Humax 1080p FVP-5000T 1TB Freeview Play HD TV Recorder - Black, 2017

Good product Works well

It works well as a pvr and has a good range of catch up apps built in. I'm using the built in wifi connection it connected easily and I've had no problems using it to stream from iplayer. The 3 tuners allow the recording of 4 programs at the same time and it was this that made me choose this pvr over others. The 1TB hard drive gives me plenty of space and so far I haven't got beyond 10%.used space even though most of my recordings are HD. It can be slow to respond to the remote, particularly just after start up. Once you are playing a recording the response is immediate. Populating the guide is also slow and seems to be done each time you look at it. I find the freetime option to play stream programs from the the program guide to be a gimmick and not very useful. On the other hand when you search for a program it lists all the options available on catch up as well future programs and this can be very useful. There is a problem with the ITV hub that prevents you from activating it on the device. A search on Google gave me lots of suggestions but nothing seemed to work. After a week of trying every so often it worked today. Hopefully that's an end of the problem for me. The supporting android apps are very poor. There are 4 you can use all performing different functions. It would be much better if they were integrated into a single app. The Live TV app allows you to view the guide and set up a recording remotely. The tablet version crashes on my huawei tablet when I try to change the date. It works better on my phone but even then it only allows you to view 7 days of the schedule not the 8 days you can view on screen. The remote control app allows you to set up a search using a keyboard but you have to have the box powered up and connected to a TV to see the results. I'm replacing an ee tv box which allows you to do this just using your tablet or phone screen. All in all I'm pleased with the box and would be happy to recommend it for the recording capabilities. The guide and the apps could be better.

I had previously used a Humax digibox/recorder that I’d acquired through my local Freecycle network and I’d been very impressed with it. However – probably due to its age, it had become unreliable when trying to record important TV programs, so I resolved to buy a new and more modern model. I chose the Humax FVP-5000T 1TB model because it struck me as being the bees-knees among digibox/recorders – and I haven’t been disappointed! Not only does it act as my Freeview digital tuner/receiver – it will also RECORD (onto an internal hard drive) any program from any digital channel, either individually, or you can set it in advance to record a whole series for you – with a massive, two-terabyte storage capacity! Not only that, but it can record up to FOUR different channels at the same time, while you are watching a fifth! But then there’s more... it also accesses a whole load of catch-up channels via the internet, so that – even if you happened to miss recording a program – you can still watch it at your leisure via BBCiPlayer/ITV Hub/All4/Demand 5 and UK TV Play, as well as many others, such as YouTube and NetFlix. If the channel you select to record from has an HD version, it will ask you if you want to record from there instead. The picture quality is superb. Installation was a piece of cake – you can connect to your tv using the HDMI cable supplied (recommended), or via an RCA cable. Your aerial plugs into the Humax. There is an Ethernet socket at the back as well as a cable supplied, but this was unnecessary for me to use, as it will also pick up your home wi-fi signal from your router through its built-in wireless receiver. I would recommend this digibox/recorder to anybody! I doubt it can be bettered!

When my TVonics PVR started to give problems after 11 years trouble free service it was not without some trepidation that I began researching a replacement. I eventually narrowed down my choices to the Panasonic DMR HWT250EB and the Humax FVP-5000T. Of the two, on paper, the Humax looked to offer the more up to date specification. However, reading the reviews on Amazon and Humaxs own web site didn’t inspire confidence in the FVP-5000T. Complaints included problems with initial setting up, noisy hard drive, slow/clunky software interface, location of the on/off LED indicator, ITV hub not working, TV Guide font size,etc,etc. Still having read all the 5 and 4 star reviews I decided, with my fingers crossed, to bite the bullet and buy the Humax as it seemed the best future proof option. I bought it at the beginning of February from Amazon because of their great returns policy. The initial set up including installation of a recommended software update went like a dream. There was no problem connecting wirelessly to my internet network. The hard drive is not noisy and the software interface is functional. Yes the location of the on/off LED leaves something to be desired but it isn’t a deal breaker. I agree that the TV Guide and some of the other menu screen font sizes are quite small for viewing from a distance, but the inclusion of other features e.g. the ability to record 4 channels simultaneously outweigh that for me. My main concern initially was the inability to access the ITV Hub, which was a glitch that I thought had been cured. I immediately contacted Humax Customer Services and was told that the problem lay with ITV who were working on a solution. So I emailed the ITV Hub and 5 minutes later received a response email from them suggesting a solution for me to try. Ten minutes later the ITV Hub link was working and continues to do so. I passed the solution to Humax who thanked me but said it didn’t always work on their equipment. The only other problem I encountered was recordings of BBC and ITV channels being duplicated because of my geographic location being able to pick up Welsh transmissions. A phone call to Humax resolved this by them advising me to delete all the Welsh channels from my channel list.. In all after two months regular use I would highly recommend this PVR.

