Samsung's entry into the Freesat market

NIMAN

I read recently that Samsung are bringing out a range of Freesat receivers, recorders and TVs.

Anyone know anything about a release date?

I read March/April, but its all very quiet. I wanted to hold off buying a Freesat PVR until I got a look at them.

The Cush

Haven't heard anything since (http://www.joinfreesat.co.uk/index.php/samsung-to-launch-freesat-range).

homer911

Manhattan are next on the list to bring out Freesat receivers - and they will be small and cheap by all accounts

http://www.joinfreesat.co.uk/index.php/manhattan-plan-launch-of-hd-and-hdr-receivers

homer911

Announcement today:

http://www.joinfreesat.co.uk/index.php/samsung-to-launch-freesat-receiver

Badgermonkey

From Samsung.com site:


http://www.samsung.com/global/business/telecommunication/productInfo.do?ctgry_group=14&ctgry_type=81&b2b_prd_id=572

NIMAN

great news.

Moozie

Excuse the ignorance but could you connect a freesat satellite dish & saorview aerial to this box? I have an old telly or do I need to scrap the telly?

NIMAN

If you have an old telly then you will not get the HD channels, but you should be able to get the SD channels on Freesat ok.

Not sure about the aerial to get Saorview though. Don't know much about it.

homer911

Moozie wrote: »

Excuse the ignorance but could you connect a freesat satellite dish & saorview aerial to this box? I have an old telly or do I need to scrap the telly?

The Samsung box referenced is satellite only. There is no such thing as a Freesat/Saorview combo box, although there are boxes that will support FTA/Saorview (without certification). There are TVs that support both, again, without certification on the Saorview side.

Oh, and theres no such thing as a Freesat satellite dish..

Kristopherus

£299 = €350+. Not a runner at that price:(

JDxtra

The RRP does seem high. In reality, it should cost no more than a years basic sub with Sky for it to seem like good value and worth investing in.

But great news Samsung are entering the market, the format needs some major players onboard to continue its momentum.

NIMAN

Kristopherus wrote: »

£299 = €350+. Not a runner at that price:(

Its is expensive ok, but thats the sort of price that the 500gb Humax goes for too.

Remember that it only takes a very short time for new products to fall in price.

JDxtra

NIMAN wrote: »

Its is expensive ok, but thats the sort of price that the 500gb Humax goes for too.

Remember that it only takes a very short time for new products to fall in price.

Humax are discontinuing the 320Gb model and making the 500Gb model the standard.

Satbuyer.com are selling the 500Gb model for £239 now. The Samsung RRP is way off the mark. If retailers don't sell it for £249 or less, it won't sell in huge numbers.

NIMAN

JDxtra wrote: »

Humax are discontinuing the 320Gb model and making the 500Gb model the standard.

Satbuyer.com are selling the 500Gb model for £239 now. The Samsung RRP is way off the mark. If retailers don't sell it for £249 or less, it won't sell in huge numbers.

Didn't know that about the Humax, although I do see some recent price reductions again on the 320gb model, so perhaps the old stock is being shifted.

Still, looking forward to the 1st review of the Samsung to see how it rates against the Humax, which has been winning awards and plaudits for the last couple of years.

Badgermonkey

Dixons/Currys in UK now selling Samsung Freesat 500gb for £249.00, on a par with Humax Foxsat 500gb on price.

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/samsung-500gb-freesat-hd-digital-tv-recorder-09933610-pdt.html?srcid=369&xtor=AL-1

Edit: Price has now risen to £279.00

tmcw

NIMAN wrote: »

If you have an old telly then you will not get the HD channels, but you should be able to get the SD channels on Freesat ok.

Is this statement correct?

I was under the impression that, say for example, you had a 10 year old CRT and a DVB-S2 satellite receiver connected to it via SCART, and selected for example, Luxury Life HD on 28E, that the receiver would do the necessary to display the picture.

watty

yes it will. It will downsample the HD to SD.

You will get the HD channels, but not in HD, though quality can easily be 30% to 50% higher than some/many SD channels as SD may be 544 x578 rather than 720x567 and good antialiasing improves perceived resolution / quality. Also many SD channels are poor bit rate.

So there is advantages to watching HD version of BBC1, ITV, BBCx program on BBCHD, and C4 via HD channel and RGB SCART on a CRT.

Also there are a few HD channels that are not SD simulcasts.

Anyone buying FTA satellite should get a "Freesat HD" box even if they don't have HDTV today.

Pity no commonly available cheap BluRay players have this feature. If your DVD player dies you can often only now get poorer quality DVD players, yet BD (which play CD and DVD as well as BluRay) players usually only have HDMI. It would make sense to get a BD player instead (from €100).

NIMAN

Not sure if allowed to post links to other forums or not, but here is a link to the Digital Spy forums, with plenty of chat about the features of the new Samsung box. Plus a load of photos of it and its OSDs.

It seems to be getting very favourable comments.

12 element

Does it support DiSEqC? The specs I found don't mention it but i'm not sure they're up to date.

NIMAN

Just as an update, I have been monitoring the Digital Spy forums and this unit seems to be showing up a few software bugs. Maybe just early teething problems that may be fixed with an update.