I may well be getting rid of my old Foxsat HDR in favour of the HDR-1000S, but wanted to know owners thoughts on the machine before i take the plunge, i suspect i'll buy 2nd hand off fleabay and upgrade the drive to 2TB, but wondered if there was anything you know that i should be aware of and your general thoughts on the HDR-1000S.
All1
Really good piece of kit.
All depends what you want from it. A FoxSat it's not.
I bought a HDR-1000S just over a month ago and have not been able to get it to work yet. I was hoping to drop it in in-place of my previous receiver that died a while ago but this was not the case.
The original configuration was two LNBs pointing at Hotbird for European channels and Astra2 for Freesat. These went to a single cable via a Diseqc switch. It wasn't initially very clear whether the Humax box supported Diseqc and I thought I would connect one cable to each of the two inputs. This is apparently incorrect and to have two LNBs connected to the box I would need two inputs from each with a switch connecting mixed pairs. The configuration for switch support is a hidden menu option accessed by a sequence of coulour keys.
In any case I haven't been able to get the box to detect a signal so far on a single cable from one LNB - either Freesat or non-Freesat. My tv has a built-in receiver and proves that I have a working signal but the Humax refuses to show either strength or quality readings. It normally says "no signal" but sometimes says a weak signal is present - though it doesn't register on the strength/quality display. Signal is fine for the tv and a satellite detector indicates that it is the best possible.
I replaced my cables, switch and LNBs ( with twin outputs ) with no improvement. Even tried a caravan portable dish with its own LNB and a metre of cable with no luck. By this point in time 30 days had gone by and the shop wouldn't refund. Got a new box but it's no different.
I'd love to find out that I'm doing something simple wrong but can't work out what it is. I've set my satellite up from scratch two or three times in the past and never had any trouble before.
Humax will apparently exchange or repair the unit but I'm not optimistic.
I too moved from a Foxsat HDR to the 1000s.
No problems here when set up with a sat dish fitted with a twin LNB supplying 2 feeds to the unit. How confusing can that be. I don't particularly like the clicking handset but that's about it on the neg side.
cwmtawe - currently you must be able to receive 11428 H 27500-2/3 to setup a freesat unit. This frequency will change sometime in the future when Eutelsat ends service at 28.5E.
Once setup this frequency is less important as EPG data is transmitted on all freesat channels that are currently broadcasting.
Can you TV get a signal on the frequency above?
My God where to start, I have got two Fox Sat - HDR units that I have had for some time, and these are really fantastic little jobbies. They are completely intuitive in use and I have had no problems with either of them at all, I have owned them for a couple of years and I wanted to upgrade to a unit that would give me a faster EPG and freetime also Youtube. I will keep this as brief as possible in the hope that this proves a useful post, this might as well in my opinion not be a Humax at all as it is no where near as intuitive in use, it is quite frustrating that having had it for about four months I am still pressing wrong buttons all the while because of the arrangement that just does not work for me. But my main gripe is the huge number of bugs that this clearly has, there has been one firmwear update which has sorted out a couple of issues, but there are loads more, since update my handset does not get a response from the Humax unit when requesting certain tasks like fast forwarding and then it suddenly bursts into action doing a number of forward motions too many. You always have to manually connect to internet, and don't get me started with Youtube. It really depends on what day of week it is as to whether it will work or not. The Freetime is very limited, as with the demand services. These are just a few things but I have not got the typing ability or spelling to comment further, but this should be a really great piece of kit but there really are loads of bugs that are so annoying and I am in hope of a really good firmwear update to sort most of these problems out. In fairness to Humax I have not contacted them and I will in time because this Humax has frozen about five or six times up to date and this really can not be acceptable.
Hope this helps
Johnt.
johnt - Think you must be the first to say the Foxsats UI "completely intuitive in use"
There have been several HDR-1000S firmware updates, at least three perhaps four.
The design of the UI on the Foxsat-HDR is Humax's on the HDR-1000S it is freesat's.
However you should not be getting hangups, I would suggest a factory reset to try and cure this (make a note of your schedule first). As far a "Bugs" are concerned they are some very minor ones that freesat should be aware of and can prioritise. One that gets frequent mentions is a blank screen when leaving recording playback after it has run out and some other conditions. The back key or the channel up/down are workarounds.
I have gone from paying for Sky (approximately 15 'expensive' years) to buying a Humax Foxsat box (like going back in time compared to Sky).
The Humax Foxsat was in my opinion, a shocker and like going back in time. I know many people swear by them and they have an almost religious following by some but when Sky phoned me up and offered me a period of free service to come back on board, I jumped at the chance (the Sky+ HD box is head and shoulders better than anything else on the market in my humble opinion).
However, there's only so much you can take, paying out the best part of £70 month for what is, on the whole an expensive freeview box (if you're currently paying for Sky, the best thing you can do is take a look at what you've recorded in your planner. 95% FTA by any chance?)
So, I despite my previous experience with a Humax box not being an entirely happy affair, I decided to take the plunge (the wife thought I was crazy after the last time) and I bought a HDR1000s from Humax direct who sell reconditioned boxes at a discount (1TB for £190 seemed a steal). The box arrived in super quick time and looked brand new, as did all of its accessories. I set it up in next to no time (very simple process after I updated the firmware over the air) and then waited to pick fault.
I've had the box now for the best part of two months and I have to sat that I'm very impressed. No missed recordings (the old Humax Foxsat was a shocker for this) no freezing and having to switch it off at the mains (ditto) in fact apart from the issue with the occasional blank screen after you come out of watching a recoding (see above post from REPASSAC) which you can easily remedy by pressing the back key, I haven't found a single problem with it.
The on demand works faultlessly for me (using a home plug) and it's very difficult to tell any difference between watching something through on demand and something recorded (apart from ITV which is awful, but that's down to the ITV app, not Humax or Freetime.
The EPG is extremely smooth and very sexy compared to the Sky EPG which looks tired and aged in comparison.
So to wrap things up, make the leap, save yourself the Sky subscription and enjoy the HDR 1000s, I don't think you'll regret it.
Madarse.
P.s Did I mention that it also has its own free app to download, so you can record programmes on the go much like Sky's Sky+ app??
Well I'm new to Freesat & have had my HDR 1000s for around 4 months. The dish setup was done well so get strong signals. The device seems to work well although I wish it would boot quicker (nearer to 60 secs rather than the claimed 30 secs I've seen).
The odd software bug is more irritating than serious, although this is on a par with smartphones (especially Android variants) & other modern devices. Having worked in the computer industry for nearly 40 years I find this particularly galling when I find myself saying didn't they test that?, as opposed to a glitch as a result of unusual usage or conditions.
Overall though I find the Humax box good for a set-top box & recording device and all the research seems to suggest that it's regarded as one of the best on the market.
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