Loading ...This is by no means a confirmation, Humax have not issued an official statement, but from speaking to a number of contacts (Humax, Freesat and distributors) it’s believed that the Humax FOXSAT-HDR PVR unit will be available late November, week commencing 24th November 2008.
Given our contacts at Humax and Freesat, plus our routes in retail (knowing the leading distributors of Humax products) we are fairly confident that this is the date potential buyers should be aiming for.
Of course this is assuming that the schedule does not slip, which is the reason why Humax have not released an official statement yet, but they are hoping to announce early October. Fingers crossed for around that date, as any later and it might be hard for the distribution chain to get these units onto general sale before Christmas.
September 18th, 2008 at 11:07 am
I think I had better keep my eye out for pre-orders, as I think it will be quite difficult to get hold of for the first few months.
September 18th, 2008 at 11:50 am
Finally, FreeSat is about to be launched…. (without a PVR it has been pretty much useless for me)
Now only Five, and 4HD, and we are really moving ahead. (or would Five magically appear on that same date?)
September 18th, 2008 at 12:09 pm
Is there a confirmation on price yet ?
I would have thought that Humax must know what the retail price is going to be by now. Romours its £299 but I hope it will be slightly cheaper.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:15 pm
Humax don’t get directly involved with the rrp. They build the box to a specific price, then it’s a discussion between Freesat and distributors/major retailers to decide on a price. We suspect that Freesat will try to fix a price across all authorised retailers, to allow for fair competition.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
No one’s allowed to fix a price any more; it’s not legal. Some companies will quote a ‘typical selling price’ which is an average, and of course the wholesale price gives some indication. But neither Freesat nor Humax will be able to specify one.
At it’s most extreme, some brands - Sony is one - are so worried about being seen to fix prices that it’s virtually impossible to get any sort of figure out of their PR people nowadays.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:22 pm
Sorry, wrong choice of wording, Freesat will certainly decide on an RRP, and will recommend retailers to stick to it, in the interests of fairness between major retailers and independents, but ultimately it will be the retailers decision on the price.
(although I do remember that the Nintendo Wii was price fixed at £179.99 no matter what, and remained that price for a long time, with specific letters from Nintendo stating that should they go cheaper, they’ll loose the ability to buy!!!)
September 18th, 2008 at 1:41 pm
I hav Panasonic TH-46PZ81 with the built in Freesat. Will this PVR work well with it?
September 18th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
Admin.-It would be illeagle for Freesat to try and maintain a fixed price. Do you have any proof of this. Looking at the the existing boxes there seems to be quite a range of prices.
September 18th, 2008 at 4:57 pm
Hopefully I’ll be seeing this under the Christmas tree
September 18th, 2008 at 6:14 pm
put me down for one, i know that there are issues around channels not coming on line quicker than expected but the HD has been fantastic especially watching the games and i run it through a tosh 42 and a sony surround.
i like the little feature that asks you at midnight if you are happy for the box to go to standby
September 19th, 2008 at 8:40 am
i was talking to a rep the other day he said that dont expect any more HD in 2008 and five around november time
September 19th, 2008 at 8:47 am
Having waited 8 months specifically for this, put me down NOT for having one!
Having to buy this then yet another PVR for Freeview because it won’t record a Freeview input is ridiculous.
Thats £300 for this, then another £150 for another PVR to cover its failings, 2 boxes instead of one on the tv stand cluttering the place up.
Simply not a worthwhile option.
Why would you buy something that integrates the PVR only to then have to buy a seperate PVR for everything else? Might as well wait on and buy a seperate one that does everything and save £150. Poor economic and practicable sense.
September 19th, 2008 at 9:23 am
Well, I probably *would* have bought a Freesat PVR had it come out when the Freesat service was launched. But since I’ve now got the Foxsat for HD reception, I think I’ll wait for the arrival of the Dreambox DM8000 to handle HD PVR duties (I currently use the DM7025 PVR for SD).
Oh, and Al, the DM8000 will have interchangeable tuner modules (three, I believe, but certainly no fewer than two), so you could have DVB-T (for Freeview services) as well as a couple (?) of DVB-S2s. You’d also be able to fit a DVD-/+RW drive in it. But the downside is that the DM8000 will make the Freesat PVR from Humax, at around £300, look like bargain basement stuff (and the Dreambox won’t be so easy to use, nor will it have interactive services or a worthwhile EPG - unless you get the data off the Internet and map it to the channels you want).
