Humax to Release PVR Set Top Box for Freely’s UK Broadband TV Service
Set-top-box manufacturer Humax appears to be preparing to launch its first box with video recording capabilities for the new broadband-based live TV streaming service Freely, which is supported by several of the major UK TV broadcasters (BBC, ITV etc.) and is an evolution – not yet a full replacement – of the existing Freeview service (inc. Freeview Play and Freesat).
Freely has been slowly improving their device support since the service first went live in April 2024 (here) and recently confirmed plans to launch on Netgem’s new streaming TV box during Q4 2025 (here); such boxes are typically bundled by broadband ISPs like Brsk, TalkTalk, CommunityFibre, Wightfibre and others. The BBC are also understood to be considering the launch of a streaming box (here).
However, Freely’s adoption is likely to remain limited until the service arrives on popular streaming devices from Amazon, Google and Roku, but at present there’s no clear indication of whether or even when this will happen. In the meantime, progress is still being made and a number of electrical retailers (examples here, here and here) recently started listing the existence of a new device – the Humax FHR-6000T – “Freely PVR Recordable Set Top Box“.
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The new 4K (UltraHD) supporting box doesn’t yet appear to be listed on Humax’s website, but the retailers indicate that it will cost £249 and “stands out as the very first Freely PVR (personal video recorder) set top box, allowing recording of up to four channels simultaneously on a single screen” (max recording time of 1000 hours). The box will also offer connectivity via HDMI 2.1 and USB ports, as well as WiFi capability, Ethernet (LAN), SPDIF (optical audio), RF out and RF in.
The box supports popular TV services / apps like BBC iPlayer, ITVX, C4, C5 and allows Remote Record (Schedule on the Go). The kit, which also has the ability to pause live TV, comes with a 1-year warranty (extendable to 2 years upon registration), weighs a hefty 1.7kg and is sized as follows: H48 x W280 x D200 mm.
However, there’s currently little to no other information on how this box will go about Freely’s integration, and a sizeable question mark remains over the limitations of its video recording capabilities (i.e. does this really extend to content delivered via Freely or only via something like aerial-based Freeview signals).
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Mark is a professional technology writer, IT consultant and computer engineer from Dorset (England), he also founded ISPreview in 1999 and enjoys analysing the latest telecoms and broadband developments. Find me on X (Twitter), Mastodon, Facebook, BlueSky, Threads.net and Linkedin.
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Ought to include a Satellite receiver in the box as well. A lot of rural and coastal areas have limited channel availability on terrestrial reception.
Trouble is that satellite is likely to disappear before Freeview. If Sky stops satellite when their current contract with SES (Astra) ends in 2029 Freesat may well become uneconomic and SES have not committed to replacing their aging fleet of satellites. Ringway Manchester made a video about it here:- https://youtu.be/H3Qg6exDBAI?t=4
Easier just to launch a separate version rather than make it more expensive for the majority of people who don’t need satellite.
Why would you want to record if you have on demand makes no sense.
Who records nowadays no need.
I do, not all things which are broadcast on TV actually make it to streaming, on top of that… most streaming services have loads of adverts, which you easily skip if you have a recording set top box.
This box is aimed at people like me 😉
We record programmes from ITV, CH4 & CH5 so we can skip over the adverts which you can’t do with their catch up players.
I would assume Humax is going for an experience that mimics Freeview as much as possible, where people are used to traditional recording. The BBC has also said they wish to release a cheap Freely streaming box that feels like Freeview in that it has channel numbers and is simple to use.
Speaking for myself and family:
1) Not everything is on demand/on demand when I want to watch it
2) It works if the broadband goes down
3) Skip adverts easily
4) no messing around with signing in….yes this is a problem for some….no don’t laugh
At my retail job, I also tend to find it’s older customers who buy recorders like this.
To fast forward to skip adverts.
Everything is recorded in our household, means we can skip the ads and pick and choose when to watch something and have our own library and list of programs. Picture quality on the Freeview HD channels is better than what is on streaming services, and BBC via Freeview is DOG free, whereas that isn’t the case on iPlayer. Even UHD content, we’ve gone to watch that on iPlayer for some extra resolution, found it so compressed it was no better than the Freeview broadcast.
I wonder if this is their attempt at Freeview over IP. For those that don’t have an aerial, or satellite – but have full fibre – having the ability to record live TV without being forced down the EE/VM/Sky Q options would be most welcome.
I’m guessing you’re not familiar with Freely, as ‘Freeview as IPTV’ is the whole point of it.
The main selling point of this is that it’s also a DVR.
What a pile of overpriced junk. I’ve had Humax equipment before, it’s been laggy and there’s probably about £15 worth of hardware here. Even if you then triple the markup for their development of the operating system that still only works out to be £60 in total.
Those in charge of Freely seem straight out of the 2000 market when digital dominance ruled king, streaming wasn’t even a thing, and people were forced to watch what the linear bosses wanted us to watch. I’m not a fan of all the diversity of services as it pushes subscription cost up and choice down, but seriously why don’t the Freely team look at reconsidering the minimum hardware requirements and making an app that will work on existing Android and Kindle devices?
I’m not promoting illegal Kindle devices. My relatives have one and I frown at them for it. They can easily afford to pay for all the services they get legitimately. I keep telling them their services can be traced and payments made for these things can cause fraud and can fund criminal activity. I’m not tempted at all. But when the average person is actually proud to declare they have a dodgy stick (which thoroughly annoys me btw), Freely should be doing everything they can to make their service easily accessible not more complicated. It feels like the dinosaurs in charge have never heard of their competition and yes, piracy devices have to be considered as competition if they are to be stopped.
I suspect you mean a dodgy fire stick running Kodi?
They need to just get this added to samsung and LG tvs and integrate it with their guides