Humax Foxsat HD Freesat Set Top Box

St Senan

I recently set up a Humax Foxsat HD Freesat Set Top Box ,
Simple to setup i used a london post code the only drawback is when you do a freesat scan you only receive 74 channels
their is a manual tune but when you do that for a specific transponder the channels on that transponder are the only ones left all the freesat channels disappear.Their is an option for to change your stb to freesat or non freesat mode. Here is a list of channels not on the Freesat mode Luxe HD, Film4+1, ch4+1, E4+1, More 4+1, Sky news,CNN news, France 24, Bloomberg, CCTV 9, Zone Reality, Zone Reality+1, Zone Reality X, Zone Horror, TWC, Horse+country, Sa direct, Flaunt, Channel U, and few other music channels.

Greenman

Interesting.

Question. If you do a non Freesat setup do you have the Freesat EPG?

Thanks JD

St Senan

No only a now and next.In the setup menu their is a setting to change your box from freesat to non freesat then you can manually scan indvidual transponders the box is then just like a free to air box to get back to the freesat channels you will have to go back to the setup menu and change back again from non freesat to freesat.

Onikage

Does it forget the FTA channels if you flick between modes?

Tony

I wonder how long it will take for someone to hack the firmware to make this a bit more usable with freesat and other sats in one mode.

givecredit

Onikage wrote: »

Does it forget the FTA channels if you flick between modes?

I presume you mean does it loose them. The answer is no. At present most of the +1 channels are not on Freesat so i have put all the +1s at top of non freesat mode and Sky News. The EPG on Freesat mode can be scrolled back an hour to see what you have just missed on e4 for example in the last hr. If you want to watch this prog you can switch over to non Freesat mode. Although i expect the +1s to appear soon on the freesat epg.

I must say it was the easiest non sky box i ever set up. Its designed to be really fool proof setup wise.

It has a big plus over sky plus for all you sound fanatics out there. It does Dolby Digital over the HDMI socket. This is something sky hd cant do. No need for optical cable if your amp can take HDMI.

This maybe a personal opinion, but i believe BBC HD looks better on Humax HD Freesat box then on Sky Hd box.

I would certainly think this box is going to be a hugh success in Ireland!! All the free channels you want, 7 day epg, No listing of channels you cant get.. All for one off payment. Between this and Irish DTT for Irish tv your laughing!!

p15574

Interesting, sounds good. Do you mind me asking where you got it, and if you needed to provide a UK address when you got it? Also, I presume you already had an existing dish, and you just connected to this?

I'd be interested in getting something like this, or the PVR one when it comes out, but I've no dish, and I imagine it won't retail in Ireland with the installation included like it will in the UK, so I'm trying to figure out what I'll do (Maplins or Lidl dish and attempt a self-install, I suppose).

Steve.

givecredit

p15574 wrote: »

Interesting, sounds good. Do you mind me asking where you got it, and if you needed to provide a UK address when you got it? Also, I presume you already had an existing dish, and you just connected to this?

I'd be interested in getting something like this, or the PVR one when it comes out, but I've no dish, and I imagine it won't retail in Ireland with the installation included like it will in the UK, so I'm trying to figure out what I'll do (Maplins or Lidl dish and attempt a self-install, I suppose).

Steve.

I bought mine from http://www.southernsatellite.co.uk/ The Humax is currently out of stock. He emailed me yesterday to say that he sold 6 in one day to people in Ireland. He is expecting 17 in on monday next. (I do not have any interest in southernsatellite, Im only a very satisified customer)
You do not need a UK address to buy. But you will need a UK postcode to setup. You can google for one of those in the uk region you want. You can change the bbc regions one setup but not the itv one, itv is stuck with postcode.
You will have to setup installation of dish yourself or get a local independant installer. See your local classified. Usually jam packed with adds for Satellite installers.

p15574

Thanks for that.

SidinNaas

http://www.freesat.ie/index.php?page=contactus

Looking to buy a Humax box and came across this - I have no connection with them and no idea whether they provide a good service but at least the boxes seem to be coming soon.

MartyM

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/a112155/first-freesat-pvr-delayed-until-xmas.html

watty

Rats.

Well I just bought a Radio anyway...



I'll have to put it on the Santa List.

muincav

SidinNaas wrote: »

http://www.freesat.ie/index.php?page=contactus

Looking to buy a Humax box and came across this - I have no connection with them and no idea whether they provide a good service but at least the boxes seem to be coming soon.

