The weakest link?
The current Freesat UI does not currently support sharing or offloading the hard disk’s TV or radio recordings (hopefully one day it will), but its extra multimedia options already give it an advantage over YouView hardware for now.
Freesat’s new on-screen menus are very appealing, as far as PVR user interfaces usually go
Like most feature-rich DVRs, things do not always run smoothly. During the two-week test period the HDR-1000S occasionally froze when going into or out of the media player and iPlayer (unrelated to internet speed). At least one series link was also “broken” – skipping an episode that was definitely shown – and one or two recordings got clipped, although these could be due to broadcaster metadata hitches. If you don’t trust the machine at any time, there is a manual timer, albeit heavily concealed.
Verdict
The Freesat platform has evolved to the point where it’s a viable alternative to Freeview in terms of the number of channels available. If you’re not bothered about premium content (or can’t afford it), it’s a respectable option for thrifty telly fans instead of Sky, Virgin Media, BT and TalkTalk TV.
It’s a confident step forward for Freesat, and there’s much to like. The menus are great to look at and a pleasure to use, apart from the recordings section, which is less polished. You get a more fully developed interface with Sky+, admittedly, but that’s had more than a decade to mature.
Inevitably there are bugs to fix, but our review sample was generally less glitchy than the YouView box at launch. When this new-generation Freesat DVR gets a full complement of on-demand options, it’ll be an even more serious contender. ®
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COMMENTS
Would be nice if it had a DVB-T tuner too. I suppose Humax want me to buy a whole new box for that?
Another HDR owner here, and I'd like to know whether they've learned how to make a remote that works from more than 5 feet away; if it lets you record the buffer as a program; if they've avoided the bug with paused TV and a subsequent scheduled recording on that channel; and all of the EPG and performance stuff mentioned by everyone else. I still quite like the HDR, but it was let down by problems that keep niggling, because you come across them all the time.
Well done and extra points if you've managed to actually buy a modern TV that DOESN'T have a dvb-t tuner in it.
I suppose you mean so that you can record on it though.
Why would you need it if you have a twin tuner dvb-s2 pvr, with catch up, though?
Maybe if it also had a teas made, it would be better?
Re: streamed playback?
> Do any of these Humax boxes (freesat or freeview - dont care which) allow you to
> record onto one main box and then stream recordings over a home network to other
> TV connected boxes?
My Freeview Humax T2 does exactly that: I can watch its recordings on other boxes (computers/tablets and also a sony bluray player), but it generally only works with the non-HD recordings (maybe a problem on the player side?). It's called PnP DNLA or something like that.
Re: streamed playback?
Yes,
I can stream content from my Humax freeview hdr to the freeview hd box with the standard firmware I use powerline adapters to acheive this but others in my family manage with wi-fi dongles as well.
I can also stream from the Foxsat satellite box using custom firmware.
regards
Mark
