Having had a previous model of this brand I knew this would be the best option for me to view freesat channels. The set up is simple and quick, picture quality is excellent and box is easy to use. My only reservations are small. The light indicator to say whether it is on or off is positioned is such a way you haven't a clue which is showing. Watching previous programs isn't possible for all channels which I was hoping for, but if you're more organised than I am the memory size can fit on loads of programs. Finally the App you can also use with it isn't worth the effort of setting it up. It doesn't really bring anything to anyone. That said I'd definitely recommend.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
Having been a Sky Tv cutomer for over 13 years I had got used to the layout and navigation of the Sky Boxes. I never went to Sky Q, but instead decided that Sky was too expensive and it was time to go Free Sat. Doing my research the Humax HDR 1000S came up as the best solution out there to get as close to Sky as posible. The first thing I noiced right away when I turned it on was the Hard Drive noise, it was way too noisy to have in the same room you sleep at night. Much of this was down the having their mobile app linked to the box. It regularly checks to see If you have changed any scheduals, this fires off the Hard drive all night long. I would have thought they would have least put a HDD in that sky uses as its silent in Sky boxes. This I found to be a compaint of these boxes on forums. I had to put a cloth under the box to dampen the noise, but this does make the box very hot. The time it takes to boot up from standby is longer than a Sky box, but this was not too much of a wait. Once the box loads up it goes directly to the Tv guide. The layout colour is good and easy to read. You soon realise however that navigating around the menu is significatly slower than a Sky box. I would say it behaves as slow as a sky box when it needs a system rebuild, or the batteries are half dead. You have to wait at least 3 seconds for it to respond which does not sound much, but when your trying to quickly move through menus it is a drag. Again looking this up I found users on forums complain about this. I tried all suggestions and came to the conclusion it was just these boxes have slow processors. If you set a series link, the series are put into a folder. The problem can be when you have multiple series and episodes, they still go into the same folder together. The Episode and Series does not show in the title so you must press the infomation button to see such data. When you part watch a recording it shows a small circle thats half white and half black no matter how far you are into it you dont actualy know how much time is left to watch. There is no "Next" button to watch the next episode of a recorded series so you have to go back into the menu to select the next one. There is no way to type in how far into the recording you wish to watch from. These are features you get with Sky. When you do a search it will not find any results On Demand, but only Tv even although you have the option to filter the two from each other. When you do find somthing on demand your doing so in that dedicated app such as ITV Hub. This does not happen with Sky as it pulls in all demand findings into the same Sky layout. Whats more is you cant record or download a On Demand program like Sky. This means you cant skip ads and if you wish to go back to continue to watch that propgram you must load the app providing you remember what app that program was in. This makes things feel disjointed and is no better than the built in smart tv options for most Tvs. At times the On Demand apps go missing from the menu, it takes a power down to get it back. Again with each issue I go onto the net and find the same issues brought up often with no resolve. You will get a work around at best but never see Humax admit its a firmware or hardware issue. The only feature I like is you can set the forward button to jump a set amount of time, by default its 2 min so two presses can skip adds of a recording. Deleting a episode is a long winded task. You dont have the coloured buttons used like Sky where you can delete a episode, series or only watched program. You must open the folder click select the episde which moves to another screen, and move down a menu to select either delete episode or series, no option to delete watched. Whats very destructive is if you have say Series 1, 2, 3 its all put into the same folder. If you chose a episode from say series 2 and chose to Delete series it deletes everything in the folder, all series 1,2,3. The preview of the Tv guide is not staggered, this means that you dont get the sence of whats on next at a glance as the length of the bars for each program remain the same regardless if its got 2min left or just started. This box has frozen a number of times needing a restart, On Demand channels go missing randomly, The navigation is slow, but I like the colour layout. Its not as good as Sky and thats the older boxes not Sky Q. The remote control is very noisy as each button has its pop like click. It should have back lite buttons and voice search at this price. The Humax HDR 1000S is way over priced, I dont think this box is worth more than £200 with 1tb. . It gets my programs recorded, If you can afford a basic Sky package its going to be a better exprience than this, just be aware of how they break apart their packages.