A bit high in price, as you can buy the Humax Hd box in Argos just across the border for £149.00 (about 190 euro)

I think I will buy a shed load and stick 50 yo yo profit on them and it is still a better deal than that crowd are offering....:D

IrishHomer

I noticed a shop in Tullamore, Co. Offaly last week selling Freesat HD boxes, they are in the shop window and they have Humax and one or two other makes too.

byte

MartyM wrote: »

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/a112155/first-freesat-pvr-delayed-until-xmas.html

Hmm, no component output. I presume this is for HDCP purposes?

Dr. Nick

there!!!!!!!!!!!!!! there. there.

there is a manual!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

rant over

byte

Dr. Nick wrote: »

there!!!!!!!!!!!!!! there. there.

there is a manual!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

rant over

What? What is that referring to?

watty

byte wrote: »

Hmm, no component output. I presume this is for HDCP purposes?

Component and DVI is SO American
Here we have SCART, S-Video and HDMI.

byte

Component picture is quite good though.

Anyway, I'll suspect that the component outputs were removed for copy protection, to stop bypassing HDCP over HDMI to copy from HDD onto DVD or some such.

Mark#1

givecredit wrote: »

It has a big plus over sky plus for all you sound fanatics out there. It does Dolby Digital over the HDMI socket. This is something sky hd cant do. No need for optical cable if your amp can take HDMI.

Hi givecredit,

Can you say where you got that info?

It'd be great if the Foxsat HD did do this, but according to the specs on the Foxsat HD site, although it does say, "HDMI - digital interface for perfect transmission of picture and sound", it also says, "Dolby digital audio output (S/PDIF)".

The user's manual lists this as its audio spec:

"Audio: TV-SCART, VCR-SCART, Audio L/R, S/PDIF(Digital Audio Output)"

To me, this all suggests that 5.1 is available only via the optical output.

I'm not nit-picking - sorry if I sound like it. I got excited when I read your comment, so I had to check further, but I found nothing to say it does 5.1 DD via HDMI.


Thanks,

Mark

givecredit

Mark#1 wrote: »

Hi givecredit,

Can you say where you got that info?


Mark

No Problem. I own a foxsat HD satellite receiver and have it hooked up to my Onkyo 705 receiver via hdmi.(No other cables used) When i switch to BBC HD or ITV HD my Onkyo receiver lights up displaying Dolby Digital 5.1 or 2.1 depending on whats being broadcast. So you can take it as fact the the Humax Foxsat does dolby digital via HDMI, unlike Sky Hd where i have to use Optical cable for DD sound.

Mark#1

givecredit wrote: »

No Problem. I own a foxsat HD satellite receiver and have it hooked up to my Onkyo 705 receiver via hdmi.(No other cables used) When i switch to BBC HD or ITV HD my Onkyo receiver lights up displaying Dolby Digital 5.1 or 2.1 depending on whats being broadcast. So you can take it as fact the the Humax Foxsat does dolby digital via HDMI, unlike Sky Hd where i have to use Optical cable for DD sound.

That's great - there's nothing like actual experience as definitive proof.

You'd think that Humax would laud its ability for DD 5.1 via HDMI - that's a pretty big feature.

Thanks mate,

Mark

ShamrockStamps

Hey gang, newbie here, new TV set on the the way with full hd and I'm not to techie on these things, I have a sky box in kids room with sky dish up obviously, If I change the LNB and by a freeview hd receiver for the living room and the new tv will that work or does sat dish need to be realigned etc.

Any advice appreciated

R

evilivor

ShamrockStamps wrote: »

Hey gang, newbie here, new TV set on the the way with full hd and I'm not to techie on these things, I have a sky box in kids room with sky dish up obviously, If I change the LNB and by a freeview hd receiver for the living room and the new tv will that work or does sat dish need to be realigned etc.

Any advice appreciated

R

Should be fine afaik.

I was in London at the weekend and, while browsing in John Lewis Oxford Street, noticed they had a stack of pre-used Humax Freesat boxes that they were selling at a £25 discount.

byte

Yeah, swapping LNB should be straight forward in most cases. Occasionally, a small tweak to dish alignment may be needed.

