The Humax HDR-FOX T2 is an ace Freeview HD + box, but it doesn’t just pipe through high def free to air channels and stash them on a hard drive. The Ethernet socket on the back will help you get the Humax HDR-FOX T2 onto your home network to pipe through music, photos and video stored on your computer. But with so many other set top boxes and tellies capable of the same, is it a selling point? Find out in this part of our Humax HDR-FOX T2 review.
Read our Humax HDR-FOX T2 review now
Let’s get this straight. The Humax HDR-FOX T2 doesn’t jump on your home network to join the trend of IPTV and video on demand sucking boxes on sale right now. For the moment anyway, it’s strictly to grab music (MP3), photos (JPEGs) and video off a shared folder on your computer. In other words, no Sony Bravia Internet Video, or Internet@TV widgets like Samsung offers.
But, you’ll be pleased to hear, it works just like any other UPnP gadget – setup is a doddle in Windows 7 especially. Of course, results always vary with wireless media streaming, and it’s not idiot proof, but we had no troubles – in fact, more irksome was the lack of built in Wi-Fi than anything else. But if you do have trouble, you can always achieve much the same end by sticking a USB stick in the port on the bottom right of the Humax HDR-FOX T2’s too, so it’s not all bad.
If you’ve read the overall verdict section of our Humax HDR-FOX T2 review, you’ll know that we’re for the most part enamoured with its EPG and idiot proof UI. There’s one glaring hitch in the whole experience however, and that’s Humax’ decision to keep the media on the Humax HDR-FOX T2’s hard drive and that stored on plugged in USB sticks or on the network separate. Instead, you have to switch between the two menus, something which won’t be inherently obvious.
More of an issue for us however was video file format support. While all the H.264 MP4 and DivX/Xvid AVI files we threw at the Humax HDR-FOX T2 ran without a hitch, it won’t open WMV or MKV files, as some other reviews have said it does – Humax for its part doesn’t claim it does. Now we could care less about WMV, but it’s still a bit disappointing considering some new phones natively support the increasingly popular MKV container – however we can’t say any of Humax’ direct rivals offer anything better on this front right now.
Ultimately then, without the option for the Humax HDR-FOX T2 to act as a server rather than a client, it’s no more useful than an Xbox 360 or Sony PS3 games console for network media, and if you own either already, this shouldn’t be a selling point for you. If you’re after network skills above anything else, but aren’t a gamer, the 3View Freeview HD box, with BBC iPlayer out of the box, might be more up your street.
But if you’re already sold on the Humax HDR-FOX T2 as a Freeview HD PVR (And you should be), it’s still a nice option to have if needs be. Humax has been good about software updates for other set top boxes, and it’s possible future ones for the Humax HDR-FOX T2 will bring on demand services such as Sky Player and BBC iPlayer. Just don’t count on anything not shipping out of the gate, and you won’t be disappointed.
