Loading ...Jul 02
The eagely anticipated software update for the Alba Freesat Digital Boxes (Grundig, Bush and Goodmans) is now live. The latest version is 1.4.33 and includes the ability to add FTA channels not presently available in the Freesat EPG.
The update will automatically be downloaded onto your box via the satellite, or you can manually download if you wish.
If you have an Alba box, do let us know your comments on the update. We are being told its a fantastic update. Great news for all Alba Freesat owners, and a good alternative to the Humax box.
July 2nd, 2008 at 4:15 pm
HD Alba Freesat box is 1.4.33, but SD Alba is still 1.2.16
July 2nd, 2008 at 5:27 pm
Our Bush freesat bx is also registering at 1.2.16 not 1.4.33. is there going to be another updat to get to the latter update version?
July 2nd, 2008 at 11:22 pm
Can’t seem to mix freesat and non freesat within favorites list - seems like a glowing error.
Also favorites and FTA sections should appear within Genre list but don’t.
Fav channels list need to be increased to 100 channels of something, 20 is not enough.
Oh and while I’m helping Alba improve the product, please can you have an option in the menu to use a Sky remote control, it will cost little to implement and we can then use the superior sky remote which also has tv control functions!. Alba is a case of great product, shame about the weak remote!
Thanks for this update, but get working on the next update!
July 3rd, 2008 at 6:23 am
I have had the update for my Bush HD box but how do I add the FTA channels? I went into the setting menu and tried to add FTA channels but all I get is a transponder etc. Do I have to manually add all transponders and where do I get a list of them?
July 3rd, 2008 at 6:32 am
anne you do have to enter them manually(cant tell you how as i dont have one)for transponders try http://en.kingofsat.net/freqs.php?&pos=28.2E&standard=All&ordre=freq&filtre=Clear and http://en.kingofsat.net/freqs.php?&pos=28.5E&standard=All&ordre=freq&filtre=Clear
July 3rd, 2008 at 6:34 am
yes, you have to add each one. go to a site called digital spy, on that site go to forums than satalite then freesat in this forum there are a few threads about it goodmans/grundig/bush June update is one has links to get transponder numbers ECT. Hope this helps
July 3rd, 2008 at 6:46 am
Thanks Luke - I don’t know how people who don’t look at forums etc will cope with this.
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:26 am
Once you have successfuly downloaded the non freesat channels it would be helpful each time you wanted to access a particular channel if you could enter the four diget channel number. At present you can only enter four digets on the Goodmans box if the channel begins with 0. As far as I can see the only way to access the channels is to page backwards or forwards channel by channel from 101 or 971. Has any one else got this problem or is it me?
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:34 am
well what a fabulous reason to forget the alba range and go for a humax. these set up the non freesat channels automatically. alba cheap brand at not so cheap prices
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:38 am
It is too late once you have an Alba range box. It presumably just needs another software update
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:54 am
It would be helpful if details of the improvements were described related to the upgrade. I can’t see any great changes, while I couldn’t delete a favorite once added. Also think the guide could be improved to focus on an individual channel and to shorten the channel name and increase the program window. Otherwise happy with the system. Thanks
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:11 am
# Denis Says:
July 3rd, 2008 at 9:26 am
Once you have successfuly downloaded the non freesat channels it would be helpful each time you wanted to access a particular channel if you could enter the four diget channel number. At present you can only enter four digets on the Goodmans box if the channel begins with 0. As far as I can see the only way to access the channels is to page backwards or forwards channel by channel from 101 or 971. Has any one else got this problem or is it me?
Press CH LIST then SWAP then up and down arrow to select from the non Freesat list then OK. Its not hard.
Richard
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:18 am
Dave, I agree an automatic search might have been better, but once you have the channels stored that’s it, hardly a major inconvenience. Re prices, the Humax box costs 25% more than the Bush, I agree on the Goodmans and Grundig though, but to tell the truth in it’s current state the Humax box should be cheaper than the Alba boxes with all the problems being listed in the forums.
Nice to see still no problems after the latest Alba update, shame the same can’t be said for the Humax (Lip sync out, poor SD picture, crashing on ITV, random restarts). I would imagine future firmware updates will sort most of these though.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:21 am
When adding non Freesat channels:- Search for non Freesat Channels on the Freesat Transponders without having to look up the frequencies is the easiest way. Also 11.390 V27.5 gives lots of radio stations including Caroline, Virgin and Big L.
Luxe TV HD is 12643H 27500. 11.426H 27.5 gives FTA TV and ITV HD (when its on air that is).Hope this helps.
