Loading ...Visit the Humax FOXSATHDR product page for price and availability
Some screenshots and further external images have appeared on the web, courtesy of PVR Junction. They show a very similar look and feel to that of the existing HD receiver, with the additions of the schedule feature etc to suit the PVR functionality. The box itself also looks cool with the blue glow and channel displayed on the front panel.
Humax wanted to make it clear that whilst these are the present screenshots, they have certainly not finished working daily on changes, so the final product may not look exactly the same. They have also said they are intending on releasing more details on their website within the next week or so, to help answer a number of the questions they are receiving each day via email and telephone. We’ll be sure to let you know when this information goes live.
Expected release date has still not been announced, but late November certainly seems to be the suggestion at this time. The product does seem to be in the later stages of completion so fingers crossed.
September 17th, 2008 at 8:34 am
See you can’t record non Freesat sources – thats me out of buying one.
I’m not buying one only to then have to clutter my lounge with a 2nd PVR for Freeview. I didn’t expect Freeview decoding just the facility to feed it in from my tv for recording.
Serious oversight especially considered its been mentioned by many as essential on here before.
September 17th, 2008 at 9:19 am
And the ever present noisymaker(tm) fan in the back that blights the terrestrial PVRs they make! What’s the chance of that:
a) Being of decent quality so not so noisy &
b) Having temperature control to slow when not required?
Anyone with a regular Humax satellite PVR got a view on this?
September 17th, 2008 at 10:18 am
I’ve got the Foxsat HD box and I’m more concerned than ever about it’s upcoming doom!
What’s the chance of a separate hard drive box linked to the Foxsat via one of the USB ports? Once plugged in the system could easily go looking for the new software that would be required.
What have the sales of the Foxsat HD box been like? Any chance that there have been enough shifted for Humax to consider such an add-on?
September 17th, 2008 at 10:45 am
@Ben
I e-mailed Humax support this very same question a little while back, and there response was;
‘The USB port on the Foxsat-HD will not have any recording functionality’
I have heard through other sources that the PVR requires a totally different chipset or something and it isnt as easy as just a software upgrade. Shame, would of been good if it could.
September 17th, 2008 at 11:20 am
Yeh that fan looks big, hope it isn’t too loud.
Hopefully in a few years SSD drives will take over the PVR space and we wont need noisy fans to cool these units.
September 17th, 2008 at 11:43 am
freesat will be gone in a year all the so called channels are woeful ,
the hd pics are no better than an upscaling dvd player
the humax makes programs look like an early bruce lee film ,
this bad , out of sync voices ,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,
take my extremely well informed advice and get a freeview pvr
thompson are doing one with 250gb driva and setenta untill end of the season
get this and when may comes put it upstairs and remember while freesat is dying on its arse showing aal bin ladenn progs and poor u.s. shopping channels .
sky will be even further ahead and with a big price drop coming xmas 2008 .
September 17th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Quote “sky will be even further ahead and with a big price drop coming xmas 2008″
Sky needs a very big price drop. £600 per year for HD is disgusting !!!
Sky’s prices are a complete rip off unless you watch TV constantly.
September 17th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Dead with in a year? Rather doubtfull, frankly – to the point of being risible.
As for some of the other comment – an input to record from external devices is always extremely unlikely on boxes like this. It’s very simple to record from the stream that you’re processing, and there are plenty of chipsets designed to do that. But to record from an external source, you need an MPEG encoder (on which royalties are payable, and it can affect import duties too), plus more complicated software, and it’s not integrated within the rest of the chipset, which further complicates issue.
Most boxes like this are built round custom chipsets that do almost all the work for you; very few box makers will actually design chips from scratch for themselves – it won’t be cost effective. And so you get what the chip makers can sell in their millions – boxes that do one thing: recording from their built in tuners.
