Freesat box

irelandspurs

Going to order this box today,is it any good for price,i can't afford recordable yet so going to try this. http://www.amazon.co.uk/Humax-Digital-Satellite-Set-Top/dp/B00264GX40/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346939737&sr=8-1

NIMAN

Generally accepted as one of the best brands out there, so buy with confidence.

I have the recordable version of it, owned it for about 2yrs, never let me down. Top quality.

irelandspurs

NIMAN wrote: »

Generally accepted as one of the best brands out there, so buy with confidence.

I have the recordable version of it, owned it for about 2yrs, never let me down. Top quality.

Thanks would of liked the recordable just couldn't stretch that far just yet.

mike65

You might want to wait, the G2 boxes are nearly here and G1 PVRs are bound to get discounted in a few months.

swoofer

thats a bit expensive for that box.

irelandspurs

GBCULLEN wrote: »

thats a bit expensive for that box.

why what should it be was the cheapest i could find.

NIMAN

I bought mine secondhand, would you not consider that?

I got mine for £130. Bargain.

As mentioned, brand new Humax coming soon and I am sure that many will be discounted, and many users may want to upgrade (I'm considering it so my box would be for sale).

Extinction

The price from Amazon seems good, it's £95 in Argos & John Lewis

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/5321595/Trail/searchtext%3EFREESAT.htm

http://www.johnlewis.com/230480023/Product.aspx

evilivor

irelandspurs wrote: »

why what should it be was the cheapest i could find.

As others say, it might get cheaper when the 2nd generation boxes get launched in a few weeks, the recorders will probably drop in price too. As to its quality - I came across the receipt for my FoxsatHD box today - purchased 4 years ago yesterday - and it's still works perfectly. I paid £149.00 for it at the time.

homer911

Grade A units from Humax Direct for £79

http://www.humaxdirect.co.uk/prodCat.asp?cat=factory&type=sat

Could use Parcel Motel if they dont ship to Ireland

irelandspurs

Ah its grand now i already ordered from amazon yesterday so will try it out and see,try get the wife away from thinking sky is all there is then i'll get the recordable box.

boccy23

Found that once they got over the remote (the Sky box is better - no question), then the ease of looking at all the ITV channels and BBC3/4 won the family over quickly.
ITV2/3/4 have endless soaps/reality TV/old shows which they all love.
Saves me €31.25 a month which I used to get Flashsportstreams on my PC which is hooked to the HD TV in the kitchen.
Everyone's a winner.

irelandspurs

This box will be here tomorrow,when i get it is it just a case of plugging wires from sky box into this box and tune in.Is there any extra things i can do with this box?

mike65

That's all apart from telling the box "where you are" in the UK once you boot up - if you choose a NI postcode you'll have NI regional programmes if you want to avoid Town Challenge etc then just stick in the London BBC PC W1A 1AA

irelandspurs

Can it be any uk post code might use my old uk one so get news etc from where i'm from?

mike65

Yep.

evilivor

mike65 wrote: »

That's all apart from telling the box "where you are" in the UK once you boot up - if you choose a NI postcode you'll have NI regional programmes if you want to avoid Town Challenge etc then just stick in the London BBC PC W1A 1AA

The postcode is only important for setting the ITV region.

With the Humax you can customise whatever BBC regions you like as your default BBC1 or BBC2 irregardless of what postcode you use. You can even set different regions between them as in you can set BBC London 1 at 101 and BBC Scotland at 102.

swoofer

how do you o that? does the box not do a search after you put in postcode?

evilivor

GBCULLEN wrote: »

how do you o that? does the box not do a search after you put in postcode?

Menu>Edit Channels>Edit Customisable Channels and you can pick and choose which variants of BBC1 or 2 you want.

Doodah7

Have the exact same box. Absolutely simple to set up. Pick a London postcode for simplicity. I used Lord's cricket ground:P I also updated the firmware to the latest version

Slightly cheaper now on Amazon from when I bought it off them in June for £99...

In hindsight I'm sorry now that I didn't get the recordable version.

irelandspurs

When I'm watching the hd channels on this box,I'm unable to turn the volume down and is very loud but all non hd channels i'm able to control the volume.what am i doing wrong?

mike65

Use the TV remote for the volume until you get an answer!

irelandspurs

mike65 wrote: »

Use the TV remote for the volume until you get an answer!

Its ok i've sorted it i turned off the dolby digital in setup

swoofer

i have mine set up at the moment and to control volume, I use the arrow keys ie left right by the ok button. Did you let it update the software when you set it up?

irelandspurs

GBCULLEN wrote: »

i have mine set up at the moment and to control volume, I use the arrow keys ie left right by the ok button. Did you let it update the software when you set it up?

no should i have,am i able to do it now,I saw the update option in setup.

swoofer

yes, you can go menu, then arrow down to sat dish, then arrow across, then arrow down to software update, press ok, the click on automatic update and it will search.

but have a look before you update by menu, arrow down bottom item, press ok, then arrow to diagnostics press ok and see what it says, under softwatre version and update date.

ok

swoofer

ps dont forget, if you hook it up with a lan cable to router you can have itv player on channel 903, go there press red button, bbc is blocked.

irelandspurs

why is bbc player blocked?

excollier

BBC i-Player working fine for me. Must be because I have a Derry based IP, broadband not available on phone lines here.

swoofer

bbc have copyright issues so they use software to geo locate the ip that is been used to access and as we are in southern ireland we are scuppered. ITV have not bothered .. yet

irelandspurs

GBCULLEN wrote: »

bbc have copyright issues so they use software to geo locate the ip that is been used to access and as we are in southern ireland we are scuppered. ITV have not bothered .. yet

Looks like I'll just have to make do with watching it online so

Digifriendly

irelandspurs wrote: »

Can it be any uk post code might use my old uk one so get news etc from where i'm from?

