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steveh · 16-11-2015, 13:09

For a bunch of reasons I've bored everyone to death with elsewhere I'm almost certainly dumping Virgin TV in the new year (although I'm keeping Virgin Broadband as that's been rock solid for years and I work from home and can't risk problems). I can't quite do away with some recording from live TV so I've been looking for a suitable PVR.

Requirements:

- Decent user interface (because I'm exceptionally picky about that).

- Good picture quality on both HD and SD.

- Optical out and transcoding of Freeview HD 5.1 AAC sound to Dolby Digital (as my existing TV was bought as they were settling the HD specs so can only do stereo PCM out).

- Two tuners is fine (as catch-up services are usually good enough).

- All4 and ideally Now TV apps (so I don't need yet another box).

So that seems to come down to:

- YouView: by far the best user interface of any service it seems and the most-favoured model, Humax's DTR-T2000, meets the other main requirements. However that model is now nearly 18 months old, it only supports premium live TV delivered by ISPs (so no Now TV outside movies on-demand) and YouView seems to have been abandoned as a general platform and become just a BT / TalkTalk thing.

- Freeview Play: this seems to be positioned as the general platform replacement for YouView. However, all that really seems to mean is that you get the hardware manufacturer's own hideous user interface with the ability to jump to catch-up apps to watch shows direct from the EPG. The Panasonic models look good for features but the UI is just another iteration of the same clunky one they've had for years and their PVRs no longer have an optical out. The Humax FVP-4000T looks better and meets all the requirements except Now TV but like the Panasonics seems to have been launched before the software was anywhere near ready and the EPG is not as smooth as the DTR-T2000.

Is there some other manufacturer's model that I've missed that would do a better job? I have a feeling I'm buying at the wrong point in the product cycle...

16-11-2015, 13:09	#1
steveh Inactive Join Date: Aug 2004 Posts: 272	Freeview PVR suggestions For a bunch of reasons I've bored everyone to death with elsewhere I'm almost certainly dumping Virgin TV in the new year (although I'm keeping Virgin Broadband as that's been rock solid for years and I work from home and can't risk problems). I can't quite do away with some recording from live TV so I've been looking for a suitable PVR. Requirements: - Decent user interface (because I'm exceptionally picky about that). - Good picture quality on both HD and SD. - Optical out and transcoding of Freeview HD 5.1 AAC sound to Dolby Digital (as my existing TV was bought as they were settling the HD specs so can only do stereo PCM out). - Two tuners is fine (as catch-up services are usually good enough). - All4 and ideally Now TV apps (so I don't need yet another box). So that seems to come down to: - YouView: by far the best user interface of any service it seems and the most-favoured model, Humax's DTR-T2000, meets the other main requirements. However that model is now nearly 18 months old, it only supports premium live TV delivered by ISPs (so no Now TV outside movies on-demand) and YouView seems to have been abandoned as a general platform and become just a BT / TalkTalk thing. - Freeview Play: this seems to be positioned as the general platform replacement for YouView. However, all that really seems to mean is that you get the hardware manufacturer's own hideous user interface with the ability to jump to catch-up apps to watch shows direct from the EPG. The Panasonic models look good for features but the UI is just another iteration of the same clunky one they've had for years and their PVRs no longer have an optical out. The Humax FVP-4000T looks better and meets all the requirements except Now TV but like the Panasonics seems to have been launched before the software was anywhere near ready and the EPG is not as smooth as the DTR-T2000. Is there some other manufacturer's model that I've missed that would do a better job? I have a feeling I'm buying at the wrong point in the product cycle...