[Tony B]

I ordered one from Switzerland last week, on the basis that they expected new stock this week. At last, I think, some real high def stuff to watch....

Phoned today to check on expected despatch date.

Their supply has been delayed by another 2 to 3 weeks.

Grrrrr.

Was getting all excited. Oh well, something to look forward to, after my holiday......

[pietnoeck]

Apperently they are on sale in MediaMarkt in Germany in whole pallets !

My first post here so hello to everyone!!

I bought mine 31/1 in media markt, so it's almost 2 weeks ago, for 399euros.
After few days of playing with rec. i can share my impressions.

Receiver looks very solid, and it's huge comparing with others on the market. Remote control is good quality and feels nice in hand. My example was sold together with scart lead and hdmi cable.

After connecting everything it takes about 10 minutes to go thrue initial settings and channel search. At this point we have first surprise - channels from hotbird are saved from position 200 and this is first indication that we are dealing with dedicated software for Prem.ere. After checking all HD channels on HB i decided to move my dish (USALS motor) to astra 19deg. Here we have suprise number 2 - after changing dish type from fixed to motorized, humi is deleting all previously stored channels!!
Ok i think, i'll do it again. Well... I wish I could. DisEqC USALS is not working in this software version at all, so one position only !!

Conclusion is that humax pr-hd1000 is a very good receiver with beta software. Below good and bad points.

+ build quality
+ large display with full ch name and time
+ picture/sound quality
+ remote
+ 2x CI slot (tested with dragon cam)

- USALS not working
- not working with 4:2:2 transmisions
- not working with Sky hd test channels on astra 28e (no channels found)
- lack of search options (manual pids)
- needs good ventilation - it's getting really hot

After all i'm very happy with my rec. I'm really pleased with picture quality, even SD channels looks far better comparing with Technomate 1000CI or Skybox. I just cant wait for better (unofficial) soft, but for now i have to stick with 2 receivers - Humi for TV and TM for feeds.

Cheers
kuba2222

[Tony B]

Originally Posted by kuba2222

My first post here so hello to everyone!!

I bought mine 31/1 in media markt, so it's almost 2 weeks ago, for 399euros.
After few days of playing with rec. i can share my impressions.

Receiver looks very solid, and it's huge comparing with others on the market. Remote control is good quality and feels nice in hand. My example was sold together with scart lead and hdmi cable.

After connecting everything it takes about 10 minutes to go thrue initial settings and channel search. At this point we have first surprise - channels from hotbird are saved from position 200 and this is first indication that we are dealing with dedicated software for Prem.ere. After checking all HD channels on HB i decided to move my dish (USALS motor) to astra 19deg. Here we have suprise number 2 - after changing dish type from fixed to motorized, humi is deleting all previously stored channels!!
Ok i think, i'll do it again. Well... I wish I could. DisEqC USALS is not working in this software version at all, so one position only !!

Conclusion is that humax pr-hd1000 is a very good receiver with beta software. Below good and bad points.

+ build quality
+ large display with full ch name and time
+ picture/sound quality
+ remote
+ 2x CI slot (tested with dragon cam)

- USALS not working
- not working with 4:2:2 transmisions
- not working with Sky hd test channels on astra 28e (no channels found)
- lack of search options (manual pids)
- needs good ventilation - it's getting really hot

After all i'm very happy with my rec. I'm really pleased with picture quality, even SD channels looks far better comparing with Technomate 1000CI or Skybox. I just cant wait for better (unofficial) soft, but for now i have to stick with 2 receivers - Humi for TV and TM for feeds.

Cheers
kuba2222

Thanks Kuba2222, that is useful feedback.
Maybe I should change my order to the Philips DSR9005, but I suppose no-one has any experience of this yet.

Hopefully your problems will be solved by a software upgrade?

Tony B

Tony
If you looking for HD receiver with DVB S2 , only choice at the moment is humax or pace and according to german boards humi is better. Philips should follow shortly but there is no feedback so far. Personally I think humax is the best choice for future - rumours are that some people are already working on unoficial soft.
If you are not sat freak like me than you should be happy with humi.

[Tony B]

Originally Posted by kuba2222

Tony
If you looking for HD receiver with DVB S2 , only choice at the moment is humax or pace and according to german boards humi is better. Philips should follow shortly but there is no feedback so far. Personally I think humax is the best choice for future - rumours are that some people are already working on unoficial soft.
If you are not sat freak like me than you should be happy with humi.

Going slightly OT

I do have a motorised dish (1m) so I will be looking to receive from multiple satellites.

Can you point me to a good forum where I can catch up on the latest CAM technology as my experience is from D2Mac days (ah, the good old days...)?

I would be very reluctant to buy another Pace receiver as the last one that I had (>£500) had serious reliability issues, because of the cheap components used.

Some forums about sat-tv in english
Usually you have to register to get full access

satellites.co.uk
satdudez.org
67.43.4.157:81/index.php? (toecutters)

Regards
kuba2222

BTW: I hope i'm not braking any rules by giving this info

[colonel_butt]

are there any genuine HD channels in MPEG2 or MPEG4 that can be picked up FTA on Hotbird or Astra 1?

I was thinking that HD1, Premiere testing channel and sky italia testing channel should be available.

Can you get any of these on your humax ?

