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

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.

I’m here at the Toshiba seminar entitled ‘Take a closer look’. When I return I will be giving you lucky people an insight into the latest technical goodies that they have on offer. I have to admit that there are some delightful little gems on offer and have some photos to prove it. It’s a hard life being jetted to Paris, put up in a swanky hotel and let loose with some toys. It’s a sacrifice I was prepared to take.

Well I finally got my copies of GTA 4. Yes I said copies. 1 is for the 360 in the office and the other is for my PS3. While I have enjoyed a few hours playing the game on the 360 at work I could not play online as it is not wired up for some reason.

On arrival at home I immediately installed my PS3 copy and went straight to multiplayer. Unfortunately with little success. It appears that the network maybe having some issues. I should not be surprised really everyone I know has bought the game, and I assume everyone is also trying to get online.

I seem to be either having problems connecting to the network, being disconnected when I do connect, having issues with the game actually starting and when I do start everyone immediately disconnects.

I have only managed to play about 3 minutes against anyone so far. Oh sad for me.

I even thought it maybe my wireless playing up so I ran a cable to the PS3 and connected it via that. Still no joy.

Oh well looks like I am stuck playing the single player missions for a while.

Edit: There are several threads in in the Playstation forums confirming these problems.

Online Unavailable Can’t Connect to Multiplayer

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.

Amazon have revealed that the PlayTV add-on for the PS3 will arrive in the UK on July 31st.

For those not in the know the PlayTV is a small box packing dual tuners with a seven day EPG allowing you to record shows onto your PS3 hard drive.

Granted if you have a 40 Gb PS3 it is not the most space for a PVR but it is more than enough to store a few episodes of your favourite show, and you can always upgrade your HD.

Pricing is not to bad at a reasonable £60.

No surprise to many, Archos have finally announced a GPS solution for the Archos 605. The unit is a In Car Holder for the 605 Wi-Fi PMP that turns it into a fully fledged navigational system.

The In-Car Holder will be sold for approximately $130 and in theory this will make it quite an impressive competitor to most dedicated GPS system. This is because the Archos has a much larger hard drive (30-160 Gb) and screen resolution compared to most similarly priced GPS systems.

The new system will use Tele Atlas maps and will be available as a European version cover 22 countries, a North America version covering the US and Canada, and a Chinese version.

The full Archos 605 GPS package will give you the following features:

Your Navigation

• Clear, easy-to read maps on the high-resolution 4.3-inch touch screen
• Easy and intuitive address, zip-code and POI (point of interest) markers for rapidly selecting destination points
• Precise navigation with automated simulation inside tunnels, lane assistance, advance signposts and fast and accurate route recalculation
• Traffic assistance, route planning, and speed control assistance in some countries
• Gain navigation information on any location throughout North America, Western Europe and China
• Get clear voice-to-text support through the car’s FM stereo (via the built-in line out), or the ARCHOS 605 WiFi’s amplified built-in speaker

Your Media on the Move

• Passengers can use the ARCHOS 605 WiFi to watch recorded TV shows and videos while travelling, such as keeping families and children entertained in the back seat of the car
• Record TV shows in advance for the perfectly relaxed road trip
• Rent and watch movies from the ARCHOS Content Portal
• Transfer and store photos directly from your digital camera and create slide shows
• Share your media with friends and family on their TV
• Play games while on the go

Your Internet

• Surf the web to visit favourite sites
• Stream the latest news, online videos, TV shows and sports from websites - ARCHOS devices are the only to support Adobe Flash 9 for online video streaming.
• Check email from any web-based service.
• Access hundreds of Widgets, including world maps, weather, and currency converters

Onkyo have recently released some of their new AV Amps including the TX-SR506E and the TX-SR576E. Both these units include 7.1 Surround Sound,1080P video switching with 3 HDMI inputs, Dolby Digital Plus encoded audio and a long list of other features to keep any Home Cinema fan happy.

However they are also releasing the new TX-SR606 shortly with some online retailers already taking pre-orders. The 606 is a revamp of the award winning TX-SR605 but rather than just a little tweak here and there they seem to of made it the best AV amp ever when looking at the price and functionality.

The TX-SR606 specs include:

• 7.1 receiver
• 1.3a HDMI Switching (4 IN, 1 OUT)
• Up-conversion of all video inputs to HDMI
• Up-scaling of all video inputs to 1080i
• 3 component inputs, 1 component output
• Bi-Amping Capability for Enhanced Musicality and Power
• 140 watts at 6 ohms
• Powered Zone 2 audio output
• Audyssey 2EQ room calibration
• Auto Setup, via plug- in mic
• 5 digital inputs (3 optical, 2 coaxial)
• Music optimizer for compressed music
• DTS-HD, DTS-HD Master Audio, Dolby digital plus and Dolby TrueHD decoders
• Dolby Pro Logic IIx, Dolby Digital and DTS decoders
• Dolby Digital EX and complete DTS-ES
• 24-bit/192 kHz DACs for all channels

Onkyo have managed to pack in all the above functionality at a price of £399! Previously if you wanted upscaling on an Onkyo you had to go with their TX-SR875 model or higher with the 875 costing £999. Granted the 875 upscaled to 1080p however at a price difference of £600 I will live without it. Another big improvement over the 605 is that they have increased the HDMI inputs from 2 to 4 which should handle all your HDs sources and some.

If you need any other inputs/outputs the unit also has:

• 4 S-Video Inputs and 2 Outputs
• 5 A/V Inputs and 1 Output
• 2 Audio Inputs and 1 Output

Overall it seems almost too good to be true. From what I have read on Onkyo I have heard they run very hot and they are also very large (the 606 is WHD: 435 x 174.3 x 374.7 mm and 11.6 kg) but if you are looking for a midrange AV system I doubt this will be beaten easily.

Some pictures after the jump.

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Unfortunately we have been neglecting the blog a lot this year, it is only myself that contributes to the blog at the moment and I have been extremely busy with my company Dolphin Promotions. I have been trying to find a new member of staff and until then I am doing 2 peoples job, we have also been looking for new offices which takes up a surprising amount of time and therefore have not had much chance to blog here or the SEO Blog for Dolphin.

Finally things seem to be getting close to being sorted, we are in the final stages of sorting the office and hopefully we have found someone who fits the bill for the job role.

I am hoping to be able to blog a little more and to get back into things I have decided to update the theme with a template our designers created. The old theme seemed to have a few problems in IE and lots of other little irritating issues so instead of fixing them I am starting a fresh. Unfortunately there is no branding yet but we will get around to it! Overall I think the theme is a good choice, its nice and bright and there are less sidebars allowing for more room for the blog text to spread out.

I am also considering implementing some adsense on to the site at the end of the day I started the blog to be able to generate a small profit from it. I promise I wont plaster adverts around everywhere!

I am also looking at getting one of my friends to help contribute to the site which should avoid the site getting neglected when I am  to busy to blog myself.

I am also currently reviewing the new LG KF600 / LG Venus which will be done this week or next and was kindly provided by LG Blog.