Digital Video Recorder
Fire up the tuner and it'll gather up to 100 TV and radio stations. The EPG guide is intuitive and therefore easy to use, and running through programs on different days is as easy as on Sky or regular Freeview boxes.
Programs can be recorded to various media by simply depressing the remote's record button, plus they can be queued up and scheduled. Two tuners come in handy when programs clash, or you want to watch one and record another.
Unlike modern recorders, there's no method of setting a series link, should you want to record all the programs in a particular season. The interface, while perfectly functional, isn't as slick as Sky's, and navigation can become a little slow if you're accustomed to moving between screens at a breakneck pace.
Viewing a program entails navigating to the recording destination and then clicking on play. In keeping with the general setup, a large preview screen is shown, which can be expanded to a full-sized screen by, again, clicking on it.
Watching a recording made in HQ mode shows very little deviation from the quality of the source material, ensuring that it's perfectly viewable.
Summary
A.C. Ryan's PlayOn!DVR HD box of tricks does a pretty good job as an all-in-one hub for your multimedia entertainment. The network media player's credentails are well-documented, while the digital video recording ability is new here. It all works seamlessly and plays and records nearly all formats, making it an ideal living-room choice for the technology enthusiast who likes to have flexibility in their multimedia hub.
A tidier interface wouldn't go amiss, Freeview HD would be nice, and a few Internet-centric apps would bring it bang up to date, but the £200 PlayOn!DVR HD 1TB's good points vastly outweigh the bad.
The Good
Plays practically all media files
Decent PVR; high-quality recordings
Sleek design
The Bad
Freview HD would be nice
HEXUS Rating
HEXUS Awards
HEXUS Where2Buy
The A.C. Ryan PlayOn!DVR HD 1TB is available from Scan.co.uk.
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