Category Archives: General

 

07May

Freesat Review / First Impressions

Ok so not an extensive review, but one of our readers was kind enough to provide some initial feedback on Freesat. The box was the Humax Foxsat-HD which is now available from Comet

Got the Humax receiver.
First impressions were how small.
Then came the disappointment.
It runs very hot, which means short life.
No diseqc switching, and when I scanned, most of what is available I can get anyway off a Comag from Lidl, and that has diseqc.
I will need to look at the numbers in more detail tonight, but I get BBC HD anyway off my Topfield.
My guess it will be a flop, at least for those of us in the know.

 

Unfortunately for me I am not one of them in the know and I am a little naive about satellite but the topfield mentioned above should be the HD Satellite receiver TF7000HT. I am not a huge TV fan so I think I will wait until all this Freesat malarkey becomes more mainstream.

07May

Style is the future… Apparently

I’m here at the Toshiba seminar entitled ‘Take a closer look’. When I return I will be giving you lucky people an insight into the latest technical goodies that they have on offer. I have to admit that there are some delightful little gems on offer and have some photos to prove it. It’s a hard life being jetted to Paris, put up in a swanky hotel and let loose with some toys. It’s a sacrifice I was prepared to take.

29Apr

GTA 4 having issues with multiplayer on the PS3

Well I finally got my copies of GTA 4. Yes I said copies. 1 is for the 360 in the office and the other is for my PS3. While I have enjoyed a few hours playing the game on the 360 at work I could not play online as it is not wired up for some reason.

On arrival at home I immediately installed my PS3 copy and went straight to multiplayer. Unfortunately with little success. It appears that the network maybe having some issues. I should not be surprised really everyone I know has bought the game, and I assume everyone is also trying to get online.

I seem to be either having problems connecting to the network, being disconnected when I do connect, having issues with the game actually starting and when I do start everyone immediately disconnects.

I have only managed to play about 3 minutes against anyone so far. Oh sad for me.

I even thought it maybe my wireless playing up so I ran a cable to the PS3 and connected it via that. Still no joy.

Oh well looks like I am stuck playing the single player missions for a while.

Edit: There are several threads in in the Playstation forums confirming these problems.

Online Unavailable Can’t Connect to Multiplayer

23Apr

John Lewis confirm freesat launch set for May 6

Freesat-2 John Lewis says it will be selling the HD receiver for a price of £149, plus optional £100 installation. But there’s no news on whether this will be a Grundig or Humax box yet.

Interestingly it is believe John Lewis and its partners will be working with Sky to roll out the new service as Freesat does not have it’s own installation service yet.

 

 

Humax is expected to release its new Freesat HD receiver, the Foxsat-HD, to coincide with the launch the launch of the Freesat service on May 6th.

The specification for the Foxsat-HD box is as follows:

  • Receiving HDTV signals (MPEG-4 AVC/H 264 and MPEG-2)
  • Under 1w power consumption in standby
  • HDMI digital interface for transmission of picture and sound
  • Simultaneous playing of transmissions over HDMI, YPbPr or Scart
  • Easy installation and operation
  • Resolution format: 1080i, 720p, 576p, 576i
  • DVB-S2 and DVB-S compatible
  • Ethernet support
  • Full colour, high resolution electronic programme guide
  • Dolby digital audio output
  • Automatic software upgrade via satellite
  • Improved SDTV on a HD LCD TV
  • Audio description / One-touch subtitles
  • Dimensions (Width x Height x Depth): 28 x 4.5 x 20cm
  • Weight: 1.5kg

If you are not aware of Freesat the following extract from Join Freesat should explain it:

Freesat is a brand new digital satellite TV service from the BBC/ITV. freesat has no monthly subscription, just a one-off payment for the digital box, satellite dish and installation. It will even come with subscription-free, high-definition TV programmes. Because freesat is broadcast via satellite, it’ll be available to almost every household in the UK.

23Apr

PlayTV will finally arrive on the PS3 in July

playtv Amazon have revealed that the PlayTV add-on for the PS3 will arrive in the UK on July 31st.

For those not in the know the PlayTV is a small box packing dual tuners with a seven day EPG allowing you to record shows onto your PS3 hard drive.

Granted if you have a 40 Gb PS3 it is not the most space for a PVR but it is more than enough to store a few episodes of your favourite show, and you can always upgrade your HD.

Pricing is not to bad at a reasonable £60.