Humax HDR-FOX T2 review

The Electronic Programme Guide

One of the first places you'll want to get familiar with is the Electronic Programme Guide or EPG as this is the heart of any PVR. This is your Freeview TV guide for the week.

The FOX T2's EPG is clearly and logically laid out and uses a nice clear font making the whole screen easy to read and understand.

The programme grid occupies the majority of the page with a live preview of the current channel and programme description displayed at the top.

The programme grid shows all the programmes being broadcast over the next 8 days on all channels and radio stations. Navigation is pretty simple once you get used to the layout and learn the remote control shortcuts.

7 channels are shown at a time across a 2-hour time-frame. You can use the navigation buttons to scroll up & down through the channels and left & right through the programmes.

Although the programme description appears at the top, there is limited space so often you can't read the full description. This is easily fixed by pressing the i-button which will pop-up the full description.

Recording is a breeze

Of course the key feature of any PVR is its ability to record and I'm happy to confirm that recording is a breeze with the Humax HDR-FOX T2. In fact so much of the process is automatic the only thing you really need to remember is what you want to record.

There are two main ways to record:

Manually

While you're watching a programme or just before it's about to start you can press the Record button on the remote control. This will start recording the current programme immediately and will automatically set a stop time for when the programme is scheduled to finish (the time is taken from the EPG).

Automatically

The second way and the one you'll probably use the most is through the EPG. This is how you schedule programmes to record over the course of a week. You simply find a programme you want to record in the EPG and press OK to add the programme (or programme series) to the schedule.

Start and stop times are automatically set for you and the FOX T2 will even keep track of early or delayed starts using a system called Accurate Recording. So you'll never miss the start or end of your favourite programme again!

Two tuners - less compromise

The FOX T2 includes two TV tuners which means you can still watch TV whilst recording a programme on another channel, or record two programmes that are on at the same time!

While recording two programmes it's even possible to watch a third Live programme, however your channel options may be limited depending on which channels are being recorded and which channel you want to watch.

Of course you can also watch a previously recorded programme while the FOX T2 is recording, giving you a vast amount of flexibility.

What is Series Link?

There are many programmes that are broadcast in a 'series'. This could be daily episodes, 5-day a week soaps or once a week dramas.

If the FOX T2 detects that a programme is part of a series (through series link data broadcast by the channel), you will be given the option to Record the whole series.

Selecting this options means the programme you've selected plus all subsequent programmes in the current series will be recorded automatically - how cool is that! So all you have to do is set the recording once, choose record the whole series and the FOX T2 takes care of the rest.

Programmes within the same series are automatically saved into their own folder. So if you've recorded 5 episodes worth of EastEnders, these will all appear together in the 'EastEnders' folder.

This is very much like a folder on your computer and helps keep everything neat and easy to find.

Recording schedule

The recording schedule doesn't have a dedicated button on the remote, so the easiest way to access it is through the EPG by pressing the Yellow button.

The schedule will show you everything you have set to record plus any reminders. You can also edit any programme in the list or delete them entirely.

Unfortunately the schedule isn't saved if you ever have have to re-tune (scan for new or changed channels) or reset the box back to defaults. Just remember to take a note of your schedule beforehand.