16.4.2015

Have had my Humax HDR-1800T 320GB Freeview HD recorder for just three days now, not very long I know, but I am so impressed with it that I wanted to write about it straight away. For the record, I got a refurbished one from eBay, from a seller I have used before and trust, and paid £80 including Parcelforce 24 delivery. When it arrived it was in the proper box, everything was there, and it looked absolutely brand new.Anyway, it was very easy to set up, I didn't even read the manual (typical bloke!). I did find though that it has two standby settings, and on the powersave option the aerial throughfeed to the TV is disabled until the Humax is switched on. So,I have put it onto "normal" standby which presumably uses a tad more power, but does allow the TV to be used independently.Setting recordings is easy, you just highlight the program in the guide, hit the OK button, confirm that you want to record it, job done. The guide seems to load very quickly, unlike some, but it does only cover 8 days so you can't set recordings beyond this using the guide. However, you can set a recording manually, via the yellow button once the guide is on screen, and this is also very simple. So far, the recordings I have made have been very good, and importantly they seem to be adjusted for early/late start and end times, although whether this will apply to all channels I have yet to find out. However, if necessary you can set the machine to "pad" the start and end times of all recordings by anything from one minute up to ten minutes to overcome this, or if you prefer you can edit individual scheduled recordings to add a few extra minutes if you want.Watching recordings is simple, hit the "Media" button, and there they all are in a list, which shows a thumbnail picture of the recording, the title, the start time and date, duration, and the TV channel it was on. Just press the "Play" button and away you go. When it is finished the screen goes back to the list, and you can delete the recording via the "OPT+" button.OK, there are inevitably a few minus points so far:1) It soes not have WiFi capability so if you want to connnect it to the internet you either need an ethernet cable to your modem, or you can buy a USB dongle, although this has to be a very specific type with a Ralink RT3070 chipset as the Humax is preprogrammed with the driver for this, and there is no way to install an alernative driver. This is not an issue for me, I don't intend to use it on my home network, so the only reason I can see that I would need to connect it to the internet is to update the software. If/when I need to do this, I will just need to get a suitably long ethernet cable (5 metres in my case) which I can buy for well under a fiver, and just connect it temporarily.2) Part of the hard drive appears to be "reserved" for some reason, so only about 89% of the 320GB is available for recording. I can only assume that this is something to do with the facility to rewind live TV. Again, not an issue as far as I am concerned, we tend to delete recordings as soon as we have watched them, so there is plenty of capacity anyway. If you want to spend more money, then this model also comes with either a 500GB or a 1TB hard drive.3) It is only a HD recorder and cannot be used to play DVD's, so if you need that option you might need to look at a different machine, or use a separate DVD player.Incidentally, when I did get round to looking at the manual, I though it was actually well written and helpful, not too much jargon, and a lot better than most.Just a word of warning, this review is for the Freeview version of this machine, Humax also produce a YouView version which has different features, in particular I understand that it does not have a facility to manually schedule recordings or to pad recording times, and there will also presumably be other differences. Make sure you know what you are buying!I hope this review has been useful. If appropriate I will update it at a later date with any additional info (good or bad).

