HUMAX HB-1100S HD TV Freesat Receiver (requires Satellite dish)

I'm giving this box five stars for its high standard of design, for its good, simple documentation and for its strong value for money. The value for money is strong enough that I'm giving it 5 stars despite its minor flaws. There are a couple of other useful features that other reviewers have not touched on - so let me list them here.First of all there is a free "Freesat" app from Humax for iOs and Androis devices. This lets you check the EPG and Humax's own "Showcase" of promising on-demand and live content. If you wish to do so you can schedule material to be recorded or (in the same manner as with the inbuilt YouTube app) sent to be displayed on the TV. This is also quite powerful stuff that puts you on an even key with much more expensive "Smart TVs". My only criticism here is that the search facility only allows you to look for material by its title - fine if you know what something is called but useless if you want to do something like list all films - irrespective of their originating channel.Another useful feature is the ability to play content on a DNLA mounted drive. This means that if, for example, you have a hard disk plugged into the same router as the Freesat Receiver is, you can also play material from that (via the "Humax" menu). I found this facility a little primitive - it can play .avi formatted video but not .mkv for example. This feature is discussed in the Humax forums online but it is not mentioned anywhere in the formal documentation.

Excellent so far. Easy to replace 16+ year old Humax unit and has performed faultlessly so far.

I have had Sky, and for the past 9 years a cheap Busg Freesat box which I bought from Amazon. I decided I needed an upgrade. I have had Humax Freeview boxes before, and in spite of some quite poor reviews, I decided to give this a go.Set up was fairly straightforward. The fiddly part was putting in the postcode. Once done, the rest was easy. Getting it to connect with my WiFi was not easy. It took 2 attempts but once achieved, it seems to be working well. It turned in relatively quickly. Setting up for subtitles and audio description was easy. Yes, sorry, should have said I need them.It is a bit sluggish in responding to its remote, far slower than the Freesat App, more on that later. I'm I'll placed to comment objectively on the EPG as when I'm sat in my chair, I can't read it. The font is far too small. But, this is where the Freesat App comes in. Downloaded onto a 10 inch tablet, it makes selecting programmes a doddle. As I said, the box responds quicker too.It is a nice neat box. Seems to do what it is meant to, and was not a bad price. All in all I am reasonably happy.

We already have a Manhattan Freesat box but needed a second one. This knocks spots off it and is worth the extra £30 or so. Buy this because you want a good freesat box with rollback TV and the option to record programmes (with an added hard drive) not for the apps - they aren't worth having in my opinion and we still prefer our Firestick for that. Some people have mentioned iplayer being slow or hanging on the Humax - I agree - and found it almost unusable, so we still use our fire stick for iplayer. Some people have mentioned the tv guide menu being slow - not at all - same as other set top boxes. However when setting up you should make sure you have the latest update. Rollback enables you to watch a programme from the start if you've missed the beginning, or to watch an earlier program and it's a useful feature.I thought long and hard about whether to put this £99 towards a smart TV instead and gain everything on one remote control, extra hdmi slots and an HD picture. After some research I am now convinced that adding a freesat box by a manufacturer who does good updates to any TV is better than using a smart TV where there are so many makes of software on one set that updates could be an issue. Apparently updates can be iffy to all the included apps on smart tv's plus I've seen too many reviews mention light bleed. Our current TV has a great picture and could last for years, so the Humax box just improves it and I'm happy with that.In my opinion you also need an Amazon firestick - because iplayer works well on it and it's great for downloading films and finding just about any film you want to watch (unlike Netflix which is only really good for TV series). Plus it has an excellent voice remote.Both the Humax and the Firestick will give reliable updates to their products, whereas Smart TV's are dependant on the OS they use giving updates and apparently there have been issues with this. I even read one article that said even if you have a smart tv - add a set top box and something like a firestick for apps - for reliability of updates. After all - a TV is for watching TV and you don't want it crashing on you.Pros:1) Much improved picture quality (it was fine before but noticeably better)2) Colour menu easy to use and see with white on black and green3) Set up of channels took seconds - very impressed4) Good sized intuitive remote - not so easy to lose.5) Watch programmes from the beginning when you've missed the start.(rollback tv)6) Wifi7) Good parental guidance settings8) Option to use it for recording adding a usb hard drive.Cons:There aren't any really but if I was going to be picky then1) Hard to read channel names on some channels due to the use of logos instead of just words (eg Talking Pictures TV) but I am sure we will soon become familiar with the channel number of favourite channels instead. Our TV is 32" - this may not be an issue on a larger screen and we have bad eyesight being the wrong side of middle age.2) Most of the included apps are not really much use in my opinion - youtube might be useful. TVPlayer is awful - bad resolution and hard to find the channels - it isn't free either. Iplayer doesn't seem to work well for some reason.3) No Amazon Prime - so we still need the Kindle Fire stick for downloading films but that's ok4) No voice control on the remote as the firestick has.5) Some remote control buttons make clicking sound when pressing - silence would be nice but again no issue really

This item was purchased for the additional functionality it gave over built in freesat on a Samsung TV.Firstly the good things:Remote is nicely organised and logical.Box is easy to setup and it is discrete.Now for the bad things:Hardware is woefully slowDLNA is painful, for example loading images, finding a 5 to 10 second lag, didn't attempt video.£97 seemed cheap, however then you need a harddrive to record, so call that another £50, then either a cheap powerline for £15 or the wifi dongle for £23, it's starting to become less appealing.Only one tuner makes it tedious to use.The 15 second boot up time for the box is annoying.The box crashed multiple times over the 2 day period I used it, so is being returned as faulty.There are many review sites extolling the virtues of this box, but quite frankly it's second rate and quite frustrating to use. Maybe as a backup box it might be acceptable, but as a main TV tuner, it's not up to the job.