000,000 bytes) versus how com­puters cal­cu­late them (1GB = 1,073,741,824 bytes).
  • The EXT4 file sys­tem used by the T4•R reserves about 7.5GB per 500GB for sys­tem use.
  • There­fore, the total avail­able space is slightly less than the advert­ised capa­city, which is stand­ard for all stor­age devices.

Does the support Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, and Dolby Atmos?

The T4•R sup­ports Dolby Audio formats, includ­ing Dolby Digit­al and Dolby Digit­al Plus. How­ever, it does not sup­port Dolby Atmos. Cur­rently, none of the Freeview chan­nels or apps avail­able on the T4•R offer con­tent in Dolby Atmos.

How do I watch a recording while it's still being recorded?

You can start watch­ing a pro­gramme while it’s still being recor­ded on your T4•R:

  1. Press RECS on your remote
  2. Find the pro­gramme cur­rently record­ing (marked with a red record­ing icon)
  3. Press OK to start watch­ing from the beginning

While watch­ing:

  • The play­back bar shows:
    • A white dot for your cur­rent position
    • A red bar show­ing how much has been recorded
    • A grey sec­tion for the remain­ing record­ing time
  • You can fast-for­ward up to the cur­rent record­ing point
  • You can’t skip past what has been recorded

Tip: This fea­ture is great for start­ing to watch long pro­grammes like sports events or films before they’ve fin­ished recording.

Does the require Wi-Fi or an internet connection to work?

No, the T4•R can func­tion as a stand­ard Freeview TV record­er without an inter­net con­nec­tion. You can set it up and use core fea­tures like watch­ing and record­ing live TV without Wi-Fi.

How­ever, con­nect­ing the T4•R to the inter­net enhances your exper­i­ence by providing:

  • Soft­ware Updates: Receive the latest updates for improved per­form­ance and new features.
  • Pro­gramme Images: View images asso­ci­ated with pro­grammes for a rich­er brows­ing experience.
  • Addi­tion­al Pro­gramme Inform­a­tion: Access detailed inform­a­tion, includ­ing sec­ond­ary titles, series, and epis­ode numbers.
  • Search Func­tion­al­ity: Search for both live broad­cast pro­grammes (up to 7 days ahead) and on-demand content.

If you prefer not to con­nect to the inter­net, you can per­form soft­ware updates using a USB stick.

What apps are available on the ?

The T4•R offers a sub­scrip­tion-free exper­i­ence with access to a vari­ety of pop­u­lar UK on-demand apps:

  • BBC iPlay­er
  • ITVX
  • Chan­nel 4 (All 4)
  • My5
  • U (formerly UKTV Play)
  • You­Tube
  • GREAT! Play­er
  • Watch Free UK
  • PBS Amer­ica
  • POP Play­er
  • BBC Sounds
  • STV Play­er
  • S4C / Clic
  • Explore Freeview Play

These apps provide a wide range of con­tent, includ­ing catch-up TV, box sets, and exclus­ive pro­gram­ming. Please note that app avail­ab­il­ity is sub­ject to change, and new apps may be added in future updates.

Can I use the with a satellite dish?

No, the T4•R is designed for use with a rooftop aer­i­al to receive Freeview ter­restri­al broad­casts. It is not com­pat­ible with satel­lite dishes used for ser­vices like Freesat or Sky. To receive TV broad­casts with the T4•R, you’ll need to con­nect it to a suit­able aerial.

How do I customise HDMI-CEC features on my ?

The T4•R sup­ports HDMI-CEC fea­tures, which allows TVs and con­nec­ted devices to con­trol each oth­er through the HDMI cable. You can adjust these set­tings by going to Home → Set­tings → Sys­tem → HDMI Con­trol.

