Primetime HD PVRs : 6 Best HD Recorders
THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE (VIEW HD). Freeview HD+ boxes give you BBC HD. ITVI II)and C4/S4C HD without a subscription. With their hard drives and twin tuners you can time shift, pause and record it all, while some of the boxes can also stream TV from the web. Not in a Freeview area? Try Freesat HD with a dish…
DIGITALSTREAM DHR8205 – Best For…Ease of Use
Digital Streams smooth.dual-tuner black box is the most intuitive option here. HI “Home” and simple icons offer access to TV. radio, preferences and media. With the nicely rounded remote, it’s easy to setup your preferences and block ‘Link channels such as QVC.
Scrolling through the eight-day EPG and recording to the 500GB hard drive couldn’t be simpler and you can fit 130 hours of impressive quality HD footage on there or 250 of standard definition. There’s USB too, but sadly no video support via that input.
(+) Great user interface decent picture quality. Useful channel blocking
(-) No web features orvideo support via USB
Price £300
PHILIPS HDT8520 – Best for Style
Philips attention grabbing box contains dual Freevew HD tuners. There’s HDMI and an ethernet port too, though the latter is just for firmware updates.
The interface is less polished and like the Sagem, you can’t jump straight to a station from Its eight-day EPG. It’s faster through the channels though, the unsealed 1080p output locks cleaner and sharper and the 500GB hard drive gives space for 125 hours of HD footage as well as a two-hour buffer for pausing/rewinding live TV Excellent remote too.
(+) Compact and stylish box. Excellent remote. Flexible setup and energy save options
(-) Clunky interface. No web features
Price £300
HUMAX FOXSAT-HDR – For EX-SKY Customers
Freesat is the other route to tree HD. There’s no C4/S4C HD, only BBC HD and ITV HD, but picture and sound quality both seem better to us. In the Foxsat, twin Freesat tuners and a 320GB harddrive allow for time shilling. and use is very simple, with an eight-day EPG, series link and the ability to view saved shows as thumbnails.
There’s no additional functionality other than a beta version of BBC iPlayer Naturally you’ll need a satellite dish, and dual LNBs if you want to be able to make use of both tuners.
(+) Excellent picture. Simple interface. Prompt channel changes. Beaversion of BBC iPlayer
(-) You’ll need a dish. Only two HD channels
Price £230
3VIEW – Best Overall
As well as Freeview HD, pin-sharp 1080p video and a capacious 500GB hard drive for 100 hours of HD footage. 3view offers web TV services such as BBC iPlayer,YouTube and even SkyPlayer via ethernet.
The skinny remote gives rapid access to all the features, including an excellent EPG You can use the search window to find shows or browse music, movies and photos on the hard drive. A pair of sockets lets you transfer files from USB devices and it’s also DLNA compliant. Twitter and Facebcok access are also promised soon via a firmware update.
(+) Good interlace. Very versatile, with USB, BBC iPlayer and Sky Player
(-) No display
Price £300
PANASONIC DMR-XW380 – Best for Archiving
A DVD recorder will twin Freeview HD tuners. Panasonic’s pricey box lets you record 169 hours of BBC HD footage onto its 250GB hard drive before burning favoured bits onto blank DVDs.
Build quality is better than average, the remote is great and the picture is excellent, especially when viewed at 1080p. You get access to the VieraCast portal for YouTube via ethernet and with USB and SD cardslots on front. it’s easy to import other digital tiles. You can copy files to the internal drive or even burn them to DVD.
(+) Great editing and archiving features. Smart styling and slick GUI. Useful USB and SD slots
(-) A little complicated. A lot expensive.
Price £500
SAGEMCOM RT190-320 – Best for value
Sagemcom’s is the smallest dual-tuner here, with a modest 320GB tuner for recording 100 hours of HD footage. There’s HDMI, but the USB port isn’t active. the ethernet port doesn’t add web access and the user experience is generally disappointing with slow channel hopping and a setup menu that requires a password.
Worse yet. you cant jump from the eight-day EPG straight to the channel you want, although you can highlight and record. Picture quality is generally grey and smeary.