Adding a USB drive to an existing box? Again – not something that you do easily, unless it’s designed that way from the start. The Foxsat was never advertised as PVR-ready and it’s unlikely, since they knew they were doing a PVR, to have the chips in it, to keep the cost down.
A basic receiver can be pretty much a single chip solution these days – again, it comes down to buying the systems from the chip makers. And it’ll be designed with various parts, like the video decoder, graphics overlay (for the menus) and the video output stage.
And to record, you really need a chip with two video outputs, which will tend to be more expensive than one without. Why? Because if the chip’s only got one output, what happens to the recording when you change the volume, or go into the EPG to check what’s on next, or call up now/next?
You don’t want that sort of thing messing up a recording. So even if you don’t put a hard disk into the box, you still need to start with a chip that can send a clean copy of the video to one place, as well as a copy with the overlaid graphics for the TV. And if you don’t do that, no amount of firmware updates is going to change things.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Didn’t know you could get satellite television on a DVD player!!!
Given that Freesat is prominently aimed at those that can’t get Freeview, wouldn’t that be difficult!!!
Sky have no intentions of making any major reductions in price. All existing pay for services like the HD Mix will continue to be £10 for atleast another year.
September 17th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I for one can not wait for this little box. Ok the channels on Freesat at the moment are not great and most of the others i’d like to see are tied in to a Sky carriage agreement. If Channel 4 and Five put HD content on there. That for me would be the biggest buying reason ever.
I just hope it’s not too expensive one off cost.
September 17th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Nigel,
Whereas I could care less about recording from a host of external devices, to not be able to record from a Freeview decoder be it a set top box or one built into my tv is enough alone to stop me buying a Humax PVR.
At the end of the day, what point is there buying an integrated box, if you then have to buy another pvr to record Freeview?
It costs you twice as much and you end up with twice as many boxes vying for space on your equipment rack – simply not practicable.
Whereas I understand the cost reasons for not having a built in Freeview decoder or for having the ability to record from a host of other external devices, something which is reasonable, its not reasonable to not be able to record a decoded Freeview stream – I’d happily pay a little more to have the ability to record Freeview from a decoded stream.
A box that records Freesat alone simply isn’t an option for me as a consumer.
To put it simply, its a waste of money if I have to go out and buy a standalone PVR anyway.
September 17th, 2008 at 2:53 pm
“A box that records Freesat alone simply isn’t an option for me as a consume”
I totally agree on that with AI.
It seems the future option for me will have to be a HTPC. Not so expensive for what you get. Freedom to record whatever source you want and easy to upgrade … and of course it is a computer too.
Just have to research for Freesat dual tuner cards… Are there any on the market?
September 17th, 2008 at 6:52 pm
Al, are you confusing ‘free to air’ and Freeview?
I wouldn’t have thought there’d be much chance of recording Freeview but can’t see any reason why it can’t record ‘free to air’. Unfortunately that’s what the site suggests and if it turns out to be true then it will be very limited.
The thing is though, Humax haven’t released the specs yet so its hard to know which of those specs will be in the end result.
September 17th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
I wouldn’t have thought Al is getting mixed up between the two platforms
I was told earlier today by a Humax contact that the spec of that website isn’t far from the actual spec, so make of that what you will.
September 17th, 2008 at 7:12 pm
Al is mixed up with something. I challenge him to name a current PVR that can record from an external source…
September 17th, 2008 at 9:47 pm
Hi Glen, My Panasonic Freeview HDD DVD recorder will record from Freesat via the scart output on the Humax HD freesat box.
It wont be HD but it does record it easily. You just select Record Source Scart.
Cheers, Chris
September 17th, 2008 at 11:55 pm
AI is not confused. I think Col and Glen McFarlane are the ones confused
as chrislayruk just proved.
It is quite clear and reasonable to me what AI is demanding.
September 17th, 2008 at 11:56 pm
I forgot to add that my dad’s Sony PVR also record fom external sources. That is how I converted old VHS tapes to DVD by the way.
