Handset foibles, setup & Top Up TV
We were surprised to realise that the trick that helps you navigate long menus isn't applied at all individual menu levels. So, for instance, when you have to press the Right button to move horizontally through three options, you won't necessarily return to the first one with the next press of the Right button if you've reached the last choice - you might have to use the Left button to go back. Yet, at some menu levels, you can swing right round to the start or end.
We know it's trivial but having this standardised would have made life with the Evesham just a bit better.
The other menu gripe, and it's a bit more serious (but still far from fatal), is that there's usually no way to back up a step-at-a-time through the main menu system where you change system-level settings. And that surprised us - doubly so when we'd already noticed and appreciated the fact that it is possible back up in steps from within the lower reaches of the Recording Library menu and also those of the Timers menu.
Virtually every settings-button on the Evesham handset that takes you away from watching TV acts as a toggle. It moves you into that chosen area and also back out again. So, we were rather expecting that the BACK button would have let you move gracefully back up through main menus, rather than just dumping you out of the menu and, in effect, duplicating the toggle action of the MENU button that got you there in the first place.
Setup
But, really, there's a whole lot more to like about the PRV160 than to complain about. Setting up, for instance, is totally trivial, thanks in part to the A4-size Quick Start Guide (folded lengthwise so as to have four pages. Mostly, though, it's thanks to good design. Oh, and everything else you want to know is contained in a readable, but rather dull, 25-page instruction manual that's printed in black-and-white at A5 size.
To get started, you plug in the aerial, connect the supplied RF lead between the Evesham and the TV set's aerial socket and also join the two using the supplied Scart lead.
Then switch on.
The hard disk is checked for about 30 seconds, after which you're asked - on the display shown on TV - to choose whether you're using a set that's 4:3 or 16:9 widescreen. Once that choice is made - by pressing the handset's OK button - the Evesham does a scan for all available TV and radio stations, something that to our great suprise, takes just 50 seconds to complete.
And that, essentially, is job done, though there may be some further changes to make.
The first thing to look at would be what's being output from the two Scart sockets - S-video or composite for feeding a VCR and those two, or RGB, for the TV set.
Other options include turning on subtitles, modifying the channel list (to show only TV, only radio, or only text), selecting one of the five favourite-channels list (once you've set up some favourites) and choosing the language for sub-titles (Welsh, Gaellic or English - though the language get depends on what's transmitted). And, you can also reverse the 4:3/16:9 selection you made at the outset.
All of these choices are accessed from sub-menus off of the Setup menu and really are simple to carry out. The only criticism we'd offer is that the TV screen goes blank during the hard-disk check that happens when you first start off - and that certainly led us to think that something had gone wrong but, since the check up happens so quickly, we didn't have time to panic.
The fascia display does actually show you that the hard disk is being checked out but, as we said earlier, you won't be able to read the display unless it's at eye level, so you might not see what it's trying to tell you.
Top Up TV
One area where the Evesham does fall short - totally short - is when it comes to letting you watch and record paid-for digital terrestrial TV channels, such as UK Gold, Discovery Channel and Cartoon Network. These are sold under the banner of Top Up TV but haven't been heavily promoted - it must be a bit of an uphill battle competiting against Sky, Telewest and NTL - but a big push is coming soon.
A new £9.99 monthly package of 18 channels is promised but when you see the details, you'll perhaps understand why Evesham and many others haven't bothered fitting card-reader slots to the kit they sell.
It's not that the choice of forthcoming channels is poor - we don't think it is - it's just that Top Up TV is being promoted in a bundling deal that requires you to buy a Thomson personal video recorder (the DTI 6300-16) for £180, along with a £30 starter pack. The starter pack covers the cost of connection (what's to connect; does it need a permanent phone connection like Sky?) and provides a viewing card, plus the first month's subscription.
And that brings us to our final conclusion, which you can check out overleaf on the Final thoughts page.
