golfy

Hi All,
This has no doubt been asked before.. but I can't find it........ I would like to change my Sky freeview box for a humax HD freeview box, anyone got any recommendations for the best model to get!!!!!!

The Guy

Firstly, UK Freeview is not available in Spain.
Freeview is a UK ONLY TV service, received via a TV aerial and transmitted by the land based TV masts in the UK. These freeview signals do not reach Spain. Using a UK Freeview box in Spain, connected to a TV aerial in Spain, will onlyreceive Spanish TV channels - not any UK channels.

Sky do not make "freeview boxes".
Huamx do make Freeview boxes, but they dont work with satellite, and they will, if used in Spain, not get any UK TV channels.

Your Sky box (even with no card) will be receiving all the channels, and more, than are available on Freesat.
Your Sky box (even with no card) will be receiving all the channels, that are available on a Freesat receiver in non freesat mode.

As for Humax Freesat boxes, there are three models, all perform the same as they have the same tuners inside.

Humax Freesat Foxsat HD - a HD receiver
Humax Freesat+ Foxsat HDR - a HD receiver wil hard drive recording functions.
Humax Freesat+ HDR-1000S - the lastest version a HD receiver wil hard drive recording functions, and the "freetime" on demand service (available in Spain with a VPN / IP address hider).

So it depends what functions you want your box to have...

KevandVal

WOW!!!

Sorry, I cant give you advice on the Humax, we have the Technomate 7102 HD, great picture quality, good recordings, lynux software, and if you meet the right person in the bar...............

Domino

I think that many people have been switched on to the readily available TV channels without any real thought or understanding of how they actually get their television signal

the otherday someone asked me if Virgin Media would be an ok supplier for their broadband and tv - living in Spain.

still it gives me a chuckle

Countryboy1

Only comment I can make is that about a year ago my Sky+ box (non-HD) failed and I decided to replace it with the Humax HDR and freesat, cancelling my Sky subscription. As this was before the change in satellite transponders I immediately noticed that the tuner in the Humax was more sensitive that my old Sky box. BBC2 for example hung on for much longer.
I can't of course speak with any experience of the newer Sky+ HD boxes. No relevance at the moment when reception is so good, but it may become so when the satellites change.
Are the newer Sky boxes better with tuner reception?

The Guy

Have found the SkyHD and Sky+HD boxes currently made by Sky (and badged as Sky) perform about the same as Humax boxes.

The comparisions, like with most things, to Sky+ boxes can be "biased" as some models of Sky+ are the same if not better at reception than the Humax, yet other models are poor in comparison.

YOu ony have to look at the performance difference between a good old Pace 2600 vs the later models by Pace the 440 and 445, which are terriable in comparison...

And of course the tuners in HD boxes are designed to be better (in comparison to SD models) to handle the amount of data in the HD signals.

Countryboy1

Thanks for that. My Sky box was a Pace, can't remember which one, but certainly the model thought to have the best tuner for here in Spain.
Hadn't considered your point about HD models having better tuners, that may explain the 'better' one in my Humax box.
If I go back to Sky at some point (as I preferred the Sky box & Sky services for many things, my biggest reservation will be when the satellite(s) change again, reception will suffer if the Sky box's tuner is less sensitive.
Time will tell I suppose when the changes happen and perhaps you can advise then as to how the various boxes cope with the new situation.
Thanks again.

The Guy

There were two normal Sky boxes (the 2600 and 430) that looked exactly the same on the outside, but inside the 430 had a different tuner inside so its performace was different.

In the same way that there are two Sky+ boxes (the 3100 and the TDN 470N i think) that looked almost the same on the outside, but inside the 470 had a different tuner inside so its performace was different.

And so sometimes, even though they looked the same, somepeople were actually gettting the weaker performing boxes!

Fred James

What VPN service would you recommend? I have tried the Expatshield free one but it's a bit unreliable.

If I end up having to rely on Internet TV then I would be happy to pay a bit for a reliable service.

Is there any merit in having a decent router that can handle a VPN rather than having to use the PC? I believe some routers can handle this with DD-WRT firmware. What do you think about this approach?

CapnBilly

I been using Astrill for about 2 years, with no probelms. I find it reasonably priced, although I must admit I like the Hidemyass forum, but it's about 15% dearer than Astrill.

I use it on my router, which I flashed with dd-wrt, although they also support Tomato. I route my Sky box and Apple TV through it, and it works great. Occasionally i route my Ipad through it, so for example on Friday when i wanted to watch the football, but my wife was watching the other side.

It's very simple to setup on your router, once you have dd-wrt or tomato, using the computer software. One of things I like about the router setup is that you can route all devices, or selected devices, or exclude devices, so there's a lot of flexibility.

Obviously it would also manage Internet TV if I had one, although as Sky on demand now has the ITV player, and BBC Iplayer coming soon, can.t see me buying one anytime (sic) soon.

Countryboy1

Sorry, but what on earth is or are dd.wrt & tomato?
Plain English please.

CapnBilly

The router that you buy or receive from your provider ( e.g. Telefonica) contains an electronic chip which uses an operating code (commonly known as firmware) to work - in your computer it's called the bios. Dd-wrt and Tomato are versions of this code that have developed by an online community of developers. They're both Linux based systems - Linux is a code base that has been developed to run operating systems on your computer, as an alternative to Windows. You can download different versions, normally for free. E.g Linux Mint

You install dd-wrt or tomato on your router by downloading the code file and flashing your router. You can then do a lot more things with your router, than the original code prevents, or just doesn't allow. This includes installing OpenVpn which is one of the protocols that allows you to tunnel your internet connection, so that it looks as though its coming from somewhere else, e.g UK. There are other protocols.

Some companies are now selling routers with this code already installed.

Just google dd-wrt, there's a mass of information about it.

I've tried to keep the explanation simple, so I hope this is clear.

Fred James

What router do you use?

EsuriJohn

I did not follow any of this either and into my in box today popped this:-

http://www.thinkbroadband.com/news/5...ss-router.html

which seems to have it all built in so no doubt runs linux as well.

Countryboy1

Thanks Capn'!
Really we're talking about a form of jailbreaking the router - yes?
I'm pretty good on TV/radio/satellite stuff, and only average on computer stuff although I fully follow your explanation above. Thanks very much.
I'll do some research based upon what you've said.
With my limited knowledge when I took delivery of my new TV a few months back which has the BBC iPlayer as an app, I thought naively that just logging on via Expat Shield on my PC would then fool the TV into thinking I'm in the UK. Not so!
I couldn't understand why my ip addres on the PC was in the UK and I could access the iplayer on my PC yet I couldn't on the TV despite both of them in my mind going through the same router.
Someone explained to me that I would have to change something within the router to achieve what I wanted. Perhaps what you've described above helps that. Yes?
Thanks again.