BBC iPlayer trial now available to Humax Freesat viewers

Another week, another device allowing people to catch up BBC iPlayer content.This week it’s the turn of Freesat boxes from Humax.

After a successful beta period it’s been confirmed iPlayer will be available to access on both Humax branded Freesat HD or Freesat+ set-top boxes provided the viewer has plugged in the box to a broadband connection with download speeds of at least 1Mb.

Although a fixed date for the launch of this service hasn’t been revealed it’s estimated a full roll-out of this feature will take place in the coming months.

Of course, there will be a little bit of preparation work involved for those who already own a Humax Freesat box and need to upgrade it to access BBC iPlayer. Full instructions on how to do this are available here. But the set-up procedure sounds relatively easy; With the box connected to the home broadband connection via an ethernet cable or a homeplug adapter, users should tune the box to BBC One (Channel 101). Then, after pressing the Red Button users should enter the "secret" code 5483 and press OK (ignoring the warnings this code doesn't exist). The public beta of the iPlayer feature should then load after a few seconds.

Freesat’s BBC iPlayer service was originally announced in November 2009 but the closed beta was only available to selected journalists and partners.