Humax HDR-FOX T2 review

We’ve long been fans of Humax’s PVRs, right from the PVR-8000T, through to the HD-FOX T2, which we reviewed around a year ago. Few Freeview PVRs can equal Humax’s models for ease of use and intuitive operation, and the HDR-FOX T2 is no different.

Where the HD-FOX T2 had only a single Freeview HD tuner and limited recording capabilities, the HDR-FOX T2 adds a second tuner, plus a 500GB hard disk for storing 300 hours of SD broadcasts, or around 125 hours of HD programmes. A 1TB version is available for around £50 more.

This may sound good, but we held off reviewing it back in September 2010 because it was overshadowed by YouView, that was due to launch in early 2011. It would add the ability to ‘rewind’ the electronic programme guide by up to seven days and stream certain shows you’d missed via your broadband connection. With YouView now being delayed until at least 2012, and Humax releasing a major firmware update for the HDR-FOX T2, we thought it was important to take a look.

One highlight of the update is the TV Portal. It’s still in beta, but gives you access to BBC iPlayer, Sky Player, Internet Radio, Flickr and Wikipedia. This makes the HDR-FOX T2 the first Freeview HD recorder we’ve seen with access to iPlayer. The interface is the same as we’ve seen on Sony and Panasonic TVs, plus other set-top boxes. It’s also similarly slow to respond, but this is OK once you get used to it. It’s possible to stream the HD versions of shows where available, and playback was flawless in our tests. Episodes of Madagascar, for example, looked almost identical to the broadcast version, and there was no juddering or dropped frames.

Even without an expensive aerial, the HDR-FOX T2 picked up all four HD channels without any problems (the fourth being the new BBC One HD, which began broadcasting in November 2010). Images were fairly sharp, although BBC HD remains the best quality of all, and is excellent. Shows on the other three channels vary from little better than SD (because some are simply upscaled) to very good.

Not forgetting about audio, the HDR-FOX T2’s optical S/PDIF can convert the native HE-AAC encoding to Dolby Digital, allowing you to hook up just about any AV receiver for 5.1 surround sound, when it’s broadcast with the programme. The same conversion happens on the HDMI output, although you’ll need an amplifier with HDMI inputs, of course.

Video can be output at 720p, 1080i or 1080p, and menus look great at 1080p. The EPG shows seven channels at once and up to eight days of information. It’s possible to watch a third channel while two other programmes are being recorded, including pausing it or rewinding it. Saved recordings can be renamed and are usefully stored in folders, which is great for series. When fast forwarding or rewinding, there are five search speeds, but you can also hit the left or right navigation buttons to skip through the timeline even quicker.

As with the HD-FOX T2, the new model is also a media streamer. Videos, photos and music can be streamed over your network: there’s an Ethernet port, plus a rear USB port for Humax’s optional WiFi dongle. Impressively, this PVR can even act as a media server, streaming stored recordings to other DLNA devices, including the HD-FOX T2. You can set power-up and power-down times in the menus, to ensure the server is available when you need it.

You can also play music, video and photos from a USB disk or flash drive: a port is hidden at the front. Format support is good, including DivX HD, MKV, XviD and VOB for video, JPEG images and MP3 audio. Although the box can read from NTFS-formatted devices, it can’t write to them. This means you can’t archive TV recordings to an NTFS disk, but you can copy them to a FAT-formatted drive. You can copy media from NTFS and FAT devices to the internal hard disk.

If this wasn’t enough, there’s a Common Interface slot at the rear so you can add pay channels including ESPN, and Sky Sports 1 and 2. There’s a single scart output, along with composite video and stereo phono outputs, but anyone not using the HDMI output should probably buy a cheaper non-HD PVR.

There are a few problems which prevent the HDR-FOX T2 winning an award, however. One is the poor screen, which is almost illegible unless you’re very close to the box. Previous blue screens were better, but the dim orange/red display here is too small, dim and cluttered. A more serious gripe is the relatively disappointing upscaling of standard definition broadcasts. Compared with an old PVR-9200T using RGB scart, the HDR-FOX T2’s image on BBC News is softer and text looks fuzzier. Of course, quality is partially down to the TV’s upscaling capabilities, but since the HDR-FOX T2 doesn’t switch between 576i and 1080p when you change channels, you have to leave it at 1080p for the HD channels and rely on its upscaling for SD channels.

Although we like the remote control, the playback buttons (above the coloured buttons) are very small compared to older models and, finally, there are no editing facilities to chop recordings to keep only the portion you want. This means extra storage space is used up.

On the whole, the HDR-FOX T2 compares well with Virgin and Sky’s boxes, so if you’re desperate for HD and don’t want a subscription, this is the best choice. It’s still very expensive, but it’s worth the premium over other Freeview HD PVRs.