I had a Humax Freeview device previously, so was looking forward to upgrading when the old box (After many years great service) finally failed. The set up for this is straight forward. The range of channels is excellent and the ability to record three channels is impressive. The box was smaller than the old one and quite attractively shaped. This should be great. However, the user interface is not as good as the old one. Too much room given to irrelevant options and the need to use the + button to access useful ones like delete. Good shortcuts like a delete button on the remote and on/off switch at the back have gone. The remote itself is huge - another backward step. The worst thing though is that the response time is so slow. The time between pressing the remote button and response can be several painful seconds. It's useable, but not pleasant.

This device seems to have more bugs than "I'm a celebrity...." I bought this to replace my old Humax PVR box that simply wore out after many years of good service. The first unit I bought had to be returned (and replaced immediately, without question, by Amazon - excellent customer service) the first few recordings were heavily pixellated and had 'failed for an unknown reason' .... long story but Humax was unable to resolve the fault but said that they would replace it but with a reconditioned unit! Mine was 40 or so days old and had recorded about ten hours of TV! Not happy at all, but as I said earlier, Amazon gave them a lesson in customer care. The replacement unit is still buggy and occasionally recordings fail - I don't feel as though I can trust it. Live TV is also jumpy on occasions. Not caused by the signal because if I switch to the TV output from its own tuner there is no interruption. Strangely the little 'mute' icon has now disappeared from the top of the screen but the square transparency that it would appear over is still there! Catch up TV and internet services are very dodgy ... I now cast from my tablet instead. There is no slow motion facility either (which i mainly used when watching golf) There is a freeze frame facility but on doing so the lower third of the screen displays the tracking data which impairs the image. No visual display on the unit to show the current channel - there is a blue light to show it is on but that (trust me) is not visible from the front - it kind of projects a very faint blue glow underneath! The 'recording' light is red and shows a faint glow next to the blue one! Very secretive; very strange .... but not at all user-friendly! Overall I'm disappointed with this product I'm sorry to say.

