TV Portal available on Humax FOXSAT HDR??

Can any owner confirm whether or not the freesat+ box from Humax includes the TV Portal for youtube, sky, flickr, iplayer etc?

Have searched everywhere. Humax are decidedly vague on their website. Some websites selling the FOXSAT HDR list the TV Portal as a feature citing Youtube et al, but others don't mention it. Really hoping it's there...

Thanks in advance

Martin

 

http://www.avforums.com/forums/satellite-tv/411852-if-your-topic-freesat-sky-do-not-post-here.html

 

****If your TOPIC is on FREESAT or SKY do NOT POST it here****

But this IS the Freesat forum area. I'm confused. Was the post originally elsewhere and then moved?

 

Fair question - no portal just the BBC and ITV catchup services.

I have such a portal on my Bluray, TBH you need a PC for Youtube etc, doesn't work without a keyboard and mouse.

 

The Humax portal on its Freeview HD boxes works perfectly well using the remote control as a keyboard. Input is a lot quicker using the SMS mode that uses the number keys like a mobile phone.

 

Yes, it was immediately below that clear request from forum admin, so I had to move it. Logiciel

 

Thanks for the replies, but still confused. Would be good to know definitively before I buy as it also means arranging a satellite installation. Do you own the Foxsat? I saw the Humas FOXSAT box at this site: http://www.superfi.co.uk/p-3440-humax-foxsat-hdr-freesat-satellite-pvr-1tb.aspx.

Which states: "Connect the FOXSAT to the Internet, via its Ethernet socket and your home network router, and you'll also be able access the Humax TV Portal which delivers terrific on-line content from services such as BBC iPlayer, Sky Player, Youtube, WikiTV and Flickr, which includes a large selection of on-demand programming. Perfect if you've missed an episode of your favourite series."

And I couldn't see any reason why it would not be available other than Humax's own site is pretty quiet on the whole subject and no reviews seem to mention TV Portal on the FOXSAT - thought it might just be because it was originally only available on the FOX T2 at launch. It has an Ethernet port and the portal is just a website as far as I can tell...

 

To put it generously, that web site is exaggerating.

 

To put it less generously, the site is plain wrong! They are also more expensive than retailers with far more product knowledge. Pay no more than 300 quid for the 1Tb box.

You can get a 500Gb version for 220 and have enough left over to get a A Grade Humax HD Fox T2 (Freeview HD) box from Humax Direct for 59.

That way you will get the Freeview channels not on Freesat (Dave, Yesterday etc), slightly better (1080p/25) pictures with some programs on the BBC and the Humax Portal. The Portal's iPlayer is far better than the Freesat version as it has a HD option whereas the Freesat box also has ITVPlayer

(apologies my keyboard has defected to the USA so no pound sign!!!!)

 

What's confusing about reply #4?

It doesn't have the portal, the website you link to is wrong. On the Foxsat you have BBC iPlayer, ITV Player and some recently added pay per view movie thing, that is all. All of these require connection to a satellite dish to work.

 

I can conferm that the Foxsat-HD and the Foxsat-HDR can only use BBC iPlayer & ITVPlayer along with the Beta of the Streaming movie service Box Office 365. There is no way to access YouTube, Sky Player or any other online service & there is not much chance of Sky putting Sky Player on Freesat any way.

Roland

 

Thanks guys. Sounds pretty conclusive. Bit of a shame though. Would have been a perfect box if it also had the portal also. Don't really want to have multiple boxes to get the same functionality personally.

Was never gonna buy from superfi, just found them when trying to find out about the portal.

I have a windows media center and find the functionality superb, but just want a dedicated consumer device now, now shutdown/restarting, no windows updates, no hefty PSU etc.

My plan was to get the FOXSAT, record in SD and HD, hack it to install twonky and stream all my media around the house e.g. to my XBMC Acer Revo. Don't think that can be done on the HDR FOX T2 :-( At least not HD as well. Having the Portal would have been perfect as can use the someone else's Sky user details to have that also.

I guess I could go for the Freeview version and just wait on HD til July, sell the Revo and buy the cheap HD FOX T2. Assuming I can stream SD and HD content to the HD FOX T2...

 

The claims refer to the HDR FOX T2 and the HD FOX T2 freeview-HD boxes not the Freesat ones. They got it wrong big time.

 

Not "exaggerating" then, as I guessed, but simply getting it wrong?

 

A bit OT, but fyi even with the modified custom firmware for the Foxsat-HDR you can only really count on streaming SD around the house.

HD can only be streamed (or played on any other clients other than that specific HDR box) if recorded non-encrypted. And that can only be done with the Foxsat-HDR in non-freesat mode which means
i) no freesat EPG and
ii) no way to schedule recordings.
....which is not too comfortable.....

 

Really ? Perfectly ?? My Sony Bluray has SMS mode also, but taking Youtube as an example, on the TV the font tends to be big, which means many more pages to scroll,compounded with the fact that you can't open links in new tabs. I find it useful, but its a right pain in the butt at times.

Next year I'm sure you'll see many more units with a qwerty keyboard remote and joystick/pad on them, if you want your TV to act like a PC you just need PC style input.