Post by julesd68 on Sept 6, 2017 15:18:11 GMT
When I got back from holiday I found that my old Toshiba PVR just refused to boot up ...
Bit of a blow as we had most of its 500gb hard drive full of films we wanted to keep and not buy separately.
After doing a quick bit of research I ended up buying a Panasonic DMR-HWT250EB from John Lewis for £229 and so far I am very pleased indeed with the machine.
It has a decent amount of storage - 1TB, comes with twin tuners and Freeview Play. Size is fairly diminutive, smaller than I was expecting and a fair bit smaller than the old box.
Installation took a few attempts due to one or two fiddly bits but once set up it has performed very reliably.
It boots up quickly enough for me and without a fuss.
The SD broadcasts are a definite step up in quality from the old Toshiba and the HD roughly the same I think.
The EPG is a little bit slow to load and scrolling could be easier but works well enough.
Remote control is a little cramped, with small buttons for volume and channel changing, and should have included a mute button.
It is fully featured in every other way though.
On my old box some HD channels were unusable due to audio interference - I was told this could be down to local 4G but was never sure about this.
Thankfully the Panasonic plays all the channels without any audio issues at all - what a relief!
The best bit about it for me without any doubt is the catch up TV via Freeview Play. This will stream any shows you forgot to record on the main channels.
It works very nicely and picture quality is respectable without having the full quality you would get if you recorded the programme in HD.
You don't get any nasty pixellation or buffering which I used to get when trying to 'Airplay' BBCiPlayer from my Mac to TV, it's a different class entirely.
It also has the facility to stream Amazon Video and YouTube. I had been getting blu-rays from Lovefilm by post but due to popularity of streaming this is being closed down.
So I will start subscribing to Amazon Prime instead and take advantage of the streaming and also the free next day delivery ...
Bit of a blow as we had most of its 500gb hard drive full of films we wanted to keep and not buy separately.
After doing a quick bit of research I ended up buying a Panasonic DMR-HWT250EB from John Lewis for £229 and so far I am very pleased indeed with the machine.
It has a decent amount of storage - 1TB, comes with twin tuners and Freeview Play. Size is fairly diminutive, smaller than I was expecting and a fair bit smaller than the old box.
Installation took a few attempts due to one or two fiddly bits but once set up it has performed very reliably.
It boots up quickly enough for me and without a fuss.
The SD broadcasts are a definite step up in quality from the old Toshiba and the HD roughly the same I think.
The EPG is a little bit slow to load and scrolling could be easier but works well enough.
Remote control is a little cramped, with small buttons for volume and channel changing, and should have included a mute button.
It is fully featured in every other way though.
On my old box some HD channels were unusable due to audio interference - I was told this could be down to local 4G but was never sure about this.
Thankfully the Panasonic plays all the channels without any audio issues at all - what a relief!
The best bit about it for me without any doubt is the catch up TV via Freeview Play. This will stream any shows you forgot to record on the main channels.
It works very nicely and picture quality is respectable without having the full quality you would get if you recorded the programme in HD.
You don't get any nasty pixellation or buffering which I used to get when trying to 'Airplay' BBCiPlayer from my Mac to TV, it's a different class entirely.
It also has the facility to stream Amazon Video and YouTube. I had been getting blu-rays from Lovefilm by post but due to popularity of streaming this is being closed down.
So I will start subscribing to Amazon Prime instead and take advantage of the streaming and also the free next day delivery ...