Here are the options available:

  1. Activ­a­tion Sync (Default: On)

    • Auto­mat­ic­ally turns on TVs and con­nec­ted devices when the T4•R is used
    • Puts the T4•R into standby when the TV is switched off
  2. Turn Off Devices (Default: Off)

    • Turns off TVs and con­nec­ted devices when the T4•R is switched off
  3. Auto Power On (Default: Off)

    • Turns on the T4•R when you switch to its HDMI input on your TV
    • Turns on the T4•R when the TV is switched on, as long as the T4•R’s input was last selected

Import­ant: HDMI-CEC must also be enabled on your TV and oth­er con­nec­ted devices. #

Man­u­fac­tur­ers use dif­fer­ent names for HDMI-CEC, such as:

  • Sam­sung: Anynet+
  • Sony: BRAVIA Sync
  • LG: Sim­pLink
  • Panason­ic: VIERA Link
  • Philips: EasyLink
  • Toshiba: Reg­za Link
  • Sharp: Aquos Link

Check your TV or device’s manu­al for instruc­tions on enabling HDMI-CEC features.

What is the USB port on the used for?

The USB port on your T4•R has two main functions:

  1. Soft­ware Updates

    • Install soft­ware updates when an inter­net con­nec­tion isn’t available
    • Down­load updates from our web­site and trans­fer them via USB stick
  2. Dia­gnost­ic Purposes

    • Export sys­tem logs when troubleshoot­ing issues with our sup­port team
    • Store dia­gnost­ic inform­a­tion that can help identi­fy problems

Import­ant: The USB port can­not be used for:

  • Play­ing media files
  • Expand­ing record­ing storage
  • Trans­fer­ring record­ings to or from oth­er devices

For soft­ware updates and instruc­tions on using a USB stick, vis­it the T4’s soft­ware updates page.

The USB port on your T4•R has two main functions:

  1. Soft­ware Updates

    • Install soft­ware updates when an inter­net con­nec­tion isn’t available
    • Down­load updates from our web­site and trans­fer them via USB stick
  2. Dia­gnost­ic Purposes

    • Export sys­tem logs when troubleshoot­ing issues with our sup­port team
    • Store dia­gnost­ic inform­a­tion that can help identi­fy problems

Import­ant: The USB port can­not be used for:

  • Play­ing media files
  • Expand­ing record­ing storage
  • Trans­fer­ring record­ings to or from oth­er devices

For soft­ware updates and instruc­tions on using a USB stick, vis­it the T4•R’s soft­ware updates page.

Does the have the Teletext function? What does the TEXT button do?

The tra­di­tion­al Red But­ton tele­text ser­vice, which used the old MHEG tech­no­logy, is no longer sup­por­ted by new Freeview Play TVs and set-top boxes, includ­ing the T4•R. Mod­ern devices now use HbbTV tech­no­logy to power the Con­nec­ted Red But­ton ser­vice, which requires an inter­net con­nec­tion. For more inform­a­tion, please vis­it the BBC’s Red But­ton help page.

The TEXT but­ton on your remote is required by the UK’s D‑Book TV and HbbTV spe­cific­a­tions and is avail­able for HbbTV apps. How­ever, cur­rently, there are no ser­vices that util­ize it. On the T4•R, the TEXT but­ton doubles as a TEXT/ZOOM button:

  • TEXT Func­tion: Inten­ded for chan­nels and applic­a­tions dur­ing Full Screen TV, although not in use at present.
  • ZOOM Func­tion: When the Man­hat­tan user inter­face is on-screen, press­ing this but­ton adjusts the zoom level of the interface.

How do I stop my filters resetting after standby?

By default, any fil­ters you set (like favour­ite chan­nels in the TV Guide) will reset when your T4•R goes into standby. To keep your fil­ters active:

  1. Go to Home → Set­tings → Menu Options
  2. Select Reset Fil­ters Automatically
  3. Change the set­ting to Nev­er

Now, your fil­ters will stay act­ive even after standby, until you clear them manually.

Keep in mind, each of the fol­low­ing menus has its own fil­ter settings:

  • TV Guide
  • Home Screen On Now
  • Record­ings
  • Fea­tured
  • Search Res­ults

To manu­ally clear a fil­ter in any menu:

  1. Press to show fil­ter options
  2. Press to clear the filter

How do I set up and use Favourite Channels?

