Mighty Gadget Blog: The latest technology news & reviews in the UK

Again we have a new set top box here for you, that when released we can all bask in the glory of HD without the need for a Sky or cable subscription. Obviously Freesat is available and quite tempting with thinks like BBC iPlayer and ITV player but unless you’ve got the know how to install the dish, you’re stumping up the cash for that and either your integrated tv or box aswell.

3View have come with this great little box that with dual tuners will be able to snap up that HD signal and also with a built in 320GB HDD you’ll be able to record all your favourite shows. Not only that the 3View box can connect to the internet, use BBC iPlayer, Twitter, Facebook etc and any other web page. The big thing it will do that most wont is have access to HULU when it gets released in the UK giving you more access to web based TV. If you think this might be hard on a remote, no worries a keyboard and mouse will be available.

No price details as of yet but 3View are looking at a release of March.

Freesat has been around for a few months now, and while it may of arrived to a  slightly lukewarm reception it does appear to be gaining momentum. One of the major downfalls of it was that it lacked the recording functions of Sky+ or DVB solutions such as the Humax and Topfield.

I am glad to see Humax has fitted the device with a heft 320GB hard disk so there is plenty of room to record all your favourite shows.

I was personally a bit anti Freesat when it released, however I have just ditched Sky in favour of a Humax PVR9150T (DVB recorder) as I just don't watch any of the exclusive sky channels. One of the reasons I didn’t try out Freesat was the lack of recording so I think I could be swayed to trying out one of these new boxes in the near future.

Full specification continued.

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Ok so not an extensive review, but one of our readers was kind enough to provide some initial feedback on Freesat. The box was the Humax Foxsat-HD which is now available from Comet

Got the Humax receiver.
First impressions were how small.
Then came the disappointment.
It runs very hot, which means short life.
No diseqc switching, and when I scanned, most of what is available I can get anyway off a Comag from Lidl, and that has diseqc.
I will need to look at the numbers in more detail tonight, but I get BBC HD anyway off my Topfield.
My guess it will be a flop, at least for those of us in the know.

Unfortunately for me I am not one of them in the know and I am a little naive about satellite but the topfield mentioned above should be the HD Satellite receiver TF7000HT. I am not a huge TV fan so I think I will wait until all this Freesat malarkey becomes more mainstream.

John Lewis says it will be selling the HD receiver for a price of £149, plus optional £100 installation. But there's no news on whether this will be a Grundig or Humax box yet.

Interestingly it is believe John Lewis and its partners will be working with Sky to roll out the new service as Freesat does not have it's own installation service yet.

Humax is expected to release its new Freesat HD receiver, the Foxsat-HD, to coincide with the launch the launch of the Freesat service on May 6th.

The specification for the Foxsat-HD box is as follows:

• Receiving HDTV signals (MPEG-4 AVC/H 264 and MPEG-2)
• Under 1w power consumption in standby
• HDMI digital interface for transmission of picture and sound
• Simultaneous playing of transmissions over HDMI, YPbPr or Scart
• Easy installation and operation
• Resolution format: 1080i, 720p, 576p, 576i
• DVB-S2 and DVB-S compatible
• Ethernet support
• Full colour, high resolution electronic programme guide
• Dolby digital audio output
• Automatic software upgrade via satellite
• Improved SDTV on a HD LCD TV
• Audio description / One-touch subtitles
• Dimensions (Width x Height x Depth): 28 x 4.5 x 20cm
• Weight: 1.5kg

If you are not aware of Freesat the following extract from Join Freesat should explain it:

Freesat is a brand new digital satellite TV service from the BBC/ITV. freesat has no monthly subscription, just a one-off payment for the digital box, satellite dish and installation. It will even come with subscription-free, high-definition TV programmes. Because freesat is broadcast via satellite, it’ll be available to almost every household in the UK.