September 19th, 2008 at 11:39 am
Interesting to see at least one manufacturer is already going down this route Davei thus rendering the single source PVR a dinosaur.
I have no doubt that others will probably follow at reasonable prices.
September 19th, 2008 at 12:36 pm
I doubt that many at all will follow with dual format PVRs, because as I’ve said before, most people tend to stick with one source for their TV. And very few people use external inputs, outside enthusiasts. How many people here ever plugged something into their VCR to record from it?
The DM is very firmly in the enthusiast end of the market, and that’s where it’ll most likely stay.
September 19th, 2008 at 12:46 pm
Al - you seem to getting hung up on the dual freeview/freesat pvr, but, I may be a little optimistic, I’m hoping by the time the Humax PVR is available that all freeview channels will be on freesat. As soon as this is the case I will dump my old PVR and buy the foxsat hdr. Or what channels am I are likely to be missing?
September 19th, 2008 at 2:18 pm
“Or what channels am I are likely to be missing?”
Dave!!!
Screw all this clamouring for Channel 5. Once Dave comes onboard, I’ll happily ditch Freeview forever.
September 19th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
Nigel, people aren’t going to stick to one source for their TV when Freesat doesn’t offer the same as Freeview.
I have limited Freeview reception AND analogue and I watch both because of the variety.
Anyone with Freesat is going to want to watch Freeview as well where its possible to receive it because of the lack of Fiver and Five US and some other popular channels.
Whereas it appears Freesat have promised 5 are joining, the other 5 network channels seem to be staying away for the moment, so for anyone who is a fan of programs such as CSI, House, Lost etc which are some of the most popular programs on the 5 network, a single source simply isn’t going to cut it and neither is a box that can only record 1/2 of the channels you actually watch.
September 19th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Al, you’re lucky to have the choice you’ve got. Freesat was launched primarily as a digital service to cater to those of us who can’t get Freeview coverage, with the added bonus of HD channels earlier than Freeview.
The Freeview signal where I live is terrible, and always will be, due to the surrounding geography. For me freesat is the only option, apart from Sky at considerable cost. I’ll be in the queue to buy the PVR at launch.
September 19th, 2008 at 8:50 pm
I think you’re making the assumption that everyone will do what you do, Al, and I really don’t think that’s the case. Aside from those people who do only get one service, I suspect that an awful lot of people, even where they can get two, will primarily use just one on their main set.
Most people are lazy; they don’t want to juggle two remotes; they don’t want to switch sources. They’ll install Freesat and probably even forget that their TV picks up anything else, just as people who have cable or Sky tend to watch only through those - even when there was a more significant channel than any of five’s stable (ITV) missing, and available terrestrially.
Five’s extra channels aren’t that significant in terms of viewing share; nor are the others not yet on Freesat - Dave and Virgin1. I honestly don’t think the majority of people will really care about not getting them - and even less about not being able to record them on a Freesat PVR if they also have a Freeview receiver set up.
September 20th, 2008 at 7:51 am
erm erm… what’s a PVR ???
September 20th, 2008 at 8:41 am
PVR = Personal Video Recorder; an alternative term to Digital Video Recorder, or Digital Television Recorder.
On the whole, many people use the term to refer to units that have a built in tuner and record to their hard disk, with functions like EPG scheduling of recordings, and often dual tuners.
Some insist that DVD recorders with a single tuner don’t really qualify as a PVR, but are instead just a DVR.
And some people still bang on about Tivo being the only thing that can really be called a PVR, even though it’s not been sold in the UK for several years now.
September 20th, 2008 at 1:34 pm
Anymore news about Tivo coming up with a freesat box?
Also, i’m currently using a SD Sky box on a Sony 40V4000 tv. Picture quality is pretty pants, by putting a Humax Foxsat box in…. will the quality be any better?? How good a job upscaling does it do?
September 20th, 2008 at 11:28 pm
Don’t care that much about the price. Humax icord is still selling to other satellite markets for over 400 quid. I purchased my first high def tv over 2 years ago and have been waiting for a HD free service ever since (never have and never will endulge Mr Rupert M). Freesat is I hope THE future of British free to air TV. So be patient the Humax guys will come up with the goods…. and when they do I will treaat myself to the best xmas pressie yet whatever it costs!
September 21st, 2008 at 8:35 am
TBH Nigel what you say might be true if tv had decent programming at the moment, but many find it hard to find anything worthwhile to watch.
