HUMAX FVP-5000T 2 TB Freeview Play HD TV Recorder - Carbon Black

Product Information

The ultimate test of any piece of tech kit is would you buy it again or recommend it to someone you care for? Nope. Even the way the remote control is layed out is rushed and not intuitive. The button to find your recordings is hidden away and too small. I'm constantly miskeying and once you press the wrong button you lose what you were trying to do and clear the cached program you were trying to watch. I'm aware how to forward and reverse skip. What was once a single button operation on the HDR Fox T2 is now a potentially 3 press operation (Press right to display the menu, press up to highlight the time skip feature, press left or right to skip left or right). One key press to 3. That's a GUI catastrophe. The box does show a full guide to the Freeview services but occasionally, totally inexplicably, shows chunks of 'No Information'. Note: Other TVs, including the one on the end of the loop-through show full guide with no gaps so not a signal issue. Should you misplace the zapper, there are on-body touch controls for power, volume and channel selection. Watching Netflix is just as easy – there’s a dedicated app (and a button on the remote), which you then control with the regular remote. Note, however, that the FVP-5000T only supports content up to 1080p, so you won’t be able to watch Netflix (or anything else) in 4K, at least for now. Slow and Steady

However, the discontinuation was somewhat expected at this stage, given that the device lost support for ITV Hub in 2022 and never supported ITV’s new streaming service, ITVX. This combination of features made the FVP-5000T a robust and versatile choice for those looking to enhance their Freeview experience – even though, in my review, I noted how its interface was never as swift as one expects from streaming devices these days. The ITV Hub And ITVX Saga When partnered with a Freeview Play FVP-5000T PVR the Espresso will view live TV from one of the FVP’s built in three tuners. Not only that all your recorded programmes can also be viewed via Espresso given you multi-room TV in any room you choose! If you don’t have a Freeview Play PVR don’t worry your Espresso can still deliver a wealth of Free TV content with our built in apps via the internet. Freeview Play gives you the best in TV for Free with 75+ TV Channels and 25+ Radio Stations, including 15 HD TV Channels for stunning high definition viewing. This was complemented by its generous storage options, which ranged from 500GB to 2TB, providing ample space for a variety of recording needs.

Humax FVP-5000T: Recordings

That said, if you have your heart set on a single-box solution for your TV recording and video streaming, the Aura is a solid choice. While the Aura is spot on for sound, we still recommend that you buy the cheaper but still brilliant Humax FVP-5000T while you still can, and add a Google Chromecast with Google TV if you also want streaming. The experience won’t feel much more split than the Aura already does but, more importantly, the smart offering will be more complete and a little better for picture quality too.

Re your other issues, suggest you visit the MyHumax faq threads for the 4000/5000T (including how to display the programme info). Another nice touch is the “Smart” HD switching and recording. If you’re watching (or recording) an SD channel that also has an HD version, the device will offer you, on-screen, to jump to the HD version. The world of set-top boxes has evolved rapidly in recent times and the go-to name for TV streaming has just upgraded to stay ahead of the rest. Yet Humax’s goal is still to offer simplicity and general ease of use, with modern features such as integrated catch-up TV, media viewing and app support all included. In fact, right up until its discontinuation, the FVP-5000t was sold as new without a clear indication that one of the UK’s major broadcasters won’t have an app on it, as ITVX support will never be added.The Aura isn't up to Humax's normal high standards. I have loved Humax's FreeSat and then the previous via-ariel Freeview versions of this set-top box for the last 14 years and upgraded last year. This has been nothing but buggy and irritating.

When Brian May plays his solo at the end of the piece, it’s like he’s making his guitar sing. Again, the sense of place is captured brilliantly in a credible rendition of the sound of the old Wembley Stadium full of 72,000 people clapping in time and singing along to Radio Ga Ga. A good, dedicated Freeview box, like the FVP-5000T, gives you a range of features not available on a telly. You can record programmes onto the internal hard drive (and choosing what to record is super-easy, using the electronic TV guide), you can even set it to record a full series and it’ll get recorded automatically every time a new episode airs. The FVP-5000T is an impressive Freeview recording box that does most of what you could hope for. The advanced integration between the “live” Freeview channels and the catch-up apps, as part of the electronic guide, will be a game changer for some, combining both worlds for one smooth watching experience.

Humax FVP-5000T: Verdict

Partner the H3 with any Humax Freeview Play PVR and stream recorded content and live TV via the PVR’s hard drive utilising its 3 tuner capacity. However, Humax has assured us that the device should be more widely available again in approximately two weeks. Goodbye, FVP-5000T Having to tap a channel number rather than browsing or pressing "next channel" relies upon you having to know the channel number (e.g. you have to know that 101 is BBC One HD). This is a ridiculous "solution" (It's not a solution) to have to rely upon in a product in 2018. The suggestion not to press channel up or down to avoid long delays of several seconds between channels seems amazing in a so-called high end product demanding a premium price. Audio output is highlighted by Dolby Digital Plus and Pulse sound, so you get the purest and cleanest cinema sound in your living room. The large 2TB hard drive will store up to 1000 hours of standard TV (SD) or up to 500 hours of high definition TV (HD)

If you don’t want to splash out on another box, or don’t need one then the app can help. The Humax Live TV app lets you watch content via your box. This uses the aerial to feed the signal into the box then sends it to your connected device on the same network via Wi-Fi. A pretty seamless way to watch shows on another device. When out of the house this same app is a handy way to access your box to set recordings, but be warned it won’t let you watch live.The FVP-5000T also connects to your broadband (via an Ethernet cable or WiFi – so you might want to consider either a Powerline Adapteror a WiFi extender), and then gives you access to the UK’s most popular streaming apps – BBC iPlayer, ITV and a few others – as well as a dedicated Netflix app. Connections include an HDMI, optical digital audio output, Gigabit Ethernet, two USB ports (one 3.0, the other 2.0), plus terrestrial aerial loopthrough. Wi-Fi is 2.4GHz/5GHz dual-band. The next step after looking at products in the same category, was to look at products from the same brand, Humax. View what’s on for the next 7 days with the on-screen TV guide. Set reminders, recordings and find out programme information from an intuitive timeline.