Best Freeview PVR

[Lovey1]

All,
I am looking at replacing the old BT TV Youview box as it has become unreliable in the kids TV room. I am looking for a high quality (I often get relegated to that room!!) but simple to use. My original thought was the Humax FVP 5000T but I have heard some stories about poor reliability. Another i have looked at (on line as shops are a challenge right now!) is the Manhatten T3 4K. I have no knowledge of this brand but generally the reviews are promising. What none of these are good streaming services and I ideally would like Disney+. Does anybody have any thoughts or recommendations? thanks

[Mr Pointy]

I like the look of the new Humax Aura but it's new & needs a bit of sorting out:
https://uk.humaxdigital.com/product/aura-uhd-andro...

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=humax...

https://www.avforums.com/threads/news-humax-launch...

[Lovey1]

Mr Pointy said:

I like the look of the new Humax Aura but it's new & needs a bit of sorting out:
https://uk.humaxdigital.com/product/aura-uhd-andro...

https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=humax...

https://www.avforums.com/threads/news-humax-launch...

I hadn't seen this. looks interesting. What do you mean by needs a bit of sorting out?

[Mr Pointy]

Lovey1 said:

I hadn't seen this. looks interesting. What do you mean by needs a bit of sorting out?

If you read the AVForums link there's discussion from users about some software foibles, although it's difficult to know if it would be an issue for me as I'm a pretty basic user. I couldn't cope with the Manhatten though as it only has two receivers & I regularly need three (record on two, watch on one) with my Humax.

[Lovey1]

Mr Pointy said:

If you read the AVForums link there's discussion from users about some software foibles, although it's difficult to know if it would be an issue for me as I'm a pretty basic user. I couldn't cope with the Manhatten though as it only has two receivers & I regularly need three (record on two, watch on one) with my Humax.

user error!!. i hadn't got as far as the AV Forums link. Thanks for the posting though. This looks by far the closest to what i am looking for. Like you i am typically a failry basic user. May be time to take the plunge!

[Mr Pointy]

Lovey1 said:

user error!!. i hadn't got as far as the AV Forums link. Thanks for the posting though. This looks by far the closest to what i am looking for. Like you i am typically a failry basic user. May be time to take the plunge!

Yes, I will try one when my Humax HDR-2000 packs in. Having the streaming channels & the ability to run Kodi & the like on the PVR looks very interesting as it will mean I don't need to splash out on an Nvidia Shield.

I didn't like the later Humaxes because the UI didn't allow you create sufficiently customised channel lists. Of course, nothing comes close to my old Topfield but sadly those days are long gone

[page3]

I think they are all crap, including the software solutions such as Plex DVR.

Things have gone massively backwards since the days of TiVo plus any dumb freeview box. A shame they sold out to Virgin in the UK and discarded us customers.

Old Humax box with hacked community firmware not too bad, but getting old.

Obviously this isn’t a particularly helpful answer!

[RowntreesCabana]

page3 said:

I think they are all crap, including the software solutions such as Plex DVR.

Things have gone massively backwards since the days of TiVo plus any dumb freeview box. A shame they sold out to Virgin in the UK and discarded us customers.

Old Humax box with hacked community firmware not too bad, but getting old.

Obviously this isn’t a particularly helpful answer!

The old Topfield and Tivo pvrs were the kings. Great community based support, hacked software with all sorts of great add ons. Grsat days.

[Mr Pointy]

RowntreesCabana said:

The old Topfield and Tivo pvrs were the kings. Great community based support, hacked software with all sorts of great add ons. Grsat days.

My Topfield did stuff which was so useful but none of the Humax PVRs I've had are in the same league. On example - you start watching a programme & get called away or decide it's worth watching later. Just hit record & it started recording from the beginning of the programme as it had been writing it into a buffer & you end up with a complete recording. So simple & obvious.

[Tony1963]

I’ve been away from Freeview for 18 months now, and one minor reason was the poor quality of the Humax products. The remotes became very clunky and awkward, the firmware second rate. Perhaps they’ve improved over the last year or so.
This isn’t a fair thing to say, but Sky Q is on a completely different level.

[Ham_and_Jam]

Mr Pointy said:

If you read the AVForums link there's discussion from users about some software foibles, although it's difficult to know if it would be an issue for me as I'm a pretty basic user. I couldn't cope with the Manhatten though as it only has two receivers & I regularly need three (record on two, watch on one) with my Humax.

It now has 3 after a recent update.