Thats why you need to search all the channels in the tv guide to find something, and thats also why you need to keep your choices open. Your assumption that people are too lazy to change between Freesat and Freeview only holds true whilst there’s something they want to watch on the one they’re watching.
In my area, all the households I know make full use of both the analogue and limited digital service. I have a good close relationship with most of my neighbours, not just my immediate ones, but the ones across and up and down the street, total of about 10 households radius. We often talk tv, and I don’t know anyone amongst any of them that doesn’t make full use of all the sources available. Even those with Sky watch some Freeview as well!
I’m quite well aware that Freesat was originally conceived as an alternative to Freeview, but given the non mirrored programming, and often poor schedules, it hasn’t quite worked out that way in a market where people require the maximum choice of channels to actually find something thats worth watching.
If you believe otherwise Nigel, perhaps its time to do as survey of those households with more than 1 source to find out how many actually watch more than 1, I think you’d be surprised because even those with a clear favourite will still watch other sources if the programmes right.
September 21st, 2008 at 1:05 pm
Sorry Al, but I have to side with Nigel on this one. I am currently using a Thomson TopUpTV Freeview PVR and Pace HD satellite receiver with my Toshiba 42Z3030 TV. I only tend to use the Thomson when I want to record/replay a programme, as the picture is far superior on the TV’s digital tuner, let alone that on the Pace.
I would be quite happy to ditch both the Pace and Thomson for a Freesat PVR, as I am not interested in the missing channels (apart from perhaps Dave, which I can continue to watch on the TV’s digital tuner - I do not find a need to record anything off it).
I also agree with Nigel that the vast majority of potential Freesat users are looking for a single source solution, with enthusiasts quite happy to either pay Sky or look for more versatile free-to-air receivers.
September 21st, 2008 at 2:10 pm
So by your own admission John you WOULD be watching 2 sources - Freesat and Freeview (in the form of Dave) which kind of negates your argument that you wouldn’t want to watch both. However, what would you do if there was something special that you really wanted to see on Dave but something equally unmissible on Freesat? What also, would you do if you had to go out but there was something unmissible on Dave? Answer is, with the current Freesat PVR you’d miss it!
September 21st, 2008 at 5:25 pm
Well I have to admit that I never watch any of the Five channels, so the only thing I change to freeview for is Dave - but I wouldn’t record anything off it anyway, and i don’t regard anything on it as “unmissable”
September 22nd, 2008 at 11:34 am
There’s quite a lot of channels from Freeview that aren’t on Freesat actually and some top ones like Film 4, 5 US, FIVER.
To my knowledge this is some of the missing channels compared to Freeview:
1. Channel 5 (although its coming)
2. 5 US (not currently joining)
3. Fiver (not currently joining)
4. Dave (not currently joining)
5. FILM 4
6. Virgin 1
7. Sky 3
8. Nuts TV
9. Sky News
10. Sky Sports News
11. 4 Music
12. TMF
13. Smile TV
14. UK TV History
September 22nd, 2008 at 12:25 pm
Regarding the freeview list not on freesat…
Correct me if i am wrong but isn’t Film 4 on Freesat ? (according to the freesat website it is.)
September 22nd, 2008 at 1:21 pm
freeveiw v freesat
i have a hd tv and the analogue signal is not getting switched off till 2012 in my area (last one to be turned off as usual) so the only way i can get free hd programmes is with free sat as i cant afford the sky (rip off) prices. but the argument with freeview surely if your clued up to all this tecno new release stuff your telly will probably have freeview built in like mine so you can if you wanted flick to channels that don’t exist on freesat but for all the people( al and 2 others ) who want to record both formats with one machine will just have to wait a bit longer for that device as i am not bothered just want to get my moneys worth out of my hd tv i have now
September 22nd, 2008 at 3:15 pm
Machines that will record freeSat and freeView together, are not expected to appear (for general use, so I’m ignoring Dreambox etc).
FreeSat is DBV-S(2) and Freeview is DBV-T (not supporting T2 yet). So if a box need to support dual recording on dual formats, it suddenly requires 4 tuners. If FreeView will then also be upgraded to DBV-T2 in the next year or so (leading to full 2012 switchover), it doesn’t make sense for a device manufacture to create a set top box supporting both formats until DVB-T2 is fully supported.