17.3.2018

UPDATE: After using this box for a while, I cannot recommend buying one. These are still being sold new, but are already out-dated. It does not support hardly any 'tv portal' apps (youtube is supported, but you can't log in).You can select multiple recordings to play, but you have no control in the order of the playlist, you cannot view the playlist or skip through it. It's a really retarded playlist system in this HDR-1800T. The playlist system was perfect in the 9200t and 9300t, you could do all of the things you would expext to be able to. I can't figure why, but they totally ruined it in this box.Sometimes when network things like 'tv portal' are selected, the box will just reboot.Also,while watching live tv, the picture will freeze momentarily every few seconds on many channels.The only indicator on the front is a red/blue led, which is red when in standby and blue when the box is on, but it then goes red when its recording. Its useless!So, I have to advise you AGAINST buying one of these Humax HDR-1800T freeview recorders, it does not meet the standard of the previous Humax boxes and I am very disappointed with it, and angry that Humax could produce such rubbish. (I'm just glad I got it cheap on ebay)ORIGINAL REVIEW:The HDR-1800T continues Humax's line of freeview recorders. I started with their PVR-9200T, which at the time (many years ago) was a very nice freeview recorder. It had a few foibles, but compared to most in its price range, It won out.I then 'upgraded' to the PVR-9300T, which wasn't really much of an upgrade, due to it missing many very usefull features. Yes, it had an HDMI output, but that was the only real good point over the 9200T.Owning both of those boxes led me to look again to Humax for my new box.I needed to be able to make a playlist of my recorded programs, and the HDR-1800T can do that. (although not as neatly as the 9200t)I needed to be able to copy my recordings from the box to my computer, which the 9300t couldn't do. The HDR-1800T can copy to a USB memory stick formatted in either FAT, NTFS or EXT3 which is very usefull.It can also play music and video files from the USB stick, and import them into its internal storage.It also has access to online content such as Youtube and Iplayer, but there is no onboard WiFi. You can plug in an ethernet cable or you can buy a USB WiFi adaptor to get online access. Not all USB WiFi adaptors will work, you need a specific chipset. Typing 'Humax WiFi' into ebay will find the correct one. You also need to sign up to the Humax Portal website to get full online access.Note that if you use a USB wifi adaptor, you cannot then plug in a memory stick, since there is only a single USB 2 port. (i have yet to test if a usb hub will work with this box).It has dual tuners, so can record 2 channels at the same time. You can also watch a third channel if its on the same multiplex as either of the 2 you are recording.If there is a HD version of a program you wish to record it will ask you if you wish to record that instead, and it will automatically find repeats (if there are any) of any 'collisions' where you try to schedule more than 2 programs at the same time for recording and ask you if you would like to record that instead.I've only owned this HDR-1800T for a few days, but owned Humax boxes for many years, and this box seems to meet the standard. If I find any major issues in the future, I'll update this review.Read full review...

27.2.2015

Hi - I am an audio visual installer - having used the earlier models thought I might try this one (HD etc)... These boxes are great for home cinema where your TV/display might not actually have it's own tuner or you simply do not want to use the TV's internal bits to help connectivity to a 'Cinema receiver'.OK - we put it through its paces - recording at SD *& HD......Initially I was a little disappointed as it would not record when set to standby even though the shows were lined up still in the scheduler.... this is what I wrote on someone else's thread here......Hi - I had the same problem - out of the box, if you line up recordings in the guide to record later and then put the unit on standby (powersaving or regular)

14.2.2016

I bought a refurbished version direct from the manufacturer. I've had several Humax PVRs over the years and been overall been very pleased. I read all the other reviews on this device and any faults have by and large been fixed with software updates from Humax. I sympathise with those who bought this product with earlier versions of the software as it looks like there was some "fixes" required. The refurbished unit I purchased didn't have the latest version, but it was simple enough to get it from Humax support pages and follow the update instructions which involves putting the updated software on a USB stick and from there into the device. Full instructions on the Humax support pages.

8.11.2017

I have used this recorder now for over a month and am fully aware of what it does and find it easy to operate. If I have any niggles at all then I am slowly but surely getting used to them. The remote is annoying because the numbers are at the bottom and not at the top as usual remotes, but either you get used to it or switch to another 'replacement' remote for this model. Also you have to access any recordings by using the menu, unlike other models there is no specific button on the remote to do this. I found that the standby colour is red, the same colour that shows for when you are recording and I think it should be a different colour so it's obvious that you are in standby as this model does not have a clock display - a clock being another thing I was used to and have to do without.

23.3.2018

I wanted an easy to use PVR that was reliable and most importantly responsive, as my aging Youview box (Huawei) was driving me mad with its painfully slow response times - every time a button was pressed on the remote the machine would respond in its own sweet time - often 20 or more seconds later!. This Humax machine is obviously blessed with a faster processor and maybe better software and responds instantly. Recordings are great quality and can be zipped through nice and quickly with 32x fast forward. The interface is slightly less slick that the YouView box and catch-up options are much more limited - iplayer being the only app available.

