Freesat Ends Association With Humax

After an association for over the last 11 years, Humax will no longer be making and manufacturing Freesat branded satellite receivers and PVR’s.

I confess myself a little disappointed from this decision as I have always recommended and supplied where possible Humax equipment for our Freesat installations. This is because of all the manufacturers that were producing Freesat equipment including Bush, Grundig, Manhattan among others the Humax range was always a cut above the rest. During my trainee years at a previous company when Freesat was first released initially we installed the Metronic Freesat boxes, there was about 10 receivers that went out and of the 10, 9 were returned faulty. From there on Humax was chosen as the only brand that would be installed as it was the most preffered model by our customers and by far gave us the least problems. Humax were a little bit more expensive than the other manufacturers but were by far the most reliable which is why I was happy to recommend them.The initial Humax Foxsat PVR was a standout product at the time and I still visit many properties were people are still using these despite the loss of BBC iPlayer and ITV Hub.

Why Is Humax No Longer Making Freesat Products?

For the immediate short term you will still be able to able to purchase Humax Freesat boxes while stocks last but heading into 2019 these will start to no longer be available. This is because the manufacturer Arris is the chosen manufacture for the third generation Freesat set top boxes and PVR’s. I will be honest I do not know much about this manufacturer, but it seems that it’s part of/ a new trading name for Pace who were manufacturing many of the early Sky satellite receivers. I will be writing a more detailed blog about the third generation Freesat equipment but it looks as though this will include 4K/UHD compatibility, a more development Internet/ On Demand portal for catch up TV services. I’m also hoping that these will come with a dSCR mode like the new Sky Q boxes that will allow the box to be connected to compatible communal TV systems and will allow multiple records, pausing/ rewinding of live TV with only a single feed connected.

I also hope by the time that the first Arris boxes are released that BBC/ ITV who jointly operate together for Freesat can end their dispute with Channel 4 so we can see a return to the internet portal of All 4 and Channel 4 HD.

Humax Freesat Questions

For the time being I will still recommend Humax Freesat products, but going forward if you can hold out the Arris 3rd generation Freesat products will be available in 2019. If you have any questions, please do POST THESE IN THE BLOG COMMENTS SECTION BELOW and I will help out where I can. I appreciate your patience when posting comments/ questions as I answer all of these personally and may not be able to get back to you as fast as you may like. Please DO NOT CALL OUR TELEPHONE LINES as these are RESERVED FOR CUSTOMERS ONLY and we only operate in Sussex and parts of Kent. We do not offer free over the phone technical advise or support and Gemma in the office is under strict instructions to not give my mobile phone number out, so please do not ask. I also request that you DO NOT FILL OUT THE WEBSITE CONTACT FORMS OR E-MAIL as again these are intended for customers only and it’s very likely that you will not receive a response if you choose to send your questions this way.

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Until next time,

Tom