HDR-1100S 500 GB Freesat with Freetime HD TV Recorder - Black

Excellent piece of kit. If I have any complaint it is that the power on light is not visible at the front.

I was looking for an alternative to SKY as i have been tired of spending excessive amounts of money whilst continually returning to watch ordinary free to watch channels and a small look back at my viewing habits showed that I was watching main stream channels more than any other so it was a "no brainer" get rid of SKY and buy a Humax box why? Well Humax seem to be the leader in this area of the market; you won’t find a more entertaining satellite experience without a subscription in my opinion. One great feature for me was the built-in wi-fi. That means on-demand content is more accessible but, more importantly it means you can connect to and stream from an external server. I chose: 500GB, but it is available in 1TB or 2TB of hard-disk space to store up to 1200 hours of standard-definition recordings, two satellite tuners, two USB ports and HDMI. Basic set-up, is easy and the Humax holds your hand, the electronic telly guide is not as fluid as others but is good and easy to learn, this box is a breeze to use. With more than 200 channels from which to choose the easy set up is especially helpful and the menus are colourful but remain simple and easily navigated, there is a Showcase section which advertises what you ought not to miss in the near future. Also you can get 7 days earlier TV too and whilst it can take a few seconds to load I have found it very useful when you miss something during the week.The catch-up services are good and FreeSat say they will grow in time. You have the usual access to BBC iPlayer, ITV Player(although not in Scotland), All 4 and Demand 5, plus YouTube, movies on demand from Curzon Home Cinema, Hopster and Netflix, as well as the ability to scroll back through the last seven days of shows on the EPG as I have said previously is a nice bonus. Setting a recording (you can record two shows at a time, or record one channel while watching another) is as simple as clicking on the show you want to watch and scrolling up through the options. OkayI have to admit it took five minutes to set up, it was that easy, the quality of the picture is excellent and the sound is good. I have already got Netflix and Amazon subscription services, therefore I can’t imagine why you’d want for anything else Goodbye blue SKY Goodbye.

Bought this for somebody else so have only limited direct experience. Set up was straightforward and EPG easy enough to follow. Agree comments from others re differing sound outputs between some channels. Also agree that making a sales pitch of "Freetime" capability is a bit of a liberty too! Didn't have it long enough to try much on the recording side. However, the little unit produced a nice picture and at the price of just 3 months Sky sub, seems pretty good value. Having now purchased a second receiver for my own use and been operating it for a few days, I feel able to add some additional comments. Compared with Humax 1, set up was a bit trickier as the box locked up and had to be rebooted 3 times before the procedure would go to completion. Despite this, it seems to be running OK and I've been able to try the "Catch up TV" system and made a couple of recordings. Was a bit disappointed (but not really too surprised!!) that there is no facility for skipping ads or fast forwarding on Freetime. Fast wind/skip is possible on recordings made myself but manual deletion of recordings isn't. (The Nanny system says it will do that for me when the HDD get nearly full). There is neither facility for manual editing of recordings nor for archiving them to DVD or other external source. I too have had a couple of recordings stop before the end of a programme and I can't do "timer edit" as I can on my Panasonic machine (adding a minute or so to the beginning and end of the record time) to overcome this problem. Box 2 seems to be a little slower to go from red to blue indicator light and respond to the remote than was the case with Box 1. A bit of juggling with the volume level on the Humax in combination with the level on the TV itself overcomes the problem referred to above. Despite its little foibles, this machine can only be thought of as good value for money and a boon to those seeking to unburden themselves from heavy monthly costs of pay to view TV.

Humax Freesat box delivered, no damage although very little packing. Setup was easy, worked first time. Recorded several progs over Christmas period, no problem. Two weeks later it stopped working, no signal to TV via HDMI. Tried the usual "switch off for 10 mins etc", tried a different HDMI lead, different TV in all combinations, no joy. Requested return and refund, Amazon did this all quickly. Box returned to sender, still awaiting refund. It seems that there are no Freesat boxes that don't have problems. Humax don't manufacture Freesat boxes any longer, so what happens when a faulty box is returned? I notice several "reconditioned" Humax boxes on Amazon, who has "reconditioned" them? I also notice several failed Humax boxes and other manufacturers in the review columns. Would appreciate knowing of a good Freesat box that will work for longer than two weeks.

