Hi all
My freeview signal is going to pants ( just lost itv ) so I am thinking of upgrading to Freesat HDR

I have been offered a Samsung for £195 and a 500gb Humax for £205 and of course there is the refurbed 320gb Humax for £169.

i am a total noob to this so can i ask for a reccomendation on what box to go for.

some of the factors that i am intersted are:

1) Ability to transfer videos onto an external hdd ( and possibly play them back on my laptop)

2) the ability to play videos from an external hdd ( pref without video conversion)

3) ease of upgrading HDD ( only really an issue with the cheap Humax)

4) easiest to use and most stable

i see that the samsung has iplayer etc but i guess that the humax doesnt.

sorry for being so demanding

many thanks

Can't speak for the Samsung

Foxsat-hdr can transfer SD recordings and HD recordings made manually using non-freesat mode to a usb drive. Using modified firmware SD (and non encrypted) HD can also be streamed to a pc (or dnla TV) over a network

External video can be played back but free software is required to build two support files needed for playback


Upgrading the hdd up to 1TB is very easy. Larger drives can be used but these have to be partitioned and formatted on a PC

The Humax has iplayer and currently uniquely ITV player

Mine has been near perfect since Nov 2008.

graham

thanks for that quick reply.
On thinking further I realise that transferring video onto the pvr is not really an issue as if i want to i would just plug in my laptop to the TV.

I have googled changing the HDD very simple but the drives are still expensive.

I am a bit confused on the method to copy video files off to my laptop, you mention non-freesat mode what is this please?

and if i do copy them across will i be able to watch them on my laptop without any conversion or is it just a way to store them.
many thanks

Drives are currently very expensive due to the flooding situation in Thailand. A month or so ago you could get a consumer electronics 1TB HDD for around £50.00.

Non-freesat mode turns the box into a generic free to air receiver.

This means you can

View other free channels at 28.2/28.5E that aren't on the Freesat epg. You can also use lnb's aligned on different satellites (or a motorised dish) using a special switch to auto select the correct lnb for the channel you want to watch/record. eg add a lnb on 19.2E you can watch the Grand Prix next year when not on BBC using a German Channel.

Record Freesat-HD channels without the copy once and encryption imposed by the broadcasters.

With a standard Foxsat-hdr connecting a usb drive lets you copy recorded content to the drive. SD recordings have no encryption and can be copied ad nauseum and being a normal mpeg2 transport stream file can be replayed on a PC or burnt to DVD blanks.HD recordings made in Freesat mode are encrypted as they are written to the HDD. Normally they will have a copy once restriction. Once copied to the usb drive they can't be copied again. All recordings copied to the usb drive can be replayed from there (including the encrypted ones).
HD recordings recorded without encryption will replay on your PC provided it's fast enough to handle 1080i video. They can also be burnt in AVCHD format to DVD blanks (for up to about 40 mins for a single layer blank) or blu-ray blanks. These can be played back on pC's with the right codecs, and blu-ray players (including the PS3).

For recordings made without encryption there is an alternative to copying to usb. By installing a patch to the existing firmware you can copy non encrypted recordings directly to a PC across your home network. Even better if you have DNLA tv's/ media servers (and of course your networked pc's) you can stream recorded content directly to these regardless of what the main box user is doing with box.

USB drives using FAT32 (Max file size 4GB) and EXT3 can be used. The latter Linux format allows large HD recordings to be copied.

PHEW

I've had both Samsung & Humax and don't think there is much to choose between them really.

I think the Samsung is slightly quieter than the Humax and is easier to connect to a home network. Because it was on a different floor to the server I used Solwise powerline networking adapters and it was very easy & effective. When you viewed your media library on the Samsung you could see the internal HDD and the network content seperately and choose accordingly. I used it to play music from the server through the home cinema system via the Samsung & view pics. likewise. The option to play video off the server was there but never did it. I also never tried send recorded TV from the Samsung to the server so can't tell you if it is possible.

The only other rather minor point is the remote. I didn't like the feel or layout of the Samsung's remote but it would work at a much wider angle than the Humax's, which does need to be pointed directly at the machine. Not a problem as I use a Logitech Harmony 3000 with either.

[quote=bsw;54786755
The only other rather minor point is the remote. I didn't like the feel or layout of the Samsung's remote but it would work at a much wider angle than the Humax's, which does need to be pointed directly at the machine. Not a problem as I use a Logitech Harmony 3000 with either.[/QUOTE]

Open the flap on the Humax and scrape off the black lacquer in the little round window. Newer ones don't have the lacquer. Also check the film protector under the flap has been removed (It's very hard to spot)

Yes thanks Graham, I've done all that in the past but it is still fairly directional. IMHO the Samsung is better in that respect.

I don't think it's the remote, mine will control the TV whichever way you point it it has to be pointing roughly at the hdr to work. Logitech Harmony 1000 is the same.

OK the fault is with the HDR not the remote. The Samsung HDR / remote does not have that problem.

Thank you so much for the incredibly helpful and detailed replies it is greatly aprreciated

Just realised I didn't answer your last question. The straightforward way is to use a direct cat5 connection to your router or a network switch or use a pair of homeplug adaptors. It's possible to create a wireless connection using a wireless bridge. If set to DHCP the connection should work completely seamlessly.

graham

thanks so much

now what i do from you is to tell my wife how important this is

seriously thanks alot

Bribe her, tell her the soaps look so much better in High Definition.

well the dish is in the dining room and the box is on its way and the installation man is booked for saturday afternoon so all is on track.
One last question ( i hope)
i have a wireless and wired network. There is a master Pc (wired) which has a shared drive ( which has our work files etc on it)
the shared drive can be accessed by the other wireless laptops on the network.
If i plug the humax into the network via cat 5 would it be easy to:
a) copy the files over to one of the laptops
or if that is difficult
b) copy to the shared drive on the master PC

many thanks