Changed from 2 to 1 satellite cable

am577

New Member
Have used my HDR-1000s with two cables from the satellite dish for a year without trouble. I recently bought a new TV with a built-in satellite receiver. Any recommendations on how best to connect the cables ? Is it possible / safe to use a splitter so one cable goes to both the Humax box and the TV ? In the short term I have moved one cable from Input 2 of the Humax box to the TV, but the Humax box is behaving oddly. It was working fine, but now it says 'no signal'. It seems to have spontaneously switched from listening to Input 1 to listening to Input 2. Is there a way to configure it to use only Input 1 ?
 
Have used my HDR-1000s with two cables from the satellite dish for a year without trouble. I recently bought a new TV with a built-in satellite receiver. Any recommendations on how best to connect the cables ?
Get another one run from your LNB.
Is it possible / safe to use a splitter so one cable goes to both the Humax box and the TV ?
No. At best it won't work properly. It might not work at all. At worst you might damage something.
In the short term I have moved one cable from Input 2 of the Humax box to the TV, but the Humax box is behaving oddly. It was working fine, but now it says 'no signal'. It seems to have spontaneously switched from listening to Input 1 to listening to Input 2. Is there a way to configure it to use only Input 1 ?
You need to tell it it's now only got 1 input. It doesn't work properly because it's expecting to have use of both inputs. There's usually a hidden menu item for this (don't know where) or you'll have to do a factory reset which usually sorts it out.
 
My HD box only has one feed yet thinks it has two. My hdr box is the same, I think, I don't know of any option to tell it how many feeds it has. Surely if you try to record two programs it will just fail when it comes to recording? What is to stop you from borrowing a feed temporarily and reconnecting it later? I don't think you can apply the arguments about the foxsat hdr to these freetime boxes.

Having said that, I ran a separate feed down from my dish to serve the TV and drilled a hole through the wall using a set of bits I bought online, and which cost me next to nothing.
 
The Humax freesat+ boxes detect the number of coax feeds during the setup process. The Foxsat-hdr assumes you have given the second tuner a link cable from tuner 1 out to tuner 2 in when fed with a single cable. The freetime boxes don't require a loop cable an internal link is automatically enabled. If you change the number of cables after setup neither type is capable of recognising this. If you go from two cables to a single feed without telling the box it will let you make impossible dual recording reservations. Both box types have a hidden setup menu to change the connection mode, however it's probably easier to simply do a reset to factory defaults.

Your HD box doesn't think it has two cables. Like all Humax boxes a single tuner can handle two channels at the same time provided they share a transponder/mux.

The freetime boxes are actually a little more versatile using a single cable than the Foxsat-hdr as they are capable of recording a 3rd watched channel after one of the two recordings completes by recording the content from the timeshift buffer.

I use the tuner 1 out socket on my Foxsat-hdr to feed one of the twin freesat tuners on my Panasonic TV. This works very well provided you know what channels will be available while the Foxsat is on or recording in sby.

As a result I can record up to 5 Freesat channels simultaneously with a small degree of restriction as to the 5th channel. In fact never not found a way to record all five (You just have to ensure tuner 1 on the Foxsat is using a channel in the same band and polarisation as the channel you want to record using the TV. I have a HDR1000S and a Foxsat-hdr with only a quad lnb.
 
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Your HD box doesn't think it has two cables. Like all Humax boxes a single tuner can handle two channels at the same time provided they share a transponder/mux.

The instructions mention connecting two feeds. There is only one socket. Impossible!

Not that there are instructions for any of these boxes, just for FreeTime or Freesat. At least the Panasonic box and Samsung TV have manuals.
 
The instructions mention connecting two feeds. There is only one socket. Impossible!

Not that there are instructions for any of these boxes, just for FreeTime or Freesat. At least the Panasonic box and Samsung TV have manuals.

Totally confused. Your box thinks it has two feeds because the non existant instructions mentions connecting two feeds ? Not even sure what box you have. The only freesat box that Humax ever made called a HD was the Foxsat-HD and that came with a full manual and it is not capable of recording anything. The rest of your post is near incomprehensible. What does my hdr box is the same mean ? Both a Foxsat-hdr and the HDR10XoS boxes will correctly identify how many cables they detect on install. If you change the number of cables after installation they will both report the number of cables previously found. Connecting a second cable to either box after installation will continue to display the limitations of single cable working. Even when fed with a single cable they are capable of recording a large number of second channels and also viewing a third channel. YOU CANNOT JUST ADD AN EXTRA CABLE as you suggest. A Sky box and I suspect your Panasonic box is severely crippled by having a single cable due to failure of the box makers to fully utilise the recording possibilities.
 
Jeez, give me strength!

I have Freetime HD and Freetime HDR boxes from Humax. Both come with a generic manual for Freetime, which helpfully suggests connecting a second satellite cable to get more options. The HDR has two inputs, the HD one, neither has outputs. Nowhere in the manual is there any picture of either box, nor the instructions you give above about doing a reset. Nowhere does it say YOU CANNOT JUST ADD AN EXTRA CABLE, especially for the one cable box!

The Panasonic box is Freeview, FYI. OK? And it has a manual, not just a Freeview manual.
 
Jeez, give me strength!

I have Freetime HD and Freetime HDR boxes from Humax. Both come with a generic manual for Freetime, which helpfully suggests connecting a second satellite cable to get more options. The HDR has two inputs, the HD one, neither has outputs. Nowhere in the manual is there any picture of either box, nor the instructions you give above about doing a reset. Nowhere does it say YOU CANNOT JUST ADD AN EXTRA CABLE, especially for the one cable box!