(+) Well, it’s compact…
(-) Mediocre picture. Slow channel changes. Convoluted interface. USB and ethernet ports are both inactive
Price £250
THE BEST THINGS IN LIFE ARE FREE (VIEW HD). Freeview HD+ boxes give you BBC HD. ITVI II)and C4/S4C HD without a subscription. With their hard drives and twin tuners you can time shift, pause and record it all, while some of the boxes can also stream TV from the web. Not in a Freeview area? Try Freesat HD with a dish…
DIGITALSTREAM DHR8205 – Best For…Ease of Use
Digital Streams smooth.dual-tuner black box is the most intuitive option here. HI “Home” and simple icons offer access to TV. radio, preferences and media. With the nicely rounded remote, it’s easy to setup your preferences and block ‘Link channels such as QVC.
Scrolling through the eight-day EPG and recording to the 500GB hard drive couldn’t be simpler and you can fit 130 hours of impressive quality HD footage on there or 250 of standard definition. There’s USB too, but sadly no video support via that input.
(+) Great user interface decent picture quality. Useful channel blocking
(-) No web features orvideo support via USB
Price £300
PHILIPS HDT8520 – Best for Style
Philips attention grabbing box contains dual Freevew HD tuners. There’s HDMI and an ethernet port too, though the latter is just for firmware updates.
The interface is less polished and like the Sagem, you can’t jump straight to a station from Its eight-day EPG. It’s faster through the channels though, the unsealed 1080p output locks cleaner and sharper and the 500GB hard drive gives space for 125 hours of HD footage as well as a two-hour buffer for pausing/rewinding live TV Excellent remote too.
(+) Compact and stylish box. Excellent remote. Flexible setup and energy save options
(-) Clunky interface. No web features
Price £300
HUMAX FOXSAT-HDR – For EX-SKY Customers
Freesat is the other route to tree HD. There’s no C4/S4C HD, only BBC HD and ITV HD, but picture and sound quality both seem better to us. In the Foxsat, twin Freesat tuners and a 320GB harddrive allow for time shilling. and use is very simple, with an eight-day EPG, series link and the ability to view saved shows as thumbnails.
There’s no additional functionality other than a beta version of BBC iPlayer Naturally you’ll need a satellite dish, and dual LNBs if you want to be able to make use of both tuners.
(+) Excellent picture. Simple interface. Prompt channel changes. Beaversion of BBC iPlayer
(-) You’ll need a dish. Only two HD channels
Price £230
3VIEW – Best Overall
As well as Freeview HD, pin-sharp 1080p video and a capacious 500GB hard drive for 100 hours of HD footage. 3view offers web TV services such as BBC iPlayer,YouTube and even SkyPlayer via ethernet.
The skinny remote gives rapid access to all the features, including an excellent EPG You can use the search window to find shows or browse music, movies and photos on the hard drive. A pair of sockets lets you transfer files from USB devices and it’s also DLNA compliant. Twitter and Facebcok access are also promised soon via a firmware update.
(+) Good interlace. Very versatile, with USB, BBC iPlayer and Sky Player
(-) No display
Price £300
PANASONIC DMR-XW380 – Best for Archiving
A DVD recorder will twin Freeview HD tuners. Panasonic’s pricey box lets you record 169 hours of BBC HD footage onto its 250GB hard drive before burning favoured bits onto blank DVDs.
Build quality is better than average, the remote is great and the picture is excellent, especially when viewed at 1080p. You get access to the VieraCast portal for YouTube via ethernet and with USB and SD cardslots on front. it’s easy to import other digital tiles. You can copy files to the internal drive or even burn them to DVD.
(+) Great editing and archiving features. Smart styling and slick GUI. Useful USB and SD slots
(-) A little complicated. A lot expensive.
Price £500
SAGEMCOM RT190-320 – Best for value
Sagemcom’s is the smallest dual-tuner here, with a modest 320GB tuner for recording 100 hours of HD footage. There’s HDMI, but the USB port isn’t active. the ethernet port doesn’t add web access and the user experience is generally disappointing with slow channel hopping and a setup menu that requires a password.
Worse yet. you cant jump from the eight-day EPG straight to the channel you want, although you can highlight and record. Picture quality is generally grey and smeary.
(+) Well, it’s compact…
(-) Mediocre picture. Slow channel changes. Convoluted interface. USB and ethernet ports are both inactive
Price £250
