Humax PVR-8000T

Have used it for 10 years. On 3 separate occasions it has decided, on it's own accord to erase 100's of recorded programmes, in about 10 seconds.... infuriating. Also, the remote has annoying buttons that have to be fully depressed to work.

The Humax PVR-8000T hard drive recorder is a well thought out unit. It only has a single tuner, but I did not find this a problem at the price. It also has a nice menu system.

My brand new Humax PVR-8000T hard drive recorder could not record. Humax customer service acknowledged it was a software problem they had been aware of. The issue could have been fixed by transmitting the fix. However, as relatively few machines had the issue, they chose not to. Alternatively they could have sent the cable (with an ancient 9 pin plug) to enable it to connect to a PC to download the fix. They chose not to. You are then left with the choice of buying a cable or returning the machine. BAD BAD SERVICE.

I bought the Humax because I was fed up with having to keep deleting the contents of the RAM disc (a time-consuming chore which my wife has never mastered!) on my Panasonic DVD recorder (pre-hard drive model) to allow me to record something else. I was also frustrated by the Panny's inability to get itself going for at least 60 seconds after switch on. Also, I did not feel justified in spending £400+ on a replacement DVD/HD recorder.

I had heard of Humax in Which? magazine reports where their Freeview tuners came out best on test. On this basis and the reviews I read here I decided to buy it off the page from 24-7 Electrical who at the time were offering it at £125 plus p&p.

I was pleased with my initial reaction to its design - nice shiny mirrored front panel and slightly narrower than the standard DVD dimensions. I plugged it in and - hey presto!- it found all the available stations in a very short space of time and I was away.

The setup procedure is quite intuitive - fortunately you don't need the handbook to get going.

Warm up time is so quick that from turn on to record is less than 10 seconds. On my Panasonic LCD 26" TV the picture quality is flawless. Switching between the TV's own Freeview tuner and the Humax shows no change in picture (or sound) quality at all. The Humax EPG is excellent - both rapid to appear - and easy to navigate. To set a programme to record, simply highlight the item in the EPG listing and press OK on the remote. You are asked to confirm you want to 'reserve' the programme - hit OK again and that's it. Unlike some reports I have read, I have not had any recording failures. Also, in addition to recording of Freeview TV it will also record your favourite radio shows (unlike the 40GB model it supersedes).

When you first turn on the Humax it makes a tinny ticking noise for about 30 seconds or so while the hard drive sorts itself out. After that it is completely silent.

Things that irritate (but bear in mind I've only had it a month so may have missed something crucial in the handbook):-

1. When it starts a timer recording it switches the TV to the channel it's about to record and helpfully informs you it is starting to record. Bit annoying if you are engrossed in a programme and can't find the remote to change back!

2. I have yet to find a way of recording one programme while you watch a previous recording - if anyone has found a way of doing this please let me know!

3. If you are time-shifting (ie you have started watching the recording of a programme which is yet to finish), when the recording ends, the Humax stops playing back. To resume playback you have to wind back the recording using the remote and try and guess where you were when you were interrupted!

4. There is no slot to accept Top-up TV cards

The fact is that, regardless of the four gripes above, this is an amazing piece of kit for not much money. For me it's is fine and it does exactly what I want it to. If I didn't have the built-in Freeview tuner in the TV (which allows me to watch one station while Humax is recording another) I would wait for the dual tuner model which I believe is due out shortly.

Although I live in a "non Freeview" area the Humax was able to find all of the available free-to-air channels with good signal strength and picture quality.

Tuning in was a breeze and this was achieved with no problems in a matter of minutes. I didn't find the manual the easiest to follow, but luckily the on-screen menus were pretty well laid out, and I found that I was able to record and reserve a programme for recording at a later date, within 30 minutes of playing around with the set.

Picture quality on our LCD TV appears to my eyes to be identical to the original broadcast, and although it dosen't have any compression facilities the 80gb (40 hours recording) should be more than enough for most people.

Other than the manual, what didn't I like? Well, it is true, it only has one tuner, but as this is a PVR for the bedroom, that is not really a concern. The "series repeat" function (daily/weekly) was a little tricky to find, but after a little surfing on the net, I was able to find this and enable it quite easily for those favourite series' such as Top Gear.

One last thing I had read, was that this unit was noisy, well I do find that for about 30 seconds after booting it up, you can hear the hard disc spinning away, but after that it is perfectly quiet.

We paid £132 including postage for this, and I feel, despite the single tuner limitation, that this represents very good value for money. We will certainly be looking at the new Humax 9200T twin tuner to replace the video/Freeview box combi we have downstairs when the time comes...