The Favour­ites fea­ture helps you quickly access your most-watched chan­nels. Here’s how to set up and use it:

Adding Chan­nels to Favour­ites #

There are two ways to mark chan­nels as favourites:

  1. While Using the Guide:

    • Press to add or remove the cur­rent chan­nel to favourites
    • A red heart icon will appear next to favour­ite channels
  2. Using the Chan­nel Edit­or:

    • Go to Home → Set­tings → Chan­nels → Edit Channels
    • Use to mark chan­nels as favourites
    • Press EXIT and then choose Save Changes

View­ing Only Favour­ite Chan­nels #

You can use the fil­ter to show just your favour­ite chan­nels when you’re in the TV Guide or brows­ing the Home Screen On Now carousel:

  • Press to open Fil­ter options
  • Select Favour­ites
  • Press BACK to apply

Quick Access While Watch­ing TV #

When watch­ing TV:

  1. Press Info
  2. Press to cycle through your favourites

Keep­ing Your Favour­ites Fil­ter Act­ive After Standby #

By default, fil­ters reset when your T4•R goes into standby. To pre­vent this:

  1. Go to Home → Set­tings → Menu Options
  2. Select Reset Fil­ters Automatically
  3. Change to Nev­er

Can I skip adverts on recorded programmes?

Yes! There are two easy ways to skip through adverts in your recordings:

  1. Fast For­ward

    • Press to fast for­ward through content
    • Each press increases the speed up to 64x
    • Press to resume nor­mal playback
  2. Quick Skip

    • Press to jump for­ward 30 seconds
    • Press mul­tiple times to skip longer advert breaks
    • If you go too far, press to jump back 10 seconds

You can cus­tom­ise both the for­ward and back­ward skip dur­a­tions by nav­ig­at­ing to Home → Set­tings → Play­back.

Want to learn more about play­back con­trols? See Play­back.

What is Freeview Play Channel Management and why do BBC HD channels appear twice in my channel list?

You may have noticed that BBC HD chan­nels, such as BBC One HD, appear twice in your chan­nel list. This is because your T4•R is required to use a new fea­ture called Freeview Play Chan­nel Man­age­ment for tun­ing when con­nec­ted to the internet.

Here’s what Freeview Play Chan­nel Man­age­ment does:

  1. Man­ages chan­nel num­bers: Freeview Play alloc­ates chan­nel num­bers based on your loc­a­tion, avail­able trans­mit­ters, and any region­al con­flicts. It handles this auto­mat­ic­ally through the Freeview Play server.

  2. HD chan­nel swap­ping: For example, you will see BBC One HD on both chan­nel 1 and 101, with BBC One SD mov­ing to chan­nel 611. This change is part of Freeview’s plan to make HD chan­nels more prom­in­ent. BBC chan­nels are the first to do this and oth­er broad­casters may follow.

  3. Inter­net chan­nels: Without an aer­i­al, you can still access five inter­net-based BBC chan­nels: BBC Three (301), BBC Scot­land (302), BBC ALBA (303), BBC NEWS (501) and BBC Par­lia­ment (502). More chan­nels may fol­low in the future.

How do I remove the duplic­ates? #

Option 1: Hide or delete duplicates

  1. Go to Home → Set­tings → Chan­nels → Edit Channels
  2. Choose to hide or delete the duplic­ate channels

Option 2: Turn off Freeview Play Chan­nel Management

This will restore the tra­di­tion­al Freeview chan­nel num­bers, with SD chan­nels start­ing at 1 and HD chan­nels at 101. It will also remove the five inter­net chan­nels. How­ever, since these chan­nels are already avail­able via your aer­i­al, this shouldn’t be an issue for most users

To dis­able Chan­nel Management:

  1. Go to Home → Set­tings → Chan­nels → Freeview Play Chan­nel Management
  2. Press OK to per­form a full retune.

Import­ant: Retun­ing will reset favour­ites, hid­den chan­nels, sched­uled record­ings, remind­ers, and region­al set­tings. You can also choose to restore any deleted channels.

We know see­ing only BBC HD chan­nels twice can be con­fus­ing, and we’d likely dis­able this fea­ture by default if Freeview Play Chan­nel Man­age­ment wasn’t required!

How is padding handled with consecutive recordings?

