Bush HD freesat box in Spain, Costa Blanca (Alicante)

[RobinB]

Bush HD freesat box. (UK retail price £120)

Right I have tested the freesat box.

I plugged it in directly to my dish, no realignment needed.(1.9M)

Its quite a dinky little box. Only indicator on front is the blue power indicator (the humax box has a digital readout as well as on TV number)

I was surprised to see a power adapter had to be used rather than plug it directly into mains.

As soon as I plugged it in it did a signal test, I was getting 80 % or better signal strength (it said if less than 50% you have to realign dish)

First thing it insisted I do was do a firmware update, this took about 20-30 minutes.

After that had been done you can then proceed with using it.

Before it does a tune you have to put in a valid UK postcode, I first put in our one from Wales.

It then scans the channels, this takes about 5 minutes, with this postcode all the Welsh channels are grouped in the first few channels.

I decided then to do a new scan with a Bristol postcode.

This gave BBC 1 West as the first channel.

No BBC2, ITV 1 or Channel 4, (5 is coming soon).

For the full line-up see the attached PDF

I then put in a London postcode (as I know from the skybox you have to select London region to get ITV)

This produced the ITV signal but the BBC1 London (as the first channel was no signal) but you could select other BBC regions without doing a new postcode & re-scan.

The picture is very crisp & clear, no blocking on movement on the channels, the odd channel was a little intermittent due to I presume low signal level on those channels.

I did not try the High definition output (only the BBC showed a TV channel available in HD)

Sound excellent (there is a optical output which I did not try)

EPG not quite as slick a the skyboxes, does give programme overview, you can also set reminders several days ahead.


Overall Seems to work well with good picture and sound, only 1 surprise was how hot the box was even when in standby, highly suggest it be given plenty of air space around it.


Cheers


Robin....

 

[pipino]

apart from humax i wouldnt use other freesat boxes specialy the goodmans one total shayt

 

[DJP]

Had a look at your PDF & found it a bit dissapointing with regards to what you can pick up.
I've just set up a Humax Icord & manage to gat practically all of the FTA with the exception of Channel 4 HD which appears to be encrypted.
Can someone confirm that?
& ITV HD. I'm using a 1,25 meter dish here in southern Germany.
Due to the lack of EPG & ITV HD I have considered buying the Humax that's on offer in GB for 149 GBP.
Was there a reason for you going for the Bush apart from the price?

Cheers
John

 

[dxsat]

Rather puzzling why you bought a HD receiver and have not tried to watch the BBC HD channel, which you will be receiving, as you have BBC CI in your list (it's on the same transponder)

 

[RobinB]

In answer to questions.

I did not buy this bus box, just testing it.

I have not tested the humax box yet but I hope to soon.

Germany is a lot different signal wise than SE Spain.

I dont have a HD tv to test the HD output, ITV apparently does transmit in HD from time to time but I only tested the box for a day.

Robin...

 

[Meliebee]

I'm in Catral, Costa Blanca. Recommendation with the Humax Freesat box for Costa Blanca is to use a Jersey postcode to get a stronger signal. I used the Jersey post office postcode which is JE2 6QN. I get all the channels (1.9m dish) but Ch4 & BBC2 break-up at 11.30pm and are sometimes not available daytime

 

[pipino]

I'm in Catral, Costa Blanca. Recommendation with the Humax Freesat box for Costa Blanca is to use a Jersey postcode to get a stronger signal. I used the Jersey post office postcode which is JE2 6QN. I get all the channels (1.9m dish) but Ch4 & BBC2 break-up at 11.30pm and are sometimes not available daytime

i´m in a similar situation and use cambridge post code

 

[RobinB]

hi, thanks for the info.

I think the signal is a little stronger further south of aspe where you are, the alicante area is supposed to be the worst area of spain unfortunately. I will give the jersey post code a try later today.

thanks

robin..

 

[sparkyinspain]

Hello,
Thanks for the very useful inrormation. I live in NW Murcia, and intend to buy the Humax Foxsat PVR as soon as I can get hold of one. So can you tell me where you bought your Humax boxes, was it here in Spain, or did you bring them over from the UK?

