Product Reviews

Humax's latest PVR is far slimmer than previous models, including the excellent PVR-9200TB. The pale-blue LCD display isn't an improvement, though: it's not that stylish, or particularly bright.

Two small panels on either side of the display conceal a CAM slot, for adding subscription-based channels such as Setanta Sports and Top Up TV, and a handy set of controls for navigating the interface and controlling playback, which is useful if you lose the remote.

The remote is identical, except in colour, to the PVR-9200TB's. It remains our favourite: the buttons are sensibly laid out, with important controls to hand and seldom-used ones tucked away beneath a sliding panel.

Like all the PVRs we've seen recently, the PVR-9300T has two digital tuners for receiving Freeview broadcasts. The PVR-9300T goes one better than other PVRs, however. It lets you watch a third programme while recording two others, as long as the third channel is on one of the multiplexes of the channels being recorded.

The interface hasn't

ADVERTISEMENT

changed. It's still clearly and colourfully presented, without being garish, and the EPG is easy to navigate. It supports series link recording, but we'd like to have seen new features such as finding repeat broadcasts of the same show.

As well as the usual SCART connections, there's now HDMI output. It's limited to 576p and 720p resolutions, though, and there's no significant improvement in video quality compared to SCART. The 720p upscaling softens some of the compression artefacts, but at the cost of sharpness. We couldn't see any noise reduction or edge sharpening on our HD TV. We were hoping for a crisp, sharp HD interface, too, but this wasn't the case. Our biggest gripe with the HDMI output is that you can't adjust volume using the remote. Instead, you must use your TV's remote. Because of this, we quickly swapped back to SCART.

The PVR-9300T has a 320GB hard disk, which gives you up to 200 hours of recording time. It's a shame that the dedicated button on the remote for accessing your recordings is hidden under the sliding panel. If you watch a lot of recorded programmes, this can be annoying. We also noticed that the fan was a little noisier than the PVR-9200TB.

Despite these foibles, the PVR-9300T is a great PVR, and it consumed only 1W in standby mode. There's also a 160GB version, the PVR-9150T, for £130 including VAT; this is better for anyone who doesn't require so much recording space. Both models are otherwise identical, and both receive our Best Buy award thanks to their great value. However, the Top Up TV 160GB hard disk recorder is a worthy budget alternative.