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HUMAX Foxsat HDR or SKY+ HD


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Old 01-04-2009, 21:18
Marcus Wood
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What are the Humax boxes like for fan noise? It drives me nuts on my Thomson SkyHD box...

Going back to 'non-Freesat' channels, are these the same as the 'Freesat from Sky' channels?
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Old 01-04-2009, 22:14
Flyer 10
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What are the Humax boxes like for fan noise? It drives me nuts on my Thomson SkyHD box...

Going back to 'non-Freesat' channels, are these the same as the 'Freesat from Sky' channels?
They are simply the FTV channels that havent paid for an EPG slot.

There is no noise, its 100% silent apart from a small click when it turns off and on.
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Old 01-04-2009, 22:26
awo1949
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There is no noise, its 100% silent apart from a small click when it turns off and on.
Mine is 100% silent from a normal viewing distance, even a close normal viewing distance. But, you can hear a whirring if you listen carefully from about a foot away from it. If you are hyper-sensative, it might irritate, but this is likely a quiet as they come.
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Old 02-04-2009, 07:13
Smufter
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I've just replaced my Sky+ box with a FoxSat PVR and am really pleased with it. Doddle to set up, and no noise from it whatsoever. Picture quality is really good and BBC HD is awesome. Can't wait for the Masters Golf next week!
I enquired about upgrading to Sky HD but the three month delay in activation, plus the additional costs swayed my decision to switch.
OK there are only a couple of HD channels to watch at the moment, but last week I had none!
I was paying Sky for my TV, Broadband and phone and by switching over to another ISP who provide cheaper line rental than BT too, I am saving somewhere in the region of £33.00 a month. That's a lot of money over a year.
No complaints or regrets so far.
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Old 02-04-2009, 08:58
ProDave
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I've just replaced my Sky+ box with a FoxSat PVR and am really pleased with it. Doddle to set up, and no noise from it whatsoever. Picture quality is really good and BBC HD is awesome. Can't wait for the Masters Golf next week!
Sky really NEED to listen to people like you.

Sky have lost a customer, and I assume you will get rid of your sky+ box now you have the foxsat.

Sky really need to sit up, take notice, and allow ex subscribers to continue to be able to use the recording functions of a sky+ or sky HD box.

By not doing so, people will buy alternative hardware, and probably won't keep their old sky boxes so it would be harder for them to re subscribe later on. It also fosters a bad attitude to sky for charging for a function every body else gives you for free.

If sky allowed non subscribers to continue using the recordingt functions, then in most cases people would keep their sky hardware in use, with the possibility of re subscribing later on if they so wished. Many of us thought that would happen once freesat PVR's became available, but it hasn't happened yet.
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Old 02-04-2009, 09:44
Nigel Goodwin
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If sky allowed non subscribers to continue using the recordingt functions, then in most cases people would keep their sky hardware in use, with the possibility of re subscribing later on if they so wished. Many of us thought that would happen once freesat PVR's became available, but it hasn't happened yet.
Yes, but unfortunately the complete mishandling of Freesat, with PVR's still hardly available, plus Humax's bizzarre distribution policies, means that Sky don't consider Freesat PVR's any threat - which they should have done really.
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Old 02-04-2009, 09:49
Willie Wontie
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By not doing so, people will buy alternative hardware, and probably won't keep their old sky boxes so it would be harder for them to re subscribe later on.
And what will they do with their Sky+ HD box? Give it to a friend or neighbour, or sell it on ebay, to somebody who will take out a Sky TV subscription to be able to make use of it. Why on earth would Sky let you record on it for free and hence make no money out of the box, when there's a chance that somebody who actually wants to make use of the box and its features will do if the Freesat viewer isn't prepared to pay any more?
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Old 02-04-2009, 12:00
ian-d
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Yes, but unfortunately the complete mishandling of Freesat, with PVR's still hardly available, plus Humax's bizzarre distribution policies, means that Sky don't consider Freesat PVR's any threat - which they should have done really.
You still struggling to obtain Nigel, no problems here, plenty of stock
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Old 02-04-2009, 13:15
Tern
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You still struggling to obtain Nigel, no problems here, plenty of stock
Perhaps they're worried that if they send him any he'll electrocute himself.
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Old 02-04-2009, 13:17
Nigel Goodwin
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You still struggling to obtain Nigel, no problems here, plenty of stock
Yep, Humax seem loath to supply Europes largest independent buying group?.
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Old 02-04-2009, 22:25
Marcus Wood
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How does the FOXSAT HD handle different resolutions aspect ratios?