21.12.2016

I've just bought one of these from the John Lewis website. It works OK with the following provisos.You can't plug a DVD/ blue ray player through it as it only has one scart and one HDMI (out)sockets. This in turn means you need phono feeds from both devices to your older hi fi. Other manufacturers boxes are more severely restricted- HDMI/ optical only with Panasonic.If you feed your TV aerial 'through' it the TV only works with the box "on". There may be a way of avoiding this by altering the power saving on standby. I'll probably just feed the two separately.The mains plug is also a transformer. Therefore you can't replace it with a miniature plug.None of the above were issues with my old standard definition box.

11.9.2019

I bought this to replace my 9300 model because there was a shortage of channels plus no HD. Have to say it has far less features, the menu is complicated especially when deleting, I think a 10yr old could have wrote better software for the TV guide ie... Tag a programme to record and one option is 'record whole programme' why wouldn't you not want to record the whole programme?1 plus feature over the 9300 is the TV guide now has a reminder option.It's ugly looking with on a blue light on the front to let you know it's on... No digital window with time etc. I definitely would not recommend this particular product.

5.1.2019

I’ve had recordable freeview boxes for years but know they only last 3-5 years so didn’t want to spend a fortune. This one had everything I wanted and great storage amount. It was cheaper on Amazon than in high street stores and I could purchase the WiFi dongle all in once place. This product was easy to install as it pretty much does it all automatically. The picture quality is far better than previous high end brands I’ve had. Only downside to this is finding recordings isn’t as easy to find but I’m sure I’ll get used to that over time.

16.11.2016

Arrived promptly and very easy to set up. Bought the reconditioned option but everything looks and works like new. Have ditched SKY and purchased this mainly to record freeview programmes and it works fine. Does everything the SKY box does, not quite as user friendly (windows based) but fine when you work it all out. Only negative I have found is the lack of + or - 24 hour function when using the planner. Do like the way the recording starts exactly when the programme actually begins.

12.10.2017

Although I use catch up services a lot, some of them (ITV Hub, All4 etc) don't have subtitles, and with more and more mumbling so called actors on TV these days, I decided to get this Humax so I could record programmes with subtitles. I works perfectly and playback has subtitles! A brilliant feature is the "skip scene" button - when you get to the advert break, press it twice and you are at the end of the break ready to watch the second half without those irritating ads!

14.3.2019

i have several of these PVR's the first 2 work very well. simple and effective with quite advanced schedule recording abilities. BUT...the 3rd PVR bought from amazon warehouse as new used failed to find hardly any tv stations and found zero in HD. It also went off on its own several times. Humax support is zero and a young lady there was extremely disinterested when i told her where i bought it.problem is i really do like the x2 units of this model that i still have !!

27.10.2019

I have used this for well over a year now and it's good and easy to use for all the family. I have used Humax PVR's for well over 10 years, and this is the cheapest I have bought but it delivers a decent quality picture. I tried the Panasonic PVR DMR-HW220 and that was a big mistake, it didn't support MKV files so DNLA was a waste. If I remember correctly it didn't have a Search menu built in, only an obscure App that took 3 days to access.

21.12.2016

This replaced an old Humax box which had gone wrong. It's an "as new" graded product and certainly looks completely unused. For £86, it's a real bargain with more features than our old one and it's easier to use as well. Picture quality excellent. Love it! Only drawback is that it doesn't have built-in WiFi so, if you want it, you'll have to buy a Humax-compatible dongle (about £14) or connect it to your modem with a cable.

2.7.2019

Everything is good except 1. Poor TV Guide and Media screen design with difficult-to-see small font and lack of contrast with background (especially problematical for visually-impaired users or if you have a small TV screen). 2. For streaming from the internet, there is only the BBC i-player. There are no apps for the other TV broadcasters. Very disappointing.in this respect.

Humax HDR-1800T (320GB) - Reviews

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