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Review: I upgraded to the Humax PVR9200T set top box from a Nokia Freeview box that often delivered broken up pictures and froze daily (I live in an area with a weak Freeview signal). This machine has so far (4 weeks in, fingers crossed) never stumbled (it seems to have a more sensitive receiver) and delivers better picture quality. I unpacked the unit, swapped the leads over from my previous box and turned it on. By the time I'd found the remote control and put the batteries in, the device had scanned through the channels and set itself up. Couldn't be easier. Basic operation is simplicity itself - you can scroll up and down the channels and back and forward in time to find the show you want in the 7-day Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) then it's one button to toggle record on and off (another couple of clicks lets you set up regular repeat recordings if you so desire). There is also a search function that you can use to find programmes by name or genre. More complex functions (like the facility to edit the ads out of recordings) are more involved to access, but I found the essentials were very easy to pick up, without having to resort to the manual. As pointed out elsewhere, if you turn the machine off it has to reload the EPG and this takes a few minutes, but the device is very quiet and draws little power, so can be left on all the time. The 160Gb hard drive lets you store a lot of programmes - including a mix of films and half hour shows somewhere in the 80-120 region, I would guess. The only limitations are that you can only set it up to 7 days ahead (which is a limitation of the Freeview EPG, rather than the machine) and you can only set 20 programmes to record in advance (not much of a hardship). Having 2 decoders means that you can record two programmes at the same time, while watching one of them or even a third programme you recorded earlier to the hard disk, as well as the standard PVR trick of pausing live TV when the phone rings. In short, the capacity is ample and the second decoder makes the unit much more flexible than a single decoder device would be. The only drawback I have found is that while the EPG sets start and stop recording times, if programmes are subsequently delayed then you can end up with a clipped recording - there doesn't seem to be a PDC facility. I don't know if this is a Freeview thing or a device thing. I was a little cautious about buying a device from a company I hadn't heard of, but I checked around some of the PVR sites and found that this unit and the earlier 8000 model had received good write ups. At the moment Humax seem to be the leaders in the Freeview PVR market and I certainly have had no reason to regret my decision to buy one. | 
DVD, TV & Video