Thanks

 

[RobinB]

Hi

I purchased the humax box of ebay uk and had it posted too me.

Robin...

 

[Meliebee]

I went to UK and bought it at Argos. Got cheap flight with Ryanair! Prices are coming down now for the Humax Foxsat HD box. Note the Humax Foxsat HDR box (internal hard drive for recording) is now available but very difficult to buy as its in high demand, cost about £295.

 

[123_Chris_]

Is this the Spain section ? Robin, how is the Bush box, is it all ok ? Do any of you people on the southern Costa Blanca know of a good place to get the Technomate 6900 please ?

Chris.

 

[RobinB]

Chris

The bush box is fine, though I was only borrowing it to test it out.

I managed to get the Freesat box as well to test.

The menus are better on the freesat, but the it also has some strange quirks, like the start up takes quite a while.

I did look at the technomat on paper, looks ok, no idea where to get one locally, other than having it posted from UK to here.

I would be interested in how you get on if you do get one.

I was waiting for the newer model of this one that is due sometime soon.

robin...

 

[123_Chris_]

Hope you get good luck with your receiver Robin.

I'll call Media Markt this morning, to see if they have one, although I doubt it.

It was between the TM 6900, or the darkbox 2008, and it seemed the picture quality on both was the same, plus you could use a hard drive on both, but it seems as though the TM 6900 is a little more user friendly.

Chris.

 

[123_Chris_]

I'm in Catral, Costa Blanca. Recommendation with the Humax Freesat box for Costa Blanca is to use a Jersey postcode to get a stronger signal. I used the Jersey post office postcode which is JE2 6QN. I get all the channels (1.9m dish) but Ch4 & BBC2 break-up at 11.30pm and are sometimes not available daytime

May be getting a Humax Foxsat HD, is there somewhere on the south Costa Blanca that sells them please ?

Do you have the pvr version or the 320Gb hard drive version or are they the same ? ?

 

[joddle]

I have been using my Humax Foxsat HD box here in Valencia since September and am pretty impressed with its performance. I get everything I used to get with my Pace 2600 plus a load more in the non freesat mode. My biggest mistake was falling for the charms of the advertisers and the cheap petalised dishes - and although my 2.4m paella dish gets all the free to air programmes in the day - the evening reception is vary variable - and I know of people getting much better reception quite close by using smaller but better types of dish - lesson learned - next dish will be a quality job! To continue though - the Humax box actually holds onto the weaker channels longer than the good old Pace - eg I lose bbc3 and 4 at about 7:30pm (hardly worth tuning in eh!) but the Humax will often hold these channels for several hours more. Additionally I can get HD as well - well some of the time at least - but what I have seen is pretty good. Must get that new dish....

 

[RobinB]

I like the humax box as well except for the really long start up sequence with the flash logo, power down, then power back up.
Not sure what its doing during this time but its way too long.

Any ideas of how to improve this ?

As for dishes I learnt my mistake with a petalized dish as well.

Total rubbish, all I could get on mine was sky news.

Robin..

 

[joddle]

I like the humax box as well except for the really long start up sequence with the flash logo, power down, then power back up.
Not sure what its doing during this time but its way too long.

Any ideas of how to improve this ?

As for dishes I learnt my mistake with a petalized dish as well.

Total rubbish, all I could get on mine was sky news.

Robin..

No idea if start up can be hastened - but hey it works so I am content to let it be. I note you are using 1.9 dish - what coverage do you get? - I am looking to get itv3 and bbc1 until later in the evenings (currently 7:30 is about it) and had though I would have to use a good 2.4M to do that - however you are using a lesser dish and so is another person near to me so I am interested as to what you can get with a 1.9 and for how long? Regards Josh

 

[RobinB]

I get bbc1 24/7 with the 1.9m dish

Robin..

 

[satpro]

Out of the freesat boxes the humax has the best tuner but there is the new metronic freesat HD box which just came out maplin have them in stock have not used one maplin just started selling them