Sagemcom RTI90-320 review

Sagemcom, formerly Sagem, is the first company that’s sent us a Freeview HD recorder. The RTI90-320 is only the third Freeview HD set-top box we’ve seen, following Humax and Goodmans’ Freeview HD receivers.

For the extra money over the playback-only units you get a second Freeview HD tuner and a 320GB hard disk, a 2.5in Hitachi CinemaStar C5K500 which is almost silent. This provides up to 160 hours of recording time in standard definition, and around half this in HD. If you need more, there’s also a 500GB model, the RTI90-500 for around £300.

As we’ve said before, a Freeview HD player is a rather short-sighted purchase as it’s still expensive, but offers none of the benefits of a PVR. These include being able to pause live TV, rewind it, record two shows at once and, with almost all boxes these days, also watch a recorded programme while the two tuners are recording.

Sagemcom’s box is much smaller than we’d expected, with a footprint little bigger than an A5 sheet of paper. The glossy black finish will require constant polishing to keep fingerprints and dust at bay, and the absence of any curves means it won’t win any design awards. The compact dimensions mean there’s limited space for a display and, while the blue-LED digits are easily readable, there are only four of them. This means the display is only really useful for showing the time and channel number.

The USB port on the front looks inviting, but is currently used only for updating firmware. The Ethernet port at the rear isn’t used either – hopefully this will eventually be enabled via a firmware update to bring BBC iPlayer and other services. Similar updates could allow video, photo and music playback via USB, but no timescale has been given for any of this.

As it stands, the RTI90-320 differs from existing Freeview PVRs only in that it allows you to watch the three new HD channels from BBC, ITV and Channel 4. Thanks to the bundled HDMI cable, installation is a doddle and once you’ve run through the setup screens, searching for channels and setting your TV’s resolution (up to 1080p), you’re ready to go. Bear in mind that the power supply is external, so you’ll need to find room behind your TV for yet another power brick.

The remote control has a clean layout that’s easy to read and the navigation pad is surrounded by menu, media, back and exit buttons. The media button brings up a list of recordings so you don’t need to trawl through menus. We particularly like that you can rename recordings, but the real gem is the ability to create folders and move recordings into them. This is ideal for keeping series together.

Hit the guide button and you get programme information for the next eight days. Although the EPG isn’t cached in its entirety, there’s still plenty of information visible when you resume from standby, so there’s no waiting to see what’s on immediately. Seven channels are visible at all times, but you can also choose how much information is shown – either one, two or four hours’ worth.

As with all Freeview boxes, you get the option to record an entire series or just one show. A nice touch is that you’re offered alternative showings of the same programme if both tuners are already recording other shows. As well as recording two channels at once, you can watch a recorded programme, and all three can be in HD – just as you’d expect.

Pressing the next or previous buttons on the remote jumps to the next or previous day in the guide, and the date is highlighted so it’s easy to see where you are. You can search by keyword and genre to find a programme quickly.

Unlike certain PVRs we’ve seen, the RTI90-320 sensibly keeps a thumbnail of the channel you’re watching in the top-left corner of the EPG, so you can carry on watching while browsing. Also, if you press the Info button while watching a show, you can then scroll up, down and right to view programme information for shows on other channels and next on the current channel. Another nice touch is that the main information panel shows the time and title of the following programme.

Our initial test unit – which we’re told was the finished product – was very sluggish to respond to the remote, but Sagemcom rushed us an updated version which largely fixed this. The firm also promised that speed would improve further once the official firmware was released. This will be scheduled for transmission over the air shortly, but you’ll also be able to download it from Sagemcom’s website.

In terms of picture quality, we had no complaints at all. BBC HD certainly has the best apparent quality of the three HD channels, and there’s an enormous different watching World Cup matches in HD on a large Full HD TV compared to standard definition. You can almost make out faces in the crowd, and see the texture of grass, while in SD, the screen is simply a blur of pixels. Whether motion is smooth will depend partly on your TV’s capabilities, but on all the sets we tested the RTI90-320 with, we saw no juddering or any other problems.

It’s still early days for Freeview HD, and early adopters always run the risk that the first generation of PVRs will be missing features that are introduced later, or be incompatible with future changes to Freeview. However, Sagemcom is confident that the RTI90-320 is as upgradeable as it can be, and is ready for iPlayer and other services if and when this becomes available.

Bear in mind, too, that there’s no Common Interface slot so you can’t add any pay TV channels, but since most people will be buying a Freeview HD PVR for it’s free-to-air HD channels, this isn’t likely to be a major problem. We’re a little disappointed that there’s no support for DivX, MKV or any other formats, as this would make the RTI90-320 much better value.

There’s still room for improvement with the RTI90-320, but it’s not a bad choice, and is cheaper than some of its competitors. We’ve yet to see 3view’s Freeview HD PVR, which will cost £300 and be available at the end of July. It will ship with the ability to watch iPlayer and YouTube but we’re a little sceptical about how it will fare in future given that it doesn’t appear to be Freeview HD certified and may not be compatible with the official Freeview IPTV services.

Our advice is to wait a while until more Freeview HD boxes have been launched as prices are sure to drop over the next few months. If you’re desperate to buy a Freeview HD PVR right now to watch the World Cup, you won’t be disappointed with the RTI90-320.