We have been busy organising our
television viewing schedule
Harvard International PLC., a company with
more than 40-years-experience in the global consumer electronics arena, has
released a digital TV recorder for the UK market. This is the View21, which
provides twin Freeview HD tuner functionality backed up by 500GB of recording
memory for storing up to 300 hours of standard quality recordings.
Predominately lacquered black in colour
with a silver strip running around the top, the View21 unit measures 29 x 21cm
at the base, expanding to 32 x 24.5cm at the top, with a height of 6cm. All the
unit’s various connections are hidden away at the rear of the box where you
will find sockets for aerial in/out, twin SCARTS, HDMI, Ethernet and mains
power. While aerial, HDMI and mains power leads are supplied, you will need to
provide the means for Ethernet and SCART connection if required. Buttons for
power, record, plus volume and channel selection are arranged across the front
of the unit along with various status indicator lights.
View21 HD set top box
An automatic set up process will allow you
to define a PIN for use when laying down parental guidance boundaries and will
also check for available television channels and radio stations. In my case 99
television and 24 radio signals were identified but not all the television
channels were available as the scanning process does not differentiate between
free-to-air and subscription offerings such as Sky Sports and EPSN. The list,
however, did include free-to-air HD offerings from the BBC, ITV and Channel 4.
There are three methods of controlling the
View21 box. While the front of the unit gives you some basic controls, for many
the supplied full-featured remote control will be their weapon of choice as
they access the functionality available with this product. The third choice is
to download iOS software from the Apple App Store, which offers support for the
iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch. With this app you can control the View21 box and
view content on your device of choice while somebody else watches another
programme on the television.
As well as the Apple app, the View21 box
has some other built-in applications that could appeal. These applications,
which can be access from the Main menu and Guide option, allow access to the
BBC iPlayer, YouTube, Flickr and Twitter, though in order to use these features
you will need to have connected the View21 box to the Internet, of course.
Based on a 7-day EPG, the View21 Guide can
be displayed in three different formats showing three, seven or 11 channels on
one screen. You can view basic programme timings plus a brief description of
whichever programme is highlighted. Programmes can be selected for immediate
viewing or recorded as you jump backwards and forwards in 2 or 24 hour
increments. Recorded programmes are stored in a Library section which marks
items are available or partially viewed. Recorded programs can be fast
forwarded or rewound at up to x64. You can also time shift by up to 120
minutes. While you can watch one programme live while a second programme is
being recorded, it is not possible to record two different programs
simultaneously. In such instances a conflict message will appear.
Whenever
iPlayer support arrives, an expanded line-up of content will apparently be
added to the View 21 box after release through software updates.
The View21 product offers a range of
features but one omission did surprise me. I would have expected to see a link
to one of the film library services with support for Internet download. Maybe
this will be a new feature for a future software upgrade.
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Details
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Price: $304
·
Manufacturer: Harvard International
·
Website: www.view21.com
·
Required Spec: n.a.
Verdict
·
Quality: 8
·
Value: 7
·
Overall: 7
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