September 18th, 2008 at 1:15 am
Ok, yeah I think I was confused there. Al wants to have a PVR that can record a signal from his Freeview box and wants it to be a Freesat box rather than a separate PVR.
Why not get a Freeview PVR to just have 2 boxes?
Unless what he is saying is that he has Freeview built into his telly and wants to end up with just one box that records everything. That would mean that he currently has no PVR and doesn’t need one otherwise he would have one.
I’m still confused.
I’m sure that if enough people express their interest in Freesat but don’t part with any money, then these companies have to start asking us what will make us part with our money and then we will get a Freesat PVR that will be worth buying.
My money stays with me until there is something to record on Freesat!
September 18th, 2008 at 7:04 am
Al said:
“Whereas I understand the cost reasons for not having a built in Freeview decoder or for having the ability to record from a host of other external devices, something which is reasonable, its not reasonable to not be able to record a decoded Freeview stream – I’d happily pay a little more to have the ability to record Freeview from a decoded stream.”
But how would you get that decoded stream into the box? There’s no standard digital interconnect that will take a video stream from one to another, so it has to go via the analogue domain, which means an MPEG encoder is required.
If you want to record from Freeview in the digital domain, then you really need Freeview inside the box – and hardly anyone bothers with hybrid boxes, probably because most viewers tend to opt for one method of reception over another, rather than both. That may change in time, but right now that’s the way it seems to be.
The reason you can record from external sources in some boxes is that they’re exclusively those with a DVD writer (or, like the original Tivo, designed for analogue input). For DVD writing, an MPEG encoder chip is mandatory (I shan’t bore you with the technical reasons) and used even when recording Freeview from a built in tuner. And once you have the chip, and have paid the royalties, it’s pretty simple to add external inputs too.
September 18th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
If people need to be able to record freeview aswell as freesat then why not just by an extra freeview PVR for £60. ( And are there really any decent chanels on freeview that are not already on, or wont be shortly on freesat ? )
September 18th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Paul, it is not the cost. It is another powered box taking space.
But the moment Freesat has all the freeview channels.. also the future Freeview HD channels, then there is no problem.
September 18th, 2008 at 7:05 pm
Nigel,
Why would you need an MPEG encoder?
There’s no need to re-encode it at all, just record it “as is” on the hard drive. TV transmissions streams aren’t that large, in fact their pretty compressed to start with.
Provided it comes out of the PVR in a format the tv understands there should be no problem and if recorded “as is”, its already in that format! With a Freesat PVR you already have all the essential elements there – the hard drive plus the reading / writing software.
All it needs is the ability to input the signal from either the tv or external box for recording.
Even if an MPEG encoder was required, and I can see no reason, big deal. Extra couple of pounds to the cost. A little extra to the cost would leave me far more likely to buy it, than a box that requires me to still go out and buy yet another box at many times the cost and many times the clutter.
There’s simply no point to an integrated Freesat PVR that requires you to buy another PVR to record the rest of your tv.
September 19th, 2008 at 12:33 pm
If you’re wanting to record a freeview signal on a freesat PVR, which is what you seem to be suggesting, then of course you have to encode it. Where else is a digital signal going to come from? If you have a freeview STB, then it’s giving you an analogue signal; it has no standard digital output that you could magically feed into a freesat PVR, and nor does a TV with freeview.
So you either build a freeview tuner into the box, or an MPEG encoder.
It’s not necessarily as cheap as you might think, either…
Add a few dollars for the components (extra connectors, chips); add an MPEG encoding licence. Add the cost of developing the software to handle an extra input.
Then add the markup on the manufacturer charges to the distributor, plus shipping costs. If you’re importing from outside the EU, add duties, which are payable on video recorders (which includes things that can record from external inputs, but aren’t applied to set top boxes and PVRs at present).