[Ham_and_Jam]

Lovey1 said:

All,
I am looking at replacing the old BT TV Youview box as it has become unreliable in the kids TV room. I am looking for a high quality (I often get relegated to that room!!) but simple to use. My original thought was the Humax FVP 5000T but I have heard some stories about poor reliability. Another i have looked at (on line as shops are a challenge right now!) is the Manhatten T3 4K. I have no knowledge of this brand but generally the reviews are promising. What none of these are good streaming services and I ideally would like Disney+. Does anybody have any thoughts or recommendations? thanks

I have a Manhattan 4k, and came from a Humax. The Manhattan is streets ahead in terms of UI and quality. It’s a fantastic PVR. Catch up and streaming is good quality, but is limited to the main channels and youtube.

I personally use the Manhattan PVR and a Roku streaming box, which pretty much covers everything perfectly.

If you have any questions about the PVR, ask away

[mr_fibuli]

I got the Manhattan 4k recently after my Humax HDR-Fox T2 died - the UI is miles ahead, very happy with it so far. The support seems pretty good too - was nice to get the 3-channel update (still only two tuners, but you can now watch a third channel if it is on the same multiplex - same as the old Humax) Also I find the UI is loads better at managing conflicting recordings.

[dmsims]

I was looking at an alternative to the Humax

These seem quite well rated https://www.amazon.co.uk/Manhattan-T3-R-Freeview-S...

But then I discovered that the addition of a Toshiba USB3 1TB disk for £42 turned the recent Samsung TV into a PVR

OK it's not perfect UI wide but it's very fast and seems reliable (only a week in) compared to the Humax

[Mr Pointy]

A question for the Manhatten owners if I may:

I watch mainly terrestrial channels & like to have a reduced channel list - on a Humax they are called Favourites lists. I run a channel scan & then move a bunch of channels to Favourite List 1. I can then re-order these so that (for instance) Ch4 +1 is next to Ch4. Can you do that on the Manhatten? I tried it on one of the recent Humax boxes & you couldn't do that.

[Ham_and_Jam]

Mr Pointy said:

A question for the Manhatten owners if I may:

I watch mainly terrestrial channels & like to have a reduced channel list - on a Humax they are called Favourites lists. I run a channel scan & then move a bunch of channels to Favourite List 1. I can then re-order these so that (for instance) Ch4 +1 is next to Ch4. Can you do that on the Manhatten? I tried it on one of the recent Humax boxes & you couldn't do that.

You can assign channels as ‘favourites’ in the settings.

When you press ‘Guide’ it defaults to ‘All programs’. If you press the yellow button you can then choose your ‘favourites’ list (or radio / HD / catch up).

[Mr Pointy]

Ham_and_Jam said:

Mr Pointy said:

A question for the Manhatten owners if I may:

I watch mainly terrestrial channels & like to have a reduced channel list - on a Humax they are called Favourites lists. I run a channel scan & then move a bunch of channels to Favourite List 1. I can then re-order these so that (for instance) Ch4 +1 is next to Ch4. Can you do that on the Manhatten? I tried it on one of the recent Humax boxes & you couldn't do that.

You can assign channels as ‘favourites’ in the settings.

When you press ‘Guide’ it defaults to ‘All programs’. If you press the yellow button you can then choose your ‘favourites’ list (or radio / HD / catch up).

Can you re-order the favourite list? Defaulting to All Programs every time you open the guide is definately not something I'd want to use.

[Ham_and_Jam]

Mr Pointy said:

Can you re-order the favourite list? Defaulting to All Programs every time you open the guide is definately not something I'd want to use.

I’ve learnt something else myself today!

Looking at this again, I found you can actually ‘protect and hide’ channels. Basically it hides them from the normal EPG. So in effect does what the Humax does, and shortens the ‘normal channel list’ to your preferred ones. They are left in channel number order. I suppose you could then also have a favourites list aswell picked from this shortened list.

With regard comparing the Manhattan to the Humax, I had two of the Humax FVP5000T models, both only lasted less than 2 years. The Manhattan is just much better. The Humax use to frustrate the hell out of me with its laggy response time, remote controls that barely last a year and the main units that constantly fail. The Manhattan just works well.

[megaphone]

Why not go for another BT Youview box? Plenty for sale on eBay, they do a UHD version (T4000?) if you want, but the standard HD (T2100?) one is fine.

Go for £40-£60.

[dmsims]

megaphone said:

Why not go for another BT Youview box? Plenty for sale on eBay, they do a UHD version (T4000?) if you want, but the standard HD (T2100?) one is fine.

Go for £40-£60.

Probably because they are slow, and annoyingly unreliable (sometimes!)