Humax Foxsat-hd with a PS3?

[admin_exported]

I had intended to add Playtv (euro100, Aug/Sept release? - Andy Clough please illuminate) to my PS3 whilst upgrading the hd drive to 320gb (£75). However the sooner-than-expected launch of Freesat has caused me to think again.

I am a 'One Off Payment' sort of guy so a Sky/Virgin HD box was not an option. I was wondering whether I could link up the new Humax Foxsat-HD with my PS3 being the (potential) HDD element in a PVR set-up. I would want the sound to go via my Dav-is10 and the visuals straight from the Humax to the tv(HDMI).

Will any of this work? I realise that Humax, Sony, Panasonic etc. will bring out Freesat-hd PVR's in the near future but, apart from computers, the PS3 is about the easiest piece of kit to upgrade the HDD. HiDef will be hard drive hungry so in 2 yrs even 320gb will seem paltry.

Any suggestions would be really welcome.

 

[Andrew Everard]

Not a clue - PlayTV, though much rumoured, hasn't been seen yet, so no idea what connections it will have or how it will integrate - or not - with anything.

I think we'll have to wait and see.

 

[professorhat]

You wouldn't be able to record stuff from the Humax to the PS3 - it hasn't got any inputs to allow this.

There was a Playstation Day held at the O2 dome sometime in the last couple of weeks and they put up a load of videos of this on the PSN Store. One of these mentions the PlayTV - it does look pretty good, though obviously won't be hi-def. It's a separate box which hooks up to the PS3 via a USB socket, the aerial then plugging into the box (so unfortunately, another little add-on you'd have to hide somewhere in your rack). I think it's still due in Septemeber as I remember from the video.

 

[Anonymous]

Thanks for coming back so quickly. It looks like I might have to wait for a hd pvr then? How will buyers of the Humax be able to record? I must be missing something.

 

[professorhat]

In a nutshell, they won't be able to record in HD. Much like if you just bought a standard Freeview box and had nothing else, you wouldn't be able to record, just watch. Of course, I think you could hook a standard DVD recorder up to the Humax, but this wouldn't let you record in HD (same as hooking Sky HD to a DVD recorder).

 

[Gerrardasnails]

[quote user="professorhat"]In a nutshell, they won't be able to record in HD. Much like if you just bought a standard Freeview box and had nothing else, you wouldn't be able to record, just watch. Of course, I think you could hook a standard DVD recorder up to the Humax, but this wouldn't let you record in HD (same as hooking Sky HD to a DVD recorder).[/quote] Prof. I'm setting my Dad's one up at the weekend. He has a Sony HDD dvd player. Would RGB scart to the Humax record sound and vision but I would need the coaxial from the HDD player to receiver to hear audio? Or do you need to connect RGB and audio cables from Humax to HDD player to record sound and vision? Hope this makes sense.

 

[professorhat]

Yup, think I know where you're coming from. I think you'd just need the RGB Scart going out the Humax into the Sony as this should carry both audio and video. My guess is this would be simultaneous to the audio output from the optical, so you could hook this up to a receiver to get standard audio that way as well. This is all guessing obviously as I haven't actually seen the unit! However, I have seen this working on a Sky HD unit to a Panasonic DVD Recorder so can't see why it would be any different.

 

[Gerrardasnails]

That's good news then. The Humax will have component going to the LCD (via a component switch box - Bandridge) and then optical to a receiver box (part of a cinema kit). The HDD player will have a coaxial going to the receiver, component to the LCD (via the switch box) and then I was thinking of RGB scart from Humax to HDD player. I'm expecting a decent improvement as the picture is woeful at the moment. He has scart from LCD to cinema box dvd (which he uses to watch dvds instead of the HDD player and scart from LCD to basic Sky box.