Answered For those who've switched from Sky to Freesat.

Wildkarrde

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Like most of what I've read, the ever increasing subscription of SKY has led me to cancel. My subscription finishes tomorrow.

Now, i was going to continue to use my SKY box for viewing (as i believe that SKY picture quality is better than Freeview?) and i have a Panasonic Freeview PVR to record, everything fine you would say but no! My Wife would still like the facility to pause,rewind and instant record like the SKY box did.
Unfortunately the Freeview PVR does not perform as quickly or fluently as the SKY box did so the long and short of my question is -

Is there a Freesat box that replicates the quickness of the SKY box? Seen a few good reviews of the HDR-1000s but nothing that answers my question.

Can anyone who's switched answer my query and are you happy with the functions?

Regards.
 
The HDR-1000s & HDR-1010s are the current flagship freesat models.
They're pretty much the same except the 1010s has WiFi on board.
I couldn't say whether they're as fluid or not as I've not had a Sky box in years.
They do however take around 35 seconds from coming out of standby to being able to watch a program or change channels.
You may think this is a step backwards but the Sky box doesn't fully go into standby and is still pretty much active.
 
Coming out of standby ain't a massive issue, 35 secs ain't bad. It's the 'quickness' facility that i'm most interested in.
In your experience does pause work instantly and rewinding is fluent?

Those who've had SKY will know what i mean compared against Freeview PVR.
 
Yeah pausing and rewinding seem fine enough to me.

Here's a video review you may find helpful.
 
AFAIK moder Freeview HD+ PVRs from Humax are pretty much similar to their freesat offerings in terms of performance and speed.

Other brands may have issues... but short of finding a retailer with boxes connected and working that will demo them you'll be playing a lottery.

My now very old Panasonic analogue DVD-R and HDD/DVD-Rs would happily pause / restart / chase play etc.,. so I'm unsure how they got the Freeview versions wrong....

Of course, it may just be that the UI is unfamiliar.... THAT will be the same moving to any other brand of PVR (Freeview or freesat) as the proprietary $ky UI can't be copied too accurately by others without infringing copyrights etc.,.

If catchup via the internet is important to you <freetime> and <you view> products should both be considered.
 
Funny, I've just gone from Freesat to Sky, but only because of a 50% discount deal they were doing. Anyway, I must say I much prefer the Humax Freesat interface to the Sky box. The Humax to me is way quicker though with responsiveness, the core features, pause, rewind, record, catchup and obviously the picture quality are the same.

Will see how I feel after the 12months is up and I return to Freesat :)
 
Funny, I've just gone from Freesat to Sky, but only because of a 50% discount deal they were doing. Anyway, I must say I much prefer the Humax Freesat interface to the Sky box. The Humax to me is way quicker though with responsiveness, the core features, pause, rewind, record, catchup and obviously the picture quality are the same.

Will see how I feel after the 12months is up and I return to Freesat :)

We're you using the HDR-100s?
 
AFAIK moder Freeview HD+ PVRs from Humax are pretty much similar to their freesat offerings in terms of performance and speed.

Other brands may have issues... but short of finding a retailer with boxes connected and working that will demo them you'll be playing a lottery.

My now very old Panasonic analogue DVD-R and HDD/DVD-Rs would happily pause / restart / chase play etc.,. so I'm unsure how they got the Freeview versions wrong....

Of course, it may just be that the UI is unfamiliar.... THAT will be the same moving to any other brand of PVR (Freeview or freesat) as the proprietary $ky UI can't be copied too accurately by others without infringing copyrights etc.,.

If catchup via the internet is important to you <freetime> and <you view> products should both be considered.

The UI can be adapted to, i know that nothing will compare or look like Sky.

Having read reviews Humax would be the preference and seeing that it seems to be as good as Sky's box from the comments, i will look out for one now.
 
No I was using a much older model, a Humax HDR-Foxsat
 
The The HDR-1000s & HDR-1010s appear to have an instant record/ pause/ skip back/ skip fwd/ rewind and fast fwd buttons on the RC the same as both my Humax Foxsat and freeview HDR T2 here just above the big round thing in the middle.
 
The The HDR-1000s & HDR-1010s appear to have an instant record/ pause/ skip back/ skip fwd/ rewind and fast fwd buttons on the RC the same as both my Humax Foxsat and freeview HDR T2 here just above the big round thing in the middle.

They do have this capability. In fact all the Humax HD remotes will control any of the boxes.

There are some differences in how they treat recording from the time shift buffer.

Ignoring the extra capability the custom firmware gives the Foxsat-HDR and the HDR FOX T2.

Foxsat-hdr can't record the time shift buffer at all. Instant record only works from current real time programme point.