RazorSharp

givecredit wrote: »

No Problem. I own a foxsat HD satellite receiver and have it hooked up to my Onkyo 705 receiver via hdmi.(No other cables used) When i switch to BBC HD or ITV HD my Onkyo receiver lights up displaying Dolby Digital 5.1 or 2.1 depending on whats being broadcast. So you can take it as fact the the Humax Foxsat does dolby digital via HDMI, unlike Sky Hd where i have to use Optical cable for DD sound.

do you mind me asking how you got ITV HD going ? got one of the foxsat boxes but I get "no or bad signal" when I go onto ITV, everything else is fine, changed the postcode to a UK one but still no joy. hope theres some way to get it going mainly got the box for Champions League football !

god's toy

I'm holding out for the Freesat HD with Harddrive box.

Cant wait till that hits the shops.

ShamrockStamps

Thanks gang, anyone know where I can get a good price Humax HD box, was on a site last week but forgot to save their web address?

Jor

I bought a Humax HD box on eBay UK a few months ago for a friend of mine. He is delighted with it, especiallly now that he also has a super big HDTV.
He was asking me why he cannot get CNN and Channel 5 on it as he can on his Sky box. Does anyone know if he can retune it to get those channels.
Thanks.

Headshot

Jor wrote: »

I bought a Humax HD box on eBay UK a few months ago for a friend of mine. He is delighted with it, especiallly now that he also has a super big HDTV.
He was asking me why he cannot get CNN and Channel 5 on it as he can on his Sky box. Does anyone know if he can retune it to get those channels.
Thanks.

think he may need a ftv card for channel 5

not sure does the humax box work with the ftv card
it be nice to know???

John mac

ShamrockStamps wrote: »

Thanks gang, anyone know where I can get a good price Humax HD box, was on a site last week but forgot to save their web address?

http://www.superfi.co.uk/index.cfm/page/category.cfm/Category/312

its 30 for shipping i think

byte

FTV cards won't work in Freesat box. However, it's expected that five will go FTA (and have Freesat number) before year end.

There is a manual tuning option in the Freesat box to add channels that aren't listed on the EPG (though I think that the added channels don't get added to the EPG, merely they end up in a different channel list, similar to Sky)

Jor

I don't remember seeing a card slot on the Humax Box, though I may be wrong. I will try manually tuning, Thanks again.

watty

{(-_-)}HeadShoT** wrote: »

think he may need a ftv card for channel 5

not sure does the humax box work with the ftv card
it be nice to know???

The Sky/NDS FTV card or subscription card will only work easily in a Sky Digibox.

If you are VERY capable it can be made to work in a Dragon CAM or a PC softcam, but not "off the shelf", and unlikely in the Humax Freesat series.

givecredit

watty wrote: »

The Sky/NDS FTV card or subscription card will only work easily in a Sky Digibox.

If you are VERY capable it can be made to work in a Dragon CAM or a PC softcam, but not "off the shelf", and unlikely in the Humax Freesat series.

I can confirm that there is no CAM Module in the Humax Foxsat HD BOX.

byte

The forthcoming Humax Freesat HD PVR is rumoured to have a Common Interface slot though.

Yggr of Asgard

byte wrote: »

FTV cards won't work in Freesat box. However, it's expected that five will go FTA (and have Freesat number) before year end.

There is a manual tuning option in the Freesat box to add channels that aren't listed on the EPG (though I think that the added channels don't get added to the EPG, merely they end up in a different channel list, similar to Sky)

Accoding to digitalspy:

Five channels to join Freesat
Friday, September 12 2008, 13:58 BST

By James Welsh

Five channels are to join the Freesat electronic programme guide next week.

Source: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/a130125/five-channels-to-join-freesat.html

MarkK

dublin-texas wrote: »

Accoding to digitalspy:

Five channels are to join the Freesat electronic programme guide next week.

Source: http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/digitaltv/a130125/five-channels-to-join-freesat.html

The five channels are:
BBC Alba
Audi Channel
Zee Music
Best Direct
Planet Rock

Reyman

MarkK wrote: »

The five channels are:
BBC Alba
Audi Channel
Zee Music
Best Direct
Planet Rock

Hardly going to be a wild rush for those !

The_Conductor

I bought one of the Bush HD boxes a while back in Argos in Belfast, and run a Skybox with a London FTV card through the same satellite cable. It does mean there are two boxes- but you get the best out of both worlds (and the Freesat box has a satellite feedthrough socket for the Skybox).

S.

byte

I believe the Bush and Grundig boxes are one and the same.