My old Humax gave up the ghost on Monday and my new one came on Tuesday. What a gem from the King of PVR. How things have moved on and this model only came to market at the end of last year. I have 3 computers on my home network and at last a pvr which slots seamlessly into the system. The real strength of this new unit is its ability to plug into the internet via the router. I'm one of these people who cannot just sit in an armchair watching TV so like to work on my computer with the TV out to one side. I have discovered that I'm not alone in this. So, if I needed to use one of the Catch Up services it meant all the rigmarole of setting it up and then locking up the computer to watch it . . .no more. This new Humax connects directly to ones router meaning I only have to connect once to each Catch Up service and from there on the Humax's capability to play programs from any channel over the past 8 days is there to connect to. The really clever bit is that it presents itself exactly the same as the normal TV Guide and the unit knows which service to connect to as soon as you click on any program. This is a game changer because it means that when you sit down to watch TV you no longer have just the choice of that day or what you have recorded but can also cruise the channels for everything over the previous 8 days and play them as if they are all today's programs. No more locking up your computer and no more Explorer shenanigans. I have seen mentioned that some people are having problems with the amount of tuners working? This is a tricky one because we are talking complicated electronics, signal purity, and Humax's very ambitious "record 4 channels watch a 5th". I live in rural Cornwall and don't have a Dalek on the roof for satelite TV so made up my own indoor unit for terrestial TV. I get on average 82% Strength and 100% Quality. So far I have not used the 'record 4 channels' but have recorded 3 and watched a 4th with no problems whatsoever. Unless the unit you have is a genuine duff one I'd say that anyone experiencing problems should realize that it is not the unit but the signal they are receiving. Maybe the problem is receiving the signal from a satelite as opposed to terrestial? Something I cannot emphasize too much is that for years many of us have been screaming for a pvr which would connect online and this one covers all the bases and that is where lies the true power of the unit. Unlike a lot of reviews I have seen I would never judge this unit on having to wait mere seconds between functions. OK! so there seems to be no caching? so what! maybe it had to be left out to avoid certain conflicts? after all this is a very feature full bit of kit. I just hope people will use their own intelligence and look beyond the shortsighted. Humax are without a doubt the absolute masters at covering every essential detail at a very reasonable price.

The Humax FVP 5000T triple-tuner 1TB DVR works extremely well and has been totally reliable in everything I’ve eventually managed to ask it to do. About half an hour after unpacking the box I was able to record three different programs on three different multiplexes and watch a fourth (also on one of those three multiplexes) all simultaneously. Recording quality is excellent in HD and SD, the blurb is accurate. The optimum picture setting is to use the 1080p output if the monitor/TV will accept it on the HDMI. This is because then the off-air motion vectors can be used to interpolate the de-interlace at the same time as decoding the DVB-T signal; results are visibly much better when the two tasks are combined in just this one operation. The audio and picture were correctly co-timed, and I did not need to adjust any relative offset, although the option is available on both this recorder and the TV. I left the audio volume control on maximum level and this then matched the audio volume maximum from a Blu-ray player and the TV’s own internal levels, so changes are not required at the TV when switching between sources. Catch-up and Streaming are very low on my list of priorities so I’ve not bothered to examine them in any detail except to find out if they work. Those I tried were OK but with variable quality, despite being wired via Gigabit Ethernet to rock-solid fast VDSL+ internet. At about 11 Watts while recording it uses less than half the power of my previous Humax, and this is a welcome bonus. It is necessary to set the stand-by power option to allow the aerial loop-through power to be left On when the recorder goes back to standby if one wants to use the TV or another recorder following this one in the rf path. Standby On runs at about 5 Watts, standby Off is less than half a Watt, but aerial signal is not passed through. An unexpected benefit of leaving this On is that when a program time changes, the recorder can pick it up and reschedule automatically, but if Off it might miss it. I bought the 5000T to replace my trusty old HDR-Fox T2 1TB recorder which has now passed beyond any economic repair. At the time I was looking, the 5000T was the best option to meet my requirements for occasionally watching live TV or recording it for later more convenient viewing. Skipping ads or searching for relevant bits in recorded programmes is almost as easy as on the old Fox-T2 except the 5000 requires more button presses to change modes instead of simply using alternative buttons. This applies also to setting up recordings, and with all the button presses and menu navigation it is really quite slow, almost a pain, especially when compared with the Fox-T2. If you are used to a simple old-fashioned intuitive interface where the buttons have sensible labels and layout, then the 5000T Remote Control talking to counter-intuitive Freeview Play is awkward to use with a very steep learning curve and often requires multiple presses for many previously simple single-press operations! The user interface and remote control on the 5000T is very poor compared with the quick, intuitive and simple Fox-T2 which did almost as much and certainly all I ever wanted. Reading the instructions is essential, and even then, not all the possible commands are listed. Experimentation is a good way to learn them, provided one is not in a hurry to reach a specific item before running out of time. Ideally borrow a small but articulate child and ask them to explore the machine’s capabilities, and then tell you what they find.