HUMAX FVP-5000T 2 TB Freeview Play HD TV Recorder - Carbon Black

Product Information

Re your other issues, suggest you visit the MyHumax faq threads for the 4000/5000T (including how to display the programme info). In our original review, we stated that the quad-core 1.8GHz CPU and 3GB RAM combo resulted in a snappy user experience, but in our recent re-test it feels a bit sluggish. You might assume that this is down to newer features and updates slowing the system down, but Humax itself hasn't issued a firmware update since 2021 – itself something of a concern. The Humax Aura’s three Freeview Play tuners bring access to over 70 non-subscription live TV channels and over 20,000 hours of on-demand entertainment through the catch-up services, with BBC iPlayer, ITV Hub, All 4 and My5 all present. Those tuners allow you to pause and rewind TV, as well as record up to four channels while watching a fifth one live. The ultimate test of any piece of tech kit is would you buy it again or recommend it to someone you care for? Nope. Even the way the remote control is layed out is rushed and not intuitive. The button to find your recordings is hidden away and too small. I'm constantly miskeying and once you press the wrong button you lose what you were trying to do and clear the cached program you were trying to watch. Having to tap a channel number rather than browsing or pressing "next channel" relies upon you having to know the channel number (e.g. you have to know that 101 is BBC One HD). This is a ridiculous "solution" (It's not a solution) to have to rely upon in a product in 2018. The suggestion not to press channel up or down to avoid long delays of several seconds between channels seems amazing in a so-called high end product demanding a premium price.

Operating noise is whisper-quiet. The internal fan is not intrusive, and the PVR's hard drive barely makes itself known. It's much quieter than a Sky Q or Virgin V6 box. The large 2TB hard drive will store up to 1000 hours of standard TV (SD) or up to 500 hours of high definition TV (HD)

The interface, however, is where my one main disappointment with the FVP-5000T lies – it’s slow. TOO slow for such a feature-rich (and expensive) device. You feel the lag with every press of a button – you have to wait for the guide to show up on the screen. You have to wait for programme information screens to show up. And you have to wait 2-3 loooong seconds whenever you switch a channel – which turns flipping-channels into a sluggish ordeal. The world of set-top boxes has evolved rapidly in recent times and the go-to name for TV streaming has just upgraded to stay ahead of the rest. Yet Humax’s goal is still to offer simplicity and general ease of use, with modern features such as integrated catch-up TV, media viewing and app support all included.

Simply navigate to a show in the EPG, select it and you’re then given the option to either record the show, record the entire series or set a reminder. Since the box comes with options of a hefty 500GB, 1TB or 2TB of storage, you’ll probably end up setting everything to record, just in case. That said, so much is available on demand that you can always watch that way if you forget to set a recording. Record up to 4 programmes at the same time you watch a 5th with the choice of three hard drive sizes More information on quality can be found in this old but still very helpful article from Harvard Business Review. Since the Humax FVP-5000T can record three shows at once while playing another live, you can enjoy multi-room viewing in two rooms at once, minus the fight for the remote. They will in this house. Many of the programmes I record simply aren't available on any streaming service. As long as there are adverts, people will always want to record the programmes. As long as there are pubs, people will always want to record the football and watch it an hour or two later.However, Manhattan is planning to launch two new Freeview boxes soon, the T4 and T4-R, although their release has been delayed. In 2022, ITV announced that its streaming app, ITV Hub, would no longer be supported on the Humax FVP-5000T. For the money, you get a lot of features to boost your evening of telly viewing. Plus, considering the complexity of those features, Humax has somehow delivered a really simple system to use. The FVP-5000T offers a great blend of good looks, ease of navigation, breadth of content and modern accessibility.