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Humax Freeview playback Digital TV Recorder PVR-9150T 160GB Twin Tuner PVR
Humax
Features:
Product Description
Dont miss your favourite programmes ever again! Equipped with the latest technology and a slimline design, the Humax PVR-9150T provides digital terrestrial broadcast reception, and offers up to 100 hours worth of recording with its integrated 160GB hard disk drive. It enables you to record 1 channel while watching another and to record 2 channels simultaneously while playing back a previous recording. There's also Picture in Picture so you can enjoy 2 of your favourite programmes at the same time. The Humax PVR9150T has a highly sensitive tuner for excellent reception and a live 8 day Electronic Programme Guide (EPG), for even better programme information on all channels. It also enables subtitles, digital teletext, and interactive features. The USB 2.0 connection allows viewers to enjoy digital photos on a large TV screen or to listen to MP3 files downloaded from a PC. Installation is simple, just plug in and play.
Customer Reviews:
worked ok for a time then problems begin, Software download fixed problem
Picture freezes. Remote control doesn't work properly. Series link doesn't work.Timer doesn't always work.You constantly have to turn it off and then turn it back on. Help line says that an update will be downloaded , but machine won't stay on long enough for this to happen. Eventually after months of problems the download has worked and everything now seems OK
Some good points, some bad points
GOOD POINTS
Very quite (virtually silent).
Unit looks nice.
Good picture quality (not quite as good as the Topfield in my opinion).
Responds quickly to remote control button presses.
Single aerial input socket (unlike Topfield where you have to use two aerial inputs).
BAD POINTS
Freezes - I used this for up to an hour a day for one week and it froze at least once on each occasion, requiring a reboot.
No USB connection - no way to archive recordings, other than recording them to a VHS or DVD recorder via the second Scart socket. Apparently, Humax could not get it the USB functions to work, so they simply removed the feature entirely.
No audio outputs - you cannot connect this to your sound system directly.
Very large remote control; useful buttons such as the TV/Radio button, screen ratio, picture-in-picture, etc are hidden under a slide-down panel (which extends beyond the bottom of the remote and is prime candidate for breakage if not closed after use).
EPG is reloaded every time the unit goes into standby (or crashes) and this takes around ten minutes to load.
MINOR POINTS
No printed manual (comes on CD as PDF).
Recordings have to be assessed by going into the MENU and selecting RECORDING, whereas Topfield has single button press (ARCHIVE). Actually playing a recording is quite an awkward process - you have to press EXIT to go out of the RECORDING section rather than PLAY.
When switching between TV/Radio, it returns to radio channel 700 (Radio 1) everytime, and not the station you were previously listening to.
No HDMI connection.
Could not record two consecutive programs on the same channel, despite having a twin-tuner. The program was listed in the Recordings screen but was not present. An error message stated it was unable to record because of a schedule clash.
When fast forwarding through a program, it will return to the very start of the recording after being paused, losing your place.
CONNECTIONS
Aerial (input and output for passing analogue signals through to your television)
Scart (two - output to TV and a recording device)
PC serial connection (one - for updating software; cannot be used to transfer programs)
There are no audio connections
There is no a USB connection
The jury's still out
Had this box a week, fan very quiet after software up date. Box has frozen 3 times already. I get a perfect freeview signal, the box is just weak. Lost my scheduled recordings due to freezing problems, kind of defeats the whole idea of a PVR.
The playback recorded programmes is a bit of a palava. the this is though it seems there isn't a freeview box out there that actually works 100% of the time. Its luck of the draw.
Good product for the price 
Unit was easy to set up. I live in a poor reception area, but have only had very occasional problems, unlike a previous make which was rubbish, hence the purchase of this product.
The programme guide does take a few minutes to populate, but is not a big problem.
Has frozen twice in the couple of months that I have had it, but a quick switch off and reboot fixed it.
Did'nt record a couple of programmes that I thought I had set, but that may have been my mistake.
Overall then, a good product for the price. Recommended.
TV Recorders generally
THIS REVIEW IS NOT FOR THIS PARTICULAR MODEL NOR SUPPLIER, BUT GENERALLY TV RECORDERS BOUGHT FROM AMAZON "NO NAME" SUPPLIERS
I have bought two tv recorders through Amazon and although I had no initial problems over the first few weeks, they have both become progressively more unreliable and crash several times every evening - rebooting themselves and restarting.
It has not been possible to contact the original sellers and they have just made me somewhat jaundiced about buying cheaper products off Amazon ... I think they were probably returned with a fault, nothing was found and they were just sold again as new. Then the company disappeared.
So warranty claims on Amazon purchases can be very problematic and the problems more than outweigh the initial low cost
AVOID
David Lowe
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