Sagem DVR64250SL-TUK review

Our first impressions of the Sagem were pretty poor.

The design is rather ugly and the orange LCD doesn't help its appeal. The interface continues the theme with ugly-shaped pop-up menus, garish colours and poorly designed icons. The remote control feels light and cheap, although the buttons are clearly labelled and well positioned.

As well as the usual pair of SCART sockets and RF connectors, it has coaxial and optical S/PDIF audio outputs on the rear. More interesting is the USB port on the side of the unit. This lets you plug in USB flash memory devices and access them through an easy-to-use menu. You can view JPEG photos as a slideshow, listening to a playlist of MP3 files as you do so. However, you can't use this port to transfer your TV recordings to a PC as you can with the Humax PVR-9200TB.

The hard disk is a large 250GB model, which can store at least 125 hours of programmes. The EPG, rather than using the usual timeline format, shows a list of upcoming programmes on a single channel at a time. You can schedule dual recordings, but when you try to schedule a third you're simply shown an error message and are not given the option to sort out the conflict. Instead you have to cancel one of the scheduled recordings manually before scheduling the new one.

Timeshifting is automatic, so you can press pause at any time and rewind back through the buffered segment. You can also timeshift during scheduled recordings, even if you're recording two programmes at once. Fast-forward and rewind are jerky, however, and the 4x, 10x, 60x and 300x speeds aren't convenient for finding the part of the programme you want. In addition, entering the EPG will cancel the pause on a timeshifted programme, so you can't pause your favourite show as you browse the schedules. However, there is a video window in the EPG, so you can continue watching while you plan your viewing.

Sagem's DVR64250SL-TUK is a fairly good PVR with a USB port and lots of storage. However, a couple of interface niggles, such as the lack of a timeline EPG, count against it, and for the money you'd be far better off with the Humax PVR-9200TB.