Review of the Humax F2-Fox T (IDTV - Sep 24, 2003)
The first of the Humax range to be reviewed by idtv.co.uk
and we're pretty impressed.
Although the box is small and neat, it has a metal case and
feels reassuringly solid - unlike
some of the more plasticky low-end adapters we've seen. The
styling is functional rather than
attempting to be either elegant or retro, in keeping with
its sturdy, workmanlike performance.
The remote control looks good and is fairly intuitive, although
we would say its length is more in
keeping with a 'combi' remote designed to control different
function sets. Perhaps Humax wants
to reserve the same form factor for some of the more complex
devices we know are in the
pipeline.
Set-up was straightforward, and powering up led to a PC-style
'installation wizard' as the box
automatically tuned in the Freeview channels. This was easily
accomplished within a minute or
two, as we have now come to expect. Picture quality was good,
although we felt onscreen text
displays looked a bit faint and weedy at times: the basic
font looks a little 'thin' to us (although
emboldened type looks OK).
One thing we really liked: this box is fast - both at changing
channels, and in bringing up some
of the MHEG text applications. Watching BBC News 24, we pressed
on the red button to call up
the interactive bar, and it appeared almost immediately. This
is probably due in part to recent
improvements on the part of the BBC, but nevertheless, our
impression is that this is definitely
one of the fastest boxes we've seen so far. Congratulations
to Cabot Software, who we
understand provide this box's MHEG engine. There were, it
has to be said, the all-to-familiar
hesitations when tuning in to channels that were off -air
- i.e. long periods of nothingness before
the appropriate text message appeared on screen - but so far
no Freeview box has worked out
how to get round that one.
The EPG, info and channel listing features were simple and
easy to use. There is even a 'find'
function designed to locate the programme genre or title you
want, although we really need
Freeview to be offering a full seven-day listing before that
particular feature will come into its
own. There is also a scheduling feature which, when you've
filled in the details, alerts you to a
programme coming up on another channel, which you can 'accept'
simply by clicking 'OK'.
The box is also fairly highly specified on the connectivity
side of things. In addition to the two
SCARTs, there is RF modulated output on top of the standard
loop-through, left and right stereo
audio connectors, plus both an S/PDIF audio socket for outputting
digital audio and an RS232
interface. The latter is not designed to take a modem, but
to download software upgrades from
your PC. These will, apparently, be available on Humax's web-site.
One final little touch. Like some other boxes we've seen,
it comes pre -loaded with some basic
games. Our resident twelve-year old took to these immediately,
and gave the device the
appropriate benediction: "Cool!"
Verdict: We liked this. It's a solid, robust, unpretentious
decoder which is highly specified and
handles interactive features very well. It is also very user
-friendly, so no Freeview novices
should be put off. The ·Ì92.99 pricing that was being offered
by Easibuy at the time of writing
this review therefore looks like good value for money. If
you can get one for a tenner less, it's a
bargain.
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