 The
credit crunch may be starting to press but the last thing to go is
the Sky package. Strange as it may seem satellite TV clings on long
after life's other luxuries have been consigned to the bin and we
have started to look in the dented tins bin at the supermarket. So
the box on review this week may come as a welcome surprise,
satellite TV that uses your standard mini dish without a contract,
welcome to freesat and the Humax
Foxsat HD Set top box.
HD is certainly a must have if you are buying a new TV but when
combined with a Freeview box you could be waiting a few years before
you get a terrestrial HD signal. So if you want true HD telly you
need satellite from Sky or now freesat. Freesat currently has just
over 130 channels and is adding them at a rate of about 5 a week, it
won't be long before they have all the Freeview channels plus many
more free to air ones. Lastly the killer blow is that freesat will
start to feature Freesat only channels like the ITV HD service that
will not go up on Sky.
Sat under our TV this week is the freesat box the market has been
waiting for the Humax Foxsat HD. The early freesat units were from
global brands like Alba and Bush, hardly a good way to launch a new
service and the forums were fully of flaky box stories. Humax
however is a different league and you can tell this from the moment
you start up the Foxsat. Measuring 280 x 45 x 200mm the Foxsat HD is
a small unassuming box that will sit under the TV, its green LCD
display is easy to read and there is a small red LED to show the
standby mode.
The setup wizard guides you through and all it needs is your
postcode to get started, once verified it starts to use the Freesat
EPG data to check through the same transponders that BSkyB uses to
uplink the shared services. The beauty of this is that Freesat uses
the same 28.2 / 28.5 degree orbital slot so you can use the existing
mini dish you have hanging off the wall at home. Just unplug the
cable from an existing Sky box or where the skybox may once have
been and plug it into the Humax Foxsat HD.
The first tune took around 2 minutes and prompted us to save the
channels at the end having found 133 in total, these are a mixture
of TV and radio. Our first glimpse of the EPG proved that this is no
Sky+ but it's no ugly duckling either, its pretty swift, readable
and easy to navigate too. Soon we had BBC services on screen looking
colourful and clear as good as any Sky box we've seen. The BBC's HD
service is available and the Humax has full HD connectivity via HDMI,
YPbPr or Scart, worth noting that the box will stop you
watching some services if you have the scart enabled as party of a
copy block system. The set top box supports 1080i, 720p, 576p, 576i
resolutions and so is fully equipped for all the announced services.
 Audio
is acceptable even when using the digital optical output it lacks a
bit of oomph and could be accused of sounding thin which is most
noticeable on movies or music, this applies to both SD and HD
programmes.
Humax boast a low power consumption in standby of under 1 watt,
which is still not excuse for leaving it on 24/7 but as so many
people do its good to know its not eating too much. Also worth
noting that the Foxsat does not come with an HDMI lead you'll need
to buy one if you want to watch HD on your set using HDMI.
Overall Humax have done a good job with a solid if not sexy set top
box, it does the basics well receiving Freesat and displaying
quality images and passable sound all with an easy to use EPG. We
fully expect Freesat to be up to nearly 200 channels by Christmas
and perhaps even a few Freesat only services, what we really like is
the unique mix of Freeview favourites like More 4 and some of the
Satellite only services on one box. There is also a Freesat PVR unit
on its way, a kind of Freesat+ box that will record programmes from
the epg.
Priced at around £140 and not needing any form of contract, if you
have a mini dish and want satellite TV then this is the only box to
have right now.
 Published - 05/10/2008
More Set Top Box Review-
[ Up ] [ Hauppauge USB Digital Terrestrial Receiver DEC2000T ] [ Sony Freeview VTX-D800U ] [ Goodmans GDB5 Freeview ] [ Aevoe Mobix ] [ Hauppauge Digital Terrestrial Receiver DEC1000-t ] [ Alienware DHS2 Media Centre ] [ Humax Foxsat Freesat Review ] [ MSI Portable Freeview Box ] [ Sky HD Review ] [ Pinnacle PCTV USB Stick ] [ Oggle Freeview ] |
