HUMAX – still the bees knees?

I see on Richer Sounds Panasonic are doing STBs at the same price points. If the GUI is the same as my Panasonic Freesat TV then I find it easier to use than the Humax.

Yep, no Netflix etc., the STB is a dying product. I certainly appreciate having no boxes under the TV apart from the sound bar and only 1 remote to deal with. Recording is to a standard 2.5″ external HDD which I suppose could be considered another “box” but it’s small enough to hide away and of course has no interface.

I’ll be moving the DVD collection into hidden storage soon, they’re all ripped to the Synology but TBH half the time it’s just easier to stream them from the internet.

It is expensive: I have the Freesat HDR- 1100S, although I got that for £50 less from Currys, as I had a £50 voucher from another purchase which was faulty (Steam iron) and kicked up so much fuss when they would not return my money that they gave me the money and the voucher, expecting me to buy another iron. I bought the Humax instead, got the same iron cheaper elsewhere, and it’s still working almost 3 years later. The 1100S gets Netflix, iPlayer and OD for several channels.

But TBF, Dave – if you check out the remote control pic in that Amazon link, it shows buttons for Netflix and On Demand.

BL – ” something that had support for Netflix, Prime, NowTV etc… ” No Prime or NowTV, but as above, buttons for Netflix and OD.

As you both say, it’s another technology that is past its sell by date. My Freesat is going as soon as I can get my Gson to come and help me with some leccy bits, then I will have a reorganisation of all my AV stuff, including Prime Video at last.

The remaining advantages I can see of an STB (I use a Linux Enigma2 STB) are:

1. Distribution (if you need it) – you can split the output of an STB to multiple TVs (my house is like a Sports Bar when football or cricket is on)
2. Multiple tuners – record and watch different channels
3. Often a faster UI than a TV (certainly the case with my Sony Android TV)
4. For Enigma2 multiple streaming options including Kodi and others, HDD support which now has all my ripped DVDs etc on it.

I agree that STBs are dying – they would need to do more to keep an advantage over a TV. For a “normal” house a decent Smart TV – especially with Freeview Play or YouView does it all – I think the newer Samsung’s at least to Netflix/Prime/NowTV to supplement FTA stuff.

No Netflix button on my Humax Freesat remote Dave, but it is available on the GUI Dave. Via  Home button – On Demand, besides Netflix these are all available:

BBC: iPlayer, Sport, News Channel.

ITV Hub, MY5, UKTV Play, Rakuten TV, CBS Catchup, YouTube, STV Player, Horror bites, POP Fun, Ketchup Kids, France 24, Eros Now (Bollywood I think)

Lots of Utter Dross in there of course. I also have Netflix on my PC and tablet, thanks to No.2 Gson. Don’t know how long they will let that happen though.

Got a FVP 5000 direct from Humax thanks to a link provided by Bob some 18 months back.
The great thing is that you can record 3 programmes whilst watching another. Don’t know how they do that with only 3 tuners.
Like all GUIs, you have to find your way around.
Bad points that I’ve found
• Stuttering as if the picure stops then catches up. TV is fine so it’s not a poor signal
• Slow EPG fill. Sometimes it will take 20 to 30 minutes to get the programme information – whilst the TV is instant
• Doesn’t always know what recording it’s deleted especially if it’s part of a series. Shows recording to be deleted, when deleted the recording is still viewable but another recording deleted instead. Recordings list then becomes jumbled.

Remote is an RM-L08 with Netflix, On Demand & Freeview Play buttons.

Buttons never used as previously got a Roku for internet viewing thanks to a recommendation by Steve.

Steve, I took it to be G’son’s Netflix account with Bob’s PC and tablet as authorised devices.👍

The aerial, connections and cabling can make a huge difference to the number of channels you can pick up. I did a thread on here a year or so ago – got a new aerial installed as I lost some of the Freeview HD channels after they did a channel reorganisation. Not only did I get the lost channels back, also got around 40 more in total.

I did a job for someone recently, they live in a “dip” in kent and only got around 40 Freeview channels. The cabling has a very suspect joint in it which I replaced with a couple of F-types, a barrel connector and sealed in self-amalgamating tape. Up to 100+ channels straight away.

I would definitely recommend a review of your aerial, cabling and connectors before spending money on anything else – if the aerial is old or the cabling/connectors not great then as posted above the problems will affect the STB as much as the TV.

I’m in an end terrace and the aerial is mounted on my chimney. The bloke who did mine charged £200 to fit and install a new “digital” aerial and new cables/connectors.  Money very well spent.

I’ve got freeview and freesat going in to my stb – mainly because it was more aggro to remove the ex-sky dish and cables than to leave it there! Channel line-ups are similar – the biggest difference for me is the lack of HD channels on freesat, particularly Ch4 and Ch4+1 for me.

Completely agree about the iPlayer 4K streaming – it is superb.