Auto­mat­ic Pad­ding (Default) #

The T4•R uses broad­caster sig­nals to determ­ine when pro­grammes actu­ally start and end. This means record­ings should start and end accur­ately when broad­caster sig­nalling is correct.

For con­sec­ut­ive record­ings on the same chan­nel, the T4•R will seam­lessly trans­ition from one record­ing to the next, ensur­ing you don’t miss any­thing between programmes.

When record­ing across dif­fer­ent chan­nels, the T4•R’s dual tuners allow it to record two chan­nels sim­ul­tan­eously. How­ever, when both tuners are in use and a new record­ing needs to start on anoth­er chan­nel, the T4•R will stop record­ing the first pro­gramme at its sched­uled end time and start the new record­ing at its sched­uled start time. This means if the first pro­gramme runs late or the new pro­gramme starts early, you might miss some content.

Manu­al Pad­ding #

When you set manu­al pad­ding, the T4•R man­ages con­sec­ut­ive record­ings to max­im­ise cov­er­age while work­ing with­in tuner limitations.

Con­sec­ut­ive Record­ings on the Same Channel

To ensure the most import­ant con­tent is cap­tured, the T4•R adjusts pad­ding between con­sec­ut­ive recordings:

  • The first record­ing in a sequence gets start pad­ding only
  • Any middle record­ings get no padding
  • The last record­ing gets end pad­ding only

If pro­grammes don’t start or end exactly on time, you may find the begin­ning or end of a pro­gramme included in the adja­cent recording.

Con­sec­ut­ive Record­ings on Dif­fer­ent Channels

The T4•R’s two tuners allow it to record two chan­nels sim­ul­tan­eously, but this cre­ates some con­straints when hand­ling padding:

  • When both tuners are in use and new record­ings need to start, the T4•R may need to omit end pad­ding from earli­er record­ings and start pad­ding from new recordings
  • For example, if two record­ings are end­ing and two new record­ings are sched­uled to start on dif­fer­ent chan­nels, pad­ding will be omit­ted from all record­ings to ensure the core pro­gramme con­tent is captured

How can I restart a programme?

Cur­rently, only BBC chan­nels sup­port the abil­ity to restart live pro­grammes on the T4•R. There are a few ways to do this:

  1. Press the Green But­ton:

    • While watch­ing a BBC chan­nel, press the Green but­ton on your remote.
    • This will restart the cur­rent pro­gramme in BBC iPlay­er.
  2. Use the Red But­ton:

    • Press the Red but­ton on your remote while on a BBC channel.
    • This opens the BBC Red But­ton Plus ser­vice, where you can select the option to restart the programme.
  3. Through the TV Guide:

    • Open the TV Guide and nav­ig­ate to the cur­rent BBC programme.
    • If the pro­gramme sup­ports restart, a Restart icon will be displayed.
    • Press OK on the pro­gramme, and you’ll be giv­en the choice to restart it.

Note: Restart­ing a pro­gramme requires an act­ive inter­net con­nec­tion, as it streams the con­tent from BBC iPlayer.

Can I transfer recordings from the T2-R or T3-R to ?

No, it’s not pos­sible to trans­fer record­ings from the T2‑R or T3‑R to the T4•R. This is due to restric­tions from Freeview that pro­tect HD record­ings using spe­cial encryp­tion, which our devices don’t imple­ment. These include:

  1. DTCP-IP for secure stream­ing or trans­fer­ring of HD recordings.
  2. AACS for lock­ing HD record­ings when copied, allow­ing only one copy to be made.

Even if record­ings were trans­ferred, the receiv­ing device would need to sup­port DTCP-IP and AACS to play them.

While trans­fer­ring SD record­ings is allowed, for con­sist­ency, our devices cur­rently treat all record­ings the same.

Using both record­ers togeth­er? #

If you plan to keep both your T2‑R/T3‑R and T4•R, you can pre­vent remote con­trol inter­fer­ence by pair­ing your T4•R with its remote. See: Pair your T4•R and remote to pre­vent inter­fer­ence with oth­er Man­hat­tan devices.

Can I reorder channels on the ?

No, it’s not pos­sible to change the chan­nel order on the T4•R. Freeview Play requires man­u­fac­tur­ers to keep the offi­cial chan­nel numbering.

