Freesat

[bmwmike]

Hello

Has anyone got recommendations for a decent Freesat box please? I've got a Humax 1100s and it's pretty crappy - the user interface is slow etc. It's few years old so thinking there might be newer gear around..

Thanks
Mike

[Who me ?]

Have a look on the Humax site- plenty of refurb boxes normally at vastly reduced prices.

[bmwmike]

[quote=Who me ?]Have a look on the Humax site- plenty of refurb boxes normally at vastly reduced prices.
[/quote]

Tbh I assumed all Humax are crap but worth checking out later stuff I guess. Do you have one?

[anonymous-user]

I have 4 humax boxes, and I've never understood people saying theyre slow. theyre much better than my mother's sky HD box.

They just work, maybe you need to do a factory reset?

[bmwmike]

keirik said:

I have 4 humax boxes, and I've never understood people saying theyre slow. theyre much better than my mother's sky HD box.

They just work, maybe you need to do a factory reset?

The guide screen is painfully slow to retresh and the clicky remote feels cheap. When I click from one programme to the next on the guide, there is a slight lag. Been like it since new, so I'm not sure it's a reset type thing. Had a sky HD box which I agree was similar.

[AJB88]

My Humax 1100S is also painfully slow going through the TV Guide etc, no where near as good as the Sky HD Box.

Also had 2 remotes as first one broke, Humax replaced it FOC.

[rdjohn]

I am just in the process of ordering a HDR1100s. I had assumed that they must have improved.

My older box has always seemed useless compared to SKY, but still represents a huge savings on not paying monthly subscriptions.

[anonymous-user]

bmwmike said:

keirik said:

I have 4 humax boxes, and I've never understood people saying theyre slow. theyre much better than my mother's sky HD box.

They just work, maybe you need to do a factory reset?

The guide screen is painfully slow to retresh and the clicky remote feels cheap. When I click from one programme to the next on the guide, there is a slight lag. Been like it since new, so I'm not sure it's a reset type thing. Had a sky HD box which I agree was similar.

never had that refresh issue, a slight lag perhaps, but is that the end of the world, given how much youre saving over sky?
as for the remote, I've not once thought it was cheap, its just a remote, who cares?

[bmwmike]

rdjohn said:

I am just in the process of ordering a HDR1100s. I had assumed that they must have improved.

My older box has always seemed useless compared to SKY, but still represents a huge savings on not paying monthly subscriptions.

Yeah that's why I got one. I found we were all watching the free channels on sky anyway!

[bmwmike]

keirik said:

never had that refresh issue, a slight lag perhaps, but is that the end of the world, given how much youre saving over sky?
as for the remote, I've not once thought it was cheap, its just a remote, who cares?

I care. It's not primarily about cost of the device. I thought if the 1100s is what, £100, is there a box out there that is a better spec that costs £200? Is it worth the extra - maybe, if it actually is faster and slicker, and starts up more quickly etc.

[anonymous-user]

bmwmike said:

keirik said:

never had that refresh issue, a slight lag perhaps, but is that the end of the world, given how much youre saving over sky?
as for the remote, I've not once thought it was cheap, its just a remote, who cares?

I care. It's not primarily about cost of the device. I thought if the 1100s is what, £100, is there a box out there that is a better spec that costs £200? Is it worth the extra - maybe, if it actually is faster and slicker, and starts up more quickly etc.

each to their own. until I came on PH I'd never even thought the humax boxes were slow/laggy/cheap etc they just work for me. As I say my mum's sky box in my opinion is far worse and the TV guide sucks, but I know others have the opposite view

[Bikerjon]

I've got a freesat tuner built-in on both our TV's. Scrolling through the guide is laggy and painful to use on both of them, but we just sort of got used to it. A lot of our TV now is netflix, iPlayer etc and it's not always that rapid to navigate round those either.

[Mattt]

Just buy a cheap used Sky box off eBay - much cheaper and they work fine.

[bernie_eccle]

After binning Sky a couple of weeks ago I ordered a HDR-1100S refurbed box direct from Humax. I was very impressed with it. It was snappy and intuitive. It has Netflix and lots of catch up services.

There were 2 issues. Firstly the remote was on the same frequency as my under unit led strip lighting, meaning that they went on or off if I put the sound up or down!

The biggest issue however is that 4HD is no longer available nor is the All4 catch up player. This a deal breaker for me, so I have returned the box to Humax.

I'm really disappointed as it seems a great unit. I have now ordered a Youview box from CEX for £60. It seems to offer a similar set up but using an aerial. The downside is that it requires an ethernet cable as it isn't wireless. It is a BT DTR-T4000 1TB YouView Ultra HD 4K.

We'll see how that goes when it arrives.

[skeggysteve]

bernie_eccle said:

The biggest issue however is that 4HD is no longer available

You can get C4HD on the Humax box:

https://www.satandpcguy.com/2018/02/20/how-to-add-...

[BuzzBravado]

Is anyone here with a Humax seeing "poor signal, no reception" type message on random channels? A reboot fixes it temporarily but would be good for an actual fix. Emailed Humax but they have not responded. Done software update and re-scans.

[BuzzBravado]

bernie_eccle said:

There were 2 issues. Firstly the remote was on the same frequency as my under unit led strip lighting, meaning that they went on or off if I put the sound up or down!

Thats the cheap under unit lighting more than the Humax. I have the same issue and it seems any remote for any system changes them. Set mine the way i want it then hidden the IR receiver.

[bmwmike]

BuzzBravado said:

Is anyone here with a Humax seeing "poor signal, no reception" type message on random channels? A reboot fixes it temporarily but would be good for an actual fix. Emailed Humax but they have not responded. Done software update and re-scans.

Check your cables are not kinked and connections are good. I've had a similar error and was a dodgy connection from the wall to the box.

[BuzzBravado]

a reboot has the signal back at strong so its more a software issue than hardware i think.

[devnull]

Humax boxes are embarrassing, I had to ensure one for the last 2 years as my rental didn’t have a free view aerial.

I did buy a new Samsung tv, and that had a free sat tuner built in - miles better than the humax.