For years now, if you wanted to get your TV from a satellite, you'd either be condemned to a niche of free-to-air, European-based channels, or paying for Sky. That just doesn't suit everyone, so, when freesat announced that it would create a free platform for people who couldn't get over-the-air terrestrial broadcasts, there was much celebration and cheering.
For a one-off fee of around £300, you can be up and running, getting access to great high-definition content with the Humax Foxsat-HDR. If you already have a satellite dish, you might not need to pay any more. But, for people who don't, another £70 will have a dish mounted on the side of your house by a trained expert.
Design
In photos, the Foxsat-HDR looks very blue, which might put some people off. Take it from us, though, that the Foxsat-HDR is actually a very slick and well-designed machine. The front panel does have a blue finish, but it's much more subdued that it appears in most photos.
On the front of the machine is a display that tells you what channel you're watching, or, for recorded shows, the name of the programme. Beneath this display is a two-colour LED, which glows blue when the Foxsat-HDR is on and red when it's on standby.
The front panel also hides some controls, a USB socket and a slot for a conditional access module. We didn't really need to use the controls on the front of the machine, but, if your remote gets swallowed by a goat, you might find yourself grateful for them. The CAM socket is, sadly, useless in this country, because Sky flatly refuses to allow anyone to access its services via third-party hardware.
At the back of the machine, you'll find a pair of Scart outputs, an HDMI socket and composite video out. There is also an optical audio jack, to connect the Foxsat-HDR to your AV receiver. You'll also find a second USB socket and an Ethernet jack. We always get quite excited about network connectivity on freesat, because, in theory, it could be used to access TV shows via BBC iPlayer. Fingers crossed the BBC gets around to doing something like that soon.
The supplied remote control is decent enough. It's quite light, but it's a much more appealing style than the one that comes with Humax's Freeview recorders. The buttons are, for the most part, well labelled. There were times when we found ourselves slightly confused by the controls, but that was just teething trouble as we got to know the machine.
Features
The most important feature of the Humax is its built-in storage. It comes with a decent 320GB hard drive, which should see you set for 200 hours of standard-definition or 80 hours of high-definition recordings.
We're pretty happy to say that, unlike Sky+, which drinks up to 18W when it's on standby, the Foxsat-HDR uses less than 1W, which means you'll save both money and the environment. The Foxsat-HDR is also able to switch itself into standby mode when it isn't used for a long period, another power saver.
Humax often adds value to its products by putting in features that no-one else bothers with. The Foxsat-HDR has a very cool feature that allows you to back up video recordings from its hard drive to a USB storage device. Sadly, that's only possible with SD recordings, as HD ones are copy-protected. We can't blame that on Humax really, as it's likely that it would be refused freesat certification without this mechanism.
As you'd expect, the Foxsat-HDR has two tuners. We tested it with a single LNB input, because that's all we had available from our satellite dish. Only connecting one LNB doesn't really cause any problems -- it only restricted the number of channels we could record at once, which is fine. There is also a slight bug with certain firmware versions that prevents over-the-air updates from working on single LNB set-ups. That bug is, however, fixed in all the new firmware versions.
Performance
Setting up the Foxsat-HDR is incredibly simple. When you turn it on initially, it asks if you would like to auto tune all freesat channels. It doesn't take very long for it to hunt down all the available channels, and, within a few minutes, you're up and running. You'll probably, at this stage, want to go and find BBC HD, because it has a permanently running demo loop that's great for convincing you that your new purchase was worth the money.
on Home Cinema 
Facebook 
iPhone App 
Newsletters 
Twitter 
RSS Feeds 
Send Us Tips
User reviews6
Add your review
little em 7 May 2011
Good: I could tell Sky to go and poke it! HD channels are awesome
Bad: Nothing
Comment: Yippee. Over 140 channels does everything that a sky box does but its FREE and no rude horrid SKY people to have to call anymore. Although cancelling SKY took nearly 6 months. Was worth it in the end.
I love the fact there are separate buttons on the remote for the "Guide" and "Media" (Stuff you've recorded), instead of having to go through the same menu.
Can't believe that after having the box now 2 months we have already saved the cost of it, what we were paying to SKY.
Easy installation just plugged in to the old SKY cables.
Easy to watch iplayer and Channel4 on demand.
How did we manage with out it xxxxxxx
I love the fact the channel plays in the background when you are checking your guide.
The time line, when you are watching something that is recorded or paused, is brilliant.
Controller is sleek and easy to use.
JacobHunt 17 March 2011
Good: 1.Outstanding picture quality, in both HD and SD 2.Simple to set up 3.remote is nice & robust
Bad: 1.The box takes a good 15-20 seconds to wake up from stand-by
Comment: FANTASTIC! I had two Sky Boxes and two Panasonic Hard Drive Recorders and this one box has replaced them all. Where as many, many times Sky did not switch on to record, the Humax has not failed once since I bought it.
I am running the box through a Sony full H.D. 52" t.v. and even the non H.D. channels are clear in fact close to 3D. Far superior too to the Sky + system.
One failing, it does not have a grouping for favourite channels. On the other hand you can enter a name of a program and it will search the next 7 days to find it for you. There is a display on the front of the box so you can see what you are watching, not just the channel but the program too.
The added extra is that EVERYTHING is free after you have bought the box unlike Sky who even charge you for channels with endless adverts. This is a must buy. I have even contacted Humax for some help and they were incredibly polite and helpful.
No need to telephone them, they answer 'personally' by e mail, no costly calls, again unlike Sky. If you want a fantastic product at a great price then this is it. Oh and by the way, you get 200 hours of standard recordings or 80 hours of H.D. recordings and the H.D. quality is unbelievable.
Well done Humax, BBC and ITV for such an innovation and for once you are thinking of the viewing public's pleasure not just what money you can get out of us!
*** P.S. If you will buy this Humax FOXSAT-HDR Freesat+ I suggest you at: amazon.co.uk/dp/B001L5YU36/?tag=reviews.cnet.co.uk-21
LutonFan 28 November 2009
Good: The overall ease of use
Bad: Nothing
Comment: Overall, an excellent machine. Initially, the user was unable to delete a recorded programme whilst the box was recording another. This has been rectified by a recent firmware update. Not sure if this is my imagination, but the boot up time seems to have improved.
The aforemention update also included a parental control facility and the machine now allows you to prevent accidental erasure of recorded content.
To sum up, an almost perfect 'bit of kit'. Would recommend this to anyone.
See all 6 user reviews