I was not looking forward to the end of analogue have used VHS tapes for so long and enjoying the convenience of taking them from one room or house to another. I tried a DVD/HDD recorder but that was far too slow and cumbersome. However I bought this via Amazon from Humax refurbished for under £100 and am very well pleased with it. The installation was a breeze being fully automatic and need for the manual minimal. That I am not keen on at all and feel it could be improved and simplified. The biggest advantage is obviously being able to record all freeview channels. You just press the 'guide' key, place the cursor on the program wanted the the 'OK' key. Simple as that, and if the program is one in a series then it gives you the option to save the others. You can also record two different programs at the same time and watch something else It has lots of other clever tricks such as watch one program with another showing in a frame. The busiest key is 'Menu' because it takes you the list of recorded programs. You just select which you wish to watch and press Menu. You also can see programs scheduled to be recorded and add or delete. In all very simple, so far very reliable except in poorest weather but that is mainly down to my aerial.

I have had this for 3 months now and like the previous reviewer bought it to replace my Thompson which always caused me trouble. Compared to that the Humax is rolls Royce. The key things are: 1. Excellent picture quality 2. Very quiet 3. Record 2 channels and still view limited others 4. Advert skip button The ad skip button is amazing. You can set it's length but 30 seconds seem work well and you just press it 6 times to skip the ad breaks. No more going to far and having to rewind. The humax is very very stable and hasn't crashed once. I think I can go away on holiday now confident my programmes will be there when I get home.

Bought to replace our noisy, buggy Thomson DTR. The Humax impressed me straight away because it has an Off switch on the back. No more unplugging the unit if it freezes up then! Another good feature is a basic panel of control buttons under a flap on the front of the unit. If your remote stops working you can still operate the Humax from this front panel.
After a month of use the Humax hasn't frozen up or corrupted any recordings, unlike our old Thomson unit. The only downside has been learning to use the Humax, which isn't as simple to operate as the Thomson. However, this is a minor niggle. Now that we're starting to get used to the slightly odd way the menus work, it's much easier to navigate through the Humax EPG and set up recordings etc. The Humax has many more useful features than the Thomson.
The Humax is very quiet in use and the onboard digital tuner produces a better picture than our old Thomson unit. There's still some pixilation but it's not as intrusive as it was with the cheaper unit.
Purchase price is a little higher than for other PVRs with similar specs, but the Humax and its remote feel robust and do their job with very little fuss. Highly recommended.