Not sure if this subject has been covered, but for reasons of needing to record extra channels, ive just bought the foxsat hdr to sit alongside my humax freeview hdr. The ITV player is a bonus, but comparing the bbc iplayer on the freeview humax with the freesat service, the freesat sevice seems a really cut down version. But what really concerns me is the picture quality. Even with the high speed option on freesat ( my service provider is solid at 9 megs) the picture quality is not in the least bit comparable with the freeview quality.
Just wondered if i'm missing something in the foxsat settings, because plugging the lan back into the freeview produces a far superior picture quality
Any info appreciated
Bartdog>>

You are not missing any settings. It's distinctly lack lustre. The Freeview portal on Humax boxes is significantly better especially the 720p BBC-HD content.

Thanks for the info Graham i was expecting a bit more from Humax, given the freeview hdr spec - thnaks again

Bartdog>>

You are welcome. Incidentally if you get a cheap network switch you can leave all your kit connected using a single cable back to the router.

Examples

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5-Ports-10...item4153c58dde

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/8-Port-10-...item5ae3c5e307

Great - tnx>>

Can't say iPlayer on my Foxsat HDR looks appreciably worse than via my nettop even if you take into account the difference between "higher quality" on the first and "high quality" on the second.

It's better than nowt, but I suppose it there as a last resort if you forget to tape something.

Same here. I haven't tried iPlayer on my laptop for a while but last time I checked it looked better via the HDR. The only thing I can think of is that perhaps my TV is doing a particularly good job. Seems unlikely though that a 37" TV at 2m distance could render it such that it looked better than a laptop.

Anyway overall I would rate iPlayer on the HDR as 'very nearly broadcast SD quality and entirely acceptable'.

ITV Player however is noticeably poor.

But both portals could do with being a lot faster. I suppose that's a hardware limitation of the box. Oh and I wish iPlayer responded to channel up/down as page up/down instead throwing you out of the player.

40" Sony Bravia

If i connect my laptop to the TV by HDMI and use the HQ BBCi player the picture is superior to Foxsat-hdr. If I use the 720p HD service it's way better. Using the HD FOX T2 the picture quality is similar to the laptop.

Pictures on a new Sony 32" smart tv with iplayer are also superior (It's in my grandsons bedroom).

Just tried my PS3 on itv player, it's also better than the hdr.

I might try another side-by side comparison at some point but I'm not sure it's worth it. I don't watch catch-up much anyway - it's only if I fail to spot the programme in advance or if the appropriate PVR screws up and if I can't find a repeat showing. None of which is very likely. All in all the HDR will probably win for us simply because it's most convenient.

Am I still right in thinking that the HDR doesn't use the HQ iPlayer stream? I seem to recall it only requires a 1.5Mb/s connection whereas the HQ stream is 3.5Mb/s.

You can use the HQ stream if you have a fast enough lan connection, you can't access the HD on demand service though. Having a FOX T2 and a PS3 both are just as convenient. The laptop less so because of having to connect a hdmi and change to 1280 x 720 (It doesn't support 1920 x 1080).

Not quite for me. The PS3 sometimes fails to initialise its video feed on power on. Some kind of compatiblity issue with the HDMI switching of my Onkyo receiver perhaps. Nothing else has a problem with it though so I blame the PS3.

Although I can also operate my PS3 using my remote (a Logitech Harmony One) the separate Logitech sender unit is a bit squiffy. That makes operating the PS3 a bit irritating unless we use the controller and now that we don't play games on it the controller usually doesn't have a charge. So all in all the HDR offers a more pleasant and seamless experience but granted it's not a huge difference.

My PS3 shares a hdmi input (Denon AVR4306) using an auto switch with a Sony BD player and a Denon Upscaling DVD player and the laptop when I connect it. . No problems with any with hdcp handshake so my monies on some sort of incompatibility with the Onkyo. I have the BD player remote for the PS3 with normal AA batteries so that's not an issue. I mainly use the PS3 as HD media server for content stored on my laptop. The HD Fox T2 uses the remaining hdmi input. The Foxsat-hdr is directly connected to the TV by hdmi with audio delivered over a 10M s/pdif connection.

That's mainly what I use mine for these days although it's old BBC TV series in SD (and often 4:3). I have TVersity running on a low power server. It also stores music for my Squeezeboxes and handles email and ftp. Quite a busy little box and not bad for less than 10w