[Stephen Neal]

Originally Posted by colonel_butt

are there any genuine HD channels in MPEG2 or MPEG4 that can be picked up FTA on Hotbird or Astra 1?

I was thinking that HD1, Premiere testing channel and sky italia testing channel should be available.

Can you get any of these on your humax ?

ISTR that Sat 1 and Pro 7 were DVB-S FTA MPEG2 (though mainly upscaled SD for much of the time) on Astra 1 - or has this changed?

AIUI there are also some HD test loops from various people - including Astra - on Astra 1 in FTA MPEG2 HD (using DVB-S)

Lyngsat may cast more light.

[bayards]

On my new (but still quaintly old-fashioned MPEG2 only box) I can get various demo channels on Astra 19.2 (3 to be precise) and also during the day C-More HD for the Scandinavians (Sirius or Thor sats).

Sat1HD and Pro7HD both went MPEG4/DVB-S2 only a while ago....

H

[Tony B]

Originally Posted by kuba2222

Tony
If you looking for HD receiver with DVB S2 , only choice at the moment is humax or pace and according to german boards humi is better. Philips should follow shortly but there is no feedback so far. Personally I think humax is the best choice for future - rumours are that some people are already working on unoficial soft.
If you are not sat freak like me than you should be happy with humi.

Just been talking to my supplier in Switzerland.

The delay has (apparently) been caused by Humax recalling supplies pending a software update. With luck it will address the issues you have raised, and, I would guess, also be available via their website?

Next stock is expected in a week or so, but I will have a more firm idea tomorrow.

[bayards]

Wonder if I'm lucky or not. Just received shipping details via Deutsche Post/UPS and my Humax is on the way - guess an OTA upgrade will happen at some stage....

H

My Humax arrived today. Two questions:

Has anyone found a downloadable instruction manual in English ?

I have it connected to a V-Box to drive my positioner but it doesn't seem to be working. I see from other messages that USALS isn't working. Is DiSEqC 1.2 not working also?

[bayards]

Bum. I will be using DISEQ as well with a V-Box II positioner....

PS hope that you can still move the dish with the V-Box remote until we get a software fix over the air one day....

H

It could just be me, of course, or a wonky V-Box - I had a "proper" motorised receiver before. Let us know how you get on, Bayards.

Its not you. It humi I'm afraid. On the good side i found info on another forum that soft update should be relased within 14days.

[stainway]

Well mine was delayed to 17.02.2005 Hope the USALS problem will be fixed soon as I have also motorized dish.
Anyway Kuba 2222 thanks for the info
BTW The Humax is the only HDTV with USALS (if and when working) Philips and Pace does not support motorized dish. And according to German reviews the Humax is better then the Pace in terms of PQ etc….

Yes, I'm very happy with the picture quality on my 1024 x 1024 Sony plasma. Trouble is, I now want a proper 1920 x 1080 display.

[colonel_butt]

it'll get worse WGS. Scaling technology in quality plasma screens is fantastic. Going to a higher resolution LCD introduces motion artifacts, interference, bad contrast and all the downsides of LCD. If you have the money get a 60" plasma with higher res

[stainway]

Well I sent e-mail to Humax asking about the DiSEqC 1.2 problem.They are working
Dear.........,

thank your for your email.

The phenomenon you adressed is known and momentarily analyzed by our technical department. Closer information, concerning an new update, will follow at a given time on our homepage http://www.humaxdigital.com/deutsch/hcsa/ .

If you have any further questions, please feel free to ask.

Mit freundlichen Grüßen / Kind regards
Humax Service Center
i.A. Robin Lohoff
ComBase AG Customer Service Center
Telefon / phone +49 180 5 778 900
Techinfo@humax-digital.de

[bayards]

Thanks for this info - I managed to register with the Humax site at last. Everytime I tried I got an XML error. When I left the model number blank (had to as the PR-HD1000 is not listed !!) it accepted me - hopefully not too many days to wait now....

Howard

[RecordablDVDfan]

Could a s/w update to the Humax give 4.2.2 capability ?

[bayards]

Someone over at digispy said that the original Quali-tv receivers did not do 4.2.2 but a later software fix introduced that. My Quali box could pick up the Torino HD feeds in 4.2.2.

Another bug found in the Humax - cannot use 2 CI CAMS at the same time. The IRDETO works fine alone, as does the Dragon - stick both in and they both fail to intialise. At least Humax have said there is an OTA download on the way - maybe this will fix this problem and some HDMI issues too.

By the way, locked onto the Sky Italia HD test on Hotbird this evening. Just before I went off to Hong Kong some people were reporting problems locking on (my box tried and crashed too). Tonight lovely footage. It's MPEG4 but the DVB variety.

Still no luck tuning to the Sky broadcasts on 28.2....

H

[stainway]

Well I still don't have it. I will ask my money back, as I paid a month ago and they still can't deliver it from Germany. However very soon there will be Humax PR-HD-CI2000 HDTV-Premiere don't want that Humax sells the HD 1000with the nagra card slot out of Germany. So let's hope all small problems will be fixed.

[Hellicopter]

Just for clarity,the Quali box was 4.2.2 from the start (only discovered by me by chance) but it had picture breakup at top and bottom of screen.
Quali proved to be a very open minded company by agrreeing to update the software to cure the problem.
Let's hope their new Mpeg 4 box is also 422 capable.
Alan