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Humax PVR9200TB Freeview
Average Customer Rating
(4.5 out of 5)
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Most Helpful First | Newest First | + Share24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
great piece of kit
(5 out of 5) by Tony Hann on Sep 9, 2007 (Buckinghamshire, UK)The Toshiba VCR finally gave up the ghost so needed something to replace it. A few mates rave about the convenience of Sky+ so I thought I'd give a PVR a go.
The Humax is brilliant. Very easy to set up and very easy to use. I agree with reviewers below that the remote could have been designed a little better but this is a small price to pay. No noise problems at all.
It is fantastic to be able to pause live TV to go and make a cup of tea. Best of all, there is now always something I want to watch - it's so easy to record things.
Highly recommended.
The Humax is brilliant. Very easy to set up and very easy to use. I agree with reviewers below that the remote could have been designed a little better but this is a small price to pay. No noise problems at all.
It is fantastic to be able to pause live TV to go and make a cup of tea. Best of all, there is now always something I want to watch - it's so easy to record things.
Highly recommended.
49 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
The Humax face of PVRs
(5 out of 5) by Mr. Michael Nunley on Aug 31, 2007 (Northants)I bought my Humax to replace a Goodmans 80G PVR which in turn was bought to replace Sky Plus after getting fed up of paying the exorbitant monthly subscription for Sky.
I was somewhat nervous about going to Freeview as putting my postcode in the coverage checker said unavailable even though only a few streets away it was.
The Goodmans PVR worked exactly as I dreaded it might and suffered continual freezing pictures and loss of sound, and this was after I had a brand new digital aerial installed professionally.
After reading the reviews of both the Goodmans and Humax on this site and others I decided to give it one more try.
The Humax arrived and was plugged in replacing the Goodmans, it very quickly automatically scanned available channels and set itself up, the only change I had to make was to the output format of the scart socket switching it to SVideo from RGB to get the picture in colour.
Now for the real test, I chose one of the channels the Goodmans struggled really badly with and watched and waited for it to freeze up or the sound to glitch. After an hour the only glitches I had seen were a couple of minor macroblocking artifacts on screen. Obviously the Humax must have a much more sensitive tuner installed even now after owning the unit for a week I've rarely seen any glitches and on some channels none at all.
In terms of features its very easy to use and a big bonus over my old Sky Plus works perfectly with my Philips Pronto programmable remote, Sky use some weird IR encoding that only works sporadically with remotes other than the one that comes with it.
Great product certainly work the price.
I was somewhat nervous about going to Freeview as putting my postcode in the coverage checker said unavailable even though only a few streets away it was.
The Goodmans PVR worked exactly as I dreaded it might and suffered continual freezing pictures and loss of sound, and this was after I had a brand new digital aerial installed professionally.
After reading the reviews of both the Goodmans and Humax on this site and others I decided to give it one more try.
The Humax arrived and was plugged in replacing the Goodmans, it very quickly automatically scanned available channels and set itself up, the only change I had to make was to the output format of the scart socket switching it to SVideo from RGB to get the picture in colour.
Now for the real test, I chose one of the channels the Goodmans struggled really badly with and watched and waited for it to freeze up or the sound to glitch. After an hour the only glitches I had seen were a couple of minor macroblocking artifacts on screen. Obviously the Humax must have a much more sensitive tuner installed even now after owning the unit for a week I've rarely seen any glitches and on some channels none at all.
In terms of features its very easy to use and a big bonus over my old Sky Plus works perfectly with my Philips Pronto programmable remote, Sky use some weird IR encoding that only works sporadically with remotes other than the one that comes with it.
Great product certainly work the price.
22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
Change the way you watch TV forever!
(5 out of 5) by Luke Shutler on Nov 26, 2007 (UK)We bought the the Humax PVR 9200TB (the B is for Black) to replace our Humax PVR 8000. The 8000 had been a solid performer since we bought it, only needing an occasional reboot in the 3 years that we have owned it.
The 9200 adds some neet extra features, Twin tuners mean we can watch 1 programme and record two other programmes at the same time. The 160GB HD allows us to hold even more TV, and the MP3 player is a pretty nice feature too.
However despite all of these great features, one truly stands out, and that is HOW EASY this thing is to use. It has the most intuitive of menu systems, which means it's very easy to use without reading the manual.
It won't take long before you have completely changed your viewing habits - especialy with the time-shift functions. It will just take a few days and you will NEVER want to go back to the standard way of viewing TV.
I remember when I could only put the kettle on when the adverts were on!
Buy, you will not regret it!
The 9200 adds some neet extra features, Twin tuners mean we can watch 1 programme and record two other programmes at the same time. The 160GB HD allows us to hold even more TV, and the MP3 player is a pretty nice feature too.
However despite all of these great features, one truly stands out, and that is HOW EASY this thing is to use. It has the most intuitive of menu systems, which means it's very easy to use without reading the manual.
It won't take long before you have completely changed your viewing habits - especialy with the time-shift functions. It will just take a few days and you will NEVER want to go back to the standard way of viewing TV.
