Digital TV recorders Review

Humax Foxsat-HDR review

The first Freesat+ HD PVR, and the only serious satellite rival to Sky+

Our Score

Last reviewed: February 16th

User reviews from Reevoo.com

Humax Foxsat-HDR scores 8.7 out of 10 based on 446 reviews

Reevoo reviews are by people who definitely bought the product

The 2 most helpful reviews:

22 Mar 2009 Tim, Cambridge

Good Points

This is a brilliant product. I normally ignore invitations to review products, but this is so good that I can't resist! The Freesat HD experience is amazing, and unlike all other providers, is free. Sporting occaions especially are transformed from fuzzy-looking figures to crystal clear definition. Sad, I know, but I find myself watching HD programs not because I find the program particularly interesting, but just so that I can drool over the image clarity and congratulate myself on my purchase. Other good points are the ability to record two channels simultaneously to the hard disk, the huge disk means that you don't need to think about throwing recordings away that you might want to watch again. You can pause live TV - in fact, it does everything the Sky+ HD box does but without the Sky premium. You can set the box up to record whole series (The Apprentice and The Apprentice You're Fired) are set up at the moment. It consumes only 1W on standby so you don't need to wrry about leaving it switched on to do these things. The interface is dead easy to use, so much so that I've found episodes of The Simpsons mysteriously appearing on the hard disk - only to find out that one of my kids has set it up to record them! On the subject of kids, I find myself constantly exclaiming to them about some new feature I've discovered, or telling them how excellent the product is such that they now routinely repeat back to me my own words with big grins on their faces!

Bad Points

Nothing that has impacted on me yet. However, I do like to record films on to the hard disk, and tend to keep them if I think I might like to watch them again. In the fullness of time the hard disk will eventually fill up with this sort of content, and so some means of archiving to DVD would be good. There might be one, the manual alludes to a USB port and being able to connect external devices. But the documentation of this facility, if it exists, is poor to non-existent.

21 Feb 2009 Karen, S E Kent

Good Points

Easy to install and mostly easy to use. Excellent picture quality.

Bad Points

Taking a while to get used to the menus - nothing else so far! Just wish there were a few more channels available on FreeSat, with more than just the BBC along with the odd ITV programme here and there, broadcasting in HD. To be fair though, I am still trying to adjust, having dropped the full Sky package for this!

Overall score: 8.7

See all Humax Foxsat-HDR reviews on Reevoo.com