What I mean is, with SkyHD, you can set the resolution to 'Automatic' (which causes SD to be output as 576p, and HD as 1080i, and the new TV guide as 1080i), or set it to upscale everything (quite badly) to 1080i.

But when SkyHD upscales 4:3 SD to 1080i, it always stretches the picture, resulting in a distorted image. If you leave it in auto, when you're watching SD it switches to 1080i if you look at the tv guide menu, which is a major pain if your display takes a long time to adapt to different resolutions. At least widescreen switching works properly in auto mode (if your display supports it).

How does the FOXSAT HD deal with these issues?
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Old 03-04-2009, 07:27
srhill
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That's quite uncommon, though.

Most people I know with Sky have had to have a box replaced at least once.
I have 2 - main one is almost 3 yrs old, 2nd was added a year later - both are thomsons and apart from the odd niggle have had no problems.

Yes there are some people who have had problem boxes - however compared to the hundreds of thousands who have sky HD they are the minorit.

There are some people who post problems with their humax - probably a similar %age as the numbers with humax are considerably lower.

It is the nature of people to post complaints/problems - very few will bother to post their satisfaction and the majority will not even be forum members because they have no problems - this applies to both skyHD and freesat+HD owners.
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Old 03-04-2009, 10:02
Tern
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I have 2 - main one is almost 3 yrs old, 2nd was added a year later - both are thomsons and apart from the odd niggle have had no problems.

Yes there are some people who have had problem boxes - however compared to the hundreds of thousands who have sky HD they are the minorit.

There are some people who post problems with their humax - probably a similar %age as the numbers with humax are considerably lower.

It is the nature of people to post complaints/problems - very few will bother to post their satisfaction and the majority will not even be forum members because they have no problems - this applies to both skyHD and freesat+HD owners.
Dunno, it's a matter of perception.

You can take a very unreliable piece of equipment, say a failure rate of 20% and report it in a news group and you can guarantee that you'll get people piping up that they haven't had a problem.

There was the same situation with Vista. It was well known that it was extremely problematic at launch and yet there were people who had used it without a problem who got terribly indignant about anyone saying it had problems.

Remember that for somthing with an appalling 1 in 10 failure rate you will still find 9 people in 10, on average, have no problem with it.

I've just noted that far more people have mentioned that they've had their Sky box replaced than have said the same about, for example, a Digihome or a TV set.

YMMV.
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Old 03-04-2009, 19:06
pegleg631945
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It's just all the FTA channels that are not on the freesat EPG. You do need the EPG to schedule recordings, non freesat channels you can record manually.
Sorry if this is a stupid question,but I watch FTA channels using my TVs built in freeview box,not the Humax,how do I record FTA channels manually?
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Old 03-04-2009, 20:51
grahamlthompson
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Sorry if this is a stupid question,but I watch FTA channels using my TVs built in freeview box,not the Humax,how do I record FTA channels manually?
You have to connect a vcr or DVDR to a tv scart.
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Old 04-04-2009, 09:16
Yorkie47
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I've been a Sky customer for 10 years, Sky+ for the past three years. The original box developed problems so I upgraded last year to the newer Sky+ box.

This developed a minor problem - I phoned Sky to ask their advice and they wouldn't deal with me because they said my viewing card was invalid. This was the card that their own engineer had put in! They told me I couldn't possibly be watching Sky programmes on this card. As we were talking I was watching Sky programmes! (Plus I was paying the subs for it by direct debit.)