Richard
July 3rd, 2008 at 11:05 am
Lee B i have humax running all day at work. yes im in retail, and to be fair we only ever have it on hd. we also use the gufsat. from menu point of view humax wins hands down. the upscaled picure is also better. i have the guf on hdmi and humax on component(still looks sharper). live with its short falls they will improve.
the alba group are cheap boxes made in china so reliability will come into it in the future. humax are south korean and have been in the game a long while. i still use one of the hdci 2000`s at home. theres still not enough on freesat to change and im going to have a dabble with virgin v+ anyway :0)
July 3rd, 2008 at 12:50 pm
Dave, fair enough if the menu is better, not really vital though and can easily be changed on the Alba units through an update. Regarding the picture I thought the Humax had the components disabled due to copyright issues?, I think it would only be fair to compare the picture of both over HDMI.
You must admit lots of people have had picture and sync issues that are not on the Alba models. It might be firmware, but if it’s hardware causing the issues it might be a disaster for Humax.
I’m not sure it’s fair to comment on reliability in the future, and if your in retail you must be aware that most electronics are manufactured in China, so i’m not sure that point is valid either.
Yes it’s very early days for freesat, I purchased my Bush box as I got bored of waiting for the PVR to launch and wanted to watch some HD material. It’s currently used alongside my Humax 9200 -amazing bit of kit but I judge each new bit of equipment on its own merits. I think we are due some more channel launches later this month….roll on Christmas as freesat are talking of 200 channels.
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:17 pm
Lee B, hdmi should always give a better picture than component as there is no digital to analouge back to digital with hdmi. yes they are disabled if you watch bbc hd from the freesat menu but not if you manual tune to channel 9645. its not where they are assembled its the quality of parts used. goodmans bush etc used to be british until they where sold off and now trade in name only as part od the alba group. and if you manual tune the humax you will get your 200 channels. after looking at the menu for the guf instore i cant be arsed to tune in each set of channels manually. i also find that if the humax is connected to a home cinema amp then the lip sync isnt a problem
July 3rd, 2008 at 1:38 pm
Dave, have you taken an Alba freesat box apart and found poor parts then? or are you guessing…..like the time I was told by Curry’s a Sky dish would not work with freesat!….was that you Dave?
I appreciate the Alba boxes are all the same just different badges, that’s why I purchased the cheapest one the Bush.
Not sure everyone has a home cinema amp, might be worth mentioning your “fix” to Humax!.
July 3rd, 2008 at 2:23 pm
Lee B i am nothing to do with currys or comet. we are an independant. i have access to more sites for new technology than you can shake a stick at. i have been following the development of freesat for years. looking inside the boxes? no just going on the amount of alba branded goods that seem to last a year to 18 months and then fail. thats why even as an independant we choose not to stock some brands. yes we have a gufsat and i am impressed with the pic quality. as an experienced user i am not impressed with the limited operability of the box. ie users are stupid so we better not give them any more menu operations than we think they need.emphasis on we!!! not they. i have sold both the guf and the humax. humax complaints none. gufsat lots.all of them are why cant i easily get the other channels.you are right in that if you want an alba product get the bush and save the extra cash.
currys lol i nearly got slung out of the one in leeds. i was told the same thing(checking out the opposition see). they told me it was a different satellite to sky, then when i pointed out the sat was not just for sky and that it was astra, they then told me it would need a different lnb. the responce he got was not good for his career prospects. so with greatest respect i dont run the tv and service department for nothing. i work long and hard to keep up with the latest tech
July 3rd, 2008 at 3:48 pm
I’m very happy with the Humax, though the Lip Sync is still slightly out even when I run it through my Yamaha amp (optical connection)
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:06 pm
The humax is assembled in the E.U. whatever the make and quality you can bet you’re bottom dollar that the individual components have been made in china.
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:09 pm
just like to add the alba boxes are all very different on the inside ive seen the pictures.
July 3rd, 2008 at 4:27 pm
sorry make my self look a fool (it comes naturally) what i was reading was the difference between the hd and sd box here is a picture of the hd box.
http://i275.photobucket.com/albums/jj287/arad85/alba-boxes/P1000747.jpg
still cant really see how they can be the same and justify 30 pounds difference.
if any one has any other photos ild love to see them.
July 3rd, 2008 at 6:10 pm
exactly the same i’m afraid, the extra money is paying for the brand name!
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:33 pm
Too right that extra money is paying for the brand name lol, and most probably for a good reason.
Alba / Bush etc has, and always will be a cheap brand, to argue it isn’t is ignoring the reality of the situation - Alba group products are aimed at people who want cheaper electronics and aren’t interested in brands, and that’s a good thing. Humax on the other hand has a long (relatively spealking) and mostly very good history of making excellent satellite equipment.
Just look at the update situation - Humax has released at least a couple attempting to fine tune issues with its box and Alba waited 3 months to rls an update purely to fall in line with their legal requirements of a manual tune, something that everyone agrees shouldn’t have been overlooked in the first place. These things all cost extra money and, often it’s those things that are lacking in a cheap manufacturer.
