HUMAX HDR-1100S 500 GB Freesat with Freetime HD TV Recorder - Black

This is our third Box in 14 years. It works well and we tend to record a lot and watch later due to the time difference. We tend to fill up the box with a load of favorite films as they show up on TV. Over the years we accumulate a lot. Then it just stops and it seems there is no alternate but to buy a new box and start again. Subject to that we are very happy with the machine, simple to use easy to set up

Ordered Humax HDR1100s to replace our old box which had given up the ghost. Easy to set up and crisp HD. So much better than the old one. Ordered on Saturday with expected delivery the following Tuesday (I presume because of May Bank Holiday). Arrived next day, Sunday. Can’t fault. Great company.

We bought this unit to replace an older Humax which had thrown the towel in. We live in France and enjoy UK television and radio so as far as we're concerned something like this is essential. The Humax arrived here in very short order which was great, especially as shipping the unit to France cost a mere 4.03 sovs - wonderful. First impressions were good as it is an elegant piece of kit and far smaller and neater than its predecessor. I could not believe how easy it was to install and set-up. I am no techie, so if I can do it, anyone can. Unlike the last model this one comes with a small user's guide which I imagine is to save Humax money printing what amounts to a paperback. Far better for them to get the purchaser to download something that size and pay for their own printing. We started using it immediately and soon encountered a problem as we were unable to find how to access radio programmes. It appears Humax think their customers only want to watch the box, but a call to Humax customers' services soon solved the problem. Setting it up to record couldn't be simpler which is an improvement. I appreciate this may sound picky, but we do miss the display on our old Humax which showed the channel or radio programme we were tuned in to, hence my four instead five star rating. This latest model seems to go into automatic power saving mode when not operating for a while which whilst laudable can be a bit of a pain, especially if the programme you want to watch is about to start, as it means you lose time firing it up again. When it's normally operating there is a blue light visible and when it's in standby mode this changes to a red light. However, often when operating and we're watching something the red light is glowing. Bizarre, but I did say I'm no techie. All in all we're delighted with our Humax and would certainly recommend it to anybody considering buying one.

I've been eyeing up this box for the last 18 months to replace my extortionate sky subscription. I've read the Amazon reviews again and again for reassurance! My father in law finally took the plunge a few weeks ago and since seeing his box up and running I've followed. The box takes seconds to set-up, the LAN and HDMI cables supplied are good quality which was a nice surprise. Yes the buttons around the circle in the middle of the remote make a small clicking sound which I only noticed due to it being mentioned on these reviews so much. The unit is much more compact than my old Sky HD box which is a positive and is finished in gloss black with a subtle blue light (on) and red light for standby. I like the guide, it's clean and easy to navigate, I also like the feature that prompts you on screen that you are watching a SD channel that is available in HD and with one click of OK it switches over for you. The best thing for me (and I saw it mentioned here a lot and hoped was true) - picture quality! HD channels are much more vibrant and sharper than Sky, I found it very noticeable (just remember to select 1080p if your TV supports it during the initial set-up, the box defaulted to 1080i despite my TV being 1080p). I can't comment on the catch up features as I use my PS4 for iplayer, All4, Amazon, Netflix etc. I'm now saving £40 a month which means the box pays for itself in under 6 months. Any 'must watch' Sky exclusives I might crave like Game of Thrones, Westworld can be viewed using a £7 a month Now TV pass. Sky TV is dead, this box makes the transition vey easy!

I did a lot of research before buying this box, post Sky. I had reservations, based on the reviews but if you want freesat this is it (more on that later!). On the surface this is a great box. Sadly it is is totall unreliable, for the following reasons: - it frequently won't switch on, or rather will switch on for 1 second then switch itself off and on for 1 second in a never ending cycle. - it frequently won't record. No matter how much you push the record button nothing happens. It's normally ok within a couple of seconds, but around 25% of the time you get no recording message then have to go through the menu to recordings to verify it is not recording, go back to the tv hit record and start the whole verification process again. The only way to get it to record when it is being miffy is to switch it off and on. It will then either come on and record fine, or it will go into the on-off cycle above and you will have to switch it off and on several times before you can use the box at all, let alone record. - It frequently works in single channel mode. By this I mean you should be able to record one channel and watch another. Nope! You will be watching something when a single planned recording starts and you will get the message that you have to either watch the channel being recorded or cancel the recording. In short, this box goes down as my worst purchase of 2016. But here is my 2017 present to all you nice peeps - you don't need this box for freesat of you have one of a lot of smart TVs! I've recently caught on to the fact that record to USB is supported by a lot of smart TVs. I've contacted the major vendors with the following replies received to date: LG: all smart TVs Sony: model dependent Samsung: waiting for reply, but looks like it will be model dependent. So big thumbs up for LG for updating all their TVs to support this! I'm currently working out what new tv to get, but LGs support for this has put it top of my vendor list at the minute (and with it not being model dependent it means I can easily get something well within budget). So, in actual fact all you need is a smart tv with a freesat tuner built in and and a USB hard drive. It will only work with single channel (haven't seen any dual channel receivers on TVs) but you can set it to record series. This box is only operating in dual channel mode sporadically anyway. So my advice, if you are even thinking of getting yourself a new tv is to check that it supports USB record and put the money towards that (and the USB hard drive!) and don't waste your money on this piece of garbage. If you already have a smart tv check to see if USB record is supported and all you'll need is a hard drive :) I've no idea whether there will ever be a freesat 4K, but I'd be more hopeful of the tv vendors doing a firmware update to support it than Humax who will want to sell you another (awful) box. I can't wait to get a new smart tv, and am already getting excited at the thought of putting on the safety goggles and beating the **** out of this thing with a hammer!

