Buy one of these and you’ll get to
more high-def, 3D, and on-demand content than you could ever dream of. Bye bye,
social life…
Product of the year
Best subscription service
Sky+HD: $375
It’s not, as a famous man once observed,
rocket science. If your satellite TV subscription service offers an
industry-leading selection of content, absolutely impeccable ergonomics and
enough storage space to keep a whole family in high-def heaven for weeks on
end, critical and popular acclaim must surely follow, closely followed by huge
sales. And, even more importantly, a coveted What Hi-Fi? Sound and Vision
Product of the Year Award and the kudos that goes with it, can be yours.
Sky
+ HD, the best subscription service
If you decide to go for the full
whistles-and-bells subscription (of which sport and movies are by far the
costliest elements) there’s no doubt that Sky + HD doesn’t come cheap. But no
one ever claimed that the best equated to the most affordable, and for those
who take their TV seriously (by which we mean those with an interest in the
standard of broadcast, the accompanying audio, the possibility of watching 3D
content, and access to the increasingly essential Sky Atlantic HD channel among
the 50-odd HD channels currently available) it’s worth every penny.
Everything about the Sky + HD box is
beautifully judged. The most recent upgrade to the EPG has made the best
on-screen menus around even better, the remote control is logical, and as a piece
of hardware it’s as robust and reliable as any nominal competitor.
It’s still number one
And where sheer convenience is concerned,
Sky+HD bows to no rival. By the time this magazine is published there will be a
two-terabyte variation available, but for now the 1TB box is able to record
around 240 hours of high-def programming (or the thick end of 750 hours of
standard-def stuff – that’s a calendar month’s-worth). That sort of capacity
means it’s ideal for archiving and time shifting – even storage-hungry 3D
broadcasts are no problem. And there’s 400GB available for Sky Anytime,
complete with online video-on-demand for Sky broadband customers.
What more do you want jam on it?
Best Freeview HD recorder
Humax DTR-T1000: $720
It wasn’t a huge shock that the first taste
of YouView we got came via established PVR hero Humax product, not only does it
incorporate all the catch-up and on-demand services you want (BBC iPlayer, ITV
Player, 4oD and Demand 5) but it has twin Freeview HD tuners and a 500GB hard
drive, too.
What’s
YouView? This new service combines linear TV with online catch-up and on-demand
services including, imminently, Sky’s Now TV
The DTR-T1000 is a doddle to set up, is
ergonomically sensible and has pretty much all the functionality you’d need (the
Ethernet only design seems churlish at first, but there’s no getting around the
fact that streaming is most stable via wires. If your router’s in a different
room, a power-line system works well).
The YouView menus look fresh and inviting,
and the restyled Humax remote features large, finger-friendly buttons – a big,
blue ‘Y’ button takes you to the main home-page from where you can access live
TV and on-demand content. The guide shows both seven days ahead and seven days
back, and if shows are available through any catch-up TV service it’s indicated
with a little ‘play-button’ icon. Select it to be taken to the corresponding
catch-up service, where you can start playback.
The DTR-T1000 is doddle to set up, is
ergonomically sensible and has pretty much all the functionality you’d ever
need
Fantastic picture quality
We viewed everything from a high-def rerun
of EastEnders via iPlayer to a standard-def stream of The Hotel Inspector via
Demand 5, and the picture remained overwhelmingly stable with only the merest
hint of judder and/or noise. Detail levels are good, and the overall image
quality is punchy, colorful and bright.
Switch to one of the Freeview HD tuners and
quality goes up a notch, especially with the BBC’s HD channels. Picture quality
is, broadly speaking, excellent, with outstanding detail, smooth edges and fine
motion handling. Standard-def doesn’t quite hit these heights, but the Humax’s
basic strengths remain.
Ideally there would be a few more content
providers (YouTube, maybe, and perhaps one of the movie-streaming services but
Sky’s pay-per-view Now TV should arrive soon), but there’s an appeal to the
YouView concept that’s made only more concrete by the all-round strength of the
DTR-T1000.
Best Freesat recorder
Samsung SMT-S7800: $300
Meet the new, boss, same as the old boss.
For the second year in a row, Samsung’s SMT-S7800 is our favorite Freesat
recorder. And for those who are outside Freeview HD’s reach, or for those who
crave the extra scintilla of detail and subtlety we think Freesat offers over
its Freeview HD equivalent, it’s a beautifully built, simple-to-use and
brilliant-to-watch delight.
How
do I get Freesat? If you have a working dish on your house, possibly from a
previous resident, all you need is a box. Otherwise it’s ladder-time…
It’s a beautifully built,
simple-to-use and brilliant-to-watch delight. You can’t buy a better Freesat
box than this Samsung
Fantastic all-round
Initial glitches in operation having long
since been ironed out by some judicious firmware updates, the Samsung is every
bit as easy to live with as any putative rival. Its EPG is crisp, clear and
logical, its remote control is up to the standard of the class, and its 500GB
hard-disk drive offers sufficient capacity for all but the most sedentary of users.
The SMT-S7800 can also stream a decent
range of audio and video file formats over your network or via USB, plus it has
access to some (though not all) catch-up TV services. Crucially, the
Award-winning BBC iPlayer is on board.
Most importantly, though, the Samsung is a
thoroughly enjoyable performer. HD broadcasts are a treat: the most testing
transmissions (sport, inevitably – football, Formula One, tennis and so on all
combine rapid movement with testing depth of field and, often, huge and uniform
swathes of color) are handled with complete confidence. Motion is tracked
doggedly, detail is high and the color palette is convincing. Sound, too, is
impressive, the SMT-S7800 making the difference between a so-so soundtrack and
a sorted effort obvious.
So as far as your Freesat options go, we
don’t think you can buy better.