Alba produce cheap electronic equipment by using cheaper components, and often cheaper manufacturing (location, build quality, level of staff expertise/training on the production line etc and yes, even quality control can be squeezed when costs are driven down - it’s a fact of manufacturing - it’s absolutely nothing to be ashamed of, people who buy Alba etc know full well what they’re getting and good luck to them, everyone has a choice.
The picture posted by luke is a really gr8 example of what I’m talking about: look at the heat-sink placement - it looks like it’s simply been dropped in the general direction of the on-board chip. Now I’m not an electronics engineer but I’ve built enough computer systems to know if you don’t seat a heat-sink correctly you’re asking for problems at some point. It’s just an example of what I’m saying about cheaper manufacturing.
As for the majority of the components being built in China in any of the boxes, well strangely enough chip manufacture is something China has struggled to produce cost effectively so I would hazzard a suggestion that at lot of the components are likely to have been made elsewhere.
Now as I’ve said buying an alba is nothing to be ashamed of (well …. lol) but for me personally the extra few £s was worth it to buy a brand that has a lot of experience in stb manufacture.
July 3rd, 2008 at 7:41 pm
Have tried to add non-freesat services to by goodmans(alba) box and although when scanning it find extra channels @ desired frequency / rate . The channels were once displayed but was not able add them. When I repeated process they were not displayed but services were found. How do you do it ??
July 4th, 2008 at 5:43 am
Roger - The Channels will be there. Go to Channel list which will show all Freesat channels then press swap and you should then see the list of non Freesat channels. Also before adding channels did you change display non freesat channels to yes? I had the same trouble finding where they were but ok! now. Best of luck
July 4th, 2008 at 8:24 am
Tim, whilst I agree Humax is considered the better brand, and I myself am a proud owner of a Humax 9200. I looked long and hard before spending my cash on a freesat box and found the Bush box at a 25% saving over the Humax to be better value. Anyone who reads the Digital Spy forums will see far too many complaints about the current problems with the Humax box including Lip sync issues, soft picture and crashing. Many of these people are swapping the Humax box for an Alba one!. Even the staff from Humax that used to use the Forum and help people have now left.
The picture you mention is a development box, hence the wires coming out of it to a PC and might not be an example of the finished box. I notice the small heat-sink is passive (without fan) so the chip will be producing little heat anyway, and if you feel the top of the Bush box even after a few hours it’s not hot.
You pay your money and you take your chances, all I would say it is read some user comments in the Digitalspy forums first and make your own mind up which box you prefer.
July 4th, 2008 at 9:13 am
I have to say that the Humax box wins hands down over the others for me - purely because it has DiSEqC and USALS (accessible via a hidden menu). Without one or other of them, you can only get two/three FTA channels (BBC HD, Luxe - and ITV HD, if you bother counting that). There are a handful of other FTA HD channels out there on other sats (e.g. MelodyZen HD, HD 2/5, Anixe HD, another version of Luxe) - nothing very exciting, its true, but they do give you a bit more variety that you just can’t have with Alba (well, not easily, anyway). Personally, I wouldn’t even consider buying a sat receiver without DiSEqC and USALS.
July 4th, 2008 at 9:28 am
Denisl
Many thanks you were correct, but have to say it should be easier to find them.
Roger
July 4th, 2008 at 9:52 am
Now that the Alba boxes have the new software will Freesat bring in more channels and regionalise the channels
July 4th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Matt - It was never about waiting on Alba boxes to gain the new software, Freesat are still running final trials on all regional and other FTA channels before launching. They are still adament that software issues are not the cause of the delay.
July 4th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Although I have FTA channels they are old 4:3 rather than 16:9 format despite my setting - tv screen size at 16:9 . Any suggestions ?
July 5th, 2008 at 6:26 am
Roger try screen ratio or size is it in the settings menu. I think the 16-9 with 3-4 joint setting works
July 5th, 2008 at 8:33 am
Can anyone confirm whether or not the 1.4.33 release is for HD boxes only, please? Mine is a SD box and is still showing 1.2.16 - if so, do we know if a new release for the SD box is in preparation?
July 5th, 2008 at 8:54 pm
Admin I know freesat categorically deny any software problems, but remember this is the same company that cant admit that there may be any confusion over the name.
On the humax site there new software, states
- Automatic services/channel update support
http://www.humaxdigital.com/freesat/support_software.asp
adding channel update support would suggest there was a software problem. We will wait and see. will we have to wait for the sd box update before any new channels appear. Im really looking forward to the edge channel to go freesat so we get EPG.
