Click Here for Best Prices for the UK, including FREE UK Delivery
Humax PVR Freesat
The Humax PVR Freesat was an evolution of the iCord without recording and the Humax PVR Freesat is not only the bringing together of those two platforms but an evolution/extension beyond. There is some interesting recording functionality which needs extensive testing and some further work needed to lay the foundations for future Humax PVR Freesat functionality. Can’t say much more, but Freesat have some good plans for the future and the box has to be ready to meet the demands to be placed on it.
The Humax PVR Freesat hardware is a compact re-design for the platform (thus needed some work) and the software is an evolution (thus needs careful attention).
There are a few quirks here too which caught me out on the Humax PVR Freesat, so hopefully this information will be of use to someone. After putting in my postcode prior to searching for the services it came back with BBC1 London, and ITV Central. I scanned again, same thing. It turns out that not all regional services from the BBC and ITV are available on Freesat yet. The official line from Freesat is:
"Not all the regional variants of BBC and ITV services are currently available on the Humax PVR Freesat. This is due to technical constraints associated with co-existence on the satellite platform, so Freesat has adopted a phased service launch.
Twenty BBC and ITV regional services were available at launch, and the remaining regional services have been priortised for launch by the end of July 2008.
If you are in an area with a regional service that is not available yet, your temporary default is BBC London and ITV Central West. When your region becomes available, it will automatically become your default."
Also, ITV HD isn’t actually a channel in its own right yet. Currently the way to view an ITV programme which is being shown in HD is to press the red button and select to watch it in HD. That caught me out as I was wondering why it wasn’t appearing in the EPG.
Anyone who has ever used Sky will be very familiar with the Freesat Humax HD channel numbering system, starting at 101 for BBC One. Channel switching is nice and fast and while the Humax remote control feels decidedly cheap the interface is crisp and clean. Navigating the menus to configure the Freesat Humax HD box itself is very responsive and the large, colourful icons make the whole process simplicity itself for all but the most ardent Humax PVR Freesat technophobe.
