Can anyone give an objective answer to this question.
I have a Grundig Freesat sd box and record onto a Pioneer DVD/HDD recorder, which uses manual timers on both boxes in sync, but sometimes I make mistakes. Freeview reception here ( Donegal in Ireland ) is a bit ropey at times, so FTA satellite / Freesat is the best option for British tv.
Is Freesat+ ( Humax or Goodmans ) worth the outlay? Seems like a good piece of kit.
More importantly would your argument convince my wife? Are they wife friendly?
Any advice appreciated..

The Humax is very easy to use & is very convenient,the only problem is the lack of HD channels

Are they wife friendly? Pretty much in my view (or at least my technophobe-ish wife hasn't complained).

We originally had a Sky Plus box, but got fed up with the subscription costs. I then shoved a couple of DVB-S cards into a Windows media centre but the quality of the picture was only marginally better than our old analogue TV.

Recently we purchased a Foxsat HD and haven't looked back - The picture quality (on our Samsung 32" great - both SD and HD are excellent - and we get the advantage of the recording facilities.

To be honest, we can't see a huge difference between SD and HD (maybe because SD is scaled up), however, the main reasons for our purchase was the multiple tuners, the ability to record to HD and the lack of subscriptions.

I have also added an external hard drive. This is connected to the Foxsat unit via USB and it also has an Ethernet port for connecting to the network. I can now move videos & music to the Foxsat from my PC.

This is the only Freesat product we've owned, so I can't compare it with other products, but I would recommend it. It's definitely gets a 9/10 of the wife happiness scale!

I would echo the comments of the previous posters - we've had ours since last autumn and it's been brilliant! On the wife-friendliness stakes, our experience has been immeasurably improved by the addition of a Logitech Harmony One programmable remote. Takes a bit of setting up but the wife loves the 'Watch TV' button that (now!) turns everything on with the correct settings and then displays logo buttons for all the channels that she likes to watch on its colour touchscreen.

Well worth the investment, I'd say.

Gadget

My father in law has freesat and a dvd recorder, boy what a crock it is, I have freesat+ and the difference could not be bigger.

Usability - I just go to the guide and press record, box asks me if I want the whole series. I can watch something else while its recording, were it not for a small logo briefly flashing up in the corned I wouldn't even know it was recording. My technophobic wife has no problems with it. Father in law has to setup timers, ensure the freesat box is on the right channel... no chance of his wife going near it.

Recording quality - this made me laugh, he thinks he has been recording nature programs in HD over his scart lead, we played back a recording, it looked DIRE, worse than an SD recording on my machine.

I told him not to get Freesat+ not Freesat, he has no money worries but he already had the DVD recorder and didn't see the point.

If you are not stuck for the money its a no-brainer, if you are stuck for the money save up, its still worth it. Different question if you can get Freeview, the difference between Freeview+ and Freesat+ is a finer decision.

I've got the Humax HDR Freesat+ box.

As the Insurance Meercat says "Seemples"

All you need to be 100% satisfied is two LNB connections. It will work OK with one and the loop through, but for full useabilty, ie, record 2 channels and watch a third at the same time you need the two LNB connections.

Got mine from Richer Sounds and paid an extra 10% for 5 year warranty.

Mikembe

Go and buy one

It will be much easier to use than your current way of doing things.

Its not without its faults, and you do get the occasional programme being chopped off at the end which can be very frustrating, but overall a very good investment.

I don't think I would recommend you getting a Freesat + box at this point.

I have the Humax HDR which I think is an excellent piece of hardware that is badly spoilt by poor software. It is not very good in the wife-friendliness stakes. Perhaps we are just spoilt because we previously had a Tivo PVR which was a joy for all to use.

I would recommend that you wait. This year, Freeview reception will improve as the digital switchover happens (I am told that enables them to increase the power of the transmissions for some reason). It is also possible that the quality of Freeview HD will exceed the quality of BBC Freesat HD although nobody seems sure of that.

If you are within the Virgin Media cable area then I would recommend that you wait. They are releasing a Tivo PVR this year which really will be wife-friendly.

Whatever you do, I certainly would agree with Captain Gadget that the addition of a Logitech Harmony One programmable remote increases the wife-friendliness factor considerably.

I guess OP has Freesat already so can gauge if wife can use that - Freesat+ is just the same except you can press record on the guide, pause playback and there'sd a button to access the list of recordings. Recordings are stored in folders if you chose to record a whole series.

I know tivo is meant to be the dogs wotsits but only virgin media customers have any prospect of it.

Word from Humax was that Freeview HD+ boxes will be expensive initially.

What does your wife struggle with ?

I must agree as far as that goes, it's fairly poorly designed, and the remote control (like previous Humax remotes) is absolutely abysmal.

