Humax 2Tune
A NICE MID-GROUND RECORDER FOR FANS OF F2A.
THIS IS ANOTHER one of those clever boxes that allows the use of t wo tuners to record up to four channels, provided they reside on two networks. It’s got an elegant external design, unlike the rather utilitarian design of the Beyonwiz units, so it won’t look out of place amongst your curved, sleek AV products.
Setting this unit up proved to be a breeze, one of the quickest, in fact, though they’re all rather easy compared to PVRs of the past. Making this even simpler is a huge range of help screens that spell out exactly what to do in layman’s terms. Like several other PVRs, this unit suggests subscribing to the IceTV EPG (see our boxout about this, opposite). To be frank, we’re a little confused by this — shouldn’t all of these boxes come with the best possible EPG out of the box, and not suggest a third-party one instead?
The good news is that the default EPG is almost as good as Fetch’s, and it’s easy to sort via day, week and channel. Recording an entire series takes just two button presses, making it impossible to stuff up. The Wi-Fi dongle means it also comes with apps such as Netflix and +7, though again, there’s no sign of dedicated catchup apps. However, these are integrated into the standard EPG so you can watch prior episodes, as with all of the units that support the HbbTV standard (ie, any PVR with Wi-Fi).
Choosing between this and the Fetch TV Mighty comes down to one thing — whether you want to focus on more free-to-air coverage, or indulge yourself in the Fetch’s wealth of IP-based video content.