Review: Humax PVR-8000T

Don Bradbury looks at a hard disk video recorder cum Freeview tuner

Product	PVR-8000T
Company	Humax
Web	www.humaxdigital.co.uk
Price	£200, discount price around £178 incl
We like	Integrated Freeview decoder
We don't like	Not a full EPG
Rating	8/10
Requirements

While the good old VCR is still a useful servant when you want to record television broadcasts, the hard disk alternative is superior in several important ways.

First, the quality of playback is excellent and doesn't deteriorate with replaying. Second, the facilities available are better than with tape; fast forward and rewind are not only step-variable in speed but they're easier to follow when you're trying to find that particular scene or 'frame'. Also, traversing the recording is infinitely quicker. There's no drumming of the fingers while the tape is shuffled to the beginning or end of a recording; the Humax PVR-8000T makes that essentially instantaneous because you use a recording menu to access the video on the hard drive.

Of course you wouldn't just change a disk when it's full like you would with a tape. A recording density that makes the Humax's 40GB disk good for 20 hours or so gives essentially identical quality replay to the original broadcast which will suit most users.

An important additional bonus of the PVR is that live TV can also be paused and replayed (Time Shifted). That's useful for example if the phone rings in the middle of your favourite program. It's made possible by temporarily recording the live broadcast to the hard drive while you watch the channel. That's different from the timed 'permanent' recording you can make in stop/start settings via the menus.

Unfortunately there's no proper electronic programming guide (EPG) for doing this on the PVR-8000T. It's just a 'what's on now and next' type of guide. A full EPG is planned for later in the year. However, we always fiddle with our VCR's EPG setting anyway, to make sure a broadcasting delay doesn't chop the end off recordings.

Building a Freeview decoder into the PVR-8000T makes a lot of sense, and the Humax offering gives access to the high quality free-to-air digital TV that is generally superior to analogue. No more atmospheric interference and a clearer picture and sound are the benefits, though you might experience the odd bout of momentary freezing that seems to be characteristic of digital TV.

Setup

Setting up the Humax PVR-8000T is simple enough. Connect the unit to your TV with the supplied Scart cable, add an RF connection via coax if you need to record the analogue channels, switch on, and an automatic scan takes place for the digital channels available from your local transmitter. All 63 TV and FM radio channels were detected rather smartly (though not all are presently in use) and these gave excellent quality reproduction, with user variable picture geometry to suit the television set.

The supplied controller had all the features you'd expect, including disk controls. The handbook, though, could have been a little clearer is one or two places. It's useful to remember, with these Freeview decoders, that to revert all the settings to the manufacturer's originals is generally a good idea if the device doesn't respond as you expect. Make and save your own local settings, and away you go.

Other Goodies

HDF update files can be downloaded from the Humax website and installed on the device by connecting it to your PC via the PVR-8000T's RS-232C port at the rear. Other ports include 2 x audio phonos, 1 x video out, and 1 x s/PDIF.

Featuring an RF modulator, you can connect the TV/VCR output to a second TV set or Freeview box to duplicate digital reception on the second set. The RF modulator acts like a loop-through. You can also edit the default UHF channel that the PVR-8000T uses, i.e. 36, to whatever you require for tuning purposes on a different TV.

There's a good possibility (but no guarantees) that the remote control that Humax provide can also be used to control your TV. A long list of manufacturer's codes is given, which you can type into the device's menus.

Editing your channel list is simple. including delete and move. There's also a Favourites grouping facility to make finding preferred channels easier.

Parental Control

Program subtitles can be switched on or off - useful for the hard of hearing - and password protection enables parental control of channel viewing if the kids are to be let loose with this device.

Of course you also get full program information direct from controller buttons and you can even reserve preferred programs. A few games are also there to keep you happy when the day's TV output does not.

The hard disk is easy to navigate, with options to edit the titles, play the tracks, and delete or lock them. When the time comes, you can format the drive from the menus to recover all the space. Of course instant recording is possible as well as timed; you just have to hit the Record button. With just a single integral tuner, though, you cannot watch a second digital channel while viewing a first. That's standard practice unless you add a second tuner - at a price.

We did find ourselves occasionally having to reset this 17 inch wide, all-silver PVR-8000T (on a rear switch), but greater familiarity with the software would probably avoid the inappropriate navigational errors being attempted that led to this being necessary.

In Conclusion

The Humax PVR-8000T looks like a good buy. With full MPEG2 and DVB-T compliance, a PVR with a Freeview tuner built in not only saves on space under the TV but potentially restricts the cash outlay, too, if you don't already have a tape-based video recorder, or if the old unit is really only fit for binning. When you've seen the output of a PVR, you'll probably think it is, though, personally, we'd keep it if only to play our old or commercial tapes and to archive selected PVR recordings.

Use www.freeview.co.uk to enter your post code and check that your area can receive the Freeview broadcasts, get an aerial update to Wideband if you're in the unfortunate areas that need to (around £100-130; check the website for your locality) and get yourself on the digital bandwagon to enjoy the best of the Humax PVR-8000T.

 

Don Bradbury