Premier AV TV-1158 Freeview Receiver/PVR via USB (HDMI upto1080i & H.264HD)

I have taken a bit of risk to buy this as the features advertised are really what I like specifically PVR and Mulitimedia player features on top of the freeview receiver. This little player has never let me down and does all what are featured.

The OSD menu screen is nicely designed and navigating thru each menus and feautures is user-freindly. I am impressed with so many features available out of this little player and they are all worked perfectly.

Freeview channels scanning is flawless and picture quality of the channels via HDMI port looks sharp and clear enough.

I have tried quite a few timer-recordings on EPG and scheduler and they have been all stored successfully into my external 1TB HDD. All the media files stored in the external HDD such as .avi, mp4, h.264 can be playbacked without any issue. However there is a limitation of editing the recording contents only two options Delete/Rename except which all features and functionalities are satisfactory. Highly Recommended !

Like another reviewer I took a punt on this little set-top box with usb recording facility and ordered one prior to its Amazon release.

Given the torrent of HD-friendly specs. in the manufacturer's description, you might be forgiven for thinking that this was a bargain price HD recorder. Sadly, it is not - or at least not here in the UK. UK Freeview HD channels are broadcast in DVB-T2 ... and the standard definition programmes in DVB-T.

So, for UK users, this is a single tuner, standard definition Freeview set-top box with usb PVR, upscaling HDMI output and the ability to play HD files input via its single usb-2 port.

I have tried playing 1080-P (1920x1080 @ 30fps) camcorder footage, copied onto a fast usb stick (Transcend Jetflash 600), through this unit - and it seems to play without problems. The box has no network capability - only file -read and -write to a connected usb drive. FAT32 is the required file format - and the unit can format a drive for you should you need it.

I've only used usb flash drives with this box - and despite the apparent adequacy of the claimed write speeds of cheaper usb sticks (such as the Kingston 'Data Traveller' series) I have found, when used with other Freeview & Freesat pvrs, that I get frequent 'insufficient speed' warnings during recording - causing 'skips' on playback. This is probably because the video bitrate is variable. I've measured peak video bit rates in excess of 6 Mb/s in files recorded on this box (this is channel and programme dependent) - though the average will be nearer 2.5 Mb/s. Stick to faster drives - they will be more likely to cope with the peaks.

Via HDMI, the picture quality is good - and occasionally very good indeed - at normal viewing distances. Recordings, when played on a PC, are very good and, there, the compression artefacts, sometimes evident on a large TV screen, are virtually non-existent.

The recorded files are in .mts format which, like the .ts format files produced by the neat little scart pvr unit sold by Digi Fun SCART FREEVIEW, DIGITAL TV RECEIVER RECORDER TUNER SET TOP BOX, USB MEMORY RECORDER, SD CARD READER, HINGED for LCD TVs, will play happily on a PC (if you have the right codec). The recording rate (Gb/hr) varies according to the TV station. The main channels (BBC1, 2, etc.) broadcast full 720x576 images - usually with an 'acceptable' 256kb/s sound bit-rate. Smaller stations seem to broadcast lower resolution images and/or sound - e.g. I've found that E4 and More4 usually broadcast 544x576 images with 192 kb/s sound whereas Film 4 seems to offer the full 720x576 picture - but a barely adequate 128 kb/s for sound. Of course the box can only reproduce what the broadcasters deign to provide - and by and large it does a fair job even with lower resolution broadcasts.

The on-screen menus offer a basic selection of options and the presentation is clear and largely self explanatory. - they do, however, block-out about 80 - 90% of the screen area.

One annoying feature is that the EPG has a mind of its own. I'll upload an off-screen shot to show the problem(s). The photo was taken on Monday 27th Feb 2012: The first issue is that the declared Day for the current date is wrong - and cannot be changed. This in itself isn't a major issue - but the inability of the EPG sometimes to display a complete programme listing for the current & next (actual) date is downright vexatious. You might think that the day after the 27th of Feb. would be the 28th ... but not according to this EPG ... in its world, there is no 28th Feb. The displayed information, by the way, is correct (dates and times) for the listed programmes - it is simply incomplete! The mere act of changing the selected channel can initiate this strange behaviour. By powering off at the mains - or, sometimes, going in and out of standby, the listings will correct themselves - but it is still very annoying.

There is no direct manual entry method for setting a recording time - the only way to input basic timer data is to select something from the proffered EPG listing - then edit it. Fortunately editing the EPG timer data is very straightforward. A minor irritation, to those of us who mostly use timers to record rather than change channels at set viewing times is that, when called, the EPG timer is always pre-set to 'view' not 'record' - so if you forget to change it - you'll miss your recording.

Whilst in grumpy mode - I should also mention that although you can instantly start recording with a single button push there appears to be no simple way to tell the box to automatically stop recording after half an hour or an hour etc. To stop a recording you have be there to push the stop (& OK) buttons at the appropriate time - or, possibly, let the 'sleep timer' do it for you. I haven't tried that one yet - but it would be a clumsy and inflexible solution (if it works).

You may, by now, be thinking that a firmware update was in order - but if you check the website mentioned on the supplied guarantee document , you will discover that this model is new (indeed it wasn't even on the website, in mid Feb2012, when I bought it) - and there are no bug fixes as yet!

One useful feature is that, whilst recording, an information box appears in the top left of the screen. It contains a yellow flashing 'ball' and displays the elapsed time since the start of recording. Naturally the info. box does not appear in the recording itself!

The supplied remote control is reasonably functional - the buttons are clearly marked and quite well spaced (unlike the one for the Digi Fun scart unit). Some functions on the handset appear not to work - particularly the 'skip to next marker'. Video is recorded without marker 'jump' points - so the only way to navigate through a video file is to use the fast forward or reverse buttons (offering the standard x2, x4, x8, x16 and x32 speeds). It may be that the 'skip' buttons will work on jpeg and mp3 files - but I've not experimented with them yet.

The unit comes with a two pin European type mains plug. The pins are too thin to make reliable contact in a 'shaver' adapter so if you don't fancy wiring your own mains plug - there are sellers on Amazon who can supply the correct two to three pin adapter. Euro 2 Pin to 3 Pin Converter Plug / Adapter - White.

In summary, this is an easy to use, if occasionally exasperating, little Freeview set-top box - and if that's all it was then I'd regard it as quite expensive. It's saving grace is its ability to record computer readable files - which it does well enough - though that activity isn't as bug free or user friendly as other, cheaper, units on the market. The HDMI / up-scaling feature is fine so far as it goes - but your TV will up-scale any signal you feed it anyway.

The DvB T Receiver was what i expected as described. The Receiver has NO BUILT in Memory for Recording films etc, so i bought a Buffallo 500Gb External harddrive, which works fine. This plugs into the receivers USB socket. The Receiver writes onto FAT 32 format, so most External harddrives (with 1 USB Plug) ie the same USB plug also powers the hard drive and most Flash memory sticks will work too. The receiver cannot write using NTFS. You can set the record times , either from the EPG or Manual input. The receiver needs to be left on with the External harddive to do so, but the TV can be turned off. One more point is it is not HD Receiver, only when you play back HD recorded media, ie, using a HD Camera. The receiver will not find HD Channels anyway, only standard Freeview. It does find plenty of freeview channels and took about 5 mins to do a scan. The tv can be connected using a HDMI Cable, RGB Cable, a Scart lead or a Digital coax lead. Overall it does a good job for the overall price, i gave it 4 stars as it does'nt receive HD.