Freesat boxes

The Humax I had and returned had a thing where you typed in your post code
and it supplied the local stations 123 etc.

--
John the West Ham fan C.E.T.



"Bill Wright" wrote in message
...
I have two Freesat box here. My main conclusion is that until the
broadcasters get their act together and add all the regions to Freesat I
won't be bothering with these boxes. You can't expect people to accept BBC
London and ITV Central W.

The Humax HD box will do an all-channel search and store, producing a
'non-freesat' list. This is good because it is possible, by much button
pressing, to get the correct regions. It isn't possible to transfer these
channels to the freesat list though, and annoyingly non-Freesat channels
cannot be added to the Favourites list.

I have talked one of my most technophobic customers into Freesat because
there's no chance of them ever getting decent DTT. I now have to explain
to this person the following:

OK, this is how you get BBC-1 Yorks. Press menu, then up/down to settings,
then right. then up/down to STB mode, then right until display says
'non-freesat', then exit, then exit again, the press 5068. To get back to
Freesat repeat the process but this time press 'freesat'.

What a load of arse! They shouldn't have put these boxes on the market
until all the regions were on Freesat.

The Grundig SD box is even worse. It's as limited and hobbled as a Sky
box. It won't tune anything that isn't on the Freesat list, so there's no
way to see the 100s of non-Freesat FTA channels, including the correct
BBC/ITV regions. I can't see anyone in their right mind buying one of
these. Better to get a normal FTA box and do without the Freesat EPG. No
doubt these early boxes will soon be forgotten and all Freesat boxes will
tune all channels, and allow people to construct favourites lists from
Freesat and non-Freesat channels. Meanwhile, our advice boys and girls is,
don't buy!

In general, both boxes seem user-friendly and glitch-free. Installation is
largely automatic and straightforward, so I guess the man on the Clapham
bendybus who has had Sky in the past will be able to buy one and take it
home and install it. There's no RF modulator, so no RF loopthough. The
Grundig has satellite IF loopthough, and is very small, like one of the
old Strong DTT boxes. The Humax comes with an HDMI lead and an amazingly
thin scart.

Bill

"Bill Wright" wrote:

... No doubt these early
boxes will soon be forgotten and all Freesat boxes will tune all channels,
and allow people to construct favourites lists from Freesat and non-Freesat
channels. ...

Apparently, the Freesat licence forbids the mixing of non-Freesat
channels into Freesat channel lists. Humax have made it as easy to
switch modes as they think they can get away with (and I understand that
they actually do allow the mixing of non-Freesat channels into the
favourites list with a secret button sequence that's been leaked to the
Internet). Presumably, the intention of the restrictions is that Freesat
should be a easy as possible for the non-techie to set up, and that all
the FTA channels of consequence should eventually join Freesat.

--
Dave Farrance

"Ian Dalziel" wrote in message
...
On Sat, 24 May 2008 18:49:20 +0100, "Bill Wright"
wrote:

blankety blank

I'm not sure language like that is appropriate in a public group...

Mind your own blankety business you blanking blanker! If I could blanking
well get hold of you, you blank, I'd knock seven shades of blank out of you!

Bill

"housetrained" wrote in message
...
The Humax I had and returned had a thing where you typed in your post code
and it supplied the local stations 123 etc.

Not if you're in Yorkshire.

Bill

"Dave Farrance" wrote in message
...
"Bill Wright" wrote:

... No doubt these early
boxes will soon be forgotten and all Freesat boxes will tune all channels,
and allow people to construct favourites lists from Freesat and
non-Freesat
channels. ...

Apparently, the Freesat licence forbids the mixing of non-Freesat
channels into Freesat channel lists. Humax have made it as easy to
switch modes as they think they can get away with (and I understand that
they actually do allow the mixing of non-Freesat channels into the
favourites list with a secret button sequence that's been leaked to the
Internet). Presumably, the intention of the restrictions is that Freesat
should be a easy as possible for the non-techie to set up, and that all
the FTA channels of consequence should eventually join Freesat.

Ohh, that's interesting. What's this secret button pressing thing then?

Bill

"Bill Wright" wrote in message
...

"Dave Farrance" wrote in message
...
"Bill Wright" wrote:

... No doubt these early
boxes will soon be forgotten and all Freesat boxes will tune all
channels,
and allow people to construct favourites lists from Freesat and
non-Freesat
channels. ...

Apparently, the Freesat licence forbids the mixing of non-Freesat
channels into Freesat channel lists. Humax have made it as easy to
switch modes as they think they can get away with (and I understand that
they actually do allow the mixing of non-Freesat channels into the
favourites list with a secret button sequence that's been leaked to the
Internet). Presumably, the intention of the restrictions is that Freesat
should be a easy as possible for the non-techie to set up, and that all
the FTA channels of consequence should eventually join Freesat.

Ohh, that's interesting. What's this secret button pressing thing then?

I don't think that this is the answer that you want, but I found

"You can activate the diseqc menu on the Humax box.
Press menu-settings-red-green-yellow-blue-green-yellow-blue"

tim

Dave Farrance writes:

Apparently, the Freesat licence forbids the mixing of non-Freesat
channels into Freesat channel lists.

Which raises the question of why a licence is needed. Obviously the
consumer needs the standard TV licence to use the receiver, but why does
a manufacturer need a licence to make a receiver for un-encrypted
free-to-air transmissions?

Graham Murray wrote:

Dave Farrance writes:

Apparently, the Freesat licence forbids the mixing of non-Freesat
channels into Freesat channel lists.

Which raises the question of why a licence is needed. Obviously the
consumer needs the standard TV licence to use the receiver, but why does
a manufacturer need a licence to make a receiver for un-encrypted
free-to-air transmissions?

The manufacturer is buying a licence to use the "Freesat" trade name,
which means that his sales benefit from the advertising and brand
recognition. He could sell a receiver without a licence provided he
carefully avoided any association between his product and the trademarked
service.
--
Dave

In article ,
Graham Murray wrote:
Dave Farrance writes:

Apparently, the Freesat licence forbids the mixing of non-Freesat
channels into Freesat channel lists.

Which raises the question of why a licence is needed. Obviously the
consumer needs the standard TV licence to use the receiver, but why does
a manufacturer need a licence to make a receiver for un-encrypted
free-to-air transmissions?

he might need a licence to use the word "Freesat" and the software needed
to pickup the epg.

--
From KT24 - in "Leafy Surrey"

Using a RISC OS computer running v5.11

Bill Wright wrote:
"housetrained" wrote in message
...
The Humax I had and returned had a thing where you typed in your post code
and it supplied the local stations 123 etc.

Not if you're in Yorkshire.

Bill



Is that because of calls for independence ;-)

--
PeeGee

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