I live in Italy and have been watching the Free to air channels off Astra 2 for 12 years. However my old trusty FTA IRD has given up the ghost and I want to get a new IRD with a hard drive in order to time-shift and record programs at awkward times.

after a bit of research I am down to either Humax Foxsat HDR or Sagem DTR94 series. Does anyone have experience with both set-tops for comparison?

Also I see that all the FTA channels are now organized in the "Freesat group" with their own standard EPG. Does anyone know if you need to hook up a modem like the old Skyboxes, or register in order to use the EPG, or will the manufacturers built-in EPG be sufficient?

Provided you can get a signal from Eurobird 1, Astra 2A South, Astra 2B south and hardest of all Astra 2D a freesat box should just work. All you have to do input a valid UK postcode to allocate regional variations to 101 (BBC1). 102 (BBC 2), 103 (ITV 1) and 119 (ITV1-HD) there's nothing else required.

It's not the manafacturers epg it's the freesat epg. That's all freesat do, provide a seperate epg to skys and it's transmitted from EB1

Hello Sampaguita, welcome to the group, I do not know the Sagem box and have seen very few posts mentioning it. However I and apparently at least 80% of this forum would recommend the Humax HDR as the current best of the bunch. Nothing special is needed to use the EPG excepting you must choose a UK postcode on first use (determines which UK regions are selected for the lowest channel numbers.

I have been receiving all FTA programs from the 28.2 East platform for years without problem (except in case of severe storms), a 1.5 metre antenna is the solution.

I assumed that the Freesat consortium transmitted their own EPG, however on some reviews I have read about a manufacturer having its own Guide (or something called guide plus) which some reviewers rate better then the Freesat EPG.

On this forum I note Humax users dominate! Any one used a Sagem box or any other type?

[quote=Sampaguita;44397793
I assumed that the Freesat consortium transmitted their own EPG, however on some reviews I have read about a manufacturer having its own Guide (or something called guide plus) which some reviewers rate better then the Freesat EPG.

[/QUOTE]

Freesat boxes only have the Freesat epg. Series and accurate recording and making reservations from the epg are heavily dependent on mheg support provided by the epg. To be badged Freesat the kit has to conform to fairly rigid specs and 3rd party epgs are most definetely not supported

I use a Sagem DTR 94 250. I'm very pleased with the picture quality and operation of it.
Be careful to make sure that you can receive both Astra and Eurobird on your 1.5 metre dish. The Freesat EPG is on EB1 28.5 degrees east and Astra sats are 28.2 degrees east. In the UK a mini dish is all that's required. The larger the dish, the more directional the dish becomes. This might cause you a problem with your 1.5m dish.
Check that you can receive 11.426 Horizontal (the Freesat EPG frequency).

Chris.

Thanks for the info Chris, pity I can't check as my old IRD is kaput, got to borrow one from somewhere.

If you recognise any of the following you had EB1 reception. Ignore the lcn's they are the freesat epg ones.

If you were able to view ITV-Hd using add channels on a Sky-HD box before ITV1-HD was added to the sky epg you are 100% safe (It's on the freesat home transponder).

Thanks, I do recognize some of the channels. I also went to our guest apartments and used the set-top boxes there, the old Sky box doesn't want to tune, but the FTA finds the transponder at 11428 (not 11426)H, 27500 2/3, so I guess I am OK (except for discovering one of the twin LNB's is shot, so will need another plus one for the twin tuner Freesat HDD I assume).

If you have a Freesat box like a Humax, can you pick up the BBC stream channels (the ones that you get with the red button on a skybox)? I used to tune my old FTA into the BBC transponder (I think 11954 H) and set the channels into user favourites. I read somewhere that you can't record off the red button, but what if you tuned directly into the transponder?