Then in the retail chain, some of the big multiples (Comet, Dixons, etc) expect a margin of 30-40% over the price they buy from the wholesaler/distributor. And then add VAT on the top of the whole lot.
A few extra dollars can actually turn out to be quite a sizeable chunk by the time something is on the shelves.
Take something that costs 100 quid, knock off the VAT and then a 40% retailer markup, and you’re down to a retailer buy-in cost of 51.06, out of which there’s still distributor markup, shipping, duty and all those other things to come.
While there may not be much point for you in an Freesat PVR that doesn’t record from external sources, I’m sure it’ll be great for many people. I’d be willing to bet that most users of recording devices only ever record from the internal tuner, and things are generally made for most users, I’m afraid.
September 19th, 2008 at 6:27 pm
Nigel, charges such as “the markup on the manufacturer charges to the distributor”, “shipping costs” and “in the retail chain, some of the big multiples (Comet, Dixons, etc) expect a margin of 30-40% over the price they buy from the wholesaler/distributor. And then add VAT on the top of the whole lot” are payable at exactly the same rate whether the box is a Freesat only PVR or a Freesat Universal PVR.
The only additional costs if MPEG is required is the cost of the MPEG encoder components, the license and the EU Duty. Somehow, I doubt we’re talking much more than £20 even after all of that. Compared to £150 for another seperate PVR, thats still cheap!
September 19th, 2008 at 7:30 pm
And the software development too.
Don’t forget that most PVRs are highly integrated; typically they’ll be a specialised dual core system. One core is dedicated digital video processing, with things like PID filters, multiple pathways through the chip to cope for things like CA slots, dual recording, recording and so on. These bits of kit even include the IDE interface on board. And the other core is a more general purpose CPU, often using a MIPS core, though there are some other popular types.
Building a platform that uses the general CPU to control the functions of the rest of the chip is pretty straightforward, which is why these bits of kit can be brought to market so cheaply.
But when you start having to integrate lots of other stuff off-chip, into the core software, and make sure it all works logically and sensibly: that’s when your software development costs will start to rocket.
And don’t forget that even if you can keep the additional cost to “only £20,” that can have a massive impact at retail. It can be the difference between a box flying off the shelves at less than £300, or seeming to be overpriced because it breaks that barrier.
They’re not going to add a feature that bumps the price up if it will be of minimal value, important to just a tiny section of the market.
September 21st, 2008 at 10:39 am
According to the PVR Junction’s list of what can and can’t be achieved with Humax PVR it indicates that it will only record from “Freesat” . This is not what Bob, from Humax is saying. According to a reply to one of my earlier posts he indicated a capability of recording from both Freesat and FTA modes. but without automatic switching. In Freesat mode it’s Foxsat PVR and in FTA it’s an iCord PVR.
September 21st, 2008 at 9:03 pm
Perhaps an alternative would be to ‘build your own’ PVR?
Build a PC with both Freeview and Satellite receiver cards (3 of each?) . . Appropriate software, bingo! I somehow doubt a true Freesat RX card will be available for the PC sometime soon, although I’m sure someone will crack the Freesat EPG stream sometime soon . . It might even run under Linux . .
That’s it . . Job done . .
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:11 am
You can get a receiver that has both Satellite and Freeview tuners eg: the Technomate 6900 the AB IP box.. They are more expensive but lack the Freesat EPG. It’s about time Freesat stopped “whaffing” around and engaged with manufacturers that have some pedigree in the manufactur of Satellite receivers. Of the bunch they have engaged with only Humax could be included with any pedigree! Whilst AB is Slovakian, Technomate is a UK company. They are only just taking to others eg: Pace, Samsung and Sony.