July 5th, 2008 at 9:40 pm
Dave Smith - sorry but you are completely incorrect on the HDMI v Component connection quality. On most examples I have seen standard definition looks better through component. Actually, ordinary RGB Scart usually looks better than upscaled via HDMI at 1080i
You also forget that in most TVs there is some sort of picture control in-between the digital video processor and what comes out on the screen. How this is handled between different interfaces varies considerably between individual TVs.
A true comparison of picture quality should use the same interface and TV settings.
July 7th, 2008 at 12:02 pm
is there any way of forcing the software download? i’ve left my Goodman’s SD box on the EPG for ages, but no joy yet. I’ve also left it on standby, but haven’t picked up the update
July 8th, 2008 at 8:56 am
kevin are you using a good quality tv or a goodmans?.
take a look at a ps3 or xbox playing through component and then hdmi. and yes this applies to upscaled.the quality is fantasic. if you put crap in you get crap out.
July 9th, 2008 at 11:58 am
I got to love dave smith talking about brand quality this guy is a legend!
I mean name one freesat brand which is quality! they are all poor quality names.
July 9th, 2008 at 2:36 pm
Panasonic!!!!
July 10th, 2008 at 3:35 pm
(Admin - please avoid abussive language and personal attacks on our website. If you’d like to get your point across, please do so in a friendly manner)
July 10th, 2008 at 6:01 pm
Have lost channels 101.102,103 any suggestions ? Carried out “First time install again with different postocodes but no joy.
July 11th, 2008 at 11:49 am
(Admin - please avoid abussive language and personal attacks on our website. If you’d like to get your point across, please do so in a friendly manner)
July 12th, 2008 at 7:39 am
admin, sorry wont happen again
July 12th, 2008 at 6:53 pm
Dave - I am using a good quality full HD TV, and I have several ways of supplying it with a good signal, including a home theatre PC on either DVI->HDMI or VGA (surprise, surprise - it looks far sharper on VGA at 1920×1080 native). However, I am not alone, look around any HTPC/Digital forums and you will see that people are often surprised to find that component or VGA looks better than HDMI.
Your post said that the Humax looked better on component than the Gufsat did on HDMI. This is entirely consistent with my observations and those of friends who have tried both. Does the Humax look better on HDMI or component?
July 14th, 2008 at 8:35 am
I have used the manual tune in the non freesat section to download Sky News, Bloomberg, etc and it works well, but what a pain having to input the 0000 code each time I wish to delete an unwanted channel to save space on channel lists.
There is no access to the FEC selection.
One serious problem I have is unable to receive BBC1 West as programme 101, my post code area is SN16. The channel is not visible in the 900 section of the lists and will not store when a manual tune is tried on transponder 10818V. It can be viewed in the manual tune section after the scan as a mini screen but after exiting manual tune the chanel is lost in the system.
July 15th, 2008 at 7:48 am
kevin, the humax is most certainly better on hdmi than component. the picture looks less busy, and much sharper.i cant comment on vga as i dont use it. although i have heard that vga can give some problems on certain xbox360 games. no matter what people say i have found that the better the hdmi cable then the better the results. i am only using a 1024*720 pana plasma at home, still looks fantastic at 1080 settings.but at work the freesats are connected to full hd jvc panels
July 15th, 2008 at 8:25 am
If anyone wants to manually tune a freesat box, transponder data can be found at www.flysat.com or www.lyngsat.com then search for info at 28.2 degrees East. Some transponders that have already been searched automatically on set up have to be searched again manually for the programmes that have been rejected, eg ITV2+1, ITV3+1, Film4+1, E4+1 etc .It will become obvious if you print out the channel lists from the above two websites. You are not able to receive the BBC interactive channels on 12441V 2B South beam although you can on a FTA receiver, which I think is better if you do not wish to explore HD.
July 15th, 2008 at 11:01 pm
The whole concept of Freesat is a fantastic idea, it’s basically Freeview via satellite with more channels and HD content, brilliant.
The one thing I don’t understand is the apparent “lets make it complicated” scenario when it comes to viewing “non-Freesat” channels!!
A ritual is required to get “non-Freesat” channels. EPG is lost, non-Freesat channels can’t be combined as can neither programming from satellites at other locations (not 28.2′E).. Why bother to make it so difficult? Or simply buy a FTA receiver and have some freedom? . .
On the other hand, a non-technical user probably wouldn’t be interested in viewing non-Freesat channels or other satellites even..
As people become more educated in satellite issues I suspect they might become irritated by the ‘restrictions’ implemented. A more ‘open’ approach is required. People in France and Spain have been watching UK satellite TV for years, I bet they won’t buy a Freesat box because it’s just too restrictive.
Is the EPG that important?
July 31st, 2008 at 1:19 pm
[…] update carries the same changes the HD boxes received earlier in the month (see Alba Box Update Now Live) but unlike the HD receivers, the version number hasn’t changed so many of you may be unaware […]