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Humax YouView DTR-T1000 review

Our Rating :
Price when reviewed : £299
inc VAT

Simply the best EPG of any Freeview HD PVR, a responsive box and neatly integrated on-demand TV

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STEP BACK IN TIME

Where things are different from a usual PVR is that you can also step back up to seven days using the same EPG. Programmes that were shown in the past can be viewed, as long as they are on a major channel, via internet-based streaming services.

Just hit the OK button and instead of box tuning into the correct channel, the relevant on-demand player (BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, 4oD or Demand Five) is started and the programme plays automatically. It’s a neat trick and the integration of live and catch-up TV in one simple EPG makes choosing what you want to watch incredibly easy. Though we would have liked our own recordings to have also been marked up on the EPG, as an alternative to streamed ones.

The integration of the services goes beyond simply being able to select a past programme to watch, though. Because YouView is connected to the internet it can also pull in extra information about live programmes. So, select Info on a programme in the future and, if available, you get a More Episodes button, which pulls its content from the relevant on-demand service. Each programme’s information is also pulled from online, giving more detail than is standard for a Freeview EPG.

YouView More Episodes
The integration of live and on-demand programming is really neat. Here you can see what extra episodes of a programme are available

There’s also a search facility, which lets you search all of the on-demand services in one go, looking for the programme that you want to watch. This search steps back through the entire content catalogue, so you can find programmes that are more than seven days old. At no point do you have to concern yourself with which on-demand application you need to load. Currently, the search facility doesn’t work with live TV, which is a shame, as you can only find this by browsing through the EPG.

You can also browse through on-demand content by type (Films, children’s TV, Adult, etc), with YouView pulling all of the relevant programmes from each service. Should you know which on-demand service houses the content you want to watch, you can jump directly to its YouView app and use that solely.

YouView browse Films
YouView lets you browse all on-demand content by category, including Films and TV shows

Even better, when you’re watching on-demand TV you can bring up the YouView menu and search for new content or browse the EPG without interrupting your viewing. In essence, then, YouView presents and treats catch-up TV as though it were live TV.

YouView Menu
The simple YouView menu doesn’t get in the way of what you’re watching.

Detractors of YouView often don’t take into account this integration when they say that all of these facilities are available already through Smart TV or by plugging a laptop or tablet into your TV. Smart TV doesn’t have every catch-up service and you have to quit live TV and then choose the service you want to watch. Plugging in a laptop gives you every catch-up service, but you can’t search through them seamlessly and you lose the remote control ability. So, yes YouView does what you can already do, but it does it better and with less hassle.

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Details

Rating*****
AwardBest Buy

Features

Analogue tuners0
Digital tuners2
Hybrid tuners0
RadioFreeview
EPG days7
Dual-channel recordingyes
Series linkyes
Video recording formatFreeview HD
Teletext (analogue/digital)N/A
Viewing card slotnone
Certified Freeview Playbackyes
Picture in Pictureno
Interactive content supportyes

Connections

Analogue tuner RF inputs0
Digital tuner RF inputs1
Hybrid tuner RF inputs0
RF passthrough sockets1
HDMI outputs1
Component outputs1
Output resolutions1080i, 720p, 576p
Total SCART sockets1
S-Video input0
S-video output0
Composite inputs0
Composite outputs1
Stereo phono inputs0
Stereo phono outputs1
Coaxial S/PDIF outputs0
Optical S/PDIF outputs1
Surround sound formatsDolby Plus
Other portsUSB

Storage

Capacity500GB
Optical driveno
Optical drive typeN/A
Audio playback formatsN/A
Video playback formatsN/A
Image viewing formatsN/A

General

Power consumption standby0W
Power consumption on18W
Extrasremote control, HDMI cable, Ethernet cable
Size380x246x55mm

Buying Information

Price£299
Warrantyone year RTB
Supplierhttp://humaxdirect.co.uk
Detailshttp://humaxdirect.co.uk

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