So which what you want, I don’t think it is going to happen. And as George C. says, latest tvs have FreeView built in anyhow, which could then be used for viewing, while recording FreeSat.
I’m so going to get that Humax PVR if it will allow for recording of non-FreeSat channels!
September 22nd, 2008 at 3:16 pm
^ that should read DVB, not DBV
September 22nd, 2008 at 4:32 pm
@Al
Film4 and Film4+1 are both on freesat (as i have watched them), and Film4+1 isn’t on Freeview
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:21 pm
While I don’t doubt that some people do watch those channels that really are missing from Freesat, they’re not major ones, frankly - and as such, the number of people who will find their absence compelling enough to warrant the investment by PVR makers in kit largely just to record them will be small.
For the week ending 7th September this year, according to BARB, even five managed only a 50% reach, and a 4.3% share. Of the others, Dave was the highest rated, with 1.2% share and 24% reach; Sky Sports News (no chance of that ever appearing) 13.5 reach, 1.0% share.
Next largest share is 0.6%, for five US and Sky 3 with reach of 10 and 17.8% respectively. Fiver, Sky News and Virgin 1 all languish on 0.5% share (same as BBC4, incidentally), UK TV History manages 0.3% share, while that of Nuts is not measurable, and it had only a 1.9% reach.
So, none of the missing ones is really setting the living rooms of the UK alight. Dave’s reach is pretty impressive - but it’s built on an average of just 18 minutes per person.
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:17 pm
Yup Film 4 is on Freesat, my mistake.
Nigel, regarding 5, you have remember that a lot of the country can’t receive it even with analogue.
With Digital, its not about time spent on any one channel. With so many channels of course anything outside of the major 2 or 3 isn’t going to have huge figures.
Equally though, as I wrote above, Digital is about choice. Programming is quite poor on a lot of the major channels so nowadays people mix and match. Just because someone watches a channel for only 1 program a day doesn’t mean they wouldn’t miss it if it has something on that fills the void when there’s nothing on the others. Thats hardly a good reason for not supporting recording when the majority now watch this way and popularity and quality change with time but a PVR is fixed when bought which is why it needs to have the ability to record anything you’re ever likely to built in at purchase.
A good example on how channels change in popularity is Channel 5.
Channel 5 used to be the worst channel on analogue in my opinion when it 1st came out. In my opinion, its now the best. I now watch more on channel 5 than any other channel: Neighbours, Home and Away, Ice Road Truckers, Axe Men, CSI, NCIS, Football Matches, quite a few quality films, Fifth Gear, House, Grey’s Anatomy, Party Poker, House Doctor etc. Whilst that selection my not appeal to everyone, every channel has programs that do.
If any of the other channels improve as Channel 5 has done and the PVR doesn’t support them, then its too late to do anything about it later.
September 23rd, 2008 at 4:30 pm
Well, it’s too late them, because it’s not going to have the ability to record from external sources, for all the reasons I’ve explained to you.
And, no one’s going to be rushing to build a box to fill the tiny niche in the market, either.
The Freesat PVR is a satellite PVR. Nothing more. Just like almost every other PVR out there.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:34 pm
Well thats a shame because it looks like most would be better off just buying a Freesat receiver then and getting a multisource PVR.
September 24th, 2008 at 9:09 am
No, it looks like a tiny minority would be better off finding one of the very few multi source PVRs out there, and putting up with the lack of series link, the lack of iPlayer, and the lack of an integrated EPG.
Most Freesat viewers will find that the recorder does everything they need it to - and then some.
September 24th, 2008 at 10:56 am
Yep, have to agree with Nigel.
I can’t see many people being bothered that they can’t record ‘Dave’ !!
Very few channels past the major players are worth recording, or even watching for that matter.
September 26th, 2008 at 10:45 am
Out of interest I see, on the “What Hi-Fi” website, that Humax are to launch their Freesat PVR at the Excel show in London at the end of October.
October 11th, 2008 at 8:31 pm
Currently enjoying Freessat on our Humax Freesat Fox box
Currently enjoying FTA on our FortecStar BETA box
Currently enjoying FTA on our B+Q Skyline box
Currently enjoying Freeview on our Humax twin tuner HHD Box
Currently enjoying Freeview on our Digifusion twin tuner HHD Box
Looking forwards to enjoying ‘our’ Humax Fresat HD twin tuner HDD PVR
WHO CARES HOW MANY REMOTES I’LL HAVE!!!!!