Humax Foxsat PVR. Picture quality?

I'm a little confused, why would you have to use the Foxsat instead of the built-in tuner all the time?

Anyway, regardless of that, there are two main factors which would affect the picture quality of the Foxsat box on the display...

1) The method of connectivity. If you connect it over SCART (or similar 480i connection), the upscaler on the SCART stage of the Pioneer display will have more to do with it. If you've got the Sky+ connected over SCART and are happy with the way that looks you should be OK - after considering point (2) below - if you're connecting over HDMI or component (Y Pb Pr) etc. it will have more to do with the upscaler in the Foxsat receiver (and of course to have that type of connectivity you'd be looking at a Foxsat HD box - and the upscaler in these is pretty decent as far as consumer equipment goes).

2) The bit rate of the channel you're watching - Not all broadcasts come in at the same bit rate, if you look at BBC1 on Sky it'll probably appear better than a lot of the infomercial channels (for example) that live in the higher reaches of the EPG; so to a point, you could have the best upscaler in the world working on making the 480i signal fill your 720p / 1080p panel, but if the bit rate of the channel is really low, it's always going to be tantamount to polishing a ****.

...If it's a PVR you're set-on, Humax are a fair choice, at the very worst above average in the field, but I'd be happy to say their output quality puts them above the vast majority of the competition.

Any more questions give us a shout - hopefully I'll be able to help - I see a GOOD range of A/V set-ups on my travels (I'm a field engineer working with television audience research equipment by 9-5 trade)...

All the best,

Rob.

1) Does the built-in tuner only get BBC1 / BBC2 / ITV / C4 and five? If it gets NOTHING else at all, it's unlikely to be digital (and therefore analogue). When you go into text from that tuner, does it look like 'old style' Ceefax/Teletext or does a bar appear with nice clean/clear text, filling about the rightmost third of the screen? ...Or easier still, what's the model number of the telly?

2) A digital tuner built in a telly is 99% of the time Freeview, the other 1% of the time Freesat. If it doesn't have either of these, it's most likely analogue only (built-in).

3) Freesat carries most of the channels on Freeview (but not all), and a few others which aren't on Freeview (although how much there is on them worth watching is very much debatable). FreesatHD carries BBC HD, ITV HD (neither broadcast 24/7, but there's worth-watching stuff on both regularly enough), and also Luxe TV HD - I've never once seen anything worth watching on that one.

4) If you're connecting a Foxsat HD box (receiving FreesatHD), it will have HDMI output, that means a) high definition channels will be displayed on the TV in high-definition (normally 720p), and b) non-HD channels will be upscaled from their native 480i resolution to 720p resolution by the chip in the Humax FoxsatHD unit - as above, this does a fairly reasonable job of upscaling - and you can expect it to look around the same as your Sky probably does.

5) You can use the same dish for Sky and Freesat, you just need enough LNB connections. If you've got Sky+, you've got at least a twin-LNB (one Sky+ box needs two connections to the dish), and very often Sky engineers install a quad LNB because it's just easier. In that case (and so long as you've not got other Sky boxes elsewhere in the house), you'd have two LNB connections free for a Freesat(/HD) PVR. If you've a twin LNB you can replace that with a quad for under £20 and just run the cables; if you've a quad with two free connections you just need to run some cable and plug a Freesat(/HD) box/PVR into the end of them. ...Word of warning by the way, always disconnect the power from Sky/Freesat boxes before messing around with LNB (dish) connections - failure to do so could lead you to blow up the LNB (there's no exciting fireworks, but you'll have no signal).

6) I still don't understand how having a Sky+ box connected on a SCART, and a Freesat box connected on HDMI (in the case of Freesat HD), or another SCART (even chained through the Sky+ box if required), FORCES you to no use the inbuilt tuner? So long as you've still got an antenna plugged into it, there's no reason you couldn't still use it (if you wished).

All the best,

Rob.