It has just dawned on me that my HDR is just over three years old. I got it from Argos at the then bargain price of £271. Although I have had some difficulties with it, as both Humax and the Freesat broadcasters have ironed out their respective bugs it is now quite stable and records reliably. It is still in its original status including the 13 Amp plug![LIST][*]Not one penny spent on Sky[*]Have a good library of archive material on external hard drives[*]The DiSEqC function is a huge bonus and will be used heavily during the F1 season when there are no live transmissions on BBC![*]Cannot think of anything that has given so much recreational pleasure for the price[/LIST]
Yes, there are some niggles with the remote control ( a LogiTech is on my wishlist) and it really could benefit from a a processor with more grunt but I can live with those.

Thank you to Freesat and Humax for keeping a grin on my face.

Yes you are right mine is just under three year's old and it's the best 300£ I have spent I will be buying the new humax hdr when it come's out and put the old one in my other house

Hi, i'm pleased for you, my HumaxFoxsat hdr lasted barely 2 years before giving up, Humax customer service was dire, received 1 e-mail(refer to page blah blah of manual) from them despite numerous e-mails from ourselves, now got ourselves an EchostarHDS 600rs which is excellent and much faster than our Humax. Picture quality is far superior, even CBS looks great due to the Echostar's upscaling to 1080i. Would recommend this PVR

Pretty sure I got mine in November 08, has given me trouble free service since then (albeit a few missed recordings) but all in all excellent value,and is still pretty much state of the art, and have no doubt that it will continue to serve me well for a few more years yet.

Up yours Sky!

Going back a few years ago now I had sky+ and an additional sky box in another room. With all the Movies, Sports and so on it was costing me £60 a month. I decided to get the Humax a few years later as I already had the satellite dish installed doing nothing. Its been a good buy especially now the custom firmware just keeps getting better and better. I don't miss sky and it doesn't cost me a penny.

Ditto, since the early days the capability has been pretty well amazingly advanced, thanks to the dedicated real experts

Highlights

Import of non native video (AV2HDR - thanks Raydon and others for all the following)

Media serving capability, Watching existing recordings remotely independent of the main user.

Control of the box via Web Interface

Incorporation of the Non freesat and Freesat channels and timer recordings of the former.

In addition with a standard box.

Archiving of SD and HD content to external USB, and replay from USB

Able to record hd content without encryption using non freesat mode

Can use two tuners on a single lnb connection

I could go on.

No experience of the Echostar (personally it looks horrible, how could you add it to a rack of kit without it standing it like a sore thumb ), how many of the above is it capable of ?

Mine was new in November 2008 and was quickly upgraded to 1TB.

Can someone please explain how I use the DISEqC function to get the benefit referred to above. In simple language please. Sandy

I agree, was delighted with our HumaxFoxsat HDR til it failed, 2 years use for my £300+ was pretty poor in my opinion, i just felt that Humax customer service really let us down, simply were'nt interested or helpful. Made us look for an alternative, the Echostar was a great price, looks great on my stack, retro 80's styling, front display can be dimmed to suit, remote control,channel changing + menus are super fast, far superior picture quality than our Humax even in SD. Customer support is excellent and regular software updates via satellite make this PVR a real challenger to Humax. Not forgetting the "sling" feature which enables you to watch tv anywhere.

Does this help? http://www.astra2d.com/diseqc.html
If you need anything else there are many good folks in this forum who will assist you

Also

http://foxsat-hdr.wikispaces.com/DiSEqC