Humax PVR-9200T

If you’re attracted to the functionality of Sky+ but don’t fancy signing up for a subscription, there are plenty of other PVR (personal video recorder) options.

Humax has just launched the PVR-9200T – a twin digital tuner PVR with a 160GB hard drive. Just as with Sky+, the twin tuner lets you watch one channel while recording another, or record two programmes simultaneously.

We have no quarrels with the design of the Humax. Thanks to its mirrored facade and silver chassis, it should fit in well with the rest of your home entertainment setup. The scrolling LED screen displays the current channel name along with other useful information.

What we didn’t like was the interface. The further you delve into the menus, the more complicated and unintuitive it becomes – especially when accessing the seven-day EPG (electronic programme guide). It’s something you will learn to live with, but Humax would do well to improve on it.

Via a front-access USB port, it’s possible to transfer recorded shows to your PC. You can also copy photos and music to the PVR-9200T. What you cannot do is move video from your PC to the PVR.

On the rear of the PVR sit both analogue and digital audio outputs along with two Scart sockets. If you don’t have a Scart TV, the RF modulator lets you send the video through a standard coax cable. A slot on the front of the PVR allows you to subscribe to Top Up TV broadcasts – see Topuptv.com for more information.

A small fan continues to cool the PVR, even when it is in standby mode. Unless there’s absolutely no background noise, you won’t notice it whirring away.

In our full-strength Freeview signal test, the PVR-9200T performed admirably and displayed a clear, precise image – albeit with the usual Freeview compression artefacts. It didn’t cope quite as well in our low-strength test, so if you don’t live in a strong Freeview area you may need to upgrade your aerial.

Although we’d prefer to see a more intuitive interface, the PVR-9200T is still a decent twin-tuner PVR with a host of useful features.