My understanding it the Humax treats the stream channels as data, so that you cannot see or record them individually. However there is red button activity on BBC channels so for example you can watch the F1 forum if you wish.
On a different topic the Humax does have Diseqc capability allowing you to view more than one satellite, which might be useful in your location.http://www.astra2d.com/diseqc.html

The difference between 11426 and 11428 is just down to rounding used in the internal channel database, it's the same transponder. If you buy the hdr you can use both tuners with only a single cable to allow dual channel recording and 3rd channel viewing as a stop gap measure (It has a tuner 1 out to tuner 2 in loop capability and the firmware understands the limitations of 2nd channel recording and 3rd channel viewing when used in this manner). This makes the hdr the best option if you have only the ability to provide a single cable and afaik it's the only freesat box (sky boxes can't) to utilise it's tuners capability to demux two channels from the same mux at the same time. Just be aware if you install with one cable and then upgrade you need a factory reset to change the firmware to full independent twin lnb working. GC has answered your other question

The above is very good advice regarding the Humax. I'm pretty sure the Sagem isn't capable of single LNB operation. (I can't see anything in the menu anyway). So the Humax is likely to be the HDR for you, in Italy.
Please note that the box and recordings from the Freesat EPG will show in UK time, not local time. Although I stand to be corrected on this.

Chris.

In freesat mode you are 100% correct, in free to air mode bizarrely afaik the time displayed in now and next varies by channel.

Yeah I was only splitting fine hairs ya know! Actually i had to check out the frequency to check the bit rate and FEC to tune the receiver.

Your information about the use of a single LNB is great, I wasn't looking forward to inserting yet another cable through a 100 year old attic and ceiling. This tips the scale for Humax for sure.

Thanks to all who answered on this forum, its so useful to be able to get all this information from users. I love it.

More info on single cable (and dual) working

http://www.hummy.org.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=5596

another question to the Humax users group please:

I have downloaded the user manual and it states that "if connecting with a single (LNB) cable using loop-through, you will have limited functionality".

Graham's thread on the other forum deals with what you can watch while recording two channels.

So just want to double check that a single LNB w loop-through can record up to 2 channels or watch one and record another simultaneously. I am not interested in trying to access 3 at a time. Apologies to Graham who stated this already.

Also any feedback about the reliability? The best deal I can find used is on Amazon (no problem they know me well), but I found a few used models on e-bay at half the price. should I go for a new one with the full warranty?

BTW several years ago I bought a used Thomson Skybox to use as an FTA unit, based on Digital Spy posters recommendation that it had the best tuner sensitivity of all Skyboxes. Its a great unit and never hs given me a problem.

Graham's spreadsheet does show you this and what the limitations are - however it may be loaded by some versions of Excel with certain functions disabled (Like Macros) - If you see a warning that this has happened - enable the functions otherwise the "one" button does not do anything.

The quick answer is with limitations.

As far as the box is concerned watching or recording a second channel is the same, if it can be viewed it can be recorded.

Difference between a single cable and two cables is that the second channel you are viewing (or recording) has to be the same polarity and in the same frequency band (high/ low) as the first recording,

Third channel viewing depends on what you are recording.

If the two channels share a transponder then only 1 tuner is needed so for two cables thats any channel in the epg, for one cable the third channel is constrained to any channel with the same frequency band/polarisation as above. In both cases the 3rd channel can be time shifted as well.

If the two recordings are on different transponders then you can only view a 3rd channel that shares a transponder as either recording (same for 1/2 cables).

When one of the channels is BBC1 switching to a different region to record can make a massive difference to the 3rd channel viewing list.

Anyone with a PC and genuine Excel there is a completely automated macro driven application at the link that works all this out for you by simply clicking on the channels you want to record. It can also tell you which region to swtch to make a specific 3rd programme available (if it's possible)

Thanks for all the useful info.I should have remembered that there would have been a conflict in tuning with both transponder and polarity, I did used to be in the trade one upon a while (even designed a PVR functionality set some 12 years ago)

I will start with a single LNB and add on another if and when I need it.

E-bay sellers refuse to ship to Italy so will go with a new set, better anyway.

Graham, are you employed by Humax? You are a mine of knowledge about the FoXsat unit.

No, a retired electrical engineer (National Grid) but a user since launch.

The Humax Freesat+ has a sensitive receiver which is good for the Astra 2D Horizontal transponders. I know Amazon.co.uk have them for 210 pounds, and they deliver to Europe.