Freesat launches new Free Time smart TV guide
Freesat has launched its latest generation smart TV guide, called Free Time, with the launch of a new Humax Freesat+ Free Time set-top box.
The service - which Freesat strictly-speaking refers to as <free time> -allows you to move 'earlier' and 'later' through a slick new interface, making it easy to instantly watch catch-up TV content via BBC iPlayer and ITV Player.
Scrolling back through programmes you've missed allows you to instantly click and watch content using the embedded catch-up TV services in a similarly seamless way as Freeview service YouView.
The new EPG launches with BBC iPlayer and ITV Player integrated, and says that 4OD and Demand 5 will go live before Christmas.
Other services, such as streaming music and movie services, are said to be in the pipeline - with rumours suggesting Netflix will be a partner very soon - but Freesat has said that as yet nothing is confirmed.
Set to be available on a new generation of Freesat+ boxes – but not as an update to existing Freesat+ boxes – the new Free Time TV guide will roll out across other boxes from partners Manhattan, Philips and Sagemcom later this year.
Elsewhere the service also has an at-a-glance 'Now and Next' screen, a Showcase section for recommended content, a three-line pop-up menu option for browsing the EPG without taking up the whole screen and a redesigned, easier to use Recordings section.
This Humax Freesat+ Free Time box, out at the end of the month for £279, launches with a 500GB hard disk drive and full PVR functionality, as well as the new Free Time smart TV guide. A 1TB box is set to follow soon after launch.
This box is ethernet-only, though Freesat told us that more boxes would launch very soon and a WiFi-box was likely.
Also promised in the near future is a Freesat Free Time app for smartphones and tablets bringing remote record and remote control functionality to your portable device.
Freesat recently hit 1.5m users and has sold more than 2.6m Freesat receivers, with the service offering 150 channels including 5 HD channels.
Some 14m homes in the UK are said to have a satellite dish, with Freesat no doubt targetting people not only who can't get Freeview but those who no longer want to pay for Sky TV.
Comments
i've had an HDR since launch, and i wouldn't call the s/w poor (it's had its quirks), nor is it a flawed product, it is however starting to look very dated and at nearly 4 years since it was launched due for replacement.
I for one, am looking forward to the new boxes/ features and <free time> EPG
As a Humax Freesat owner/customer whose been waiting for updates to the poor software for ages, I now discover Humax & Freesat's policy. It's not to improver the current flawed product which I've paid for, rather it's to bring out a new model so I'll have to buy a new one.
I have never been able to afford Sky & have had BT & Freesat for many years (along with Freeview more recently). Periodically I do look at Virgin but, when you strip away the initial introductory deals, Virgin seems expensive too?
Some people may be on their second Freesat device (eg buy a receiver than step up to a PVR), or have multiple receivers in different rooms of house (many new houses have multiple satelite TV points...)
QUOTE
"Freesat recently hit 1.5m users and has sold more than 2.6m Freesat receivers"
END QUOTE
It seems there are 1.1 million Freesat receivers not being used.
Or is there a more rational explanation?
Bcolgan, I will think you will find that C4 HD has been available on Freesat on channel 126 since April 2011.
I have wanted EPG for Freesat on my WinTV cards for sometime. The Freeview EPG is fast and I use that to edit in Freesat alternatives (to use both Freeview and Freesat recording at the same time) put have to manually add in Freesat only programmes.
It seems this Freesat EPG requires a change in hardware, not only software.
Apologies, you are indeed correct. I had been fawning at what Sky subscribers get
I meant it would be good to have the following:
C4 HD
C5 HD
Itv 2/3/4 HD
E4 HD
Film4 HD
I'm sure a lot of Freesat subscribers would gladly give up NHK World HD for any of the above.
What "main" HD channels are on Freeview, that aren't on Freesat exactly?
There's 4 HD channels on FV, and 5 on Freesat!
And Freesat are a platform/EPG provider, it's upto the individual broadcasters if they decide to broadcast in HD and on what platforms they make those channels available.
I'd prefer if they devoted more time to getting the rest of the "main" HD channels on the service that Freeview offers, which is what they are supposed to be providing!
Anybody know, or guess, as to how this "Free Time", for past programmes, is delivered? Is it by satellite, or is it integrating BBC iPlayer etc into the EPG and therefor BroadBand delivered?
The point is Freesat is FREE.
There's a one off cost for a box and former Sky subscribers get a free dish and wiring!
Humax boxes do have occasional issues, though I have two Foxsat HDRs which have worked perfectly apart from one software issue and that was soon fixed.
Sky boxes aren't problem free as many a disgruntled friend has described. But then, that's technology for you.
I went from Sky to Freesat mainly for economic reasons and now regret this. Think I'll be moving back to the Sky+ box as my Humax PVR is slow and full of bugs which have never been addressed. The EPG is awful. Now we get an improvement offered, but only if we go out and buy a new box.
When I saw the headline that Freesat were launching something new, I should have known it wouldn't benefit existing customers who have been abandoned IMO by both Freesat & Humax.
For its faults, Sky was contantly tweeking things with updates and improvements, but with my Humax box - nothing!