- This topic has 53 replies, 5 voices, and was last updated 6 years ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Hi, I’ve had foxsat hdr and Sony kdl40w5500 (also Panasonic tv with second foxsat hdr) for over 10 years and very pleased with them. I’ve never used the TVs inbuilt features as I always watch via humax box and nearly always record in SD. I’d like to get a 65” tv and maybe upgrade to humax hdr1100s or whatever is latest humax Freesat recorder with biggest hard drive.
I use several external hard drives with SD recordings.
I use optical output from tv into DAC then into stereo amp and speakers.
The only issues I’ve had with my existing setup are:
With the Sony tv I cant adjust the volume when watching HD content.
With the Panasonic tv I cant use the universal remote to switch the tv on/off. (Can’t do this with Sony either now since replacing remote)
Questions:
1 Which features should I look for on a new 65” tv, given most of them aren’t used with a humax box? eg is upscaling done by tv or humax box?
2 Do I need to get a newer humax box and if so, can I plug in the external hard drives and play SD content recorded on foxsat on the new humax box?
3 which brands/models to choose to avoid compatibility issues like above?
4 I’ve become familiar with Humax foxsat hdr and have found it to be a fantastic product so would prefer to get another humax but are there any viable alternatives?
Firstly, do you really need a 65″ TV, or do you just want one?
Too many people buy big (in the sales because it looks like a bargain) and regret it. The recommended viewing distance for a 65″ is approximately 18-20 feet. Sit too close and even some HD content will be disappointing, much more so with SD.
If your budget allows, you will be amazed by the picture quality of the OLED Tv’s, especially after you tweak it a bit (colour/contrast etc) to suit your eyes.
But back to my original point, a higher quality 55″ TV will be preferable to a lower specced 65″ (for the same price) all day long.
Dolby digital audio as used by HD channels can only have it’s volume varied after the audio is decoded as the volume level is hard coded into the audio stream. With the box set to output Surround Sound the Humax remote cannot vary the volume level. Only the TV remote can do that after the audio is decoded to analogue audio. That’s why there is a menu option to get the box to PCM stereo which can be volume controlled by the Humax remote. I have a 55″ LG C series OLED bought from Richer sounds. SD is very poor simply because the TV has to quadruple the number of pixels. HD is very good especially from blu ray- 4K blu ray is astonishing.
https://www.whathifi.com/reviews/lg-oled55c9pla
Disagree about the sound. For a thin screen TV the audio is very good, especially with a Dolby Atmos source.
Which agrees with the above.
Thanks for replies. Of course I want a big tv and don’t need one. My viewing distance is about 12’ so should be ok, depending on who’s advice I take on measuring ideal viewing distance.
Researching online led me to LG 65oledc9 but after visiting a few showrooms I prefered the look of Sony and couldn’t see any difference between led and OLED. Very difficult to judge though because of the source being limited to 4K demos in some shops.
I’ll have a look for PCM stereo in the menu and will probably have more questions then. Seems like I’ll have no control of volume with any humax box on HD if I use optical out to DAC to hifi from what you’re saying.
Thanks again for your ideas.
bob793 – 4 mins ago »
Thanks for replies. Of course I want a big tv and don’t need one. My viewing distance is about 12’ so should be ok, depending on who’s advice I take on measuring ideal viewing distance.
Researching online led me to LG 65oledc9 but after visiting a few showrooms I prefered the look of Sony and couldn’t see any difference between led and OLED. Very difficult to judge though because of the source being limited to 4K demos in some shops.
I’ll have a look for PCM stereo in the menu and will probably have more questions then. Seems like I’ll have no control of volume with any humax box on HD if I use optical out to DAC to hifi from what you’re saying.
Thanks again for your ideas.
Same applies to optical as hdmi. The FVP-5000T has seperate audio options for toslink and HDMI. You can have Dolby Digital on optical and PCM on HDMI for instance.
The option is just marked as stereo or surround.
Stereo engages recoding to stereo PCM. Surround outputs DD 2.0 or 5.1 depending on what the broadcast has. There’s no much in 5.1. Father Brown has 5.1 audio.
If you normally watch TV in a room with some level of ambient lighting, you probably won’t perceive the improvement of contrast (real blacks etc) that you get from an OLED, so the high end led backlit screens will certainly give you more than acceptable results, especially if you are used to an older technology screen. And led/qled screens are usually more affordable. But if, like me, you turn off the room lights and put your feet up to watch a movie or a good nature documentary, in this scenario OLED cannot be beaten (in my opinion). As I said previously, money spent on better technology as opposed to bigger screens will be my advice. In order to produce more affordable larger screen TV’s, costs have to be reduced in other areas such as the video processor and its associated software, this will be far more obvious when upscaling SD to HD or 4k.
I can’t find PCM in the menu on the foxsat. The FVP5000T is a free view box, I have no aerial and live in poor reception area anyway. Is the hdr1100s the most up to date Freesat box? It seems to have been around for a few years, is there another box due for release soon? I don’t understand what you mean about stereo output, can you confirm that I can not adjust volume when watching HD or is the dual output you describe a solution? If so, does hdr1100s 2Tb have that feature?