Just bought a Humax PVR-8000T for an 80year old whose video broke. Really easy to set up out of the box and good picture quality for freeview. Has all the expected features of freeview except top-up tv.

As a recorder, the unit is easy to set a recording on - once the 7 day EPG has loaded just point to it on the Guide and press OK. This is where the confusion arose - the unit makes a "Reservation" it was unclear if this was to record the program or just to watch it. Trial and error proved the former. What was an excellent feature was that it could record the subtitles too (the user was hard of hearing) in fact even when in "pause live TV" mode it also recorded subtitles.

Just one gripe here - if subtitles are on you can't use Interactive services, you must turn them off first.

The unit is generally easy to use and the menus are large and clear - good for the short sighted - even if some of the wording is confusing.

Other gripes - the Info button is too small on the remote and despite 6 or 7 codes for the TV in the guide, none of them would work to use the DTV remote on the TV.

The Humax PVR-8000T is a small attractive unit that is ready for use within minutes of turning it on for the first time. The software version I had has the ability to record both Radio or TV as well as being able to browse and reserve programmes using the 7 day EPG during this.

I like the ability to search for a programme on the EPG by entering in the title (or partial) as well as the Gant Chart EPG.

The remote control can be programmed to perform basic controls of the TV (Standby/Power on, Mute, Volume up/down) and more. This is a nice touch and obviously well thought out as you can put you remote that came with your TV in the drawer as you'll find you wont need it. Two of my friends and my mum have a Humax. I think I must have a bastardised Commet or Currys special "Bush" as none of the Bush codes work - still moving one.

Am looking forward to Humax's twin tuner version out later this year, apparently after a phone call I was told - Topup TV compatible (with CAM) and can record one and watch another - will wait and see. Hope it's as much of a success as the 8000 series!

My VHS recorder died and I was on the look out for a replacement. Bought a Humax PVR-8000T and never looked back. It did have a few software bugs early on but these are mostly ironed out. But the Humax support are great, mailed me an RS-232 and upgraded the firmware via my laptop.

It is so easy to use with the EPG, just highlight the programs you wish to watch and that's it.

There are a few more features I would like but for the price it's a bargain.

You can record all of the Freeview radio stations (the same as some on DAB but better audio quality) via the EPG and squirt them out over the optical output to archive away if that's what you are into.

The HDD can be upgraded to a larger one fairly simply though you will void your 2 yr warranty.

Very good low price HDD, perfect if you are fed up with analog VHS quality, very simple to use, optical SPDIF output is a bonus.

Had a few probs tuning certain channels namely ITV because signal is poor around my way (no troubles with other freeview units) however made sure to use a 75ohm co-ax and all came good... so no problems!

Great option to 'reserve' programs in the TV guide which automatically adds them to the record schedule.

Basically sky plus for freeview... which is nice.

I bought this unit due to its multiple magazine awards and good ratings on sites such as this. To be fair, it does what it says on the box - ie it records from TV and can provide 'pause live TV' functions etc. However, a number of features make it frustrating to use.

It only has one tuner so, unlike a VCR, you cannot watch one channel and record another: If you are making a recording to archive you are prevented from changing channel. If you are using it in continual recording mode, as soon as you switch channels, the automatic cache of recorded TV is lost and you cannot go back to it.

The way it works is this: The unit continually records the current channel and this is what you actually watch - the recording. The record quality is very good but not quite as good as 'live TV'. There seems to be no way of switching to watch the live signal. The unit saves up to half an hour of this recorded TV so if you want to go back a few minutes to re-watch something you missed, you go to an earlier part of the recording. If you 'pause TV' the unit continues to record and when you press play, the recording carries on from where you left off.

The annoying bit is that the recorded section is wiped as soon as you switch channels, so if you flick channels to see what was on the other side etc, you loose your cached material. It would be more helpful if it continued to record on the new channel. If you specifically set it to make and save a recording of something, channel switching is blocked until recording is stopped.

The software is also clunky and, in my view, ugly. For instance, if you go to the channel guide, perhaps to see what is on another channel, the sound and picture are cut. OK, so you can use your 'pause live TV' function to go back to the bit you missed, but why can't the sound continue and the picture be of reduced size on part of the screen as it is, for example, in my Goodmans GDB4.

While the recording/pause TV function is very handy, I decided that the inability to switch channels and clunky software would drive me mad so returned the unit.

Humax have been promising a dual tuner unit - the PVR-9000 for over a year. Humax tell me that it is now slated for Summer 2005 release. The delay is apparently to adapt the unit to allow for 'Top up TV'. I will wait for that unit to come out, to allow recording and watching of different channels, and hope they improve the software at the same time.