INITIAL REVIEW - 05 March 2017 This is a replacement for a 5 year old Panasonic FreeSat DVD/HDD unit that stopped working properly. This Humax receiver/recorder arrived well packaged with everything supplied - handset, batteries, LAN cable and HDMI cable. It's really simple to set up, and took me about 30 minutes in total including wiring it all in to the TV and speakers. It's easy to operate, though the menu etc. takes a bit of getting used to. That said, the menu is more logical and intuitive than the Panasonic and I like the ease of viewing what's scheduled for recording - something the Panasonic could not do. The picture quality is excellent and whilst I'd probably rather have FreeView than FreeSat I'm stuck with it as we have no TV reception in our steep-sided Welsh valley. The only minor niggle is that whilst HD channels have great, loud sound, the non-HD channels have very much quieter sound. I have to keep adjusting the volume dramatically between HD and non-HD. In my set-up the sound is via an Onkyo 5+1 cinema-sound system and not the TV, but this was never the case with the Panasonic. Not really a problem that's going to worry me much, though. All in all, and after just one evening's viewing, I'm very happy with this purchase... and I do hope I will not have any problems in the future! UPDATE - 02 May 2017 Having used this for almost two months I'm still really happy with it. It boots up really quickly compared to my old Panasonic HDD recorder, the menu is logical and easy to use, the picture quality is superb.

I was looking for an alternative to SKY as i have been tired of spending excessive amounts of money whilst continually returning to watch ordinary free to watch channels and a small look back at my viewing habits showed that I was watching main stream channels more than any other so it was a "no brainer" get rid of SKY and buy a Humax box why? Well Humax seem to be the leader in this area of the market; you won’t find a more entertaining satellite experience without a subscription in my opinion. One great feature for me was the built-in wi-fi. That means on-demand content is more accessible but, more importantly it means you can connect to and stream from an external server. I chose: 500GB, but it is available in 1TB or 2TB of hard-disk space to store up to 1200 hours of standard-definition recordings, two satellite tuners, two USB ports and HDMI. Basic set-up, is easy and the Humax holds your hand, the electronic telly guide is not as fluid as others but is good and easy to learn, this box is a breeze to use. With more than 200 channels from which to choose the easy set up is especially helpful and the menus are colourful but remain simple and easily navigated, there is a Showcase section which advertises what you ought not to miss in the near future. Also you can get 7 days earlier TV too and whilst it can take a few seconds to load I have found it very useful when you miss something during the week.The catch-up services are good and FreeSat say they will grow in time. You have the usual access to BBC iPlayer, ITV Player(although not in Scotland), All 4 and Demand 5, plus YouTube, movies on demand from Curzon Home Cinema, Hopster and Netflix, as well as the ability to scroll back through the last seven days of shows on the EPG as I have said previously is a nice bonus. Setting a recording (you can record two shows at a time, or record one channel while watching another) is as simple as clicking on the show you want to watch and scrolling up through the options. OkayI have to admit it took five minutes to set up, it was that easy, the quality of the picture is excellent and the sound is good. I have already got Netflix and Amazon subscription services, therefore I can’t imagine why you’d want for anything else Goodbye blue SKY Goodbye.

I do like this box, it’s enabled me to swap from Sky to Freeview with less compromise, it’s reliable and very easy to set up. The Freesat app is excellent and enables me to view programs on my iPad and set recordings, I can view existing recordings there too and delete them. The box isn’t intrusive and is small and sleek. However, it’s far from perfect. There are virtually no indicator lights on the box, I can’t tell if it’s recording or not, I can’t even see at a glance if it’s turned on. The remote control is poor, rewind and fast forward are a nightmare, one press is X2 second press is X4 etc, but it just doesn’t happen, then suddenly the speed kicks in unexpectedly and then pressing play doesn’t alway stop it immediately so you overrun. It isn’t as smart as the sky box, for instance it didn’t know that a program had been changed and it carries on recording in that spot so you settle down to Eggheads and get tennis instead. I know it sound like all moans but it really isn’t, it’s a very good product it just needs a bit more tweaking. Update. Ten months on the remote control broke, the company speedily sent me a new one without any fuss, very impressed.

mucho bueno