Hi,

Just received mine from Power Direct. Ordered on Sunday, arrived today. Pretty pleased for £246.99 delivered.

So far looking like a much needed upgrade from my tusty old 9200T!

cheers

Paul

Thanks for confirming, I'm actually pleased its not just me then! Must be a bug? Id assume this should work

I wonder if anybody has reported the availability of HD via backward EPG (or lack of) issue (iPlayer)

really? They can make a change without a software update?

I'll try this evening.

It may be a problem with the G2 server. The dog is now small at least. Going to do a test to see how much data is actually downloaded for the same programme.

Or Foxsat.

I'm more than happy with my two Foxsat machines, they work perfectly. In the last couple of years I'd be surprised it I'd missed more than about 5 programmes that I couldn't find repeated on some channel or other and had to use iPlayer or itvPlayer anyway.

From the video I've seen of the new <free time> box it looks just as ideosyncratic and my Foxsats, just in different ways.

What reason could anyone give me for need to upgrade other than for a larger HDD?

1080p, BBCiPlayer HD, 4OD & 5OD, there's also a possibility that Netflix may be added sometime in the future.(obviously nothing set in stone yet, but the recent partnership between Freesat & Netflix gives that impression)
Oh and the new box is nice and shiny

You forgot the excellent picture quality.

Is the picture quality really that much better that it's worth upgrading?

I'm quite the perfectionist, but I'm really happy with the Foxsat's picture quality on my 32" Panasonic. Perhaps its a different matter on larger screens when watching SD channels?

I can see the <free time> box is a better product, but wouldn't think that many people would upgrade. Then again, I'm sure there will be hundreds of thousands of iPad 3 owners upgrading, so I must be a luddite.

I think the picture quality is very good. I was never that happy with the picture quality of the Foxsat after I had been on Sky HD, and even YouView which does 1080p seemed better to me.

This is as good, or better than I have had before (47" LED)

I am watching on a 26" - SD so much improved (Great upscaler as well) - I just set the unit to output 1080p. It is the very first thing you notice.

I'm still not sure whether the <free time> box sits within a product range alongside the Foxsat, or is its replacement. It's certainly a better product, but it seems really confusing to have both available and with different capacity HDDs too. I'm no Sky fan, but they do make it simple and easy to choose. Freesat is a jumble of different manufacturers with the extra complexity of a dish installment from a 3rd party if you haven't downgraded from Sky.

The most confusing part is that an awful lot of people buy into Freesat to avoid paying Sky's fees. The kind of people who object to paying for TV (or who can't afford it) surely aren't the ones who will upgrade for a better picture?

Getting more and more confused, my router has a resettable usage meter. (Virgin Media Super Hub) it gave 92GB in 10 minutes

Dog now back to normal, totally baffled.

Any ideas how to measure total download accurately.

HQ SD should be about 3.37MB and HD 7.63MB. All ideas gratefully recieved.

I have tbbmeter but getting some very odd results.

Any body know if the live buffer resets on guide/recording playback?

Also, I assume the subtitle bug from the G1 HDR has disappeared..

No where has stock that I can check (and to be honest, both JL and Currys near me don't have the PVRs attached to TVs anyway, which seems a bit daft)

My fingers are hovering over the buy button, but it's less enticing if these little day-to-day niggles are still about..

No subtitles problems. I will check the buffer situation for you tommorow. I presume you want to know if the buffer still contains a prograame from the viewed tuner if you elect to play back a recording ?

Well, I for one did. Have thought ever since Freesat launched,the HD picture quality was superior to Sky and Freeview.

But in the case of SkyHD and Freesat that can only be down to box design, as they use the same broadcast stream.

I am still on the verge of getting a 1000s - but trying to justify it after just replacing my Sky+HD box with my old HDR-FOX-T2....

Did a quick test for you:
View what recordings you have but don't watch any... Buffer for live tv unaffected,
Play a program you have previously recorded and it immediately wipes the buffer such that when you go back to live tv you cannot rewind cos nowhere to go to.
What you can do now is if you want to watch a recording but not lose buffer - press record and it will record from the start of the program or the earliest buffer point if you are mid program on the buffer. The watch a recording then watch the program you were previously watching live as a recorded program.

Looking at the guide merely reduces the tv picture to a small but nice looking picture in the top right hand corner while you look around the guide. The buffer is unaffected. The same applies if you press HOME and search and then choose to record a few things - buffer unaffected. If you go HOME - On Demand and then choose BBC iPlayer the buffer is cleared.

I hope this helps a bit,

I meant upgrading from Foxsat to <free time>, not Sky to <free time>.

Those of us on this forum are probably the exceptions who might be tempted to upgrade; I'm sure most won't.

That just leaves people looking for free satellite for the first time, and the range of Humax products alone is rather confusing. I can't see the average Currys/Comet assistant making things easier for them, either!

One thing I do know is that the buffer resets when a programme finishes. This means if you press record when watching live you get the current programme recorded (assuming you have a spare tuner to record it), if both tuners are recording then you have to wait for one to finish before you can record the buffer.

Thanks that helps a lot.

The buffer on guide was the most annoying, especially when you want to check whats on and then realise the kids were watch cbbc/cbeebies on a 1 hour delay. Bit hard to explain why they can't watch the end/next programme.

I think I have all the excuses I need to hit my bank account....

What you mean the hundreds of TVs simultaneously running Sky+HD promos and the dark little corner with 2 or 3 freeview/freesat boxes covered in cobwebs?

No, I don't think that helps. They'll sell you a nice 3D HDMI cable for £100 though...

If you press schedule and then red on a foxsat-hdr it doesn't use a tuner, it simply displays the cached epg allowing you to set recordings without affecting the buffer, your current programme continues in the background without interruption. This has always worked. The custom firmware gives you the guide etc on a PC without affecting anything.

Its funny how we all use the boxes differently; I never use live pause, I record instead. It's a habit I got into when I was still with Sky, but it works well for me.

I found out years ago that live pausing and forgetting could cause clashes with programmes that you really wanted to see later on.

I spend 2 or 3 minutes whilst having breakfast setting the recordings for the day. That way I get to see all the programmes I want, even if there are 3 or 4 on simultaneously, as often happens. I find that the +1 channels and repeats work out 99.9% of the time.

The other great advantage of recording everything is that you can fast forward through adverts, preamble, boring bits, etc and watch programmes really quickly. So many modern programmes are padded out!


If you do buy a <free time> box, dave hj, you'll have the capacity to record twice as much! Fill the old Freesat wil CBBC and CBeebies.

It will be great if and when freesat release a iOS/Android app for scheduling recordings. We can do that when you get to work with your first coffee of the day