I have recently become the proud owner of a Humax PVR 8000T and according to the gumph that comes with it it supports a 7day EPG.
It really is a fantastic box and I particularly like the "pause" and "rewind" functions, it's amazing how much you use them.
However I would also like to set it to record things in advance, but only now and next info appears in "The Guide", the rest is blank. I have to set it manually (although the repeat feature is good for this).
Therefore, my question is: when will the 7day EPG be available on freeview?
Also, what's this 4TV Interactive thing on channel 704? I hear that has 7 days EPG on it...
The twin tuner thing isn't a problem though as I already have a Nokia Mediamaster 221T
It's nothing to do with twin tuners. The ability to record one programme while playing back a previously-recorded programme is absolutely fundamental to the concept of the PVR.
With the Humax box, you only have two choices - either to watch what it's currently recording, or watch a previously-recorded programme and be unable to record anything new while you're doing it. That's no more advanced than a 30-year-old VCR!
Any reasonably modern hard drive is more than capable of playing and recording simultaneously at the kind of data rates used by digital TV - which is why I'm amazed that Humax have bothered to release such a crude box and then have the cheek to call it a PVR when it's nothing of the sort.
Twin tuners would be nice, but TiVo doesn't have twin tuners (okay, the special DTiVo does, but the standalone ones don't), and it's been able to record one programme while playing back another since its American launch in 1999.
I have recently become the proud owner of a Humax PVR 8000T... It really is a fantastic box
Am I right in thinking that it can't record a programme while you're playing back a previous recording?
If so, then it's not a PVR - it's a digital video recorder. Naughty Humax!
Is it not the case that a "PVR" is defined as a recording device which you customise to suit your own personal preferences (so at its most basic level you can define which series you wish to record and it does the rest, like a Sky+, at its most advanced the box learns which programmes you like and takes it upon itself to record stuff it thinks you might want to see -- in other words like a TiVo)?
Certainly though, the idea of a PVR is that it in effect becomes your dream "channel" and so you, in theory, should never *have" to watch live TV (except for certain live events obviously), so in that sense a the Humax can't be called a PVR since you can't let it do its thing while watching stored programmes.
Does the Humax support series link/season pass type features? If not, I don't believe it can be called a true PVR on that score either.
