Humax DTR-T1010 review

EPG

For planning what you want to watch, the EPG is one of the best. It’s clearly laid out, with the day and date you’re viewing highlighted at the top of screen. A thumbnail at the top right keeps showing the current TV programme, so you can browse through the EPG while still keeping an eye on what you were watching.

The YouView EPG is one of the best

Selecting a programme in the EPG brings up more detailed information. As it’s designed to be internet-connected, YouView pulls in extra programme information from online. This should mean that the programme information you get is more detailed than on a standard Freeview HD box. As well as detailed information, if there are extra episodes of the selected programme available on-demand, you get a More Episodes tab to browse through the additional content.

Selecting a programme in the EPG lets you view extra episodes on-demand

PVR

Of course, the DTR-T1010 is also a very capable PVR. Selecting a programme to record asks if you want to record a single episode or the entire series. We also like the way that selecting the standard definition version checks if an HD version is available and then asks if you’d like to record this instead.

We like the way that YouView asks if you’d like to record the HD version of a programme

Recordings are all accessed through the MyView section of the interface. You can view recordings and scheduled recordings separately, so you can see what you’ve recorded and manage what’s coming up. Recordings can be sorted by A-to-Z or Date, and you can filter them by Watched or Unwatched. All-in-all it makes finding what you want to watch easy.

As this is YouView, it pulls a programme description from the internet, complete with a thumbnail image for each show. It makes browsing through your recordings much more pleasant than on a lot of PVRs. As with other parts of the interface, you can also view More Episodes from the recording screen, diving into the on-demand content from this part of the interface, too.

YouView pulls extra information, including a thumbnail image, from the internet for your recordings

REMOTE RECORD

If you’ve got an iPhone, you can install the YouView App and set a programme to record from anywhere in the world. You have to first configure the app to talk to your PVR. This requires you to enable remote record on the set-top box and note-down the code that’s generated; this code is then entered into the app. It’s a bit of a pain to set-up the first time and creating a simple user account online and entering the details into your PVR and any iPhones in the family would have been easier.

You can remotely record using your iPhone, but it’s a shame that there’s no Android app yet

Remote record is rather simplistic and just lets you browse through the EPG and set a programme to record, either just a single episode or the entire series. Still, it’s a useful tool, although we wish that an Android version was available.

CONCLUSION

We’re big fans of YouView. It neatly and cleanly integrates on-demand and live TV into a simple interface. If you want a Freeview HD PVR, then YouView is the best type that you can get. Currently, the Humax HDR-T1010 is the best YouView PVR, making it the best Freeview HD PVR. It’s not worth upgrading from the HDR-T1000, as there’s simply not enough different. If you’ve got BT broadband, then you should sign up for BT YouView, as you’ll get the HDR-T1000 for an amazing price. For everyone else looking to buy a Freeview HD PVR, this is the one to buy.