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Lightweight, compact and stylish piece of kit that is easy to set up and connect to your SKY satellite dish and internet. Picture and sound quality are excellent. Complete range of free to air channels with the usual film channels, (Film4, Sony, plus several more) with a good selection of Plus 1 channels running an hour later. Box has 'On Demand' feature where you can select channels for Catch Up on programmes you've missed on the terrestrial channels, (unfortunately All 4 is not available)! The box operates pretty much the same as other FreeSat boxes, with lists rather than picture icons (as on a SKY box). The box is quick to respond to commands, though it does take a few seconds to initially load up to start. Nice little extras are that if selecting a channel to watch and the programme is available in HD it will give you a prompt to switch channels, it also has a prompt if you miss the beginning of some programmes to watch from the start. The box will only record one channel at a time (if you're currently watching another programme), but will record 2 at a time if you are either watching a previous recording or not using the TV. It will also ask if you want to record in HD or SD (I use the SD as that doesn't use as much memory, though the memory seems vast enough to store many films and programmes, not sure how many but I've already got loads stored), and will also ask if you want to record entire series where it will automatically add a link, though do be careful that this does not clash with anything else you want to record at the same time. The Recording facility will also give you a prompt when something has been stored for a long time and is about to delete, (I suspect this is to always allow sufficient recording memory). I've marked the box down to 4 stars as it does have a few irritating negatives, eg. if you've selected to record programmes running consecutively but on different channels it will sometimes lose the ending by a minute or so of the first recording as it jumps channels, OR if you're watching the TV when this happens it will put up a signal that 2 programmes are overlapping and to delete the recording of one, which means you have to stop what you're watching to delay the beginning of the 2nd recording! Also as previously mentioned All 4 is not available on Catch Up/Demand so you're unable to catch up with any of the ch4 programmes. The operating light on the box is underneath so is hard to see to know the current status, eg whether it is on/off/recording etc. There is no other indicator panel on the box to show the current time or what channel you are viewing etc and I find that really frustrating, so you have to press the 'info' button for the current status and go into the Recording facility to check if anything is currently being recorded. It's also very irritating that with all this modern technology a FreeSat box is still unable to record 2 or more programmes at the same time so managing your recordings can be slightly tricky and needs good planning. The box also 'hums' for a short while after turning off, which if like me you worry about electrical equipment catching fire or blowing up, is slightly unnerving until you get used to it! I have to say that apart from these minor irritations this little box delivers big time and we've been enormously pleased to have access to all our favourite channels without the burden of a monthly subscription. Happy to recommend to others.Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Replaced old Humax Freesat with this one used now for about 3 months.When I bought it my intention was to use it exactly the same as the old Humax Freesat - just recording for time transfer & series so very happy that this does exactly that perfectly. Would have given 5 stars but On Demand is unreliable maybe only 20% available. This seems to be a common problem (google it) if you pay for Netflix this may be more of a problem if you don't have other access to Netflix. I am unable to trust just switching on & pick one of the On Demands. When the "unavailable" tab appears it can take hours of unplugging & restarting to maybe get going again. I have tried all the fixes, web & contact us stuff, so now given up with On Demand using this device. Recording from dish however is absolutely fantastic. Easy to follow on screen menus. Some very good improvements over old box, one great feature is being able to use mobile app to set recordings when away from home. Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
I exchanged my new Sat Freeview box recorder for the Humax 1100S 500GB the build quality and features are so much better. I used SKY TV HD system previously to this set up as it was getting quite expensive. Humax 1100S is very reliable and easy to set up and use. My only niggle is you can't down load BBC or ITV iplayer straight to your Humax hard drive, thus skipping past the adverts. I just wish there was a record light on the outside of the unit other than that it's all great.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
It is simplicity itself. We plugged it into an old Viera and followed the instructions. I think it took less tha five minutes to set up. Recording is easy. Playback and managing recordings is straightforward. The picture quality is excellent. The only odd thing is that the sound seems to work in tandem with the TV control. Otherwise cant faullt it.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
I bought this coming from the fact that I just wasn't getting the use out of my viewing subscription to justify the cost which was going up again. Most of what I watch is available for free on either Freeview or Freesat, I did a breakdown of my viewing and it was about 90% / 10%, ie I watched the odd film and the odd football match and some cricket. This is ideal for me, I can record a program, a whole series, record 2 at the same time, HD channels available, great TV guide, loads of storage. I'm very happy with my purchase.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
This product had been recommended to me and has lived up to its recommendation in every way. I was unable to get a satisfactory signal with other aerials and did not want to pay Sky Tv. Perfect solution. Recording and play back is great. Only problem is a long delay in returning to play back after the ads on itv catch up. the only other issue is these boxes are really hard to get hold of as they have been discontinued and I couldn’t find anything else in the market that was as good!
