Does anyone in the know yet know if the forthcoming Humax Freesat PVR supports DISEQC?

I know the current Humax HD Freesat box does, and I am aware I would need two DISEQC switches, one for each tuner, but as all my LNBs are twin except the Astra2 one which is an Octo, I would just need one additional switch.

If it will support DISEQC then it would be the ideal replacement for my Manhatten ST550 which I could keep for blind searching and further recording from Astra2.

Anyone know??

hedgidj the foxsat-hdr supports it in the same way as the hd stb does. The HDR wont manage recordings in non-freesat mode on the release firmware. I think the best you can do at first is an instant recording on a non-freesat channel using the record button; but no timer facility as you may already know.

Oh, thanks for that, maybe I should consider another box that records through USB but supports HD and can get ITV HD.

Hmm, this needs more thought now!! £300 buys a lot of box I suppose.

I think there will be quite a few people who thought the freesat PVR will be what they need when in fact its the non-freesat channels that is one of the priorities to them. If I was one of them, I wouldnt buy a freesat PVR unless the manufacturer said they WILL fit in a proper non-freesat mode timer recording system - that doesn't mess up the freesat side. Up till now it all sounds like Humax will 'look' seriously at it at some point in the future as an extra. They may do, but then find out its not really feasible. I guess its always best to stick to buying based on what the freesat spec is and what its capabilities turn out to be when its available.

I think you are right, I think something like the Fortec Star Passion Plus may be bettter for me, and it would leave a big wedge for an external Hard Drive too. The PVR bit is very secondary.

Mmm, I am planning the new Hummy. My current setup has a Single LNB pointing at Astrar1 and a Double LNB pointing at Astra2.

One feed from the double goes with the Astra1 feed to the Diseqc and the other feed from the double is free.

I was hoping that the resulting two feeds would go into the Hummy givng me full functionality.

I was going to ask about recording non Freesat channels which are not on the EPG and just supposed there would be a manual scheduling option.

Will the box get confused if I am recrding MTV on 19e and Doctor Who on BBC 1 ?

Is it even possible with my setup ?

I think there could still be problems but its difficult to say in exactly what way the freesat system is compromised when sending it into non-freesat mode for recording. At least until the box is released. Its a freesat box and Humax have said themselves its not recommended for people wanting it for recording FTA channels that havent signed up to freesat.

It is going to depend on how the twin tuner PVR works. Would it know that Astra 1 is only available on one of the inputs?


According to to Bob_Cat's post you can't schedule non Freesat recordings using the initial release of the firmware.
AIUI you can only manually record the current programme.


In theory this kind of operation is possible, but subject to the limitations above. Hopefully in a couple of weeks time someone will have tried it.


Put it this way:

I think it is more likely to work if both inputs have the same choice of LNBs/satellites, and I have made some purchases based on this assumption!

The box looks to be pretty popular, and humax have a good record for fixing glaring omissions on their products*, I'm betting that the diseq/usals non-freesat recording will get enabled.

* The 9200 freeview PVR wouldn't do chase play when it was released, eventually that got fixed and now its almost as good as a Topfield 5800

I agree with all this, and this was the reason for my initial post, I was intending to have set up two individual DISEQC switches, with the same options for the three LNBs I have available, ie 1:Astra2, 2:Astra1, 3:Hotbird, so each input could work independantly, but if it wont initially be able to record off anything other than Freesat, then I don't think it's the box for me. If you only want to record Freesat then it seems pretty good.

I've been reading the Fortec Star website about the Passion Plus which I know only has one tuner, but will receive ITVHD which is the main reason for my replacing my Manhatten and is more suited to multi sat viewing and will still record to an external hard drive.

I could still use my Manhatten on another DISEQC switch, but twin tuners are not really the reason for considering the Humax, more the multi sat HD rec and ITV HD recording; and as I have a Virgin V+ box and a Sky HD box I can already record four things on these two boxes so it's the ITV HD I want to be able to record.

I think I may wait until the Humax comes out and see what people think of it.

I cant help thinking I could buy a Passion+ and a standard Humax Freesat HD box for nearly the same money, and have Freesat HD on the other telly in the other room too then.

I now have the Humax, set up the diseqc and added non freesat channels from both 19e and 28.2e brilliant, NOT.

First a minor issue that I am still googling about.

It also appears that if I am watching a programme and press record it does not record from the beginning. I am used to this function on the BT Vision box and my friend tells me his Hummy -T box does this.

I got busy checking out the HD and liked the PQ. I made some recordings on the EPG and set up some series recordings. I then went to non-freesat land and was able to do some OTR's, well that's OK for now.

Then the bombshell.

When I travelled back to the freesat side I noticed that all my scheduled recordings had disappeared.

It appears that even a wee deek at the non freesat channels ruins the point of having an HDR box.

I think the Hummy may be going back to the shop on Monday.

Can't find the edit post option so replying to my own post

Set up another series record just now and was able to travel back and forth through the freesat/non-freesat wormhole without any deletions.

Weird !

It's only doing a channel scan in non freesat mode deletes freesat reservations. You can go into non freesat mode record a few channels etc without affecting the Freesat reservations. Done it many times.

Thanks Graham.
I had better sort out what other channels I want then, so I don't have to do a rescan in the future.

And be aware when you enter "the wormhole" no freesat recordings will start whilst you are in non-freesat.

Aye, I also noticed that when I was recording on the one side I was unable to change to the other side.

Won the battle of getting the second cable re-routed to where the HUMAX lives yesterday. Have a system comprising of two twin LNBs with DiSeQC. Found this link very useful in getting ASTRA 1 up ...

http://www.astra2d.com/diseqc.htm

It is intended for the HUMAX HD but the process seeems identical for the HDR. In my case it seems that the (A) found during initial setup is important. It seem to indicate that Freesat was found on channel A so I set ASTRA 1 to B and it worked first time. Astra HD demo channel looks superb!

Have just realised that I was short changed on HD content when I scanned Astra 1 after mastering the hidden menu to get the DiSEqC working. The HD stuff ARTE HD and SIMUL HD were missing. The transponder frequecy that was required was missing from the list. At the bottom of the list there is a user defined option. Enter this and add the information. If you are in the right neck of the woods the quality bar is populated. Save and then scan the relevant satellite. Hey presto three new channels!
OK so Simul HD is always the same loop at the moment, but it must change eventually. And of course I've wiped all the scheduled recordings, but that will hopefully get fixed.
Having just checked the same user defined transponder option is available in the Freesat 28.2 satellite choice.