...don't use timeslip mode on the Humax. As folks have said, it has other issues to.

Your thread title is completely misleading - the foibles you've found are to do with the Humax box - they have nothing to do with Freesat itself.

AFAIK Freesat do not state "your box cannot save the live pause buffer as a recording" or "your box must leave chase-play when the live programme ends so that the viewer misses the end" or even "your box can't show the current programme within the EPG".

This isn't Sky - if you don't like the implementation on one box, you have the choice of several others which will be quite different.

Cheers,
David.

You need to join the vob files together using software like tsmuxergui and output to a mts format. Then use a programme called AV2HDR to create the two extra support files required for the hdr to replay the footage. Both are free.

Of course I only record programs I want to watch later. Live pause, which I've had for years, sorts out the rest. This is now standard functionality and should be taken for granted in any modern PVR.

(Start Live Pause at the start of Emmerdale and wait until Cornotation street ends. Then zoom forward to the end. No adds, no Emmerdale, no Corrie. There you go, you've reclaimed your life from the SOAPs. )

I am with you my friend.

Beginning to think I've made a blunder cancelling my Sky! I've installed my newly bought Humax Foxsat-HDR this evening but missing the simplicity of Sky already!

When we first dropped Sky I got a lot of "where are the food channels" from the wife and "where has Cartoon Network gone" from the kids. Reality is once you have enough programs on series link the whole family has more recordings than they can actually watch and it falls to me to go around deleting the excess.

When I win the lottery yes Sky will return to the household most certainly, in the meantime I save the £ every month and smile, the kids and wife are content with what they have to watch.

A significant minority of people with PVRs simply don't watch live TV. Why should the time and date of the broadcast dictate when you watch it?! Us people in this minority think you people in the majority (watching live TV) are weird dinosaurs.

Anyway, while the Humax box clearly has a few specific issues, I think most people automatically think "this isn't as good" when they change PVRs - it's a symptom of none of them being perfect. You have to live with it for a while, and accept change, to get a balanced view.

Realising this makes me somewhat wary of reviews, fanboys, and moaners. It's a select group of people on certain internet forums which I trust to tell the honest balanced truth about a new PVR.

Cheers,
David.

I would alway take functionality over ease of use. Mrs finbaar has different views though but she has grown to accept the Hummy. One thing we both agree on is that the remote is sh*te. Still I would rather pick contaminated needles out of a hospital sink with my teeth than go back to Sky.

I think it is just what you are used to....
I find the HDR dead easy and obvious, but had no idea how to use a SKY HD when I was at parents over Christmas. It just seemed so illogical.

They could hardly make it any simpler.

You go to the guide from where you can either watch or record.

Or you go to the media list and click on what you want to watch. Click again and it starts.

Where are you finding complexity?

I've used a Harmony One for a couple of years now. Best remote ever. The first (after many attempts) that actually fits in the hand and doesn't require that you assign functions to weird keys to get them all on.

There are cheaper alternatives but what I like most is its concept of 'activity'. Basically you tell it what you want to do and it takes care of switching things on/off and selecting inputs as required.

Compared to Sky it might seem odd having 'Schedule' separate from 'Media'.

With Sky it's all just 'The Planner' and I have to say that I find that more logical.

Then there's the weird keys on the remote. Bob - if you're hovering - I really think that 'Opt+' should have been dumped. And I can't remember - is 'Media' tucked away under a flap like 'Library' was on the 9200?

But one is a two dimensional list by channel and time and the other is a linear list of content. Even if you have them both on the same button/screen, surely you have to switch modes?


Yes, that 'Opt+' is weird. I couldn't fit it on my Harmony so I have the original available but only have to use it once in a blue moon - in fact I forget what for.

I must say that the sky remote has always been complemented as a very good design whereas when I changed from the Humax remote to the Harmony it made using the Humax a much more pleasant experience.

It's never been an issue for me. Basically it's a list of recordings. Those that have completed have 'Recorded', 'Viewed', 'Failed' or 'Clashed' in the second column. Those in progress are highlighted in red and show 'Recording'. Those not due yet just show the day or the date if it's beyond 7 days. On the HD boxes there are categories so you can view just recordings if you want:

http://crave.cnet.co.uk/televisions/...hing-49301439/

Third image down - although I turn the PiG/mini-tv off myself.

But I definitely prefer the design and operation of the Humax EPG. One great feature is that if you're watching a 4:3 source it flips to WS when you bring the guide up.

