Humax HDR-1800T Freeview HD Smart Digital TV Recorder - 500 GB

Product Information

On the networking side, Humax’s TV Portal brings you a selection of online content. It’s split into ‘Featured Apps’ and ‘My Apps’ – the former offers BBC iPlayer and YouTube, while the latter lets you install other apps from the App Market. But it’s more than just a PVR – with BBC iPlayer and YouTube on board you get a wealth of free video content at your fingertips, plus the wide range of supported media formats makes it an excellent entertainment hub for your DLNA and USB devices. If there is a HD version of a program you wish to record it will ask you if you wish to record that instead, and it will automatically find repeats (if there are any) of any 'collisions' where you try to schedule more than 2 programs at the same time for recording and ask you if you would like to record that instead. Pause live TV to answer the door or make a cup of coffee then return to where you left off. No more missing that vital moment or dialogue. With the 320GB hard drive you can record and store up to 80 hours in HD of your favourite programmes.

The only indicator on the front is a red/blue led, which is red when in standby and blue when the box is on, but it then goes red when its recording. Its useless! With the Ethernet port rigged up to your router, you can also stream your own content from DLNA servers on the same network as the HDR-1800T. The unit supports an impressive range of formats including MKV, AVCHD, AVI, DivX, WMV, XviD, MP3, AAC, WMA, WAV and JPEG.I've only owned this HDR-1800T for a few days, but owned Humax boxes for many years, and this box seems to meet the standard. If I find any major issues in the future, I'll update this review. Read full review Freeview set top boxes do, of course, provide you with access to the 70+ channels available from Freeview – but they make it easier than ever to explore everything the platform has to offer.

UPDATE: After using this box for a while, I cannot recommend buying one. These are still being sold new, but are already out-dated. It does not support hardly any 'tv portal' apps (youtube is supported, but you can't log in). The HDR-1800T uses a suitably high bitrate to ensure that there’s no drop in quality when you record TV shows on the HDD– they look identical to the live broadcast.

Before you buy, could you confirm which connection type you have in your home?

The fascia is minimally adorned with a few stylised buttons controlling power, volume and channel changing. A sliver of light peeps out from below the central ridge, glowing red when recording or blue when watching live TV. There’s no LED readout – everything you need to know is displayed onscreen.

If you want to make a recording, just highlight it in the programme grid and hit OK. A dialogue box asks if you’d like to record the whole series, the whole programme or set a reminder. Easy peasy. If a recording conflicts with others, onscreen dialogue boxes let you select which one to cancel. I then 'upgraded' to the PVR-9300T, which wasn't really much of an upgrade, due to it missing many very usefull features. Yes, it had an HDMI output, but that was the only real good point over the 9200T.I needed to be able to make a playlist of my recorded programs, and the HDR-1800T can do that. (although not as neatly as the 9200t) Surfing channels is easy – you can view the channel list, set up Favourite lists to weed out channels you never watch or browse programmes in the terrific electronic programme guide. Through the Humax TV Portal you can directly access BBC iPlayer to catch up on those programmes that you might have missed. Looking for additional entertainment then watch YouTube or listen to internet radio, additional apps are also available to enhance your viewing pleasure.