If you're a geek, and you don't mind a poor remote, the boxes are fine - but user friendly they aren't. Mind you, compared with a separate receiver and recorder, it's easier than that!

I admit I don't use the original remote - seems to have quite poor output power so very directional, my (fairly cheap) programmable remote however I can point anywhere in the room.

Goodmans might have a better remote.

I struggle with why you mention "geek" - as I say my wife and kids and even in-laws (!!) can use it fine ... press guide, press record, press media button, hell if thats geekish I really want to see what you call simple. Its not like the Topfield Freesat+ recorder I had before, you can load on all your own extra added programs from the PC and replace the UI completely, thats geeky.

Only bit of the HDR UI that I find geeky (plain dumb actually) is the piece for mass deletion and moving recordings around - but then I'm lucky if I get the wife to delete at all never mind mass delete, so not an issue.

I wouldn't recommend jumping in just now, there is a new box on the way from Humax that will do everything the current one can and more. IMO the current box was a bit of quick hack/bodge job in order to be first-to-market. I expect the next one will be a great improvement.
FreeviewHD is also not far away and looks to be getting good support from manufacturers (if that is an option in your region).
So unless you have too great an urge to have something right now I'd suggest waiting a bit and see what becomes available in the next few months.

I wouldn't class this as a problem, if people research what they are buying they would know from the outset. It's like buying a car and saying the only problem with it is the lack of air conditioning which I knew about before I bought it.

If OP wants to stream around the home then may make sense to wait for next gen Humax box. OP has already said he has v.poor Freeview reception so thats not a factor for him.

I'm sure FreeviewHD will get very good manufacturer take-up, as the market is larger than Freesat - equally sure that the first few offerings in this arena will be both expensive and carry with them a whole range of new issues. FreeviewHD will also be hamstrung by bandwidth, there is at least hope with Freesat that with some juggling of Sky channels to wider beams there could be a fair amount of spare transmission slots - longer term new satellites will help.

I have the feeling that the next gen box is much further away than everyone thinks, especially as Humax are about to release a current gen 500GB HDR.

I wouldn't be surprised if the next gen isn't along until 2011, or perhaps November this year.

Oh FFS. I bet the OP is laughing there socks off at the thought of Virgin vable in Donegal.. And Freeview aint gonna get any better either in the Republic.

If you get the Foxsat HDR now you will not be disappointed. It is good and very easy to use. You would have to be pretty thick not to pick up the use of the remote fairly quickly. Saying that there should be a new box out soon so maybe worthwhile waiting.

If you purchase the Grundig rather than the Humax, I would say go for it.
Picture quality on the Grundig is such an improvement over the Humax, and is so easy to use.

Seems like currently iplayer availability is the advantage of the HDR but I guess OP won't get that anyways, not being in UK.

If Humax can't get that new fancy box out quickly they need to inject some interest in the HDR - come on Bobcat we know you could give us some network functions if you wanted to .... maybe just FTP or samba ?

You might want to learn a little geography. Donegal is in the northern part of Ireland even if it is politically part of the Republic. There is a good chance of Freeview improving in that area but it would of course depend on the OP's actual location in the region.

I am in the process of replacing my Humax HDR with a Goodmans GFSDTR500HD (same as Grundig).

In my opinion, the Humax has more bells and whistles, but the Goodmans is a better end-consumer product. It boots faster, Guide navigation is faster and less jerky, Genre tabs on the EPG are a huge improvement, non-Freesat channels are available without going into non-Freesat mode and live buffer recording works from start of buffer.

Of course the Humax has a usable USB which I will miss and the Humax has the iPlayer ahead of other makes.

I'd say the Humax is best for the enthusiast, but the Goodmans or Grundig if you want a simple and intuitive interface.

[QUOTE
What does your wife struggle with ?[/quote]

IMHO her patronising husband!

IMHO her patronising husband![/quote]

Quite agree.

I'm a 'Wife' and I find it really simple to use. We also have Sky and that is just as easy.
In fact my 'Husband' leaves most of the recording etc to me.

mastanlem

I am sorry, I don't mean to be patronising, but my wife does have trouble in understanding which input is being used at any one time, and how to set up recordings from our present set up despite the fact that we have been using it wth various set top boxes for about five years now. She usually just ends up recording stuff via the HDD recorder's analogue inbuilt tuner, the picture quality is awful.
I only wanted to know if th Freesat + boxes would really simplify things.
It is usually the husband who figures these things out. Women generally have much more important things to be concerned with than tv, and lets face it tv hardly matters in the grand scheme of things.

It is very easy to use, both for your wife who 'has trouble understanding' and yourself who 'sometimes makes mistakes'

I will consider my wrists slapped then..