A date ticker runs across the top, making it simple to plan future timers and viewing by means of using the Fast Forward and Rewind Buttons of the remote control. The EPG affords a 6 channel/1 and half hour view with a timeline running down the channels to show the current status, where programmes highlighted in light grey are currently on air and those in dark grey surroundings are upcoming.
The bread and butter of making a PVR rewarding to use comes from providing an intuitive and attractive Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) and the box certainly delivers that. Initial start-up of the DTR-T1000 took a little longer than we expected but once we’d tuned in our channels and established our location and network status we were ready to go. It’s worth noting here that the USB ports are currently inactive although we suspect that might change in the future to at least allow one to be used for a (yet unannounced) wireless dongle, as the Humax DTR-T1000 doesn’t currently offer any Wi-Fi capabilities out of the box which we’d consider a bit of a major omission in this day and age and something requiring urgent attention. To the rear of the unit are Scart and Composite video connections the RF in and ‘loop’ out terminals a HDMI port S/PDIF optical audio out a power on/off button stereo audio jacks and a further USB input. The fact it can also act as simple controller of most TVs – by means of entering dedicated manufacturer codes – is a definite plus. There’s nothing particularly remarkable about the handset but it feels well constructed and the colour coding of the Record (red) and YouView (blue) buttons certainly help with the usability of the package. The remote control is hewn of similar gloss black plastic and is of a vaguely hourglass form, although not as concave in the middle. The unit itself is constructed of a black plastic casing – front and top – over a metal shell and feels reassuringly weighty. To the top right of the fascia are Volume and Programme Up and Down buttons and just below that is a pull-down flap concealing a USB port. The DTR-T1000 looks every inch a Humax product with its large circular standby button sitting plum in the middle of the fascia which, in a halo fashion, illuminates blue when on and orange when the box is in standby. It’s been years in the making, let’s see if it’s been worth the wait. Of course, more is expected from the Humax DTR-T1000 than just providing a competent dual tuner PVR and its success as much – if not more so – hinges on its integration of on-demand services, although it will need to prove a decent recorder to justify the £300 price-tag. When Korean outfit Humax was announced as the first manufacturer of a YouView branded box, it came as no great surprise as they have been producing very competent Freeview personal video recorders (PVR’s) for a number of years and would at least have the basic hardware in place. With an ever-growing number of Video on Demand (VoD) services available and the future of television delivery and viewing becoming ever more on demand, he may just be on to something, even if there’s a major undertaking ahead to convince the general public that it’s the future. Indeed, Sugar himself has declared he wants to see ‘his’ brand completely replace Freeview boxes in our homes as he sees it as a bit long in the tooth.
HUMAX YOUVIEW REVIEWS TV
So what is YouView and why do you need it? On the face of it, one could easily mistake YouView as being a replica of the UK’s digital terrestrial, free to air platform, Freeview, as it largely carries the same TV channels and Radio services but YouView is different and is in fact an Internet Protocol television (IPTV) offering, meaning it can receive content via the internet as well as through an aerial, which should make it a far more future proof proposition. The fact YouView was supposed to be available by the end of 2010 but has only just come to market probably tells its own story and it’s seemingly taken the intervention of Britain’s favourite entrepreneur, Alan Sugar, who took over as Chairman in March 2011, to make it a reality. Originally announced under the working title Project Canvas as a joint venture between the BBC, ITV and BT, who were then subsequently joined by Channel 5, Talk Talk, Channel 4 and transmission firm Arqiva, it seemed the project might collapse under the weight of the big hitters involved and the disparate interests and influences at play.
There were times when we thought the YouView service would never see the light of day.
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