The Panasonic box is Freeview, FYI. OK? And it has a manual, not just a Freeview manual.

The generic manual you have is from freesat who are responsible for the user interface. Presumably freesat never asked Humax to provide a technical manual. The Foxsat-hdr has a full manual, this also doesn't tell you that you can't just add an extra cable either. The point you appear to ignore is that my post was 100% correct. Your post was not only incorrect, it was totally misleading.

If you actually read my post you will see that the Freetime Freesat+ boxes don't need an output like the Foxsat-hdr has, to connect both tuners to a single coax (it's built internally into the box and enabled either at setup (or a reset to factory defaults), or manually using one of the two hidden setup menus.
 
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The generic manual you have is from freesat who are responsible for the user interface. Presumably freesat never asked Humax to provide a technical manual.
So Humax didn't bother to provide one. My Samsung TV is Freeview and Freesat and has a manual. My Panasonic recorder is Freeview and has a manual.
The point you appear to ignore is that my post was 100% correct. Your post was not only incorrect, it was totally misleading.
From a false assumption, anything can be deduced. If Humax want us to set up their boxes correctly, they need to provide us with instructions, not leave it all to speculation.
If you actually read my post you will see that the Freetime Freesat+ boxes don't need an output like the Foxsat-hdr has, to connect both tuners to a single coax (it's built internally into the box and enabled either at setup (or a reset to factory defaults), or manually using one of the two hidden setup menus.
None of this is in any manual. If presented with a box with two inputs, the user presumably connects one, the other, or one and then the other later. Humax leave users to operate in a vacuum. You may or may not be right, but how is that relevant to proper documentation, or the lack of it?

And why hide a setup menu that could prove essential to correct operation?

Edit: Just saw this thread. It makes interesting reading:

https://www.avforums.com/threads/humax-hdr-1000s-1tb-issues.1708510/

There was little mention of number of feeds, though, but many other interesting points from disgruntled owners.
 
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So Humax didn't bother to provide one. My Samsung TV is Freeview and Freesat and has a manual. My Panasonic recorder is Freeview and has a manual.

From a false assumption, anything can be deduced. If Humax want us to set up their boxes correctly, they need to provide us with instructions, not leave it all to speculation.

None of this is in any manual. If presented with a box with two inputs, the user presumably connects one, the other, or one and then the other later. Humax leave users to operate in a vacuum. You may or may not be right, but how is that relevant to proper documentation, or the lack of it?

And why hide a setup menu that could prove essential to correct operation?

Edit: Just saw this thread. It makes interesting reading:

https://www.avforums.com/threads/humax-hdr-1000s-1tb-issues.1708510/

There was little mention of number of feeds, though, but many other interesting points from disgruntled owners.

Typical - linking to a last post that is dated February 2013 . The reason for hiding the menus is simple, they contain options that should only be used if you know what you are doing. They include setup options for multiple satellites using more than one lnb or a motorised dish, something that the average owner would never use. Don't you think your TV has hidden setup menus that are not intended for non technical users. That is precisely why a factory reset is the safest option.

It takes a little knowledge of how a lnb works to understand how single cable works works on Humax satellite boxes.

Try disconnecting the second feed on your HDR1000S. Now boot the box and

1 set up dual clashing recordings on BBC1 - HD and BBC2 - HD, they will work.

2 Now set dual clashing recordings on BBC1-HD and Channel 4 - HD, the box will accept them but will fail to record the latest one to start. Factory reset the box and the latter two will also then work.

If you actually bothered to do a little basic research instead of posting rubbish you will find this information is widely available.

Isn't the whole point of experienced users spending time trying to help others rather than arguing with people who post inaccurate and unhelpful information with zero knowledge of the issue ? No manual can tell you everything.

I have an automated software Excel application that has been downloaded thousands of times that identifies automatically what recording and viewing combinations are possible on Humax satellite boxes with one or two cables, so I do know what I am talking about, unlike some :eek:
 
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The reason for hiding the menus is simple, they contain options that should only be used if you know what you are doing.

Wrong already! Stick the things users need to use in non-hidden menus, then! Simple! If Humax bung essential stuff in a secret menu then they are idiots. Why waste people's time searching for coloured key combinations and where to issue them, or experimenting with disconnected feeds, if you could document the implications in a thing called a User Manual? In Humax's case the No Manual tells you absolutely nothing!

The rest of your post is so pompous I won't grace it with a reply.
 
Wrong already! Stick the things users need to use in non-hidden menus, then! Simple! If Humax bung essential stuff in a secret menu then they are idiots. Why waste people's time searching for coloured key combinations and where to issue them, or experimenting with disconnected feeds, if you could document the implications in a thing called a User Manual? In Humax's case the No Manual tells you absolutely nothing!

The rest of your post is so pompous I won't grace it with a reply.

Why do you bother posting information in a forum about something you clearly no nothing about ? Then when the correct information is actually posted you start a diatribe about the fact that this information is not in the manuals (or they don't exist). Presumably the OP had the common sense to realise this and asked a question. Is that not the whole point of this forum ?. It's not a soap box to carry on pointless argument. Some of us have had the boxes long enough (Foxsat HD, Foxsat-HDR, Two HDR FOX T2's and a HDR1000s long enough and the common sense to find out how they work by actually trying different options.

Frankly your attitude stinks.

There is nothing in the hidden menus that prevent the box being used as a Freesat device. They all refer to diagnostics and using them as generic free to air recievers.
 
What? Pointless? The Arms? How dare you! How else are we to keep BH entertained?
 
Merry Xmas, BH! Hope next year is kinder to you than this year.
 
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