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Reviews (3)
10 Aug, 2017
Great power cord at a good price
I bought this to replace a radio UK power cord for use in the Philippines. It seems to be difficult to get cords like this in the UK and the Philippines so I'm delighted to find this and at such a good price. Fully recommended.
06 Jun, 2018
Good quality locking cables for a great price. A must for every system.
I have a homebuilt PC system where SATA cables (both locking and non-locking) were producing intermittent connections but these cables solve the problem. Good quality locking cables.
20 Nov, 2017
It may be "previous generation" but it's an excellent freesat satellite box nevertheless
5 of 5 found this helpful I bought my first Humax Foxsat-HDR six years ago and with the custom firmware it's been a superb Freesat box for me, so much so that I was looking for an additional box to enhance my setup. Now I have the ability to record up to four programmes concurrently should that need arise.
My initial attraction to the Foxsat-HDR was that it had an ethernet port which allowed for the transfer of recorded programmes to a PC or NAS. What made me a real devotee of the product is the fact that there is custom firmware available which allows all sorts of enhancements to that experience. For example, if your box is connected to your PC/router via an ethernet cable, you can browse the EPG from your PC and set recordings from there (subject to a reboot between setting the recording and it actually being made). In addition, using the "Nowster patch" you can ensure that HD recordings are unencrypted.
This is the only Humax that allows custom firmware to be installed and it's the reason why I have sought out a second box, rather than purchasing a different more up-to-date model. For anyone who looks for additional flexibility beyond merely time-shifting TV programmes, such as transferring recordings to a PC/NAS this is an ideal solution. A number of online forums give full details of the firmware and they can be found readily by searching online for "Humax Foxsat-HDR custom firmware". There is plenty of online help available in those forums for those needing assistance in addition to the links for the firmware.
The box is set to go into standby for housekeeping at 3 am local time and this is also used by the firmware to update recording schedules made via a PC browser.
The box has dual tuners making it possible to record two programmes at the same time and playback a third already recorded. The only thing to watch out for is if you are watching a live programme but one which has been rewound, the tuner treats this as a recording - so in that situation if you are already recording a second programme and another comes up for recording that will fail as that would be classed as a third recording! Boxes are available in a variety of hard drive sizes and for those who don't mind opening up the case, a larger hard drive can be installed to allow for more recording space. Advice is available in the forums as to what to look for in a replacement drive.
For those coming from the Sky platform, Freesat has the benefit of subscription free viewing (albeit without the full range of Sky channels) and also your recordings are still available to view at anytime (unlike Sky, where, once you cancel your subscription, you can no longer access your recordings as they are encrypted on the set-top box).
The only negative about the box for me is that it does not have a gigabit ethernet interface so programme transfers to a PC or NAS are somewhat slower than gigabit users would expect, but that's a small price to pay for the flexibility offered by this product.