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:28 am
Should have included Panasonic in the last post, but they aren’t producing a standalone box. Freesat tuner is built in to their Plasma sets. Whilst the AB is really epensive with mini PCI swappable tuner modules the Technomate seems not grossly more expensive than the projected price of the Humax DTR, yet apart from the lakck of Freesat the quality build of this box is A1- XXXXX
September 22nd, 2008 at 6:07 pm
There’s also a Topfield dual tuner box, the 5400 from memory – one satelite and one terrestrial tuner. But you start to get all sorts of annoying interface quirks when you go down that road. Of course, that’s just two tuners, anyway, both digital. If you want proper recording flexibility, you need more than that; it would be an interesting exercise seeing how well the you could match up series and other link information with one freeview and one satellite tuner.
The software starts to become much more complex when you consider things like rescheduling if there’s more than one source too, and you either have to make assumptions about how it will work (which will almost certainly annoy some of the users), or add even more configuration options.
Consider just one, for example – if you’ve set a box to record from an external source, which your recorder won’t have EPG data for, because it’s an external source. An internal tuner’s tied up recording something else – and then another timer is triggered, perhaps because of a scheduling change on satellite.
Do you dump the recording from the external source, and hope that it might be repeated – without EPG data, you don’t know – or do you dump the recording that was scheduled from satellite, even if you can’t see an alternative showing in the EPG data?
There are quite a few other similar scenarios that, though they might not crop up that often, are the sort of thing that will make people curse a box and say “Damn thing didn’t record what I wanted.”
Solving those problems, and designing the software that makes doing so simple and not confusing for ordinary end users, is a big part of the job, besides just adding a few parts.
September 22nd, 2008 at 8:41 pm
Nigel — Take the points you raise, but you gets what you pay for.and we really won’t see the end result with eg: the Humax box until it’s released and we get customer feedback from it. Boxes and their software management produced for Europe are more versatile than the Sky digi-boxes and more recently the Freeview and Freesat receivers here. The continentals also have a dedicated Satellite Channel that reviews and supports a range of related issues together with reviewing all the latest receiver releases. ie: Dr Dish I suppose it gets back to the fact that the majority customer base here in the UK are happy to have something that just works and is basic in operation. Thus stated Freesat and it’s impeding networking features via the ethernet link may stretch the capabilities of the average viewer. There are already receivers in the European market that are supplied with CD Rom programming software that enhance ethernet linking in permitting easy transfer of media and data between receiver and PC. These are primarily floated on a Linux platform as the Humax DVR will be.
September 23rd, 2008 at 8:52 am
I’m curious… what makes you think the Humax will be using Linux under the cover? In fact, very few of the PVRs out there have historically used it; they tend to go for specialised real time operating systems. Humax has used, for example, VxWorks in some of its past products. It’s either VxWorks or something similar in the Topfield 5xxx and 6xxx series, even the ones with ethernet connectivity.
There are a few receivers out there with Linux, but not that many.
September 23rd, 2008 at 9:14 am
Nigel — If you look at the Humax iCord and I saw it reviewed on Dr Dish (transmitted in English between 9am and 11am) You will see that it is Linux based. I admit that it’s an assumption on my part seeing as the Freesat PVR is a cut down version but with the Freesat EPG that the Linux platform will be the same unless you know otherwise.
September 23rd, 2008 at 10:04 am
Nigel — I’ve just re-run the Dr Dish recording of the iCord and it is very definitely Linux based although Humax have yet to publish the source code. This box has the Ethernet port activated. It can record four programs simultaneously, but the fourth channel recorded has to be on the same TP as the 3rd. Clearly the configuration of the Freesat box with FTA won’t allow for this as there will be no automatic switching between recording on FTA and Freesat and Humax have pointed this out.
September 23rd, 2008 at 1:12 pm
That’s interesting – I’d love to hear what Bob from Humax says about it.
Publishing the source for Linux-based PVRs is often not that easy; Siemens do one based on the EMMA2 (which is in the Humax Freeview 9200 box, which uses VxWorks, I think), but the actual core stuff isn’t published, because as far as I can tell there’s a pretty tight NDA on the EMMA chips from NEC.