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Summary: Its OK, its usable & does the job but could be much better, it doesn't deserve the 5/5 ratings it usually gets. But those ratings are probably given because most non-Sky satellite boxes are rubbish in one way or another -this is much better than those for most ordinary users (who just want ordinary, local channels, & recording). I've used Sky & I've used free-to-air satellite (not easy to use). This is better than free-to-air satellite because its got the 'killer' advantage of a proper 7-day EPG (tv guide like Sky's) & you don't need to mess about selecting satellites & sifting through thousands of channels. This & the good picture/sound quality is probably why this unit gets such great reviews (but largely also due to FreeSat itself). There is a downside if you're looking to tune into specific satellites & international channels, though you can enter custom channels. The downside of the custom channel facility is that they can't be added to the normal programme list/guide. Switching between custom channels & Freesat channels is a pain - you have to go into the settings every time & change the set-top box mode between Freesat & custom. Also, in custom mode, you don't get any channel list at all - all you can do is flick through the channels or type the channel number (all the info you get is a brief channel name). Its not as good as Sky because: the menu system is so slow, it takes so long to start up from standby (about 30 sec), it takes 4 clicks every single time you want to access favourites list (making that pointless), to watch a programme selected in EPG you have to click twice (the first time gives you a list of options for that programme), you can hear the hard disk clicking away (but its NOT loud or annoying), & there are some glitches (when I go to the manually added channels list & then back to Freesat my Favourites List sometimes becomes temporarily empty & sometimes when I set to record, it records the wrong programme)(so its not as reliable as a Sky box). The reason for some of these issues is that the Sky box is a proper embedded device & this is basically a specialised PC (which helps keep it cheaper). Its also got fewer HD channels than Sky &, of course, the lack of premium sports & movie channels, etc. For the £200 price, you could get a used Sky+ box & free channels card (you get the same channels plus many more). Whats better than Sky is, of course, no subscription, you don't get the 700 utter rubbish channels, & its about half the size. You can also go back in time on some channels (if its connected to the Internet). You get a back arrow in the EPG & that takes you to a list of previous programmes. Selecting one of those takes you to the channel's Internet TV player (like iPlayer) & plays the programme. For some of these Internet players (like iPlayer) you need to register the Humax device & might also need an account (like iPlayer -but its a straight-forward process). Finally, the remote control is decent (my (curvy) version anyway). But I use a one-for-all, which also works fine (though that has its own issues). It is possible to set the recorder using a mobile phone but I haven't tried it. The help guide, including the Internet one you can access through the box, is pretty basic -doesn't tell you much except how to plug it in. Note: by default my box was set to 1080i TV resolution -I had to change it manually to the better 1080p resolution. A warning: although its pretty easy to use and set up, when I first connected I was stumped for a while in getting it to scan for channels. If you haven't used it before, you won't know that when you select the channel scan you'll be taken to a page of more info rather than starting the scan. On that page there is one blue highlighted sentence, and that is actually a button you need to click to start the scan. But its not obvious -so when you see this page it looks like the channel scan failed (well, it did to me because I wasnt expecting this pointless page).Read full review
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
I used to own the previous more bulky version of this product and it was much more robust and better built. Also the old one had a LED display on the front which was useful. The new one has a single multi-coloured LED that randomly changes colour. Unfortunately the unit has developed a very loud and distracting noise when recording after just a few weeks of use. The user interface is thorough but fussy. I much prefer the Sky one. Picture quality is good and it was easy to setup. I love the seamless catch-up TV integration. Not sure i'd buy it again if given the choice but Freesat options are very limited. I'll invest in a digital aerial and go Freeview next time.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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