Humax Foxsat HD Freesat Set Top Box

byte · 12-09-2008 11:54PM

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 · 14-09-2008 10:48AM

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 · 14-09-2008 02:49PM

{(-_-)}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 · 14-09-2008 07:08PM

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 · 14-09-2008 09:47PM

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

Yggr of Asgard · 15-09-2008 12:50PM

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 · 15-09-2008 01:29PM

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 · 16-09-2008 04:09PM

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 · 17-09-2008 07:57PM

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 · 17-09-2008 08:02PM

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 · 24-09-2008 10:36AM

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 · 24-09-2008 11:30AM

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 · 24-09-2008 12:49PM

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

slegs · 24-09-2008 01:32PM

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 · 24-09-2008 02:04PM

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 · 26-09-2008 02:31PM

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 · 26-09-2008 02:39PM

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 · 26-09-2008 05:41PM

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 · 26-09-2008 08:31PM

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 · 29-09-2008 11:22AM

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

The_Conductor · 29-09-2008 11:31AM

Roinn wrote: »

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

Check their website (they have several branches) and make sure that the branch you want to visit has it in stock. They only carry very limited supplies of the HD boxes (most people buy the standard box). You can put a reservation on the box though (which means they'll keep it for you for 48 hours).

S.

Roinn · 30-09-2008 09:12AM

Thanks smaccarrick,
I've reserved one and pick it up tomorrow. hope I haven'y got too many problems with tuning in the Hotbird, Astra 1 and 2 channels.

Zonda999 · 02-10-2008 02:33PM

I'm a bit of a newbie to all this freesat stuff. I saw this on the wikipedia article for freesat

"At launch, only the Humax Foxsat-HD set-top box allowed owners to access non-Freesat stations"

Does this mean that, as well as all the freesat channels, you cen pick up all the freeview channels too??

Also saw this

"Freesat broadcasts from the same fleet of satellites (Astra 2 and Eurobird 1) as Sky Digital"

Does this mean you could connect to freesat without having to mess with the position of the dish??

Thanks for the help

Tony · 02-10-2008 02:40PM

Zonda999 wrote: »

Does this mean that, as well as all the freesat channels, you cen pick up all the freeview channels too??

Does this mean you could connect to freesat without having to mess with the position of the dish??

Thanks for the help

No freeview is a terrestrial service. You can use the dish in its present position

Zonda999 · 02-10-2008 03:05PM

Tony wrote: »

No freeview is a terrestrial service. You can use the dish in its present position

Thanks.Thats ok i suppose.I'm still fairly tempted by the idea but i guess that its still h=just a bit too expensive considering the HD service is so limited.I'd definitely take the plunge if there was a lot more HD channels.They should'nt be too long coming, though.Maybe when mpeg4 rte is available where i live....

pizzahead77 · 02-10-2008 03:15PM

Zonda999 wrote: »

Thanks.Thats ok i suppose.I'm still fairly tempted by the idea but i guess that its still h=just a bit too expensive considering the HD service is so limited.I'd definitely take the plunge if there was a lot more HD channels.They should'nt be too long coming, though.Maybe when mpeg4 rte is available where i live....

You wont get RTE (except for the RTE International channel) on a FTA or Freesat satellite receiver. They are only available as encrypted channels on Sky.

When the DTT (ie Digital TERRESTIAL TV) service is rolled out (ie PMEG4 RTE, as you call it), you will need to get a separate DTT STB or either an combined DTT/FTA satellite box or an integrated tuner in a tv.

The_Conductor · 02-10-2008 03:21PM

pizzahead77 wrote: »

You wont get RTE (except for the RTE International channel) on a FTA or Freesat satellite receiver. They are only available as encrypted channels on Sky.

Is RTE International up and running yet?

pizzahead77 · 02-10-2008 03:46PM

smccarrick wrote: »

Is RTE International up and running yet?

Nope, may launch later this year or early 2009

TANGLEWOOD · 02-10-2008 04:27PM

Is channel 5 on free sat yet. I read somewhere it was to go freesat in September?

slegs · 02-10-2008 06:25PM

Not yet but due in the next week or two according to reports. Will be interesting to see if it is all the Five channels (Fiver US etc)

Humax Foxsat HD Freesat Set Top Box

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