I love my Humax.

[chebby]

Had it a month so far.

I didn't really want to buy one, but got it just before digital switchover in our area.

Now I wonder how we did without it.

No more groans when looking at the TV schedules. We only watch a couple of hours of TV per evening and now we have far more good stuff recorded than we can watch! (And a lot of it in HD.)

I love pausing 'live' TV to make a cuppa or whatever. I love recording something and watching something else (and/or recording two things at once). I love being able to watch something in full HD rather than in iPlayer quality.

Now I just need to get the smaller, prettier Sony BDP-S390. (The old S370 is great but looks totally wrong with the Humax. So it will get handed on to one of our daughters soon.)

Sound quality (HDMI to TV then optical digital to M-CR603) is excellent. Picture quality is superb. (Especially since I ditched the old Ixos coax 'fly cable' - that I had to press into service with the Humax - and got a proper 1 metre one custom made by ATV Aerials in Sheffield.)

 

[relocated]

They are really nice pieces of kit but I wish a real human being had designed the remote.

I am used to Panasonic remotes with decent Play, Pause etc buttons placed logically that are easy to use without the need to look at the remote. A small price to pay though for a no nonsence piece of kit.

 

[Diamond Joe]

... me too. It's a cracking bit of kit, although I've pretty much filled the hard drive, I've had to backup some programmes onto external HDD to make some more room.

 

[chebby]

Made in the UK too. (Offices and factory on a business park in Newtownards in Northern Ireland.)

That suprised me.

I was intrigued by the 'Made in EU' on the back and had a delve and some Googling to find out where exactly.

 

[Sizzers]

Hi Chebby, it's good to be happy!Thought about a PVR myself a while ago, but for the amount of TV I watch I couldn't really justify it. Anyway, picked up on your comment about SQ from the TV via optical. Since I resurrected my 603 a week ago, a day or so later got myself an optical lead to hook up from the TV rather than the previous analogue one. Don't know whether it's me, but to my ears there seems more detail and dynamic range since I swapped; not night and day but to my ears a certain improvement. Have you used analogue leads to compare this yourself? I'm sure you probably have, but just thought I'd ask.

Hi Chebby, it's good to be happy!

Thought about a PVR myself recently, but for the amount of TV I watch I couldn't really justify it. Anyway, picked up on your comment about SQ from the TV via optical. Since I resurrected my 603 a week ago, a day or so later got myself an optical lead to hook up from the TV rather than the previous analogue one.

Don't know whether it's me, but to my ears there seems more detail and dynamic range since I swapped; not night and day but to my ears a certain improvement. Have you used analogue leads to compare this yourself? I'm sure you probably have, but just thought I'd ask.

 

[chebby]

Don't know whether it's me, but to my ears there seems more detail and dynamic range since I swapped; not night and day but to my ears a certain improvement. Have you used analogue leads to compare this yourself? I'm sure you probably have, but just thought I'd ask.

Only very briefly. The HDMI/Optical solution sounds a magnitude better. (And requires less cables.)

 

[Clare Newsome]

Glad you're happy, Chebby

 

[HDNumpty]

Me too! Had my Freesat HD recorder for almost 3 years now (and the first Humax PVR before that) - great pics, sound and I also use it as a satellite digital radio for 6music through my DAC (where the clear display means I don't have to turn the TV on). My only gripe is the slow, dodgy remote but I can get round most of that by using my Sony wand from my AV.

How do you find the sound from the Freeview HD jobby as I understand Freeview uses AAC instead of Dolby?

 

[professorhat]

How do you find the sound from the Freeview HD jobby as I understand Freeview uses AAC instead of Dolby?

Yes, Freeview HD transmits 5.1 sound in HE-AAC, but this is then transcoded to Dolby Digital by the box (assuming your Freeview HD box is capable of this - most are nowadays) so it can be understood by the majority of AV receivers. Not heard a Freesat box for comparison, but certainly 5.1 sounds pretty good through my Digital Stream (when it's transmitted).