humax pvr-9200t review

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Picture courtesy of Hyltz.

Average Ratings

Features	8.4/10
Ease of Use	8.2/10
Value for Money	7.9/10
Reviewer Rating	7.7/10
Overall Rating	7.5/10

80% Recommended28 out of 35 Reviews

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By Reaction on 7th Dec 2006

Reaction's Ratings

Time DVR Owned	1 - 6 Months
Features	9/10
Ease of Use	9/10
Value for money	8/10
Overall value	8/10
Reaction's recommendation

Good Points

Good hold of weak signals.
Doesn't crash if signal is lost.
Very simple recording system.
Good user interface.

Bad Points

Makes some noise when running.
Crude front panel display.
Can't renumber channels.
Instruction manual not very clear and missing details.

General Comments

I've had the Humax PVR 9200T for two months now. My previous Freeview box was a Nokia 221T which, despite excellent reviews, was awfully unreliable. The 9200T has made the Nokia just a bad memory!

The two main reasons for buying the 9200T are obviously because it is a Freeview receiver and a hard disk recorder, so that's what I'll focus on:

=== As a Freeview receiver ===
The 9200T is an excellent Freeview receiver. It reliably and quickly displays channels and only in the most extreme reception conditions has shown any block noise. On the rare occasions this has occurred, the box doesn't crash (like my old Nokia), but simply shows a brief message on screen saying the signal is bad or missing. One thing that annoys me slightly is that I cannot re-number channels. I can receive both the Wales and West regional channels, so the 9200T has decided that BBC1 Wales, BBC2 Wales etc. will be numbered 1, 2 etc. on the channel list, while the West regional BBC1, BBC2 will be channels 800, 801 etc. I'd prefer the West regional channels to be 1, 2, 3 etc, but there's no way I can reorder/renumber them. The same goes for other channels, where I now have to enter the hard-coded Freeview broadcast channel numbers. A channel list can be displayed, but scrolling up and down the list to find a channel is laborious compared with pressing (at most) two digits on the remote. On my old Nokia I could assign any channel any number (for example 6 for BBC1 Wales, or 44 for More4) which prevented me having to remember, and then press, a 3 digit number on the remote.


=== As a hard disk recorder: ===
1) Pausing the current program you're watching is as simple as this:

* Press Pause.

That's it. The 9200T immediately 'starts' recording the program. When your interruption (phone call etc.) is over, just press Play. The 9200 carries on recording the rest of the program while simultaneously playing back from the point you pressed Pause.

2) Recording the rest of the current program you're watching is as simple as this:

* Press Record.

That's it. The 9200T uses the broadcast Electronic Programme Guide (EPG) to determine when the current program finishes, and programs itself to record until that time. You can now simply change channel and watch something else, with the 9200T automatically using its other tuner to display the new channel. Of course you can press Record again and record this new programme too if you want. It's uncanny and quite hard to believe it's actually working so seamlessly, but it does!

3) Recording a program that is on later is as simple as this:

* Press GUIDE to display the EPG.
* Highlight the program you want to record.
* Press OK.

That's it. The program is added to the recording schedule, with the channel, start time and end time all being extracted from the EPG. Anyone who hated tiresome VCR programming (Prog > start time > end time > SP/LP > timer rec, etc.) will be left staring at the screen, saying "Is that it then?". It is also possible to setup separate before and after 'padding' times, so that for each recording the box automatically starts recording before the allotted start time and continues on afterwards. Also, if you hate adverts, a special button on the remote will instantly jump playback forward one minute [this period is adjustable] for each press! Adverts hardly spoil recorded programs at all now. The playback quality of a recorded program is, as far as I can see, identical to the original program matter - I guess it just records the raw datastream.


=== Other features ====
Picture-in-Picture (PIP) is possible thanks to the dual tuners, allowing you to keep an eye on one program while watching another.

It is possible to edit recorded programs, although I'm not sure why you'd want to do this other than to strip out adverts.

There are a number of very basic games included. I've only tried the Othello clone, and found it cannot handle stalemates or automatically decide if you, the user, have nowhere to put a piece. Doh!

I have not installed any of the software on the supplied CD (since my PC is in a different room) so cannot comment on that. I doubt I'll ever use the 9200T's photo album or MP3 facilites.


=== Summary ===
This product has not changed the way I watch TV or the amount of TV I watch. However, if you're constantly plagued by phonecalls, the Pause function will be invaluable. What the 9200T has done is give me a much more reliable Freeview box (plus the ability to watch one digital broadcast while recording another) and a recording solution that removes *all* of the problems associated with VCRs, namely:

* Instant programming (yeah!)
* Instant playback (no more winding tapes to find the beginning).
* Always top quality recordings (no more worn out video cassettes).
* Enormous recording capacity (no more searching for a spare tape, or accidentally recording over something).
* Very fast advert skipping.

The noise issue I mentioned in the Bad Points above is worth mentioning in more detail. My 9200T is placed in an enclosed video cabinet with a glass front door. When I first setup the 9200T, there was an intrusive hum which strangely got worse when the door was *closed*. I suspect the gentle hard disk whirl and fan noise from the 9200T was setting up a resonance in the enclosed cabinet. I put the 9200T on an old CD player isolation table (with spring loaded feet) and then stood this on a rubber mat. This has isolated the 9200T from the cabinet and any direct noise is now barely audible with the door closed.

Total Respect: +5