TAKE FULL CONTROL OF YOUR TV:

STREAMING HAS FAR FROM KILLED THE VIDEO STAR, AS WE ROUND UP SEVEN PERSONAL VIDEO RECORDERS.

TOP PERSONAL VIDEO RECORDERS FOR FREE-TO-AIR

WHEN WE FIRST decided to proceed with a personal video recorder (PVR) roundup, many of us in the TechLife office were a little sceptical. A huge portion of our daily video content is no longer beamed to our eyeballs via radio waves; instead, we rely upon IP-based streaming media, be it TV catch-up services, Netflix or purchasing online movies. Even sourcing enough of these glorified, digitised VCRs proved difficult, with many big-name brands no longer making PVRs. Yet after testing seven of the existing models, our minds were changed. There is indeed a place in our content-loving culture boxes.

That’s not to say they’re for everybody. If you absolutely abhor advertisements, free-to-air TV will probably annoy you thanks to the fact most stations are jam-packed with ads. And if you’ve already got enough shows and movies to digest via a streaming service, do you really have time for even more? Having said that, most of these products now also include streaming apps like Netflix, so they’re a two-for-one kind of deal.

One thing in favour of these devices is the huge variety of free shows on offer these days. Gone are the times when there were only five channels to choose from. From our Melbourne test area, our devices picked up over 60 different free-to-air channels. Granted, some of these duplicate content, with shows from the ABC showing up on ABC Comedy occasionally, but there’s still a lot here that you’ve potentially never heard of. And being able to browse the choices now available, before queuing it up for recording, means you’ll never miss it again.