At work, we took delivery of some Grundig Freesat boxes to try out. First one I tried wouldn't tune. Tuning bar just sat at 0%. Tried a second one, and it did succeed (made-up NI postcode). I guess the first one was faulty. Haven't had much time yet to fiddle with the menus yet.

Roinn

givecredit wrote: »

I bought mine from http://www.southernsatellite.co.uk/ The Humax is currently out of stock. He emailed me yesterday to say that he sold 6 in one day to people in Ireland. He is expecting 17 in on monday next. (I do not have any interest in southernsatellite, Im only a very satisified customer)
You do not need a UK address to buy. But you will need a UK postcode to setup. You can google for one of those in the uk region you want. You can change the bbc regions one setup but not the itv one, itv is stuck with postcode.
You will have to setup installation of dish yourself or get a local independant installer. See your local classified. Usually jam packed with adds for Satellite installers.

Hi, may I ask if an UK box works in IE? UK TVs and players need to be adjusted when used in IE

The_Conductor

Roinn wrote: »

Hi, may I ask if an UK box works in IE? UK TVs and players need to be adjusted when used in IE

Works perfectly. During the setup sequence it asks you to input your postcode. Put in either a Northern Ireland postcode (e.g. BT12AB) or a London code (e.g. SE16EY) or whatever. The postcode will determine the BBC and ITV regions that are displayed to you (you can access the other regions in a submenu if you want to- but its easier to leave it as is). Output to TV is Scart or HDMI.

Mylow

And if you use a NI post code you dont get channel4 and all its off shoots for some reason.

slegs

Use a London postcode and then set BBC NI in the customisable channels section. This will allow you to receive ITV HD. If you use an NI postcode you wont get ITV HD as UTV seem to be outside the agreement for HD with the ITV Plc organisation

pizzahead77

Mylow wrote: »

And if you use a NI post code you dont get channel4 and all its off shoots for some reason.

Yes you do.

Channel 4 is appearing on channel 974 currently but I believe this is affecting other regions as well

All of E4/E4+1/More4/More4+1 appear in the EPG too.

Channel 4+1/Channel 4HD haven't been added to Freesat yet.

Roinn

smccarrick wrote: »

Works perfectly. During the setup sequence it asks you to input your postcode. Put in either a Northern Ireland postcode (e.g. BT12AB) or a London code (e.g. SE16EY) or whatever. The postcode will determine the BBC and ITV regions that are displayed to you (you can access the other regions in a submenu if you want to- but its easier to leave it as is). Output to TV is Scart or HDMI.

Hi all,
thanks for the info . Before I rush off to Argos one more question: Can you get all channels on these 3 sats-Hotbird, Astra 1 and 2? Or is the box disgned for the freeview channels on Astra 2?

The_Conductor

Roinn wrote: »

Hi all,
thanks for the info . Before I rush off to Argos one more question: Can you get all channels on these 3 sats-Hotbird, Astra 1 and 2? Or is the box disgned for the freeview channels on Astra 2?

Its Freesat- as opposed to Freeview.
It uses Astra 2D (with the tight UK/IRL beam) and Eurobird 1 (primarily for EPG transmission etc).
The big plus is BBC and ITV HD (Channel 4HD due shortly).

You cannot get the box in Argos in the Republic- only in Northern Ireland or the UK (obviously its subsidised by the UK licence fees, so fair enough).

The big diff between this and Sky FTV is MPEG4 versus MPEG2........

Good wikipedia article on it here

Reyman

Roinn wrote: »

Hi all,
thanks for the info . Before I rush off to Argos one more question: Can you get all channels on these 3 sats-Hotbird, Astra 1 and 2? Or is the box disgned for the freeview channels on Astra 2?

Yes ! No problem. The equipment is designed for Freesat but it can be tuned to Hotbird or Astra1. I have about 2,000 channels coming in on it and I'm not exactly 'an expert'.

Having said that I also have a Technomate and while it doen't look so great I feel that technically it's a superior machine and it's manual is far better than the Humax one

Mylow

pizzahead77 wrote: »

Yes you do.

Channel 4 is appearing on channel 974 currently but I believe this is affecting other regions as well

All of E4/E4+1/More4/More4+1 appear in the EPG too.

Channel 4+1/Channel 4HD haven't been added to Freesat yet.

:rolleyes: Ok you get them, but not in the order
BBC1=101, BBC2=102, ITV=103, CH4=104.

Roinn

Hi all,
Thanks for the help. I'll be off to Argos in NI very soon