How­ever, we plan to add a fea­ture that will allow you to reorder chan­nels in your Favour­ites list. This means you’ll be able to cus­tom­ise the chan­nel order when fil­ter­ing by Favour­ites in the TV Guide and Home Screen.

You may have noticed that BBC One HD appears at both chan­nel 1 and 101, with BBC One SD moved to 611. This is part of Freeview Play Chan­nel Man­age­ment, which auto­mat­ic­ally man­ages chan­nels when your T4•R is con­nec­ted to the internet.

If you prefer the tra­di­tion­al Freeview chan­nel num­bers, with SD chan­nels start­ing at 1 and HD chan­nels at 101, please see: Why do BBC HD chan­nels appear twice in my list with Freeview Play Chan­nel Man­age­ment??.

Can I connect the to an older TV without HDMI?

No, the T4•R is designed for use with TVs that have HDMI inputs and only fea­tures an HDMI out­put for audio and video.

While devices are avail­able that can con­vert HDMI inputs to ana­logue out­puts (com­pat­ible with SCART or RCA con­nec­tions), these may not deliv­er the best res­ults. If used with the T4•R, menus are likely to appear in poor qual­ity and may be dif­fi­cult to read.

Some of our older products, such as the Man­hat­tan T1, T2‑R, and SX, were com­pat­ible with our option­al Ana­logue AV kit. These mod­els fea­tured a mini-jack ana­logue out­put, which the T4•R does not have. As a res­ult, the T4•R is not com­pat­ible with the Ana­logue AV kit.

Does the need an internet connection?

No, the T4•R works per­fectly as a Freeview TV record­er without the inter­net. You’ll still be able to:

  • Watch all Freeview channels
  • Use the 7‑day TV Guide to browse and set recordings
  • Record, play­back, and pause live TV as normal

How­ever, con­nect­ing to the inter­net (via Wi-Fi or Eth­er­net) adds use­ful fea­tures like:

  • Catch-up and on-demand stream­ing services
  • Enhanced pro­gramme inform­a­tion with images
  • Browse the last 7‑days in the TV Guide
  • Search across TV Guide and on-demand content
  • Auto­mat­ic soft­ware updates

Keep­ing up to date without inter­net #

If you don’t con­nect to the inter­net, you can still manu­ally update your software:

  1. Vis­it the T4•R’s soft­ware updates page
  2. Down­load the update
  3. Install it using a USB stick

When you register your T4•R, you can also choose to receive email updates about new releases. This way, you can decide if a soft­ware update is worth installing manu­ally, espe­cially if it’s only for inter­net-related features.

Does the T4•R need an inter­net con­nec­tion? #

No, the T4•R works per­fectly as a Freeview TV box without the inter­net. You’ll still be able to:

  • Watch all Freeview channels
  • Use the 7‑day TV Guide to browse and set reminders
  • Pause live TV as normal

How­ever, con­nect­ing to the inter­net (via Wi-Fi or Eth­er­net) adds use­ful fea­tures like:

  • Catch-up and on-demand stream­ing services
  • Enhanced pro­gramme inform­a­tion with images
  • Browse the last 7‑days in the TV Guide
  • Search across TV Guide and on-demand content
  • Auto­mat­ic soft­ware updates

Keep­ing up to date without inter­net #

If you don’t con­nect to the inter­net, you can still manu­ally update your software:

  1. Vis­it the T4•R’s soft­ware updates page
  2. Down­load the update
  3. Install it using a USB stick

When you register your T4•R, you can also choose to receive email updates about new releases. This way, you can decide if a soft­ware update is worth installing manu­ally, espe­cially if it’s only for inter­net-related features.

Can I play media files from a USB drive on the ?

No, the T4•R does not sup­port play­ing media files from USB drives. For media play­back, we recom­mend using a ded­ic­ated media play­er or smart TV apps.

No, the T4•R does not sup­port play­ing media files from USB drives. The device is designed primar­ily for Freeview record­ing and play­back. For media play­back, we recom­mend using a ded­ic­ated media play­er or smart TV apps.

How do I add programmes to my Watchlist?

