Humax Foxsat HDR 500GB Freesat HD Satellite Receiver and Digital TV Recorder
Posted by Notcot on May 17, 2012 in Home Cinema & Video |
Freesat HD Tuner with 500GB PVR & HDMI Socket & Upscaling for Standard Definition channels.
- Freesat HD Tuner
- 500GB PVR
- HDMI Socket
- Upscaling for Standard Definition
- Hard Drive recording: Y
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Great product at a good price!,
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This prduct was bought for my parents and I have been very impressed with its simplicty having heard some reviews say how complicated it was compared to Sky+ (which I have).
Set-up is simple with everything automated, the only thing you need to do is insert your postcode for regional viewing settings.
I would say it is slightly more complex than Sky+ in that you store all series linked (or multiples of each programme) in separated folders (as you would on a PC) but anyone who has ever used a computer or read the instructions will pick it up immediately.
Picture quality in SD is at least as good as Sky SD and the freesat HD channels look great (pity you only have 3 at present). Both my parents and myself live in a weak freeview signal area so the reassurance of no picture drop out was the main reason for freesat rather than freeview.
With most new HD TV’s now having only a freeview HD receiver (except Panasonic), this box gives you the ability to see the full range of free channels available with the capability to record everything on freesat. Freesat has the vast majority of channels most people would want to record (incuding HD when available) but some channels are only on freeview or freesat not both – see their websites and check which ones you are most likely to record!
This Humax box lets you pause live TV, watch one channel while recording another and series link, pretty much everything you can do with Sky+ except you don’t pay £26+ per month for doing it!
It does require x2 LNB cables to do this which could mean a new dish if you only have a single cable coming off an old Sky dish (as in our case) but this cost including installation was only a one off £120.
This box is also capable of viewing BBC i-player as long as you have broadband and an ethernet cable connected to it (ITV on demand coming soon).
All in all a great package at a reasonable price.
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|Very Impressive Unit,
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We’ve had this Freesat box installed for about 1 week now and it has been a God-send! The picture is excellent. Even standard definition is much better than my previous receiver and HD is brilliant for watching football & rugby where the colours of the players really stand out against the green grass. The operation is reasonably intuitive, which may explain why the instruction book is so basic. I have read a couple of common complaints about this box, but if you understand what’s going on technically, then there’s little to complain about.
1) “It sometimes takes a long time to boot up”. Well, for me it typically takes 10 – 15 seconds. It may take longer but that is because it is scanning and downloading more channel information. This happens when a new channel is added to the Freesat list. Waiting the extra 20 seconds is much better than having to tune the new channels in yourself! If you find it is slow, check your dish alignment and signal strength.
2) “Remote is slow to respond” Sometimes you push the button to move the highlighted section in the program schedule and nothing happens. You instinctively push it again and then it jumps two sections! Again, this is because the box is downloading the program information from the satellite feed, which takes time. Just be a little patient and if you get upset, remember the days when you actually had to get out of your seat to switch between the 3 channels on your 625 line TV!!!
Something worth mentioning, which I think is BRILLIANT! Not only can you record one channel whilst watching another, you can also record two different channels at the same time! Very handy when there’s a Champions League match on at the same time as your wife’s favourite cooking program! And if you try to record a 3rd program, it lets you know you can’t and offers you alternative, non-conflicting times for the programs you wish to record.
Overall, I am very happy with the unit. So easy to use you don’t need the instruction book.
I’m not sure if it can do DisC (Combined satellite dish inputs) and I therefore wired mine directly to the twin-LNB. So this might be something to research if you like to have multiple dishes pointed at different satellites.
Get one… NOW!!!
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|500GB FOXSAT HD PVR,
I bought this sat box and cancelled sky HD and second room all options that was costing £71 per month. The choice of programmes and quality over the satelite are more than adequate. The stop, pause, rewind, tv is dead easy to use and the record option from the on-screen guide is as simple as the sky one was.
If you have sky, kick it into touch and grab yourself one of these, it will pay for itself in 3 monts!!
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