Re remote a lot of folk who thought like you changed to £25 worth of Harmony 300 remote. & are now contented.
It allows you to control up to 4 devices, which might appeal to you.

Re EPG loading delays, an earlier post re-educated me into using "Schedule" then "red" It is quick & does work. I had stopped using it because I neglected to program "schedule" into the Harmony.
Hope this helps.

In respect of the original post, no regrets at all and would buy Humax again.
We have had Sky here in the south of France for 5 years now and finally changed to a Humax HDR thus saving the monthly fee.
Very pleased with the new Humax unit that even my wife can use she just has to make sure her long nails hit the correct controller buttons!
The only thing I have had to do is fit two 6Db attenuators to reduce signal strength for CH4 HD but otherwise most impressed with the unit.
Together with a UK VPN link and a Buffalo router running DD-WRT we also have iPlayer and ITV player.

Many thanks to all on this website for the "knowledge" to be able to do all this.
Rob

Jumping in here : I live near Paris and have a sky Pace box with a freeview card so that I can watch English TV, mostly BBC, ITV Channel 5, obviously I can't record anything

As my TV is a full HD model I thought it might be nice to grab some English HD

If I decide on a model that records programs - would this model be perfect TWIN TUNER FREESAT 320GB PVR, I only have 1 LNB on my dish (though I could change this) ?
I presume that only with 1 LNB I can't watcha channel while recording another channel

If I decide that I don't want to record anything am I right in thinking that model would be perfect Humax FOXSATHD ?

Or are there better more suitable Humex models for me

many thanks for any help / suggestions
Trevor

Changing the LNB is simple and cheap, buy a quad LNB and a twin shotgun cable and you can replace the old cable with no drilling required.

Its very simple depending on the area where the cabling/dish are.

If you can't install a Dual or Quad LNB (currently less than £10) because you don't have access to run an extra cable, then the Humax is by far the best option for a PVR. It can offer limited record two or record one + watch one (or extremely limited record two plus watch one) capabilities through a single cable (looped through to feed both tuners).

If you have or can install a standard PVR feed (i.e. two cables), then some people who have moved on from the Humax claim that the newer boxes are better. See the Echostar and Samsung threads. There are no newer Humax Freesat STBs to compete.

Cheers,
David.

I can install a dual LNB, this would not be a problem, I would record quite rarely so this is an option that would be nice but have lived without it for years

The main question is what decoder to replace the Pace and get the most from HD TV

Thanks

If you can live without recording, the best for free HD is a Sky HD box and use it with your current viewing card. You'll get one of your preferred channels, C5 in HD then.

Well so far I'm looking to go to a Humax FOXSATHDR
TWIN TUNER FREESAT 320GB PVR

I am unsure though on channel 5 or 5+1 as I have a freeview card and when I take this out I loose these channels

Will I have them on the Humex as I don't see a card slot ?

Channel 5 is available of Freesat but 5+1 is not. There is a CAM slot on the Foxsat HDR but it is not usable with a Sky card.

great thanks for clearing that up for me, looks like I'll be ordering it in the next couple of days

I read that I will need to input a postal code when setting it up, I presume any UK one will do ?

Use a Manchester one and you get a better quality ITV HD.

Many thanks for your help

FOXSATHDR - TWIN TUNER FREESAT 320GB PVR on order; should recievs it next week

I had forgotten that I have two dishes up, both pointing to the same sat (I think), I présume that I can just plug one of each to the LNB inputs rather than putting a twin LNB on one dish

again thanks for your help

PS can someone give me a Manchester postal code please

You presume correctly . I use Manchester Town Hall M2 4JA

Does using a Manchester postcode really improve ITV HD.
I find that hard to believe

There is no Channel 5+1 on any platform. There is no such thing as a Freeview card - there is a Freesat From Sky card that allows viewing of the FTV (Free to view NOT Freeview which is the terrestrial service) channels. Are you getting confused with the FTV channels from 5 - 5*, 5*+1 etc.

Channel 5 does not appear on the EPG on Sky boxes without a viewing card (for reasons known only by Channel 5) but can be viewed by adding to "other channels". As Channel 5 is FTA it can be viewed on virtually any satellite receiver including all freesat ones.