Assuming the current programme was being viewed from the time it started.

On a HDR FOX T2 pressing record will record from the current playback time. You can rewind the buffer to record from the start of the current programme. I imagine the HDR1800T and 2000T will work the same way.

The freetime (HDR1000s, HDR1010s and HB1000s) boxes, record the entire current programme from it's start to the eventual end when instant record is pushed.
 
@grahamlthompson

A member has offered me a Humax Foxsat HDR with a 1TB HDD installed, bought here - For Sale - Denon AVR-2311 + Humax Foxsat HD. | AVForums

Now i'm assuming that the 1TB was a custom upgrade? Also, with the exception of freetime I'm i likely to notice much of a difference between my 1st preference HDR-1000s?

Regards.

The Foxsat-hdr offers a number of advantages over a HDR1000s especially if you want to watch it's recordings on other kit, either directly by DLNA or by copying recordings to other kit, provided the Custom Firmware is installed.

Media & File Server Bundle for the Foxsat HDR - Release 4 - PART 5 | AVForums

On the other hand the only catch up services you have are iplayer (SD only) and itv player (pretty poor pictures).

The freetime boxes in addition to the OD services do have sharper pictures than the Foxsat and have DLNA clients.

I have both so can view Foxsat recordings on the HDR1000S but not vice versa.

If I remember rightly Humax Direct did eventually offer a 1TB box, so may or may not be a upgrade. I would want to know what drive was fitted if a user upgrade. For reliability a AV specced drive is required. I fitted a 1TB WD AV drive to my Foxsat in Dec 2008 (shortly after the box became available) and it's still working fine.

If there are any specific questions please ask.
 
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Thanks for that.

I would like the best pic quality so if the HDR-1000s offers that, i'm more inclined to go down that road as the other benefits i won't use.
 
Is there a way to have the HD channels arranged into a more similar order to Freeview?
102 BBC2HD and not 109
103 STVHD and not 119
104 CH4HD and not 126
 
Is there a way to have the HD channels arranged into a more similar order to Freeview?
102 BBC2HD and not 109
103 STVHD and not 119
104 CH4HD and not 126

No - Freesat don't allow you to change lcn's.
 
No - Freesat don't allow you to change lcn's.

Did i read you write somewhere that you can list them so the EPG lists your favourites first? Would be nice to have something like that.
 
Did i read you write somewhere that you can list them so the EPG lists your favourites first? Would be nice to have something like that.

You can build a Favourites list but the channels are still in logical channel order. There is also genre sorting of the epg (Display only HD for instance)
 
You can build a Favourites list but the channels are still in logical channel order. There is also genre sorting of the epg (Display only HD for instance)

Thanks again, ever helpful :)
 
About to jump ship as well, changing over to BT for fibre, which leaves me paying £23 or there about for Sky tv (and I have a basic sub), so for me its basically £23 for Sky Atlantic, so going to buy one of these boxes and sub to Sky Now every so often for £7/m to catch up on what I have missed.
Could you guys clarify 2 things for me:
1) I live in Scotland, I believe there is no STV HD, if I use an English postcode will I be able to receive ITV HD (realising by doing so, I will be getting BBC1 England instead of Scotland ( a bit of a pain for local news but hey..)? Also, if you run the setup (and choose postcode) does it wipe you disk data every time, so if I really want to see something on BBC1 Scotland, run through the setup again?
2) I'm sure I read somewhere one of the drawbacks was watching recorded material. There is no user defined time, if you watch half a programme, next time you go back in to continue watching, it will not start from last watched, you have to forward through the entire programme again....now I cant find the post that mentioned this and I don't see many complaining about it, so is it true or rubbish?

Thanks.
 
See my post #16, STV HD is on channel 119 :)
Recordings pick up where left off on the box I bought - Humax HDR-1000s

HTH.
 
See my post #16, STV HD is on channel 119 :)
Recordings pick up where left off on the box I bought - Humax HDR-1000s

HTH.

They don't if you play them back in chasing playback (ie while the recording is ongoing). Seems to be a bug (it's not present on a Foxsat-hdr).
You need to note how far you have watched if playing back this way. It's relatively quick to get back to where you stopped playback.
 
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See my post #16, STV HD is on channel 119 :)
Recordings pick up where left off on the box I bought - Humax HDR-1000s

HTH.
Excellent, thank you!
 
They don't if you play them back in chasing playback (ie while the recording is ongoing). Seems to be a bug (it's not present on a Foxsat-hdr).
You need to note how far you have watched if playing back this way. It's relatively quick to get back to where you stopped playback.
Thanks for the clarification, looks like I'm set to jump!
 
Although there is a STV HD there is no STV player yet
 

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