Humax HDR-FOX T2 Freeview+ HD Twin Tuner with 1TB Recorder
Feature
- Twin Freeview+HD Tuner
- 1TB Recoder
- USB Playback
- Series Recording & Recommendation
- Hard Drive recording: Y
Product Overview
HDR-FOX-T2 Twin Freeview+HD Tuner with 1TB Recoder & USB Playback. Recording up to 600 hours (Recording up to 250 hours for HD contents). 255 of 259 people found the following review helpful
Not a lot of competition but doesn't really need any., By
A. Korsner "Adrian Korsner" (London England) - See all my reviews
Sadly, it seems that this top notch company has not moved with the times and does not currently offer a machine with HD. I looked around and there was really little choice but the Humax so I dived in and bought one. Happily I can report almost complete satisfaction. Really easy to set up, if you can call just downloading the channels, setting up. Once connected, the HD channels blew my mind, eyes and ears. I had no idea just how different the technology is between HD and regular transmissions. The box is really two in one; an HD box and a regular. I don't think you would notice the difference through your TV but through an AV amp you realise that the audio via the HDMI is a completely different stream. How great to see the dts lights come on, on the AV amp, and to hear the surround sound come to life. I'd have to say that viewing a film on HDTV is every bit as good as on Blu-Ray (except for adverts on some channels) and infinitely better than my local cinema.
It will surely, really, come into its own when there are more than the present, four, HD channels. I think the capabilities of the Humax are set to increase as there are a number of menu items which look to be waiting. The TV Portal gives, unlimited, international radio stations and some TV catchup programs and looks to be interesting for the future. The machine looks well made and feels nice quality. Everything works as you would expect and seems quite intuitive so you don't end up looking for things which are hidden away. They are just there when you need them. A couple of niggles; on a machine of this price and quality, its bizarre that there is no facility, as on most cheaper machines, to switch back and forth between two programmes.I find this a glaring omission. The, very useful, display information needs to be brighter in daytime with maybe auto or manual switching for night time and what a pity they don't build in wireless internet. The 500GB disc is excellent and holds loads of programmes. You need to remember though, that HD recordings take up almost double the space of ordinary ones. There is a temptation to keep great films on HD but you could run out of space if you go mad. Most films seem to come on again long before you revisit the recording so its a good way of making you show restraint. There is now a 1TB version (about £50 more) which would be good but remember that the more programmes you have stored, the more time you spend searching through the lists. I love the way it is so easy to record a series and the way it reminds you that a program you are about to set is also avilable on HD if you prefer. Its an expensive machine but, connected to the internet, it has the potential to be all you need for home entertainment, so it has the bangs per buck. Its so good, I just bought a second machine because I got frustrated at the lack of features on another old one. One (two?) of my better purchases!
135 of 137 people found the following review helpful
Excellent Freeview+ HD tuner and recorder, and more..., By
R. F. Stevens "richard23491" (Ickenham UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Humax HDR-FOX T2 Freeview+ HD Twin Tuner with 1TB Recorder (Electronics)
I was forced into buying this because my Samsung TV in the kitchen did not have a good enough Freeview tuner to do justice to the excellent display. I am so pleased with the Humax; using the HDMI interface in 1080p mode I can make the Samsung display the whole picture without over-scan cropping the picture. The HD pictures are superb, and the up-scaler from SD in the Humax is a very good one, without any of the silly and redundant noise-reduction features of the Samsung. And the Humax is a twin-tuner recorder too!The EPG in the Humax is excellent, very easy to navigate, and one soon gets used to the fact that it also displays past programs as well - the time line at the top shows where we are. Normal detail navigation with the remote control uses the central four NSEW buttons around the select button; channel page jump is by using the program up-down buttons; time jump uses the >> or << buttons to go to next screen, and >>| or |<< buttons to see the same time on the next/previous day. If one is right handed the most used buttons all seem to be in just the right places for the thumb. A great feature is that while browsing the list you can still see and hear the current channel being shown in a small window on the left.
Initially I found the assorted time-stretching, time-shifting, recording, skipping forward, etc, functions complex and disconcerting, but that is partly because one is talking to a Linux PC inside the box, and there might have to be a few steps taken before making a recording, and partly because there are so many different options available. But you can also just press the record button on the remote control to grab what you are watching, just like with a VCR. After a few months, we have all found it really does work very well; if we have missed something it has become quite intuitive to use the << button a few times to roll back at 2x or 4x or 8x or 16x or 32x speed just to have another look, and then >> to roll forward through an advert or link to catch up. Slo-mo can be from 1/2, 1/4, down to 1/8 speed, and back to normal by repeatedly pressing the |> button.
The manual is comprehensive and quite well laid out, especially so when considering how much is possible with this machine. The more I have studied it and experimented with various functions, the more I have to agree with how it has been done. But there is a steep learning curve.
The Ethernet works well; hooked into my home network it does not require a PC as a host. It can just use the ADSL modem like any other computer for viewing things such as the BBC iPlayer. When I am more confident about its security I plan to allow it to look at my central server for music, home movies, pictures, etc.
The USB on the front works nicely; I put in my Test Stick with various patterns, music and a home video on it. All worked as hoped, more so than when putting the same stick into the Samsung.
The box as delivered had an old firmware within - January 2011, and the HD pictures were poor and breaking up. I asked it to do an OTA update, and fortunately there was a June 2011 version available, which took the best part of half an hour to download. After this finished the pictures were superb, and the Freeview+ option works - which allows you to flag a future program for recording if you see a green dot on the trailer.
One small niggle was that the eco-power-down is ON as a default, and set to two hours! I could extend the time to 10 hours easily, but it took slightly more digging to find out how to turn OFF the eco function.
I called up Test-Card W on channel 105 to see how much bandwidth was coming in, and was most impressed with the results, it is all there, and nothing is missing. It showed that the Humax up-scaler from SD to the 1080p display via 1080p HDMI was significantly better than the Samsung scaler doing the same job from SD (either 576i or 576p) via HDMI.
My Humax tuner is the second last receiver in a long string of other tuners fed from a distribution amp near a loft aerial in a fringe area, and it is giving the best and most stable of all the pictures. It has not glitched or locked up at all yet. (But see the later addendum below!) And it is future-proof for 2012 switch-over when there will be much more HD on Freeview. Roll-on the Olympics!
I will be adding to this review when I have played some more with the Ethernet, time shifting and other recording features for a few more weeks.
So far I think it is definitely well worth five stars.
Addendum 1. 9th Nov 2011
Ethernet.
This was easy to set up on auto, and yet allows manual selection of ip address. It all worked first try and was visible to all the tests on my... Read more
31 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Can you find the problem?, By
DaveHep (North Somerset, UK) - See all my reviews
If you choose a keyword to search on it freezes and requires a reboot.
Of course it does everything else well just as you would expect. Twin tuner great definition HD easy interface, easy set up still worth buying. The find function works on pre defined Genre groupings just not Keyword search.
I contacted customer services and apparently they are aware of the issue and will be rectifying it soon.
Shame they couldn't have waited another week before releasing it to get this right. Now we will have to wait for the next OTA update. Which maybe soon if they release iPlayer or SkyPlayer in October.
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