I had reached the Sky stone wall. They refused to help and yet I have never missed a single payment for the past ten years.

I changed to Humax Freesat+ last month. It's great, easy to set up and no problems so far. I do miss some of the Sky programmes (like History) but there's no way I would go back to Sky now. I spent so much time on the phone with their customer services that they promised to refund £10 to help with the phone bill. Naturally, they didn't keep that promise. Instead, the next direct debit they UPPED the bill by £10 and added a multi-room which didn't exist! Their incompetence is staggering at times.

On top of that, they refuse to let me off the current subscription payments even though I no longer have Sky and, according to them, I have no valid viewing card in any case!
I am paying up because I'm a pensioner now and I don't want any debt trouble at this stage in life.

However, I am here to tell you that the greed of Sky knows no bounds.

Two more payments and I am free of them for good. I have to say that the last customer service lady I spoke to (in the Accounts Department) was very sympathetic. As one of Sky's employees, she couldn't believe they had let a good customer like me go and for no good reason at all.
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Old 04-04-2009, 13:29
SWIZZ?
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I've been a Sky customer for 10 years, Sky+ for the past three years. The original box developed problems so I upgraded last year to the newer Sky+ box.

This developed a minor problem - I phoned Sky to ask their advice and they wouldn't deal with me because they said my viewing card was invalid. This was the card that their own engineer had put in! They told me I couldn't possibly be watching Sky programmes on this card. As we were talking I was watching Sky programmes! (Plus I was paying the subs for it by direct debit.)

I had reached the Sky stone wall. They refused to help and yet I have never missed a single payment for the past ten years.

I changed to Humax Freesat+ last month. It's great, easy to set up and no problems so far. I do miss some of the Sky programmes (like History) but there's no way I would go back to Sky now. I spent so much time on the phone with their customer services that they promised to refund £10 to help with the phone bill. Naturally, they didn't keep that promise. Instead, the next direct debit they UPPED the bill by £10 and added a multi-room which didn't exist! Their incompetence is staggering at times.

On top of that, they refuse to let me off the current subscription payments even though I no longer have Sky and, according to them, I have no valid viewing card in any case!
I am paying up because I'm a pensioner now and I don't want any debt trouble at this stage in life.

However, I am here to tell you that the greed of Sky knows no bounds.

Two more payments and I am free of them for good. I have to say that the last customer service lady I spoke to (in the Accounts Department) was very sympathetic. As one of Sky's employees, she couldn't believe they had let a good customer like me go and for no good reason at all.
Hi Yorkie47,
I continue to be amazed by Sky's treatment of customers, & I am just as amazed how so many customers tolerate this sort of treatment!
Direct debits can be stopped, by you. What can Sky do? cut you off?
You write a very clear letter. Why don't you resend it to a friend with a BLIND CC to
CRsupport@bskyb.com & a separate email to your friend with a blind cc to
jeremy.darroch@bskyb.com
Blind ccs will leave them wondering worrying about who else got them.
Add in to the end of your email that because the issues above you have revoked your direct debit to them.
If it was me I would copy the email to your bank. There is shame attached to this business but its Sky's shame not yours!!
Let us know how it goes.
Good luck
David
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Old 04-04-2009, 15:44
SWIZZ?
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Hi Yorkie47,
Second thoughts send both emails separately, no blind copies, just send a normal visible copy to everyone in your contact list.
Sky will loathe the publicity.
David
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Old 04-04-2009, 17:28
chris20
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sky will never care about its customers because they have so much money and can afford to lose 1000s of people and it would not affect them.
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Old 04-04-2009, 21:36
SWIZZ?
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sky will never care about its customers because they have so much money and can afford to lose 1000s of people and it would not affect them.
An insider told me that there were redundancies about in Sky.

The gob-cowboy who p*sses off the most customers could attract special attention.

David
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