Loading ...May 08
It appears the Humax Freesat HD receiver keeps appearing on Argos for home delivery. If you have a look, it still shows for collection only, but if you click the ‘Buy or Reserve’ button, the home delivery option appears.
We’ve managed to follow the whole process through and successfully order, so if you want a Humax, this might be the best option to get one, as the stores appear to have run out!
May 8th, 2008 at 8:01 am
In Cornwall there are NO Humax (or any other) boxes at Argos.When store in my town was asked, they did not even know what it was. Just kept saying Sky!!!
May 8th, 2008 at 8:56 am
I bought my Humax Foxsat HD from Currys yesterday 7 May
It works the same as Sky freesat, it picks up 800 TV channels, I can’t view the encrypted TV, also no BBC HD other than the preview channel, all in all a bit disappointed.
May 8th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Has anybody got the technical specs of any other box?
According to the instruction manual for the Humax it only outputs stereo. The Goodmans website says that the gfsat200hd outputs 5.1
I’d like to know what the output is on the Grundig and whether the manual is right for the Humax.
I will be buying a pvr when they come out but until then I don’t want an inferior machine I want the one with the highest spec
May 8th, 2008 at 9:34 am
They are all capable of outputting 5.1. Remember that the Grundig/Goodmans/Bush are effectively all the same box. The Humax manual is wrong
May 8th, 2008 at 9:49 am
I was just going by page 52 of the pdf manual, I haven’t got the real thing to test.
Well, I’ve just been looking at the Goodmans/Alba/Bush/Grundig website and found that the Goodmans says 5.1, the Bush didn’t mention any output and the Grundig page denies all knowledge of a box.
As you say, they are all the same company so I would expect them to probably be the same thing inside. I have a feeling that the Grundig might be a bit better though. And nowhere, on any site, does it say why it has lnb in and out.
I spoke to somebody at Freesat last week and I asked about future use of the pvr. As I believed it, you need a separate cable from the lnb for each tuner and I asked about installation at this time. I was told it would be a single cable and when pvrs come out they are capable of using a single cable. Does anybody know (that’s know not guess) if this is true?
May 8th, 2008 at 9:55 am
Col - would suspect this is false, PVR’s via satellite generally need two cables to be a twin tuner. We do have a contact at Humax though, and whilst being fairly tight-lipped, we’ll ask anyway
May 8th, 2008 at 9:58 am
Ok, I’ll take your word about the 5.1 then. If you could ask about the number of cables that would be brilliant as I’m getting a dish fitted on Tuesday and if I need 2 cables I’ll get it then.
May 8th, 2008 at 10:10 am
i would say yes 2 cables just like sky+
May 8th, 2008 at 12:06 pm
Unless of course the PVR is high specced like some of the american Tivo’s with 3 or 4 tuners…. 4 cables anyone??
May 8th, 2008 at 1:04 pm
Best route
Just had Comet deliver Humax HD!!!
Am I the first?
1400h 8/5/08
May 8th, 2008 at 1:11 pm
You might just be
Shame they aren’t selling online at the moment!
May 8th, 2008 at 1:35 pm
sorry maurice but i got mine by 1000h mite have evan been earlyer but they gave it to the butcher next door as my shop wasnt open. too scared to ring are door bell. now the butcher wants one. i just want to finish work and plug it all in.
May 8th, 2008 at 2:10 pm
I have no dish, so wondered this. Can’t I purchase hd humax box and also get sky ‘buy once for life’ - £75 which includes installation and just pay extra for line into a differnet room. That would make installation cost £5 cheaper than the standard £80 and I’d get a free sky box for the kids ?
May 8th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Jason - essentially yes, that is still an extremely good method, as it allows you to gain a cheaper setup, taking advantage of Sky’s subsidised rates hoping you will retain the subscription after 4 months. Two things worth noting, 1) Make sure you cancel the subscription after 3 months, as sky have a 30 day cancellation policy which isn’t included on the terms, 2) setting up additional rooms is at the sole disgresion of the installer and how they feel on that day. We’d personally suggest for a job such as installing a quad lnb and cable to another room, that you give the installer £10-£20. Its cash in hand which he’ll appreciate and you’ll get what you want with minimum outlay.
