Humax HDR-1000S review

Perhaps the most important feature for media hoarders is DLNA media streaming. You can easily access the media contents of NAS drives and network PCs using the HDR-1000S’s main menu, which means you can listen to music, look at images or watch Full HD video within a few button presses. We had no problem playing H.264, MKV, MOV, MPEG4, Xvid HD, WMV HD movie files and MP3 audio.

As is typical with media streamers, you can search for music by folder, artist or album, et cetera. The music player screen is informative, having a list of the tracks and their running times on the right and a progress meter and album artwork on the left. You can use the Fastext buttons to shuffle, repeat and remove tracks from the current playlist.

As the HDR-1000S is a Freesat+ device, you can also record live TV and radio programmes on its 500GB of internal storage. This gives you maximum storage of 125 hours for HD programmes and a massive 250 hours for standard definition. This means you can easily record entire series and preserve them for posterity. As the box has two LNB inputs, you can feed the HDR-1000S’s twin tuners and watch one channel while recording the other.

You get over a hundred satellite channels, including channels you won’t get on Freeview, such as the various CBS channels, the Horror Channel, and a good selection of movie channels such as True Movies and Movies4Men. You also get access to the same HD channels as on Freeview, including BBC One HD and Channel 4 HD.

Image quality was excellent, especially when viewing HD footage. The HD satellite channels looked as sharp as you’d expect, as did full HD video streamed from our NAS. Standard definition channels are upscaled without detriment to image quality.

We see lots of smart media streamers, many with innovative interfaces or novel means of getting media to your eyes and ears, but few ever satisfy our media needs fully. The Humax HDR-1000S is an exception. With the HDR-1000S, you can watch a high-definition TV channel one moment and be boring your assembled guests with a never-ending stream of photos from your NAS the next. The seamless integration with online catch-up TV services is equally good, although we’re keen to see more services integrated with the unit.

All of this makes a choice between the Humax HDR-1000S and YouView rather tricky. If you need to use a satellite connection or prize DLNA media streaming, the HDR-1000S is a brilliant choice. However, if you’ve got Freeview, YouView has more on-demand services and better on-demand integration. In our opinion, this makes it a better choice overall and we’d choose the Humax DTR-T1000.