Any UK postcode will suffice to get news from that region.

NIMAN

NIMAN wrote: »

I bought mine secondhand, would you not consider that?

I got mine for £130. Bargain.

As mentioned, brand new Humax coming soon and I am sure that many will be discounted, and many users may want to upgrade (I'm considering it so my box would be for sale).

I just bought another Freesat+ box off a forum tonight.

This one
http://www.amazon.co.uk/EchoStar-HDS-600RS-SlingLoaded-Anywhere-recorder/dp/B004S9OT92/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1347413089&sr=8-1

Less than 1yr old, in mint condition, got it for £80 delivered.

I think buying 2nd hand is a good option, as I have seen a couple of other Humax tonight as well for anything between £120 and £160.

5500

Can any of you guys explain the difference between a gen1 and 2 box for a novice to satellite? I'm looking at the box the op posted on Amazon and see good reviews for it but is there any reason to sit tight for the new generation of boxes or would the above suffice for basic needs?

excollier

For basic needs, the above will more than suffce.

NIMAN

Not sure if I am allowed to do this or not (Mods please delete if not), but here's an example of a decent deal.

500GB Humax still for sale for £160. Plus, the prices on that site are often open to offers on things like these boxes

http://www.avforums.com/forums/home-cinema-hi-fi-classified-adverts/1679530-sale-humax-foxsat-hdr-320gb-500gb.html

swoofer

he has changed his mind, best place is ebay but postage to here is usually 20 quid.

5500

Just to throw a spanner in the works, I see the below on adverts

http://www.adverts.ie/satellite/sky-free-to-air-hd-system-full-package-with-quad-lnb-new/475386

Again its for basic needs and I dont already have a sat, Would I be ok with the above or better off with the humax & sourcing a dish elsewhere?

NIMAN

5500 wrote: »

Just to throw a spanner in the works, I see the below on adverts

http://www.adverts.ie/satellite/sky-free-to-air-hd-system-full-package-with-quad-lnb-new/475386

Again its for basic needs and I dont already have a sat, Would I be ok with the above or better off with the humax & sourcing a dish elsewhere?

That looks like one of those generic Free To Air satellite systems, which means the menu and EPG on it might be basic. May not have a 7 day guide.

But if looking for a basic system, it will suffice.

btw, dishes and LNBs are cheap enough if you still would prefer to get a Freesat branded box.

5500

Is there any chance you could point me in the direct of where I can buy the separates in order to DIY install eg dish/cable/lnb, (pm if needed)
Thanks

Kristopherus

Have a look at www.satellite.ie. All sorts of systems there. Also Tony, the owner, is a frequent and helpful poster on these forums.

mike65

Horribly overpriced gear and not much of it, 330 euro for that Samsung which is about 200 quid in the UK.

Ronan Raver77

mike65 wrote: »

Horribly overpriced gear and not much of it, 330 euro for that Samsung which is about 200 quid in the UK.

Who satellite.ie? I was going to use these guys to install a sat when my house is built shortly

irelandspurs

NIMAN wrote: »

Not sure if I am allowed to do this or not (Mods please delete if not), but here's an example of a decent deal.

500GB Humax still for sale for £160. Plus, the prices on that site are often open to offers on things like these boxes

http://www.avforums.com/forums/home-cinema-hi-fi-classified-adverts/1679530-sale-humax-foxsat-hdr-320gb-500gb.html

whose Badgermonkey? :cool:

NIMAN

No, it ain't me if thats what you're hinting at.

mike65

Ronan Devitt wrote: »

Who satellite.ie? I was going to use these guys to install a sat when my house is built shortly

If you were eyeing this "offer" I'd really consider someone else who can throw up a dish and do the cabling for a system you have bought yourself. A new Manhattan PVR is yours for about 240 euro by post, buy the dish, quad LNB and two cables (if you want to record and watch different channels at same time)

http://www.joinfreesat.co.uk/review-manhattan-plaza-hdr-s-freesat-hd-receiver/

http://www.freesat.ie/

60 cm dish Price - €35.00 with Quad LNB and bracket/screws
Satellite Installation Kit €24.99 cable, bracket bolts, F type connectors etc.

say 80 euro including delivery if you can't collect.

If you can't DIY it or know someone who can for free/cheap then their
Echostar package deal is okay at 450 euro much cheaper than Satellite.ie equivalent. (Echostar is a better box than Samsung to boot)

http://www.freesat.ie/pid-210-info.html

STB

Ronan Devitt wrote: »

Who satellite.ie? I was going to use these guys to install a sat when my house is built shortly

If you know your way around a pirate radio TX, I am sure you will be well able to put up a satellite dish Ronan

5500

How would something like the system below fair out for a "beginner"

http://www.freesat.ie/pid-220-info.html

For a single room will it suffice well or is there option to expand if needed down the road?

STB

5500 wrote: »

How would something like the system below fair out for a "beginner"

http://www.freesat.ie/pid-220-info.html

For a single room will it suffice well or is there option to expand if needed down the road?

Be aware that it is an FTA satellite box (without the Freesat retune or 7 day epg). It also doesnt do the Irish stations. There are kits that do both in one box.

Ronan Raver77

STB wrote: »

If you know your way around a pirate radio TX, I am sure you will be well able to put up a satellite dish Ronan

Hahaha im useless at all that kind of stuff:)

NIMAN

Another Slingbox going for £120, and I'd guess open to a bit of negotiation!

http://www.avforums.com/forums/electrical-goods-classified-adverts/1681959-sale-echostar-hds-600rs-slingloaded-freesat-hd-500gb-pvr.html