Don’t forget to buy through Dixon’s here, and supply discount code ‘SKY10′ on checkout to get a further 10% off courtesy of us. Do let us know how you get on.
May 8th, 2008 at 2:47 pm
Thanks ! That makes it even cheaper…!
May 8th, 2008 at 2:49 pm
Hi admin,
Will Freesat work with the Sky minidish?
May 8th, 2008 at 4:01 pm
Hi Luke - Pleased for you - my problem is the candlestick maker. Is mine first to work though!
Hi Barry - YES works on sky dish - Set mine up at 1500h 8/5/08 took less than 10 mins to wire and install. At moment only 76 TV channels and only one BBC HD. However quality amazing. Box seems easy to use.
After weekend taking box to South of France to see if it will work there. Will let you know.
May 8th, 2008 at 4:18 pm
Just ordered 17:15 08/05/08 humax Hd box from comet online for store collection friday 09/05/08 at Bolton Branch , Email confirms my order,
hope its there when I go to collect.
May 8th, 2008 at 5:20 pm
Grundig have finally put the instruction manual on their website and it says in it that you do need a separate cable for each box. But, it doesn’t say what the lnb out is for. Anybody got any ideas?
I did find on one site (might have been digitalspy) that they connected a grundig up and then a sky box to the output of the grundig. If that’s possible then why is more than one cable needed for a pvr?
May 8th, 2008 at 5:27 pm
It wasn’t digitalspy, it was this place > http://bbcfreesathdtvblog.blogspot.com/2008/05/grundig-gufsat-hd-freesat-exclusive.html
May 8th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
Could not wait ,went to collect humax hd box from comet.
Got the Box but buyers note, Comet sales pushing very hard to take up dish intallation with box, Even sugesting that if you had existing dish, it would not work with freesat but only with sky. If you need Dish contact local dish installer
they charge approx £50 , shops want £100 . Your choice.
May 8th, 2008 at 6:45 pm
First Freesat boxes for sale at Ebay…..Bids over GBP 149.
http://search.ebay.co.uk/search/search.dll?from=R40&_trksid=m37&satitle=freesat+humax
May 9th, 2008 at 5:53 am
Humax hd boxes are available at Heelas, Reading. Went in lunchtime there yesterday 8/5/08 and they had a small display with a Humax box on view together with 10 boxes. I went back after work and bought one for £149, now 7 left. Ebay is for idiots with more money than sense.
May 9th, 2008 at 10:52 am
For what it is worth - I brought a Humax HD box yesterday from argos (Bromley, Kent. They had plenty it seems @ £149.99) and plugged it into communal sat socket (communal dish in my block of flats) and hey presto all works fine. Watched Heros on BBC HD. Brilliant
Still can’t believe it was that simple
May 10th, 2008 at 8:23 am
Waiting for my Humax HD to be delivered by
Argos (Saturday delivery) - ordered on Thurs.
May 10th, 2008 at 1:32 pm
HD is as good as I expected (I currently stream a fair bit of 720p/1080i from my Pc to my TV) but SD is a disappointment. On many channels its of a similar quality to terrestrial Freeview but on several channels the picture quality is actually noticably worse on freesat that it is on Freeview (or even SKY Digital). A good example was when watching F1 on ITV - on terrestrial Freeview the graphics were sharp but on the Humax (freesat) the graphics were more blurred.
The claim that it upscales the SD picture is complete rubbish, it simply doesn’t, in fact in a small way it reduces the quality from that obtainable from SKY. I’m returning my Humax to Argos in te hope tha6t in the next month or so they rls a PVR which would at least give me a reason to put up with reduced quality on SD while I await more HD content. Shame tho cos my Samsung 40″ HDtv really loved the HD picture.