The only Linux-based mass market PVRs that I can think of in the UK so far have been the Humax IDTVs with PVR and the original Tivo.
September 23rd, 2008 at 1:53 pm
What’s the latest about a PVR substitute for sky+ for recording Sky / BBC and then possible digital transfer to PC or a MAC as a decent quality file? The Humax Freesat HD FOXSAT-HDR PVR looks like it might facilitate the recording part at least, but how about file access? Any suggestions appreciated.
September 26th, 2008 at 11:07 am
Nigel — Anyone else interested, If you can’t get Dr Dish TV magazine ie: you don’t have a motor driven dish, with multi sat capability you can access by typing Dr Dish Magazine into a search engine and run the current HD recommended receiver reviews which includes the Humax iCord via online video.
October 12th, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Why would you want to record from Freeview when you have Freesat? It replaces Freeview. It’s standard for PVRs to not allow input sources.
November 2nd, 2008 at 11:33 pm
And I want a cabriolet that is a Bus. It has to be small but must carry 50 people.
I also require square tires.
Al demands something imperatively that exists nowhere in the world.
Only thing that could do the trick would be a combined DVB-S/DVB-T-Receiver, which already exists. But like it was stated earlier Freesat is meant to be a replacement for freeview. And: are the EPGs in any way compatible?
November 3rd, 2008 at 1:08 pm
Michael,
Yes the Foxsat will allow you to record and then transfer to another medium via a PC, the same as the 9200 does. The file you copy is a .ts file, and in some cases you just rename it to .mpg to play it. In others, if there are errors in transmission, you can get VideoRedo Plus to edit and mend the file.
Hopefully soon the Five family will be on Freesat too.
November 7th, 2008 at 8:43 pm
Hey! You guys’ give those nice people at Humax a break! They are working like mad to get their ‘baby’ up and running and into the shops before Christmas and all you seem to be doing is moaning and groaning about what they are not doing! Your arguements seem as pointless as to the question, ‘were there any barley-sugar sweets in the Titanic’s lifeboat rations!’
I invested in a Humax Freeview PVR some years ago! Every penny worth spent!
I now have on order a Humax Freesat PVR and eagerly await delivery! If it’s as good as the Foxsat receiver, then I shan’t be disappointed!
November 12th, 2008 at 11:31 am
Just purchased the Panasonic Freesat 37″ LCD and Panasonic EX78-HDD/DVD Recorder.
I am told by our supplier that I can only record the channel
I am watching when viewing Freesat.
Of course this is useless.
We do watch a lot of pre-recorded programmes and these will be mostly freeview.
I am disappointed that the new Freesat HDR cannot record freeview.
It would be nice to have a HDD/DVD recorder that can record
both freeview and freesat at the same time while watching another (third) programme.
November 13th, 2008 at 12:38 pm
Hi there,
I live in Spain and currently use two old Sky boxes in two rooms of the house without any subscription, which gives me what appear to be more or less the same channels as Freesat. I do not want a Sky subsription which is why I have not got Sky+. I do not have a fixed telephone line at home, either, which makes Sky+ impossible.
If I were to buy one of these Humax boxes to replace one of the Sky boxes, does it receive the same signal from the same satellite as Sky? In other words would it simply be a case of unplugging the old box and connecting the new one?
On a related point, elsewhere I read that to use the recording function the box requires two signals, so I guess I would need to split the signal from the dish? As mentioned, I already have two boxes connected, so have a twin output from the dish…I assume I would need a triple output from the dish instead, in that case?
November 17th, 2008 at 4:52 pm
OK, I have spent some looking around and I see that yes, I can use the same dish and yes, it needs two signals, so I will need a quad output from the dish. Just in case anyone was thinking of replying…
November 18th, 2008 at 12:21 am
Mike,
> Yes the Foxsat will allow you to record and then transfer to
> another medium via a PC
How do you connect the PC to the Foxsat HDR ? USB? And how do you fetch the TS files? FTP?
