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.

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.