Humax HDR-1100s 1TB White

Excellent piece of kit. If I have any complaint it is that the power on light is not visible at the front.

I was looking for an alternative to SKY as i have been tired of spending excessive amounts of money whilst continually returning to watch ordinary free to watch channels and a small look back at my viewing habits showed that I was watching main stream channels more than any other so it was a "no brainer" get rid of SKY and buy a Humax box why? Well Humax seem to be the leader in this area of the market; you won’t find a more entertaining satellite experience without a subscription in my opinion. One great feature for me was the built-in wi-fi. That means on-demand content is more accessible but, more importantly it means you can connect to and stream from an external server. I chose: 500GB, but it is available in 1TB or 2TB of hard-disk space to store up to 1200 hours of standard-definition recordings, two satellite tuners, two USB ports and HDMI. Basic set-up, is easy and the Humax holds your hand, the electronic telly guide is not as fluid as others but is good and easy to learn, this box is a breeze to use. With more than 200 channels from which to choose the easy set up is especially helpful and the menus are colourful but remain simple and easily navigated, there is a Showcase section which advertises what you ought not to miss in the near future. Also you can get 7 days earlier TV too and whilst it can take a few seconds to load I have found it very useful when you miss something during the week.The catch-up services are good and FreeSat say they will grow in time. You have the usual access to BBC iPlayer, ITV Player(although not in Scotland), All 4 and Demand 5, plus YouTube, movies on demand from Curzon Home Cinema, Hopster and Netflix, as well as the ability to scroll back through the last seven days of shows on the EPG as I have said previously is a nice bonus. Setting a recording (you can record two shows at a time, or record one channel while watching another) is as simple as clicking on the show you want to watch and scrolling up through the options. OkayI have to admit it took five minutes to set up, it was that easy, the quality of the picture is excellent and the sound is good. I have already got Netflix and Amazon subscription services, therefore I can’t imagine why you’d want for anything else Goodbye blue SKY Goodbye.

Bought this for somebody else so have only limited direct experience. Set up was straightforward and EPG easy enough to follow. Agree comments from others re differing sound outputs between some channels. Also agree that making a sales pitch of "Freetime" capability is a bit of a liberty too! Didn't have it long enough to try much on the recording side. However, the little unit produced a nice picture and at the price of just 3 months Sky sub, seems pretty good value. Having now purchased a second receiver for my own use and been operating it for a few days, I feel able to add some additional comments. Compared with Humax 1, set up was a bit trickier as the box locked up and had to be rebooted 3 times before the procedure would go to completion. Despite this, it seems to be running OK and I've been able to try the "Catch up TV" system and made a couple of recordings. Was a bit disappointed (but not really too surprised!!) that there is no facility for skipping ads or fast forwarding on Freetime. Fast wind/skip is possible on recordings made myself but manual deletion of recordings isn't. (The Nanny system says it will do that for me when the HDD get nearly full). There is neither facility for manual editing of recordings nor for archiving them to DVD or other external source. I too have had a couple of recordings stop before the end of a programme and I can't do "timer edit" as I can on my Panasonic machine (adding a minute or so to the beginning and end of the record time) to overcome this problem. Box 2 seems to be a little slower to go from red to blue indicator light and respond to the remote than was the case with Box 1. A bit of juggling with the volume level on the Humax in combination with the level on the TV itself overcomes the problem referred to above. Despite its little foibles, this machine can only be thought of as good value for money and a boon to those seeking to unburden themselves from heavy monthly costs of pay to view TV.

Humax Freesat box delivered, no damage although very little packing. Setup was easy, worked first time. Recorded several progs over Christmas period, no problem. Two weeks later it stopped working, no signal to TV via HDMI. Tried the usual "switch off for 10 mins etc", tried a different HDMI lead, different TV in all combinations, no joy. Requested return and refund, Amazon did this all quickly. Box returned to sender, still awaiting refund. It seems that there are no Freesat boxes that don't have problems. Humax don't manufacture Freesat boxes any longer, so what happens when a faulty box is returned? I notice several "reconditioned" Humax boxes on Amazon, who has "reconditioned" them? I also notice several failed Humax boxes and other manufacturers in the review columns. Would appreciate knowing of a good Freesat box that will work for longer than two weeks.

mucho bueno