Humax Freeview playback Digital TV Recorder PVR-9150T 160GB Twin Tuner PVR

Humax Freeview playback Digital TV Recorder PVR-9150T 160GB Twin Tuner PVRNow that we've had it a week and had a chance to 'play' with most of it's features, I can find only a couple of minor points to criticise - this PVR is an excellent piece of kit with a very well-designed, intuitive and consistent 'user-interface'.It's worth pointing out that with a fairly new, but inexpensive wide-band aerial aligned on the Ridge Hill transmitter (30+ miles away but visible from the aerial on a clear day) we get a strong digital signal on all channels.Good points:- The Humax is a lot less complicated to use than the much more expensive all-singing-all-dancing combined DVD/PVR alternatives - some of which only have single-channel receivers.- Even a SCART cable is included.- Installation was very easy with the Quick Start Guide (though it does omit the vital first step of installing batteries in the remote control!).- Set-up is easy and largely automatic.- It self-tuned to all the available digital channels (this does take perhaps 5 minutes).- With a little help from the manual, I've found all the controls to be fairly intuitive and logical.- The layout of the otherwise excellent Remote control is spoilt by the microscopic legends for the buttons under the sliding cover.- The Manual seems comprehensive and well-written though I haven't read it through - I've only needed to look up the odd page.- Being able to easily schedule recordings on Daily/Weekly/Weekday/Weekend/Series bases is incredibly useful.Minor quibbles:- a little slow (a couple of seconds) to come out of stand-by (our old Digivision PVR is virtually instant).- the 'screen shots' in the manual are a too small and too dark (no colour) to be much use.- it's time Humax updated this model by replacing the serial port (how many home PCs with a serial port are still in use?) with a USB port.Unfair criticisms:Other reviewers have criticised this unit for:- Slow loading of EPG; it did take perhaps an hour after installation to populate the 8-day EPG for 40+ channels. Switching off a PVR (instead of putting it in stand-by) defeats most of the point of having a PVR and (like any other Freeview receiver) it will take quite a while to reload the entire EPG when switched back on. During the initial EPG down-load the picture did 'freeze' occasionally for ½ second or so.- 'Schedule' for Record; The use of this term does make sense because the button/menu takes you to what can be an (easily set-up) extensive schedule of recordings.- Picture jumping/freezing; the most common cause is a signal (at the receiver) that is weak and/or of poor quality. Unlike a poor analogue signal (a picture that is fuzzy or breaks up), a digital receiver can either decode the signal or not (on or off); that said some receivers are more sensitive than others. For Freeview, a new aerial of the correct type is required. It's no good blaming a receiver for a poor signal: check both the aerial and all the cabling to it, don't expect a basic aerial to provide a strong signal to several receivers or in a location with poor digital reception. Throw away the nasty old wall-to-set aerial lead that did duty for years with the analogue TV and spend a few quid on a new quality lead.- Faulty units; a few reviewers have complained that they are struggling with faulty units - so return it under warranty!

We've had the PVR-9150T for a few weeks and, initially, were delighted with it. From not having any kind of TV recorder, we are now able to fill up the box with our favourite programmes and movies and watch them whenever suits us. Fantastic. The interface is reasonably straightforward, although the design of the remote control is poor, with no real thought behind the button layout and several frequently used controls hidden beneath a sliding cover.The biggest problem, and the reason I feel compelled to write a review, is that it CONTINUALLY misses the first and last few minutes of every programme that you set it to record. I'm not just talking the opening credits, but frequently several minutes into the broadcast itself. In one case (hopefully a one off!?) it missed the entire first half hour of a 1.5hr drama, which was frustrating to say the least. The clock is set correctly (it sets itself automatically), so I guess it's a problem with the software...Within the settings menu I found an option to offset the start/end times of recordings (i.e. start 5 mins before the programme), but if you enable this, you then can't use "series link" feature, which was one of the main reasons for buying this product.It seems that other owners don't have this problem (or aren't concerned by it?), so perhaps we got a duff one. I've contacted Humax support and await a response.UPDATE, Jan '11Humax support recommended that we manually retune the box to a different transmitter. We did this, and the result was unacceptable picture quality (I can't say if this would have fixed the recording problems). Sadly we've chosen to return the box to Amazon - the final straw was when it missed the final scene of a 3 part drama series which we'd recorded over Christmas! I've changed to rating to 1 star because, for us at least, the product failed to reliably do the job we wanted it for and which it claimed to do.From the sounds of it, this may be a problem with the Freeview broadcast system (i.e. not transmitting strat/finish signals at the correct time), rather than the box itself - but then I don't understand why the problem isn't more widespread?