November 20th, 2008 at 11:23 pm
I don’t know what all the fuss is about. There are only a few freeview channels that are not on freesat – mainly fiveUS, fiver, virgin1, Dave and UKTVhistory (we have never wanted to record anything from these anyway). These channels will no doubt (perhaps with the exception of virgin) appear on freeSat as the months go by. You can still watch programs on these channels if you have a digital tv. Mostly freesat is only missing the saddo stations and it looks as though there are plenty of others to replace them!
November 20th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
On top of everything else. Humax has the best epg I have ever seen
November 27th, 2008 at 3:21 am
Five joined Freesat last week, this had to do with their Sky contract locking them into encrypted broadcasts until it ran out.
One really _big_ advantage I find of freesat over freeview is that most of the time-limited Freeview channels have much longer hours on FreeSat. It’s just a shame the Fortec-star receiver I was using was unstable and locked up every few hours (60quid dish+LNB+FS4200 kit). I’m happy enough with what I’ve seen to retrofit a multiport LNB to the dish (8 ports = 60quid) and buy a freesat PVR or 3 for various rooms in the house when the HD prices drop low enough.
What amazes me with free{view/sat) kit is how amazingly bad the UI is. Some of them appear to have been cooked up by a 14yo in a bedroom and are just plain painful to use. I loved SetPal’s UI but they’re now long gone
November 29th, 2008 at 6:58 pm
Like BillyBob I also live in the South of Spain, and currently receive Sky without subscription.
Has anyone heard if it will it be possible to receive the Freesat signals down here as well, seeing as they are to be broadcast by Sky through their existing system?
November 30th, 2008 at 2:17 pm
I love my existing Humax FOXSAT and can’t wait for the HDR version. Frankly the user interface beats the crap out of my Sky box. Neil sounds like a Sky shill when making out there are syncing issues with the Humax – that’s absolute BS IMO, the box is extremely high quality IME.
On the contrary, my Sky HD box was really bad at handling fast/forward rewinding, frequently got out of sync with audio and sometimes forgot to record audio on recoded video at all. It even messes up the audio when not recording and just channel hopping – to the extent it now sits unused.
The Humax has much nicer menu software both in terms of how it functions and how it looks (it’s much more responsive, and in sharp HD – unlike the Sky one). As such I am looking forward to the FOXSAT-HDR and will be getting one out of the box, especially as I am so disappointed with the quality of the Sky HD box (bugs, poor performance, limited HD space and no on demand content, unlike Virgin’s set top box).
It’s just a shame that Sky went winging to the regulator and got the launch of iPlayer and Kangaroo stalled, or we’d have on demand shows on Freesat by now – instead it looks like we will have to wait till early next year. When do they arrive I can see a lot of people moving from Sky to Freesat to save 30-40 quid a month and actually gaining functionality from their set top box in the process.
December 27th, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Humax Foxsat HDR – Out of the box, knocks the spots off my existing Sky system – SD pictures less noticable de-compression errors- HD equally amazing. Freesat is the way forward Sky should be very worried!
December 29th, 2008 at 3:18 pm
I have the Humax Freesat HDR and, so far, no complaints. Yes, there are a couple of quirks but they will get sorted eventually I’m sure.
Just to point out to some of you though; it doesnt record an external stream, digital or analogue, it doesnt display or record freview and it doesnt play VHS, Betamax or DVD. The reason being …. ITS A FREESAT RECORDER!!!!
If you want all the above then pay Sky £600 because apparently their box does all this, and more….. yawn.
December 29th, 2008 at 6:20 pm
I have the foxsat HDR and it’s brilliant. Having tried to get freesat from Sky to work using a Sony HDD/DVD recorder (failed to work properly cos sky only download the EPG on channels you need to be subscribed to) I’m still ecstatic. However, I don’t seem able to connect the DVD recorder to the Foxsat and I don’t understand why I can’t record the HD content onto DVD or Blu-ray. There is clearly a self limiting usefulness if the foxsat can only be used as a temporary store of programs.
