I'm currently using a Humax Foxsat HDR and was wondering whether once iPlayer is past it's Beta stage, that'll be "it" so to speak?

Will that be considered to be Freesat having delivered its product or can we look forward to further development/improvements with the GUI/functionality?

If I were looking for things like WLAN dongle compatibility or accessing the hard drive over the network etc, would that in fact be up to Humax to do rather than Freesat making it standard etc.? If so, would it be on this receiver or will I see new products in e.g. a year with this sort of thing?

Also, I use Non-Freesat mode almost every day even just to watch the German news. Will the current method of switching between Freesat and Non-Freesat be the best we're likely to see? I mean I'd rather have a way to add a Non-Freesat channel to the end of the Freesat list instead, albeit with empty EPG information.

Ta.

Any changes would be down to the manufacturer, nothing to do with Freesat, and it's already been said that development of the Humax HDR is effectively finished now.

Humax has briefed the press about a HDR2 having much more processor power than the HDR - they have said that this should support streaming of media over a home network and may have wifi. They apparently tried adding some home network functionality to the HDR mk1 but ditched the idea when they had a few issues. I think they are looking at a Spring-Summer release.

You are liable to see othe companies, starting with ITV also making use of the iplayer functionality which has been added in a generic fashion and is NOT tied to iplayer and the BBC in any way. So you might also see paid for content, like sports and movie streaming services ... we can hope - Humax and Freesat themselves have hinted at this on several occasions.

EDIT: Oh and non-freesat mode, Humax have clarified that this is a minority function and they do not see enough demand to warrant working out the wrinkes (like not being able to do a timer and USALS support not really working).

Please do complain to Humax about that, maybe they might do it if enough people contact them.

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I see. Wifi would be most helpful I must say.


This presumably would be available on mk1, as a software upgrade? At least having online content from BBC/ITV/Channel 4 would be nice.


Hmmm, I might just do that. I use Non-Freesat mode to watch not only German TV but Sky News and to listen to a couple of radio stations from the UK. It would just be nice to be able to listen to that station and know that Freesat is recording one of my favourite shows at the same time.

No chance of Sky News ever being on the EPG I suppose?

Whilst testing iPlayer the other night, I forgot it was online content after a few minutes and it looked very good on my TV. Some premium content would be great.

The software mods (extensions to MHEG) have been made already to allow iplayer to work. Other providers can use the same extensions and should be no need for changes to HDR firmware to enable this.

Iplayer is just an mheg application.

Ah I see. So it just needs to e.g. show up under the red button on ITV1 then, like if some new page shows up on a website?

Yes. I'm sure it won't be quite as smooth as a new link on a website but that's the intent.

OK thanks. So it's all just down to the broadcasters and if they want to adapt what they already do to work with Freesat? I understood that ITV is a partner in Freesat, so might that mean that they are already working on this?

Sorry for all the questions! I initially thought that only iPlayer was going to be on Freesat.

I believe Freesat have already announced plans for ITV Player in the first half of this year.

Bob

Unless there is a dedicated ITV1 HD channel it would need be be a colour other than red or blue