I've been eyeing up this box for the last 18 months to replace my extortionate sky subscription. I've read the Amazon reviews again and again for reassurance! My father in law finally took the plunge a few weeks ago and since seeing his box up and running I've followed. The box takes seconds to set-up, the LAN and HDMI cables supplied are good quality which was a nice surprise. Yes the buttons around the circle in the middle of the remote make a small clicking sound which I only noticed due to it being mentioned on these reviews so much. The unit is much more compact than my old Sky HD box which is a positive and is finished in gloss black with a subtle blue light (on) and red light for standby. I like the guide, it's clean and easy to navigate, I also like the feature that prompts you on screen that you are watching a SD channel that is available in HD and with one click of OK it switches over for you. The best thing for me (and I saw it mentioned here a lot and hoped was true) - picture quality! HD channels are much more vibrant and sharper than Sky, I found it very noticeable (just remember to select 1080p if your TV supports it during the initial set-up, the box defaulted to 1080i despite my TV being 1080p). I can't comment on the catch up features as I use my PS4 for iplayer, All4, Amazon, Netflix etc. I'm now saving £40 a month which means the box pays for itself in under 6 months. Any 'must watch' Sky exclusives I might crave like Game of Thrones, Westworld can be viewed using a £7 a month Now TV pass. Sky TV is dead, this box makes the transition vey easy!

Finally got rid of sky, to save 57 GBP. Per month, good quality item and does the job well, HD and enough memory for me at 500 gb. Got all the channels I need and a lot of rubbish, the only thing I miss from sky is the Friday new movies. I love the app for freesat it's easy to se and you can record, use as a remote etc. The humax remote is a big annoying it gives a loud click every time you press the buttons So I mainly use my iPad or iPhone with the app. Takes a while to start up as well Other than this it was revived quickly and well packaged, also tracked by dpd so I was in to receive it. I simply plugged in my sky dish cable not the back, put in the hd cable plugged it in and turned on, found the channel and everything else was easy. And I'm saving a fortune not paying for Sky As with anything please read the instructions thoroughly saves time in the long run. You need a satellite dish for this kit Please ask any questions

INITIAL REVIEW - 05 March 2017 This is a replacement for a 5 year old Panasonic FreeSat DVD/HDD unit that stopped working properly. This Humax receiver/recorder arrived well packaged with everything supplied - handset, batteries, LAN cable and HDMI cable. It's really simple to set up, and took me about 30 minutes in total including wiring it all in to the TV and speakers. It's easy to operate, though the menu etc. takes a bit of getting used to. That said, the menu is more logical and intuitive than the Panasonic and I like the ease of viewing what's scheduled for recording - something the Panasonic could not do. The picture quality is excellent and whilst I'd probably rather have FreeView than FreeSat I'm stuck with it as we have no TV reception in our steep-sided Welsh valley. The only minor niggle is that whilst HD channels have great, loud sound, the non-HD channels have very much quieter sound. I have to keep adjusting the volume dramatically between HD and non-HD. In my set-up the sound is via an Onkyo 5+1 cinema-sound system and not the TV, but this was never the case with the Panasonic. Not really a problem that's going to worry me much, though. All in all, and after just one evening's viewing, I'm very happy with this purchase... and I do hope I will not have any problems in the future! UPDATE - 02 May 2017 Having used this for almost two months I'm still really happy with it. It boots up really quickly compared to my old Panasonic HDD recorder, the menu is logical and easy to use, the picture quality is superb.

We bought this unit to replace an older Humax which had thrown the towel in. We live in France and enjoy UK television and radio so as far as we're concerned something like this is essential. The Humax arrived here in very short order which was great, especially as shipping the unit to France cost a mere 4.03 sovs - wonderful. First impressions were good as it is an elegant piece of kit and far smaller and neater than its predecessor. I could not believe how easy it was to install and set-up. I am no techie, so if I can do it, anyone can. Unlike the last model this one comes with a small user's guide which I imagine is to save Humax money printing what amounts to a paperback. Far better for them to get the purchaser to download something that size and pay for their own printing. We started using it immediately and soon encountered a problem as we were unable to find how to access radio programmes. It appears Humax think their customers only want to watch the box, but a call to Humax customers' services soon solved the problem. Setting it up to record couldn't be simpler which is an improvement. I appreciate this may sound picky, but we do miss the display on our old Humax which showed the channel or radio programme we were tuned in to, hence my four instead five star rating. This latest model seems to go into automatic power saving mode when not operating for a while which whilst laudable can be a bit of a pain, especially if the programme you want to watch is about to start, as it means you lose time firing it up again. When it's normally operating there is a blue light visible and when it's in standby mode this changes to a red light. However, often when operating and we're watching something the red light is glowing. Bizarre, but I did say I'm no techie. All in all we're delighted with our Humax and would certainly recommend it to anybody considering buying one.