Sky boxes are dodgy over 4:3. Some TVs will respond to the HDMI signal but others (like mine) don't. Only Sky inserts pillar boxes in their broadcast so for the rest I have to switch my TV manually. There's not much 4:3 material around but I encounter it from time to time.

You also get more width with Humax (ooh err, missus ). Sky's 90 minutes is annoying. Most things are an hour long so it's enough to give a taster of the title but not enough. At least with Humax you can see two programmes at once.

The remote is horrendous.

A sign of a good remote is one you can operate in the dark after a couple of days use.

Sky have a great remote as the buttons are different.

The Humax remote has rows and rows of buttons and you need to be a mutant to use it without using both hands.

That's the difference though, Sky HD box only lists the above. Humax media lists recorded content from tv and radio, also stored content of music and photos, and not just on the HDD, content on other connected devices is available. If they did this the way sky boxes do it it would be way too complex for your average sky user..

This totally confused me.

Then I realised you said Media and schedule not Media and Guide.

So ignore all the gobbledygook I wrote about 2 dimensional and linear.

Fair points, both of you.

I would say that Sky's EPG is simple but lacking in some functionality. It also fails to take advantage of HD resolution. Look at the now/next banner in those examples. The info banner for a recording during playback is just as large, has wasted space and there's two pages. Stupid. Humax has more functionality and is way better laid out but is possibly a bit too complex. Same with the remotes from what I remember of them although I'd probably say the difference was even more marked and this time Sky's wins out

That's obviously down to user preference - or just because you're used to it.

I've used a PVR for seven years. I've never had Sky. The idea that I'd press the button to see a list of things I've recorded (you know, the button you press when you think "I want to watch something"), and it includes things that haven't even been broadcast yet?!?! Idiotic.

"Shall I watch something, or shall I look at a list of programmes that my STB might record in the coming days - oh, I can't decide - I really must do both with the push of a single button!" Nah, can't see it myself.

Mind you, I can't see the point of "schedule" at all. It's a hang over from the days of dumb VHS recorders. But on a PVR, you set series links, it records them. The series finishes, it can't record any more. You set individual recordings, and it records them. There's a clash? Give me a simple list of options. The whole point is that the user never has to worry about the concept of a list of timer recordings.

There is, I'll grant you, the amnesiac's question "did I set it for so-and-so" - but that happens so rarely I could just find the thing in the EPG and see if it's highlighted.


Now, if I switched from Freesat to Sky, would I grow to love some things about the Sky interface? I expect so. Would I miss some nice features from Freesat? I'm sure I would.

Would I be able to say "sod this, I'm getting a different Sky STB with a different interface that I like better?" Er, no.

Cheers,
David.

The Humax annoys me by keeping ended series in the schedules list, the sky box looks even more annoying than that.
Once thing Humax should do is give us more options to let us set up the box how we like it.

How hard is it to ask the user if they want the old recordings removed from the schedule?

It's not the fault of the Humax it's the way that Freesat+ and Freeview+ work. There is no end of series flag so it's impossible for any freeview/freesat+ pvr to know the series has ended. If you don't delete them yourselves they will auto delete after 13wks (the standard gap before the codes can be used again). There are lots of posts from users who complain they dissapear after 13wks, you can't win

I would prefer the Series to be listed separately from the actual timers arising there from.

Heh but it's not quite like that. The programmes due to record appear at the bottom because it's sorted by date by default. Right now I have to page down three times before I reach stuff that's pending.

But I grant it's a minor thing and you're absolutely right that it comes down to what you're used to. My biggest bugbear with the HDR is Opt+ and the way that 'Guide' is different from 'Schedule+red button'. Well that and the weak IR handling.

My Samsung box is incredibly sensitive. Right now the remote is behind a cushion on the sofa next to me (hidden from my budgie ). It's pointing at another cushion which together blocks off the 'exit', 90 degress away from the Sky box. Despite that the Sky box is still responding to it where it lies. Lord only knows how - reflection off the sofa, to the ceiling across to the box?

I don't have a major gripe with the HDR - in fact I think it's a better EPG - but I can understand why some would see Humax to be more complicated.

Yes you can, you disappear them from the schedule for 13 weeks and then delete them after that.

If a show is cancelled because of sport. It will disappear and then reappear when the show comes back on the EPG.

No fussing about and everyone is happy, no clogging up of the schedules, no missing programs because you have to delete all the clutter.

Which is what Sky does..but with the added feature that no-one really knows how long it keeps old links. In fact there's anecdotal evidence that it varies. Still it leaves you with that frisson of excitement never knowing if a season break will recover by itself or not