May 10th, 2008 at 1:57 pm
Tim - what’s it like through scart? Maybe the digital connection is showing the pixelation more than if its connected via analogue which blurs out the sharpness a bit
May 11th, 2008 at 8:59 am
@ Col - Picture quality through RGB scart on SD is identical to the output via HDMI for SD.
May 11th, 2008 at 9:14 am
oh, that’s not good to hear, although it is good to hear it before going out and spending 150 quid on one (something you unfortunately don’t have the luxury of)
I’m getting that sky pay once thing fitted on Tuesday (mainly for the cheaper installation) Hopefully the pvrs will be available by the time my 4 month trial of sky runs out. I won’t bother with the one free hd channel until then.
Thanks for the warning, Tim
May 11th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Np’s Col - Like I mentioned it’s not a massive reduction in quality on some of the SD channels but it’s certainly not a step forward in terms of SD quality. My Sky+ sub runs out next month so I’ve got my fingers crossed for a decent freesat PVR to come out before Wimbledon starts (tall order I know as they seem to be aimed at around July time) - that way I could convince myself the drop in SD quality is worth the little extra HD content.
May 11th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Oh yeah, women’s tennis in HD. I’d put up with quite a bit for that!
May 13th, 2008 at 8:54 am
hi can you help. got my humax hd box 100% signal. 90% quality. hd picture fab. BUT sd picture very poor phoned humax they said. have had lost of phone calls about this ring back in one weeks time
May 13th, 2008 at 3:21 pm
has anyone had the issue with the humax box buzzing when you put the epg on.It does not happen when i have it going through my surround sound amp,it is connected through an hdmi cable to my lcd tv
May 13th, 2008 at 10:23 pm
Hi Steve - mine never made a noticable buzz nope, either through HDMI, Scart or Optical.
@ lib - as I mentioned my SD picture wasn’t great but it was only slightly worse than Sky / freeview - some cahnnels (ITV for instance) were worse than others.
May 15th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
the humax for SD picture is crap i think i might return the humax to argos too.
May 15th, 2008 at 7:51 pm
Can anyone recommend a good quality quad LNB for a 6 month old Sky dish? I read varied reports regarding reliability and prices seem to vary fr £18 to £60. I plan to swap Sky box for Freesat box and had planned on Humax HD box. From reports above may defer this ’til humax sort out their SD problem. Ultimately want a view one/record one option and link to my Sony DVD/HDD recorder.
May 15th, 2008 at 8:04 pm
Bought my Humax Hd box from my local Argos in South East London and its fine. am watching the BBC HD channel and its looks spot on.
also compares favourably to my other Humax box that I bought in 2006 (the DCI 2000) that only gives basic EPG support.
so I am more happy and cannot wait until ITV start their HD offering. I remember when the BBBC started their first HD programme in June 2006 with the Germany - Costa Rica world cup opening game (that I got home early to watch especially) and hope that ITV do the same soon with a football match.
Could be the Champions League match next Wednesday ????
any views?
June 18th, 2008 at 9:14 pm
I have bought FOXSAT HUMAX HD and not very happy with it it showes preeview the same every day & the picture does not look any different it is just not me other people have said it ,when I watch football on it it looks the same on the normal channel & so does I I T V Most of the channels are the same as freeview . I had it installed by a Sky televisisonman for £45 pounds so in all it is a waist of money not worth it, got the same from quality from freeview
June 18th, 2008 at 9:18 pm
bye the way I got it from Comet not that will make any differance would not recomend freesat to any one ,they have brought it out before they have got it wright
June 19th, 2008 at 1:42 pm
I am surprised by Len’s comment that “I have bought FOXSAT HUMAX HD and not very happy with it it showes preeview the same every day & the picture does not look any different it is just…”.
I presume that you mean BBC HD?
If so, then you must be watching something different from me. I have been watching BBC HD since it started its test transmissions and I can assure you
that the picture quality is outstanding,especially when live sport is transmitted.
ITV HD is of a similar quality, albeit a red button service.
Perhaps you do not have a HD TV? If you don’t then you have wasted your money. Standard definition sat TV is basically freeview.