ITV1-HD London is 1440 x 1080 pixels, ITV1-HD Granada is 1920 x 1080 pixels. It shares a transponder with STV-HD and encrypted ITV1-HD West Midlands (needs a sky box with a card to view) also 1920 x 1080.

I think you will find the CI slot is usable with a Diablo CAM and Sky card which will work with all FTV and subscription channels except the premium channels (i.e. not Sky Movies, Sky Sports ESPN) on an appropriate FreesatFromSky (FSFS) or subscription card in the Humax in non-freesat mode. However the Sky card will need housing in a Sky box connected to a dish overnight every 3 or 4 weeks in order for the viewing card to receive its "keep alive" signal which the Humax and CAM will not pass through to the card. With a FSFS card this would allow viewing of a further 10 FTV channels on the Humax including 5*, 5 USA, Pick TV, Channel 5HD, Motors TV, Viva, LFC TV and some of their +1s.

1. Can't comment as I'm not familiar with any details of a newer model, but it does take time for Humax products to mature and become usable. (Although sometimes they take a step backwards - the last update being a prime example).

2. Not familiar with samsung or echostar products, but after my experience with Humax, I'd definitely consider other offerings.

3. Pass, I don't use non freesat mode.

4. Yes and no. I don't regret the savings I've made over the past few years, however you do get what you pay for - don't expect lots of interesting channels on Freesat. I do miss the slick and efficient interface on Sky boxes. The Humax interface is quite clunky e.g. the delete function is on different remote buttons depending on context. Both systems (in my experience) share a similar level of flaws/instability/failed recordings.

With the knowledge I have now, I'd have probably not gone down the freesat route. I was hoping we'd have seen more of the other freeview channels by now. I think freesat will get better in time, but I think it will be many years before it's as attractive as freeview. It will never compete with Sky (except on price of course).

Thanks, I learn something new each day

Foxsat-hdr recording non freesat channels.

A bog standard Foxsat-hdr can record non-freesat channels using non freesat mode (including multiple satellites).

Note the following

There is no timer recording starts so each recording has to be manually initiated.

You can't record in Freesat mode and non freesat mode at the same time and normally freesat mode timer recordings will take precedence.

A networked hdr using the Raydon/Mogi modified firmware can add non-freesat channels to the freesat channel list. As well as streaming content to other points this allows manual timer recordings to be set for channels not on the freesat epg.

Anyone with a degree of commonsence would consider the fixing of the power cut bug a major improvement compared to the 40 second delay in setting recordings after pressing guide. The latter is not a problem anyway because the cached epg is always instantly available.

Fair enough, I can't disagree with that, however I'm speaking from my own experience, and as I've been fortunate enough not suffer from power cuts, it's a step back for me. It's not a biggie, but it's an annoyance I didn't suffer before the update. Given that it's a huge leap forward for others though, I'll not complain about it!

After 3 years the box (thanks to firmware mods made by some bright folks) is still arguably top or next to top of the pile - thats a good investment in my book.

But no, I wouldn't buy it now, or any current unit for that matter, holding out for my next recorder which must have :
- dual HD tuners (satellite or terrestrial)
- a 7 day easy to use EPG (probably from the Internet)
- ability to access recordings, including unencrypted HD recordings over my network

Nice to haves:
- DLNA client
- DLNA server
- ability to transcode down for streaming to internet
- ability to remotely set recordings via the web

I'm specifically not bothered about the following in my next box :
- Freesat or Freeview badges as these tie the manufacturers into not providing my must have features.
- iplayer (my bluray does it nicely)

I'm sure the next couple of years will bring something that fits the above.

@swedish cook,

If your client and server were both DLNA compliant, it wouldn't matter if the HD streams were encrypted.


Some people have been expecting a nice easy to use non-branded STB in "the next couple of years" for at least five years now. However, the solutions that have come along are expensive (e.g. ReelBox) and/or only work if you're looking for a new time-consuming hobby (e.g. MythTV).

You need a large market to be cost effective. You need branding to legally access the features and compliance regime that make the boxes easy to use and full-featured. So IMO the easy to use, cost effective, full-featured solutions will always be "branded", and so will always implement the content protection that you don't want.

If I'm wrong, someone should be able to make their fortune by creating and selling the exact box that you want - it's been technologically possible for a couple of years already.

Cheers,
David.

Just for info, after some help from this forum, I bought the Humax, so far so good, it records just fine, the picture quality is great, and so all in all I pleased