Cheapest (no frills) Freesat Box

danjo-xx

With or without usb recording. Should all genuine freesat boxes have the freesat symbol on the front.

Thurston?

Yeah they should have the logo.

Freesat site currently only lists Humax boxes, although this Manhattan box has been a budget favourite for a while now, & I assume is still available.

Humax HB1000S is the only Freesat box I'm aware of that offers USB recording.

steveon

Cheapest
Manhattan Plaza S2 Freesat 7day Guide no recording Usb for software upgrades only....

New model due but no sign of yet

Or
Humax
Model no HB-1000S
Gives 7 day guide and freetime menu not much use in ireland but very snazzy interface allows recording of one channel only on a usb drive.

Recording box

HUMAX HDR-1100S Various models in white or black with an inbuiilt hard drive which comes in various sizes from 500-gb to a 2tb version..Has a dual tuner so two cables are required from the dish...allows recording and viewing of another channel at same time...comes with a 7 day guide for series link.

Amazing box definitely best on market at present.

All freesat boxes should have the freesat logo on them. You can get more info on the freesat site..

http://www.freesat.co.uk/get-freesat/box-help

NIMAN

Freesat is actually the user interface you see, the software that's loaded to the box. It has the EPG you see, allowing series links, auto updates etc.

If a box hasn't got a Freesat branding to the front, then it's just a similar box with what will probably be less user friendly software.

byte

The Manhattan Plaza HDS2 has been a great budget Freesat box, but has become nigh on impossible to get at the moment.

steveon

byte wrote: »

The Manhattan Plaza HDS2 has been a great budget Freesat box, but has become nigh on impossible to get at the moment.

Been replaced with a newer model with the freetime guide...but hasnt hit the market yet...

danjo-xx

thanks lads, its very confusing the way some retailers are showing the freesat symbol/and or freesat text in the description but nothing is shown on the front of the box to confirm this.

buyer beware.:)

steveon

danjo-xx wrote: »

thanks lads, its very confusing the way some retailers are showing the freesat symbol/and or freesat text in the description but nothing is shown on the front of the box to confirm this.

buyer beware.:)

Stick with any of the models I and others have listed here and you wont go wrong..

decor58

byte wrote:

The Manhattan Plaza HDS2 has been a great budget Freesat box, but has become nigh on impossible to get at the moment.

Some for sale in Harvey Norman, Carrickmines, 100e, tonight. I had one before,found the rc too small and no record facility. I have a Humax hb1000s now, neat, rc operates tv, records to hdd, series link and freetime itv works over homeplug.

kooga

I have both and highly recommend either.

I'm thinking of ditching Sky,and was wondering whats the best Free To Air box which has similar features to a Sky Hd box,such as series linking,recording and live pause with at least 250gb hard drive!

Are the ITVs in HD (2,3,& 4) available free to air on a non Sky Box,I realise that Sky have blocked them on theirs in Ireland?

decor58

Humax in m y experience is way ahead, the hb1000 is a single tuner, about 120e, you can add a HDD, gives you series link, but you can't watch one record another. The Humax hdr1100 is twin tuner, like a sky box in many ways, EPG, recording, 200_250e, but ITv 2,3,4, are not in HD, and you don't get Irish channels on freesat or FTA boxes.

decor58

decor58 wrote: »

Humax in m y experience is way ahead, the hb1000 is a single tuner, about 120e, you can add a HDD, gives you series link, but you can't watch one record another. The Humax hdr1100 is twin tuner, like a sky box in many ways, EPG, recording, 200_250e, but ITv 2,3,4, are not in HD, and you don't get Irish channels on freesat or FTA boxes.

The HDR1100 sounds good,not bothered by the Irish channels,rarely watch them! So it looks like ITV 2,3,& 4 HD are only available on Sky UKs service!

ei9go

The cheapest way is to use your skybox.
All you need is a Sky UK Card to give you the UK epg.

Johnboy1951

ei9go wrote: »

The cheapest way is to use your skybox.
All you need is a Sky UK Card to give you the UK epg.

IF you had a Sky box ....... and even then, IMO, it is a horrible experience when used for FTA channels.

ei9go

ei9go wrote: »

The cheapest way is to use your skybox.
All you need is a Sky UK Card to give you the UK epg.

Can you record or series link though?

Johnboy1951

Johnboy1951 wrote: »

IF you had a Sky box ....... and even then, IMO, it is a horrible experience when used for FTA channels.

Why,is it horrible?

Johnboy1951

zorro2566 wrote: »

Why,is it horrible?

A used Sky box has to be purchased from an unknown source, most likely.

The box is designed for a different purpose so the interface is unnecessarily confused.
It is not possible to arrange the list of channels without resorting to favourites or some other kludge.
Some other channels have to be added manually.
The box is oversized and awkward.

