Hi dave, after I replied to you earlier I did some investigating and it is possible to record with the Mag254, I have made some recordings this evening and it works fine.
I have written this up as it may be of use to others as well.
To record using the Mag254 you have to use the playlist (m3u) option and have a playlist loaded as explained in this thread
http://iptvtalk.net/showthread.php?...ported-Playlist-on-Mag-STB&highlight=playlist
You should have a USB flash memory plugged into the box with sufficient space for your recording and remember WYSIWYG... any buffering or freezing or interruptions will also be recorded.
1.- have your playlist loaded and tested as working.
2.- go to 'Inner Portal' and select 'record manager' then the red button to 'add record'
3.- set up the recording details... start...end...channel (use the left/right arrow button of the remote to go through the list and select your channel).... use the keyboard function of the remote to fill in 'record name' (default is the time of recording).... select your usb flash drive in 'record in'
4.- hit 'OK' to start the recording, if it is a future recording the line with the channel name will be grey and will turn green at the recording time and return to grey at the end of the recording. If your recording starts immediatley the line will be green.
5.- to stop the recording at any time hit the 'menu' button on the remote then 'stop' or rely on the timer to stop it.
At this point you can either program another recording or check what you just recorded. To ckeck your recording exit out of the 'record manager' and go to 'home media'... select your flash drive from the list (important) and then look for 'records' and inside that folder you will find your recording with the name you used in #3.
The file is in .ts format, if you need it in another format you will need a converter... there are many free ones on the web. A one hour recording will use just under 1gb of memory so plan accordingly.
I only discovered this this evening so I may have missed something but you should be able to get it working for now.