With regard to the picture, is the so called “upscaling” done by the tv or the Freesat box? Which technology matters in the tv? Can I get a simple panel with no tuner for example? My current tv has many unused features because I use foxsat hdr. With regard to screen size, it seems the price difference from 55 to 65 is worth it, whereas there is a bigger jump in price for anything bigger than 65.
More thanks for replies.
bob793 – 33 mins ago »
I can’t find PCM in the menu on the foxsat. The FVP5000T is a free view box, I have no aerial and live in poor reception area anyway. Is the hdr1100s the most up to date Freesat box? It seems to have been around for a few years, is there another box due for release soon?
The HDR-100S is currently the most up to date Freesat box. Humax didn’t win the contract for the next generation Freesat box which I think went to Arris. It is a year since they were awarded the contact but I don’t know when the G3 box is due to be launched.
bob793 – 31 mins ago »
I can’t find PCM in the menu on the foxsat. The FVP5000T is a free view box, I have no aerial and live in poor reception area anyway. Is the hdr1100s the most up to date Freesat box? It seems to have been around for a few years, is there another box due for release soon? I don’t understand what you mean about stereo output, can you confirm that I can not adjust volume when watching HD or is the dual output you describe a solution? If so, does hdr1100s 2Tb have that feature?
With regard to the picture, is the so called “upscaling” done by the tv or the Freesat box? Which technology matters in the tv? Can I get a simple panel with no tuner for example? My current tv has many unused features because I use foxsat hdr. With regard to screen size, it seems the price difference from 55 to 65 is worth it, whereas there is a bigger jump in price for anything bigger than 65.
More thanks for replies.
It’s the same on a Freesat box. The option is Surround (outputs Dolby Digital), Stereo – outputs PCM.
A Foxsat does not have a progressive output option. The display has to de-interlace to produce a progressive output to the panel. Only CRT TV’s can use a interlaced signal.
The answer to your other question is depends on the native resolution of the TV.
If it’s a FULL-HD 1920 x 1080 and you set the source to output 1920 x 1080 the box does the scaling (and de-interlacing, if you set progressive). If you output SD 720 x 576 the TV does the scaling. If it did not you would get a tiny picture).
With 4K Tv the same applies if the TV is given a 2160p signal it does nothing. If a 1080p50 signal it scales to 2160P.
The TV has to have a 1:1 signal to the display to work, if it does not the TV scaler creates it.
A digital TV has a fixed number of pixels, 1920 x 1080 on full-HD display, to get a full picture everyone of these has to have signal. 4K has in effect 4 full HD pixels 2 wide and 2 deep. Therefore quadrupling the number of pixels on the screen.
With the foxsat I only have stereo and mono options for audio. If I buy hdr1100s can I control volume with remote or only on amp? Is the information I’m asking for classified? Grahamlthomson Should I pm you? You seem to know what you’re talking about but I’m having trouble understanding. I understand what you say about “native resolution of the tv” except for de-interlacing set progressive. What determines whether the tv can show sd content on a 4K screen effectively? I’m not expecting it to be as good as a 4K source but on my 1080p native resolution tv the difference between sd and hd is not enough to use up storage space and also means I have to watch on the device it was recorded on only. The difference between 720p and 1080p is barely distinguishable – I have two Apple TV devices that show 1080p content on Netflix or Amazon Prime or BBC iPlayer. I’d like to understand these things before I can make any informed decision on whether to spend a huge amount of money. Sorry if I sound a bit blunt or confrontational, I’m grateful for any insight and value your opinion.
Thank you Martin Liddle, I can’t see any products using Freesat g3 but am now wondering if I should get a 2Tb hdr1100s while available. I resisted satellite at first because I loathe Rupert murdoch and love bbc. Am I being corralled into a subscription? Still hoping for direct answers to previous questions.
bob793 – 20 hours ago » Sorry if I sound a bit blunt or confrontational,
Not everyone here are bloody snowflakes who seem to be permanently offended. If not themselves, then on behalf of someone else (who isn’t really offended anyway).
😆
When someone is good enough to answer my questions I am grateful. When I feel the need to be critical of their reply for whatever reason it seems courteous to acknowledge that they considered my request and replied. I take your point about being a snowflake but I prefer to err on the side of being too nice than too nasty. That said, I wish someone would answer my f****** questions so I can get a massive new telly!
bob793 – 20 hours ago »
Thank you Martin Liddle, I can’t see any products using Freesat g3 but am now wondering if I should get a 2Tb hdr1100s while available. I resisted satellite at first because I loathe Rupert murdoch and love bbc. Am I being corralled into a subscription? Still hoping for direct answers to previous questions.
Sky has nothing to do with Freesat. Freesat is in fact just a epg service jointly owned by the BBC and ITV, that uses the Free BBC and ITV services that are transmitted from 28.2E. There are no subscription fees, unless you choose to use the paid for streaming services from say Netflix.
BBC iplayer on a suitable TV has some incredible free quality 4K HDR content like One Planet and Dynasty. To make best use of a 4K TV you need at least a Full-HD source and ideally a 4K source. Youtube also has free 4K content.
A Foxsat has the same options for digital audio out as the G2 boxes. Stereo (PCM) and surround for Dolby Digital. The option is only for HD channels as the SD ones only use PCM audio.
Tune to a HD channel, With stereo selected the Humax remote volume will work, switch to surround it won’t. Just use the TV remote to control the volume.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.