Have your say & ask the experts

humax freesat + hd pvr has anyone managed to get one yet, and can it record in dd 5.1 as well as in hd as i am waiting to see if it can before i buy one.

According to www.joinfreesat.co.uk forums, loads of people have bought them (now sold out everywhere it seems), but the earliest delivery date is tomorrow (24th), so I think it maybe a day or two before you can get a definite answer to your question and even then, it will require someone with an existing dish as I doubt anyone got dish installation as a package so quickly.

That said re-reading I'm a little confused. It won't be able to record HD sound because as far as I know HD broadcasts aren't broadcast in HD sound as it takes too much bandwidth. I understand HD broadcasts are Dolby Digital 5.1 instead of Pro Logic on analogue, but I stand to be corrected on that. If you're asking does it have the potential to record HD sound for the future, I simply don't know but maybe the WHF team will after their tests.

Alternatively, did you mean to ask can it record DD 5.1 in SD?

I'm pretty sure that this recorder will record and therefore play back 5.1 DD. My PVR8000T (Humax 1st model) is DD compatible should this ever be broadcast over Freeview. As BBC HD and other channels broadcast in DD 5.1 (likely 384/448kbps, as per DVD) the recorder has both the capacity and the compatibility. Go buy one!

As promised, we'll get a first impressions blog up next  week,  where we can address a  wide  range of issues ahead of the full review in a couple of weeks' time....

Thanks Clare

Clare, if you haven't already done this, can you please check something out for me with your review - can the Foxsat HDR be used to receive other FTA satellites?

I know in the non pvr Foxsat you couldn't automatically scan the channels making it very difficult to add any other FTA channels. eg additonal channels on Hotbird 19e or 13e.

However, as I'm sure there are a lot of people who will want to receive other transmissions with the PVR box (as it effectively replaces Sky + boxes) then I'm sure this is something many will want to know about and get Humax to correct with an update if not included out of the box.

Clare, I am sure that many people would be very grateful if you would also consider including the following information in your review:

1 The potential uses/abilities of the CAM slot,

and

2 If/how the Foxsat -hdr will work with multi-sat setups

Thanks.