Humax YouView DTR-T1000 review

REMOTE CONTROL

Humax provides a decent remote control that’s comfortable to hold. We found its buttons responsive and it’s easy to tell that you’ve correctly depressed a button. There’s a dedicated YouView button that brings up the small menu bar, plus shortcuts to jump directly to the EPG or Search facilties.

INDIVIDUAL SERVICES

That’s not to say that everything is perfect. Licensing issues mean that not every programme is available. For example, the Ricky Gervais show is available on 4oD through the website, but not through the DTR-T1000 box.

The other minor issue is that each on-demand service is the responsibility of the original owner, so each has a slightly different interface and different status bars. Tighter integration would be preferable, but this is a minor point. More pressing is that each service provides a different set of features and gives you access to programmes in a slightly different way. The quality varies between broadcasters, so we’re going to take a look at each one in turn.

BBC IPLAYER

It has to be said that out of all of the services BBC iPlayer is the best in terms of features, integration and quality. Of all the on-demand services, iPlayer is the only one with an HD stream. Standard definition is selected by default, but you can use the simple interface to select the HD stream, if available. You can also set YouView to automatically default to the HD stream, while the BBC iPlayer app has a similar setting. If you’ve got fast broadband and a high data cap, the HD version is definitely the one to go for.

BBC iPlayer has an HD stream, which you can select as the default using the iPlayer app and in the YouView Settings menu

When you’re watching a programme, there’s a Choose another programme option at the top that lets you view similar programmes (called More Like This), More Episodes or view favourites.

When you’re watching a programme, you can view More Episodes and similar programmes via More Like This

It’s the BBC iPlayer app that gives you the most options, though. This is basically a replica of the website, designed to be browsed using a remote control. From here you can view the Last Played programmes and resume, as well as Featured Most Popular and Favourite programmes. It’s good to see a full search box is integrated, so you find the content you want to watch. Overall, the BBC iPlayer experience is smooth and easy to use – it’s the pick of the bunch.

The BBC iPlayer app is excellent and has a full search facility.