If anyone knows a solution to this problem please let me know
December 31st, 2008 at 10:04 am
Anyone know where I can get hold of one and how noisy are they?
January 10th, 2009 at 5:27 pm
I do not understand what all these people are going on about saying the new Humax Freesat recorder doesn’t record Freeview.?
Of course it does but you are getting the Freeview channels via a satellite dish instead of an ariel.
If you can get the channels through an ariel you wouldn’t need a bloody satellite dish in the first place so I don’t see what the confusion is.
Is it me being a bit thick or is everyone else stupid.?
January 10th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
Bare in mind that some may still use Freeview to access channels like Dave and UK Gold which are not on Freesat.
January 10th, 2009 at 10:24 pm
Yes they are some channels that are probably not on freesat at the moment but hey look at freeview in the beggining and the number of channel choice now.Its only a matter of time imo.
I intend to go down the freesat route in the future and hope many people do, to bring down the sky monopoly that they have.
One final thing when do we expect to see the fox sat hdr+ on the scene?
happy new year……………….
January 13th, 2009 at 4:49 pm
Some interesting comments here comparing Freesat to Freeview etc.
Bear in mind that some of us cannot get terestrial TV so Freeview is simply not an option. I am currently using Sky+ HD and I have to be fair it is excellent. However having researched this new HUMAX FOXSAT-HDR including the stuff on You-Tube which shows all the menu options and navigation etc, it looks a lot better than Sky. As soon as my current Sky subscription comes to an end I will be dumping Sky and going for this option. For a start it will pay for itself in 6 months (less if/when the price comes down a bit.). Luvly Jubbly !
January 14th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Does anybody know when the Foxsat HDR will be available?. It seems nobody has it is stock…even HumaxDirect ! If anybody has one they must be very lucky as supply seems to have dried right up.
January 18th, 2009 at 5:00 pm
I have just cancelled Sky+HD and purchased a Humax Freesat HD PRV.
It works fine…except!!
When I record it will not allow me to watch any other channel except BBC2.
I have the right LMB two feeds..its a mystery. can any one help please?
Regards
January 19th, 2009 at 9:35 am
A brilliant piece of kit and no problems with recording. The picture quality, even in SD mode, is superb. I love being able to record two programmes at the same time…it saves a lot of arguments! Only one question…why can’t we get news multiscreen on text?
I got mine from a local shop and paid no more than anywhere else so it is worth going round the independent retailers.
April 11th, 2009 at 4:55 pm
Hi
Have just picked up my new FOXSAT from Richer Sounds cost 279 + 27.95 for 5 years Super care its great the wife loves it.
Would be better if I could change the sate from 28.2 to 19.2 as unable to get some programs (BBC 2 after 2pm) and some others as live on edge of envelope
(Spain)
May 3rd, 2009 at 6:08 am
I bought a couple of Humax Foxsat-HDR Freesat+ boxes a few days ago to replace two Sky+ boxes and I am very impressed.
The BBC HD picture is superb with excellent Dolby Digital sound. When ITV can be bothered, threir HD is great too. I’ve also tuned in all the other FTA channels & found Luxe HD which shows posh stuff like palaces, stately homes, jewellery, etc. Not my cup of tea but it’s there if you want it.
The only real disappointment is the lack of Dave. I emailed UKTV & they have no current plans to add it to Freesat even though it’s on Freeview. Strange.
Another great thing about this box is that you can add photos & MP3s via the USB port so as to make it your home music system. Connect the phonos or optical digital output to your hifi & you’re away. Great!
With these 2 boxes I’m saving nearly £500 a year over the Sky boxes and they weren’t even HD. They’ll pay for themselves within a year.