I am about to move house to an area which has no Virgin cable and only restricted Freeview from a relay transmitter.
Having previously been a dedicated Freeview person, my only option now is either Sky or Freesat. This really means Freesat as I am against paying money to Mr Murdoch, but I have no experience of the boxes for Freesat. I currently use a Humax for Freeview.
Can anyone advise if I should stick with Humax for Freesat or go for the Sagem box which seems to be about £40 cheaper. Is it OK?
Thanks in advance for any advice offered.

Most people here will tell you to go with the Humax.

I haven't tried the Sagem but I can say I have been very happy with the Humax for over two years now.

If you go for the Humax, budget for an All For One or Harmony type zapper because the remote that comes with it is dire.

I am very happy with my Humax Foxsat HDR which also happens to be the market leader.

I've got two sagem's and there liked, yes they crash (not often) and need a reset but I like them there's a few missed reording but I set up repeats

If you want the market leader, most attractive looking (and most popular box on here), go for the Humax.
However, I have the Sagem DTR94 250. This box gives a sharper, cleaner picture quality on SD (used for most channels) than the Humax. The HD picture quality on the Humax and Sagem boxes looks identical.
Also, I have a Humax non-PVR. This often loses sound-vision synch, requiring a channel up-channel down change to correct. (The Sagem never fails in this respect).

Chris.

I have two Sagem DTR94 320 that I paid £199.99 pound each and I am well over the moon with them. I have had a few troubles, but you get that with any box including the SKY+ box and SKY HD box that I have had.

To be honest I am glad that I have moved away from Sky as I was paying a lot for multi-room as well as the packages that I had which I do not miss as they were mostly full of repeats.

Thanks to everyone for their replies. I think I will probably stick with a Humax as I have had it for about two years without any real problems.
Can I ask another? I have read that I can watch BBCiPlayer on Freesat if I use homeplug adaptors and ethernet cables. The adaptors seem to cost between £60-£120. Will this arrangement let me watch any other services?

Are you moving to North Lancashire

Yes - ITV player [coming soon]

No, Bedsit Bob, very annoyingly I am moving approx. 2 miles within the same city to a riverside situation. The river has hills on both banks which cut out the strong signals from two nearby main transmitters. My new area is served by a relay transmitter, hence the restricted Freeview. Of course I was not aware of all this before I bought the new house!

I found myself in a similar situation to you pondsman.

I moved 5 miles, then found out there was a ruddy big hill between me and the main transmitter.

If I'd moved only 4 miles, I'd still have access to it.

Not only did the relay only have some of the Freeview channels (no Dave, Channel 20, Five US etc.), but the signal kept dropping out, so I let my licence run the last two months, and didn't bother renewing it.

Unless you look on the internet and get the beta code.

The Humax has a large following because they were for ages the only option. Remember people always reccommend the one they bought because it sort of validates their decision! Its vey rare that people own two different brands and objectively reccommend one over the other.

I'm no different - buy a sagem! It less expensive, great picture, more modern - Humax HDR is now a bit long in the tooth and they have been promising a fix for that power off issue for literally years...

I have Sky boxes in the UK & in Spain and take the Sagem (dtr94500HD) over to Spain as it is sooo easy to set up and use - it also has better tuner(s) than the Sky as it holds on to Astra 2D signals much longer over in Spain. Had many crashes with the Sky box (Pace 830) but the Sagem has only crashed once (my fault - I switched it off before the fan turned off whislt I was doing a trial factory reset!).
Incidentally, I have used different postcodes when in Spain in order to get the best channel receptions and have found that a Manchester postcode allows ITV HD over there with brilliant picture & sound.
The Sagem has also been totally reliable with recordings....