Home Reviews Humax FVP-4000T review

Humax FVP-4000T review

First to feature Freeview Play but will it stand up to the likes of YouView, Virgin and Sky?

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fvp mocha 1
fvp mocha 1

There is a range of PVRs on the market with Sky arguably being the most popular. However, Freeview has been playing catch up with the new FVP-4000T.It is the first Humax PVR equipped with Freeview Play, a new connected service that combines live broadcasts and catch-up TV in a single EPG.

It is the first Humax PVR equipped with Freeview Play, a new connected service that combines live broadcasts and catch-up TV in a single EPG.

Its design on the outside is rather good. Coming in Mocha or Cappuccino, it is really quite dinky and won’t take up space like behemoth PVRs in the past. Around the back, it sports all the connectivity you need. There are passthrough, analogue audio and video, optical, Ethernet, HDMI and USB. There’s a second USB on the side too.

The PVR offers access to BBC iPlayer, ITV Player, All 4 and Demand 5 simply by scrolling back through the EPG. It can also play video and video via USB or any NAS box attached to your home network.

It sports a 500GB hard drive (there’s also a 1TB drive as well). Built-in Wi-Fi helps in getting rid of one more cable to connect. It also sports three HD digital tuners. This means that you can record up to four programmes at the same time and watch a fifth live channel. As a result, you won’t have to miss one show to see another or choose between your favourites.

There is also a dedicated Humax app lets you take control of programming and recording from your Humax box, wherever you are! Once paired with your device you can remotely select which programmes you want to record and, with a display that replicates the TV menu, it’s easy to programme – especially on a tablet.

Video quality is great either live or recorded as is sound quality. The menu is easy to navigate, although its looks may not be to everyone’s taste.

When running, the box can sound a little too noisy in operation. Whether this is down to the hard drive or cooling fans could be anyone’s guess. It also got a little hot as well – we’d advise not putting any other box on top and plenty of space to the side to prevent overheating as a precaution.

Sadly, it doesn’t output in 4K. Not much of a problem now, we grant, but a little futureproofing never goes amiss.

Overall, this is a good first box for Freeview Play. We hope there are plenty of updates to squash a few bugs we found, as well as increase functionality and usefulness down the line.

The Humax FVP-4000T is available from Amazon for around £200.