Other STBs are much more user friendly.
I even prefer a non-freesat combo box, which occasionally requires a few channels to be retuned, to a Sky box. It has the additional benefit of having the DVB-T channels available in the one menu, arranged as the user wishes.

galtee boy

zorro2566 wrote: »

Can you record or series link though?

No.

I am going to get one of these,its looks like the thing I need!

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertainment/digital-and-smart-tv/set-top-boxes/humax-hdr-1100s-freesat-freetime-hd-recorder-500-gb-10127622-pdt.html

Aquos76

zorro2566 wrote: »

I am going to get one of these,its looks like the thing I need!

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertainment/digital-and-smart-tv/set-top-boxes/humax-hdr-1100s-freesat-freetime-hd-recorder-500-gb-10127622-pdt.html

This one might interest you

http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Humax-HDR-1100S-500GB-DVR-/232200917155?hash=item361040d0a3:g:m2YAAOSwjDZYc5I7

mackersdublin

zorro2566 wrote: »

I am going to get one of these,its looks like the thing I need!

http://www.currys.co.uk/gbuk/tv-and-home-entertainment/digital-and-smart-tv/set-top-boxes/humax-hdr-1100s-freesat-freetime-hd-recorder-500-gb-10127622-pdt.html

Currys in Ireland sell that model. Its just not listed on the .ie website

Aquos76

mackersdublin wrote: »

Currys in Ireland sell that model. Its just not listed on the .ie website

Do you happen to know how much they are charging for it, cheapest I can buy it for via a trade acc is just over €200.

mackersdublin

Aquos76 wrote: »

Do you happen to know how much they are charging for it, cheapest I can buy it for via a trade acc is just over €200.

In Aug 2015 it was 280

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=96698397&postcount=25

Dont know how much they are selling for now

danjo-xx

I went for the Humax HB-1000S in the end, ordered last night from Humax direct, £79 and after exchange rates its €94 with free uk delivery then via address pal to my local p.o.

Cheapest I could find here was €123 free tv but I wanted delivery to P.O or PM.

btw they have refurbished boxes, the HB-1000s is €49

NIMAN

Those later Humax Freesat boxes are excellent.

I owned the older Foxsat HDR 320gb model since about 2010, and its been a great box for me, very reliable. Never missed a beat. However, the EPG, user interface etc is slow and looks outdated.

I recently bought another Humax Freesat box, one of the newer ones for a spare room. It is all singing, all dancing, great user interface, fast to respond to the remote etc.

Buy Humax with confidence.

NIMAN

I bought my last Humax 2nd hand from this site, here's one of the older Foxsat boxes going for £40.

https://www.avforums.com/threads/humax-foxsat-hdr-500gb-freesat-hd-recorder.2077040/

christg

Hello all, I'm looking at the Humax HDR-1100S and was wondering what formats does it play (I'm looking at playing back things that I've downloaded, torrented from a separate USB HD than the one that is installed internally ). The user manually doesn't really mention this feature, and the web page shows (for Home Networking) ISO/IEC 13818-2 MPEG-2 MP@ML (maximum bitrate of 15Mbps).

It just seems that there are quite a few more formats available (mpeg 4, mkv ...) and I was hoping that someone has maybe tried any of these formats ?

Thanks

paul g 1

Hi All,

Need to pick up a free sat box of some sort for new house. Have the sky dish just looking for a box that could pickup irish and english free channels. Not pushed on the bells and whistles.
Something in or around 150.00 Mark
Thanks...!!!

Atlantic Dawn

Manhattan SX for £50, new no frills Freesat HD box

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Manhattan-SX-Freesat-HD-Zapper/dp/B07CD8GHFF/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1525117608&sr=8-1&keywords=manhattan+sx

Irish channels need a seperate aeriel.

Koloman

Irish channels need a seperate aeriel and box.

Or you could use your tv's own tuner for the saorview channels if you did not want to use another box.

jelutong

mackersdublin wrote: »

In Aug 2015 it was 280

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showpost.php?p=96698397&postcount=25

Dont know how much they are selling for now

You can get one delivered to Ireland from Amazon for under €200.

decor58

paul g 1 wrote:

Need to pick up a free sat box of some sort for new house. Have the sky dish just looking for a box that could pickup irish and english free channels. Not pushed on the bells and whistles. Something in or around 150.00 Mark Thanks...!!!

Humax Hdr 1100 available from a company up north (North x south)
for just under 200,free 2 day delivery. With two sat feeds its like a sky box, 7 day epg, auto updates, series link, WiFi, Netflix, YouTube. No Saorview channels, these may be available through TV with aerial.