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Icecrypt t2400 HDPVR March 2011
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n www.turbosat.com n £310 (500GB), £330 (1TB), £390 (2TB)
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Icecrypt t2400 HDPVR Dual tuners, a pick of extra large hard drives and multimedia playback. Is this Freeview+ HD PVR better than the rest? Humax’s HDR-Fox T2 has hitherto been the Freeview+ HD PVR to beat. So what does this new contender from Icecrypt (Turbosat’s in-house brand) have to offer by comparison? Two tuners allow for the recording of up to two HD or SD channels at once while watching a recording or (as with the Humax) a third live channel provided two are located on the same multiplex. You have a choice of onboard Western Digital Green hard drives – 500GB, 1TB (as tested) or 2TB with the 1TB model selling for around £20 less than its Humax rival. There’s upscaling of channels via HDMI to 1080p and media playback from USB drives (or the internal one) of MP3, JPEG, DivX, AVI and MKV files. Currently ‘missing’, compared with the Humax, is much in the way of networking functionality other than the ability to copy files via FTP to the hard drive, including creating folders.
Responsive jog wheel A simple black case design looks classier at a distance, sporting a smattering of illuminated controls including a responsive jog shuttle wheel used for channel zapping, volume control and menu navigation. This sits alongside a very readable multicoloured 16-character vacuum fluorescent display that shows the time or channel name accompanied by neat graphical icons. A right flap conceals a USB port and a blanked-off CI slot, which rules out pay-TV upgrading using a CAM. The backplate houses a UHF loopthrough, twin Scarts, an HDMI, composite video output and stereo phono and optical S/PDIF audio outputs. Transcoding of HE-AAC surround sound broadcasts isn’t yet supported. Data ports comprise another USB, Ethernet and an RS232 connector for software updates (also OTA/via USB). The sizeable remote is well constructed and can also be used to control numerous brands of TV. Button labelling mostly favours use of words over potentially
confusing icons and most oft-used buttons aren’t too far away from the central pad (Play could be closer). The user interface is intuitive, though some menus, such as a pop-up dealing with conflicts, look a little tacky. You can have up to eight favourites lists and a wellpresented EPG allows data for five channels at a time to be viewed in three-quarter screen grid form with synopses or as a list of what’s on one channel. You can set reminders and recordings (there’s also a manual timer), series link, sort shows by genre or search by keyword. Recordings can be placed in nameable folders and SD recordings exported to USB drives in TRP format. You can watch an in-progress recording from the start, create bookmarks and fast-forward/rewind up to 16x (or slow down to ½ or ¼ speed). Faster navigation is provided by a jump button, the ability to enter a percentage to skip to, and a ‘drag and drop’ bar also used for basic editing. We had no failed recordings but often suffered initial loss of sound for a second or so when playing them. Timeshifting can be constantly buffered or instigated by pressing Pause. The T2400 played media files in the declared formats including HD MKV files. Live and recorded SD and HD picture quality is excellent across the board. Upscaling does a decent job of making already acceptable SD pictures appear smoother on larger screens. Sound is clear via Scart and the dedicated outputs n Grant Rennell
Verdict With decent overall performance and flexible functionality, the T2400 comes highly recommended as a Freeview recorder offering great value if you take the larger storage options. However, some may be disappointed that it lacks the superior networking and video on-demand features offered by or headed to the Humax box.
Features Freeview HD: Yes Hard disc size: 500GB, 1TB (tested), 2TB MHEG-5: Yes Teletext: Yes EPG support: 8-day DVB Upscaling: 576i/576p/720p/1080i/1080p UHF modulator tuning: None CI slot: No Timer: 240 events Software upgrade: OTA/USB/RS232 HD out: HDMI SD out: TV Scart (RGB, composite), VCR Scart (composite), composite video Audio out: Optical S/PDIF, stereo phonos Media formats: MP3, JPEG, DivX, AVI, MKV
Ratings PLUS
n Flexible, dependable recording n Big hard discs available n Competitively priced
Minus
n Slow fast-forward/rewind speeds n No CI slot n Limited networking at present
Build Setup Searching Performance Features Value
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