You can add on-demand pro­grammes to your Watch­list from vari­ous menus on the T4•R. Here’s how:

Find­ing On-Demand Con­tent #

You can find on-demand pro­grammes in sev­er­al places:

  • Fea­tured: Browse cur­ated carou­sels of on-demand con­tent like Films and Drama
  • TV Guide: Look for pro­grammes marked with (espe­cially when brows­ing back­wards in time)
  • Search: Find on-demand con­tent in ded­ic­ated res­ults carousels
  • More Info: Access addi­tion­al epis­odes and related content

When you high­light an on-demand pro­gramme, you’ll see:

  • The on-demand icon () among oth­er attrib­utes like sub­titles in the inform­a­tion area
  • A hint show­ing you can press to play or to add or remove the pro­gramme from your Watchlist.
  • A large icon next to the pro­gramme title if it’s already in your Watchlist

Adding to Your Watch­list #

Simply press when an on-demand pro­gramme is high­lighted. In the TV Guide, the in the pro­gramme cell will change to (a vari­ation with a bookmark).

To remove it, just press again.

Man­aging Series #

While you can’t cur­rently add entire series to your Watch­list (due to Freeview Play plat­form lim­it­a­tions), there are ways to keep track of series you’re watching:

  • Use the fea­ture to find all avail­able epis­odes — your searches are saved for easy access
  • Press on any epis­ode in your Watch­list to see oth­er avail­able epis­odes in the More Info menu

Adding Con­tent from Apps #

Unfor­tu­nately, you can­not add pro­grammes to your Watch­list from with­in apps like BBC iPlay­er or ITVX, as these apps man­age their own watch­lists sep­ar­ately and don’t provide any way for the T4•R to access them.

Can I play my own videos or media files on the ?

No, the T4•R does not sup­port play­ing videos from USB devices or stream­ing media over your net­work. This includes:

  • Video files stored on USB drives
  • Record­ings from oth­er Freeview recorders
  • Media stream­ing via DLNA or oth­er net­work protocols

While we under­stand this would be a use­ful fea­ture, sup­port­ing media play­back would require extens­ive devel­op­ment to handle the many dif­fer­ent video and audio formats that exist. For now, the T4•R focuses on provid­ing excel­lent Freeview record­ing and play­back capabilities.

If you need to play media files, we recom­mend using a ded­ic­ated media play­er or smart TV apps for this purpose.

Why is an internet connection needed to search the TV Guide?

Your T4•R needs an inter­net con­nec­tion to search the TV Guide because the search relies on data from the Freeview Play serv­er. This allows your device to access:

  • More detailed pro­gramme information
  • Images of the programmes
  • Epis­ode and series numbers

This makes for a much rich­er and more help­ful search exper­i­ence than just using the broad­cast sig­nal alone.

Can I record content from apps like iPlayer and streaming IP channels?

No, you can­not record any con­tent delivered over the inter­net on the T4•R. This includes pro­grammes from apps like BBC iPlay­er, ITVX, and stream­ing IP chan­nels. Record­ing of inter­net-delivered con­tent is pro­hib­ited by Freeview Play and the apps them­selves. The T4•R is designed to record live TV broad­casts received through your aerial.

What is the difference between manual and automatic padding when making recordings?

The T4•R offers two ways to ensure you don’t miss the begin­ning or end of your record­ings: Auto­mat­ic Pad­ding (the default option) and Manu­al Padding.

Auto­mat­ic Pad­ding (Default) #

Auto­mat­ic pad­ding uses broad­caster sig­nals to determ­ine exactly when pro­grammes start and end. The T4•R begins mon­it­or­ing 30 minutes before the sched­uled start time and starts record­ing when it detects the broadcaster’s sig­nal. It will also wait for the broadcaster’s end sig­nal, con­tinu­ing to record for up to 2 hours after the sched­uled end time if necessary.

This meth­od works well when broad­caster sig­nals are accur­ate, as it auto­mat­ic­ally adjusts for pro­grammes that start early or run late. How­ever, if broad­casters don’t send cor­rect sig­nals, you might miss the start or end of a programme.

