Humax HDCI2000

I bought a Humax HDCI2000 when they first came out and HD Satellite Receiver choice was thin on the ground. I had first bought a Quali-tv QS1080IRCI HD which I used for a short time but wanted true MPEG4 reception so bought the Humax.

I used it via component connections to my Epson Projector and beamed an image of some 7 feet by 5ft onto a plain white wall and the HD picture was stunning, awesome even, and I do not use that word lightly! I now have it hooked up to my 50" Plasma and again the picture is truly amazing. The unit is stylish, better looking than many, the display shows the channel by name as well as number which is a good feature.

It has component as well as HDMI connections at the back to enable hooking up to pretty much any monitor etc.

The remote is straight forward and easy to use with good feel. This receiver is, in my opinion, and for my personal taste and usage better than the Quali-tv which is great for feedhunting but is not perhaps for the normal user.

I haven't seen any better HD pictures on any other kit than I enjoy at home with this unit. Even standard definition pictures are good, maybe not special but certainly good, but I use other kit for SD pictures anyway.

Do I recommend? Yes!

Unfortunately this very nice device has a big problem: the decoder is not capable of handling the normal color depth necessary for TV pictures.

Therefore the picture is solarised like on the first bad plasma screens release in the market or when you ask your pc to display in 16 or lower bits instead of the regular 32.

Despite having a nice gradient in shades, you got 2-3 color areas with noisy shaky hedges (in skies, skin, or blurry backgrounds, all requiring extensive numbers of colors to be defined). The overall picture is flatter and tones slightly wrong.

When watching medium-low bitrate TV programs (almost all SD signals), macroblocks of the mpeg compression appear much more visible than from any other DVB receiver I tested so far.

Don't be fooled by the high definition only. Any photographer will tell you, color depth is a key feature of a good picture. Humax 2000 definitely does not provide it (out of RGB, component nor HDMI).