O T:- Oh Do I Respect Your Advice !!!

[the_constructor]

Hi Everyone,

Have you ever been on a suppliers website like Amazon and read the reveiws that people put on goods.... I always get the feeling that they are written by the companies own employees, becasue they look so similar in content .....

Well, I respect more, the views of the users on the free.uk.diy.home and uk.diy groups.

What am I leading to:- I am seriously considering dumping my sky+ and moving over to Freesat+ (not SKY freesat) and have been looking at a replacement box for the sky+ one..

The one that interests me is the Humax Foxsat-HDR Freesat+ PVR 320Gb. It seems to be just like the sky+ box, or at least that is what I gleam from the advertising blurb.

Is anyone on Freesat, got one of these boxes or a different make of box and can tell me what if any are the problems they have experienced with them.

12 Months of my sky subsctription would pay for one of the Humax boxes.

Any advice would be seriously appreciated......

Jim

[Andy Burns]

I don't own one, but over on uk.tech.digital-tv they seem to highly regarded, given the size of recordings (especially HD) I'd say consider the 500GB instead of the 320GB (I have 1TB on my SD setup and that's often full).

[Java Jive]

[tony sayer]

Yep thats the best place to go for this argument;)..

[fred]

In article , the_constructor writes

I got one of my elder rellies one of these for Christmas (pre-gifted, mid Oct) and she thinks it's f'ckn brilliant (may have been expressed slightly differently but that is the gist), highly recommended, easy setup with automatic inclusion of all regional options at the 900 channel level and very easy to use. I was worried about the small buttons and idents on the remote so created a double sided laminated crib as a reference which has helped but she has found both use and recording very straightforward.

I'll tidy up the crib and publish it if there is interest.

Have you seen the graded units on the Humax website?

[the_constructor]

I'd be interested Jim

[<me9]

I'm quite happy with mine. I did have to sweep snow out from in front of the LNB last year, but apart from that, 100% so far.

I may be easily pleased, but not paying to murdoch's empire is a definite plus.

You may miss out on the odd HD channel but you do get ITV1HD, BBC HD and BBC1 HD. Is it worth the subscription for the others?

[<me9]

I'd agree with the above, I've been running around 96% full for the past year. It would probably be the same wuth a 10 TB drive though!

[fred]

In article , the_constructor writes

Sure, here's the original:

Page1:

I spotted a few unclear bits in it during a teaching session and annotated a copy at the time. I will update it when I get a mo, which will probably be in the new year, and repost.

Copyright reserved as a derivative work, free distribution for non commercial use.

[Ret.]

My daughter and her husband ditched Sky six months ago and bought a Humax Foxsat Freesat box. They are delighted with it - and with not having to pay the Sky subscription! They mainly watch the usual terrestrial channels and so it was fine for them.

Personally I like the extra channels on Sky (particularly Sky movies), and because I have Sky Broadband I now have the new 'Anytime +' system which, in addition to the normal Anytime programmes, has a 'library' of downloadable movies and programmes for viewing whenever you want.

[the_constructor]

I have a Panasonic Freeview TV and a Panasonic Freeview DVD recorder. As for the channel numbering, that is how it is on Sky+, the numbers are all over the place. I got sky+ about 18 months ago, the wife wasn't really interested as she isn't really interested in much TV at all, but there are far more channels on Freesat and they are the channels that I usually watch on Sky+ anyway so it makes sense to me to say bye bye to Mr Murdoc. Jim

[Moonraker]

I have one, it does (unusually) all it says on the box. Also it handles subtitles well, which for us old deafy's is a necessity, except, of course, ITV HD, as it has none, shame"!

-- Residing on low ground in North Staffordshire

[Peter Scott]

I've had one for over a year. Mostly excellent. Software is a bit clunky in places, particularly in handling programmes that have been recorded. But OK. Easy to set up. More signal sensitive than other makes I've tried, so is reliable. However big the disk you must be disciplined about watching or deleting. There are occasional lock-ups but power off and on cures them and I believe this is addressed in the software upgrade that I haven't done yet. I now buy nothing but Humax for freesat. Got two other high def non-recorders elsewhere in my house. One son complains about not having Dave when he comes to visit.

Peter Scott

[R D S]

Same here, that was the main benefit of switching to Freesat.

[the_constructor]

Well, after reading all your good reports about the Humax FoxSat HDR and watching some of the videos on You Tube, I have finally jumped in and purchased one from Amazon, who were the cheapest including FREE postage. It has been despatched and should be with me just after Christmas, so I will have a play when it comes and give you all a personal update as to how I go on with it.

Jim

[the_constructor]

"the_constructor" >

I am not sure what countries people who read this group are from so he goes: Here in the UK we have been having really bad weather due to snow now for about 5 weeks. Because of this, many transport companies have large stocks of parcels that need to be delivered in there depots, hence, companies like Amazon have recently been giving delivery dates of after 29th December 2010. I ordered my Humax FoxStat HDR+ 2 days ago and beleive it or not, it arrived today 23.12.2010. Initial comments are that it was easy to setup, with clear instructions. Picture quality seems far better than SKY+. I have read reports also that you have to sit directly inline with the box for the remote to work, this may or may not have been the case in the past, I do not know, but what I do know is that no matter where I point the remote, the box picks up the signal and responds to the remote. I have not got any fuyrther than tuning in and working my way through about the first 20 pages of the manual, but to date, I am very impressed..

More soon.................

Jim

[MuddyMike]

Does this use the sky dish?

Mike

[the_constructor]

Yes yes, just plug into sky dish let the machine complete the setup and away you go

Much better than the sky boxes

Jim

[the_constructor]

I have a Panasonic TV that has freesat built in. Excellent pictures & three HD channels at present. You can put your own dish up but you must buy a meter, the direction it points is hypercritical. (28degrees east) They sell kits in Screwfix. There's a list of channels here.

The main problem I have is there is is no means of recording off the TV. Power is generated in the satbox/TV & goes up the co-ax cable to power the amplifier. frequency changer in the dish (LNB they are called)

The TV has a host of connections including one for computers andethernet which connet direct to a router. But no video outputs.

Surely that is what Scart sockets are for aren't they Jim G1SSO