I remember when I could only put the kettle on when the adverts were on!
Buy, you will not regret it!
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:
Fab item
(5 out of 5) by Electronics reviewer on Nov 15, 2007I bought this item having read the reviews on this website. I used to use the BT Freeview box iPlayer+ which was a little nightmare in comparison!!!
I can confirm that the Humax is an amazing box of tricks. It is very easy to connect.I have only used it for 48 hours so far and am enjoying all of the following functions:
EPG
Pause live TV
One touch recording
PIP
Get one. You will not regret it!!
I can confirm that the Humax is an amazing box of tricks. It is very easy to connect.I have only used it for 48 hours so far and am enjoying all of the following functions:
EPG
Pause live TV
One touch recording
PIP
Get one. You will not regret it!!
34 of 35 people found the following review helpful:
Great piece of kit
(5 out of 5) by a reader on Aug 15, 2007 (Oxfordshire - England)My old video player packed in last week so I invested in the Humax. Whoa baby does it work like magic!
Pluses:
* Can record two separate channels. But ALSO you can watch a THIRD channel if the third channel is being broadcast on similar frequencies to the two you are already recording.
* Allows you to skip through the adverts - you can press a single button and it skips either 15 or 30 seconds ahead. Very handy for skipping adverts without fast forwarding it and realising you've actually missed the end of the ad break.
* Picture-in-picture option. So you can be watching one programme, then change over to another channel while the adverts are on but change back the moment the adverts are over. Cunningly, the PIP function also allows you to move the picture-in-picture box to any of the four corners of the screen so you don't obscure the action of the main programme you're watching.
* One touch recording. Literally idiot proof. You just bring up the EPG to select the programme you want to watch then press a big OK button and it's recorded. Hey presto.
* Option to record a whole series of a programme. So if you want to catch every episode of something that's on the same time every week, you only have to set it once - making it fairly idiot proof and you an just get on with your social life without wondering whether you've remembered to set the video for something.
* Probably loads of other positive features I've forgotten about - but it's a great piece of kit.
Minuses:
* The remote control is bug ugly and feels a bit cheap. Also, the button for playing back the programmes you've watched is hidden under a sliding plastic panel, which I found slightly annoying as the playback button is one of the ones I use most.
* The fan makes a tiny amount of noise. Not a problem for us as we have it in the lounge. But I can imagine that if you're a light sleeper and plan on having it in the bedroom, you might want to turn it off overnight (which is dead easy as there's a proper off button at the back - so no need to switch it off at the mains).
* The EPG is a bit rubbish. Not as sophisticated as the one that came with my old Sony Freeview player. My old Sony player allowed me to reorder the programmes - for example I could put E4 and E4+1 at the top of my list as I watch them loads. But this Humax only presents all of the channels in one order - but again that's a fairly minor concern.
Overall: I'm very satisfied. I'm recording all sorts of stuff now on the off-chance that I might want to watch it - no need to fuss with tapes and running out of time because the tape isn't long enough etc. Go on, get one, you know you want to!
Pluses:
* Can record two separate channels. But ALSO you can watch a THIRD channel if the third channel is being broadcast on similar frequencies to the two you are already recording.
* Allows you to skip through the adverts - you can press a single button and it skips either 15 or 30 seconds ahead. Very handy for skipping adverts without fast forwarding it and realising you've actually missed the end of the ad break.
* Picture-in-picture option. So you can be watching one programme, then change over to another channel while the adverts are on but change back the moment the adverts are over. Cunningly, the PIP function also allows you to move the picture-in-picture box to any of the four corners of the screen so you don't obscure the action of the main programme you're watching.
* One touch recording. Literally idiot proof. You just bring up the EPG to select the programme you want to watch then press a big OK button and it's recorded. Hey presto.
* Option to record a whole series of a programme. So if you want to catch every episode of something that's on the same time every week, you only have to set it once - making it fairly idiot proof and you an just get on with your social life without wondering whether you've remembered to set the video for something.
* Probably loads of other positive features I've forgotten about - but it's a great piece of kit.
Minuses:
* The remote control is bug ugly and feels a bit cheap. Also, the button for playing back the programmes you've watched is hidden under a sliding plastic panel, which I found slightly annoying as the playback button is one of the ones I use most.
* The fan makes a tiny amount of noise. Not a problem for us as we have it in the lounge. But I can imagine that if you're a light sleeper and plan on having it in the bedroom, you might want to turn it off overnight (which is dead easy as there's a proper off button at the back - so no need to switch it off at the mains).
* The EPG is a bit rubbish. Not as sophisticated as the one that came with my old Sony Freeview player. My old Sony player allowed me to reorder the programmes - for example I could put E4 and E4+1 at the top of my list as I watch them loads. But this Humax only presents all of the channels in one order - but again that's a fairly minor concern.
Overall: I'm very satisfied. I'm recording all sorts of stuff now on the off-chance that I might want to watch it - no need to fuss with tapes and running out of time because the tape isn't long enough etc. Go on, get one, you know you want to!