Manu­al Pad­ding #

With manu­al pad­ding, you choose how much extra time to add before and after each record­ing, from 2 to 10 minutes. While this gives you con­sist­ent con­trol and doesn’t rely on broad­caster sig­nals, it may record unne­ces­sary con­tent or still miss parts of pro­grammes that start very early or run very late (such as live events).

When record­ing con­sec­ut­ive pro­grammes, manu­al pad­ding is adjus­ted to avoid over­lap. This means some pad­ding may be omit­ted to ensure the core con­tent of each pro­gramme is captured.

How to Adjust Pad­ding Set­tings #

To change your pad­ding settings:

  1. Go to Home → Set­tings → Record­ings → Pad­ding Options → Pad­ding Type
  2. Select either Auto­mat­ic or Manu­al

If using Manu­al Pad­ding, you can set both start and end pad­ding times (210 minutes) in the same menu.

You can also choose how record­ings start play­back. Under Play­back Start, select either:

  • Recor­ded Start: Begins from the very start of the recording
  • Sig­nalled: Begins where the broad­caster indic­ated the pro­gramme starts (default)

Tip: When play­ing back a record­ing with manu­al pad­ding, the play­back bar shows mark­ers where the broad­caster sig­nalled the programme’s start and end, mak­ing it easy to skip to the actu­al content.

How does auto-deletion work on the , and how can I keep important recordings?

The T4•R auto­mat­ic­ally man­ages stor­age space by delet­ing older record­ings when needed. Here’s how it works:

Auto-Dele­tion Pro­cess #

When space is needed for new record­ings, the T4•R will:

  1. First delete con­tent from the Recently Deleted section
  2. Then delete the old­est record­ings that aren’t marked as Keep’
  3. Nev­er delete record­ings marked as Keep’

Recently Deleted Record­ings #

  • Deleted record­ings move to the Recently Deleted section
  • They stay there for 30 days unless space is needed sooner
  • You can recov­er these record­ings at any time before they’re per­man­ently deleted

Keep­ing Import­ant Record­ings #

To pre­vent record­ings from being auto­mat­ic­ally deleted:

  1. Go to Home → Recordings
  2. High­light the record­ing you want to keep
  3. Press
  4. Select Keep

Note: You can keep record­ings up to 80% of your total stor­age capa­city. You’ll see a warn­ing if you try to exceed this limit.

Import­ant Tips #

  • The T4•R won’t warn you before auto-delet­ing record­ings that aren’t marked as Keep’
  • Kept record­ings show a Keep’ icon in the Record­ings menu
  • Reg­u­larly check your record­ings and mark any as Keep’ that you want to save long-term
  • You can remove Keep’ status by press­ing again and select­ing Don’t Keep

To check avail­able stor­age space, press RECS on your remote — the free space per­cent­age is shown at the top of the screen.

How do I cancel a recording or series recording?

You can can­cel record­ings from any menu where they appear:

  • Record­ings menu (press RECS)
  • TV Guide (press GUIDE)
  • Home Screen On Now carousel
  • More Info menu (press )
  • Search res­ults
  • Chan­nel Browser and while watch­ing live TV

From the Record­ings menu #

  1. Press RECS and select the Sched­uled tab
  2. For series record­ings with mul­tiple episodes:
    • High­light the series folder and press OK
    • Select any epis­ode and press OK
    • Choose Can­cel Series to stop all future epis­odes, or Skip Epis­ode for just that episode
  3. For series with only one epis­ode or one-off recordings:
    • High­light the record­ing and press OK
    • Select Can­cel Record­ing for a one-off programme
    • Select Can­cel Series to stop all future episodes

From oth­er menus or while watch­ing live TV #

  1. Find the pro­gramme marked for recording
  2. Press
  3. Choose from:
    • Can­cel Record­ing for a single programme
    • Can­cel Series to stop all future episodes
    • Skip Epis­ode to can­cel just one epis­ode of a series

For record­ings in pro­gress #

When a record­ing is cur­rently in pro­gress, you’ll see:

  • Stop Record­ing to end the cur­rent recording
  • Stop Record­ing Series to end the record­ing and can­cel the series (if part of a series)