Review: Humax 7500T PVR

By Branko Miletic

Most people may not have heard of Humax, but this Korean company, which was founded in 1989 by seven university graduates, has since grown to become one of the world's largest Personal Video Recorder (PVR) makers.

Humax has not invented anything new, but a bit like Apple, it has rejigged an already existing product, just making it simpler and easier to use for the masses.

The 7500T PVR, which has just been released in Australia, is easy to set up and use – all you have to know is how to plug it in and where the antenna cable and HDMI cables go. Its on-screen wizard tells you how to do everything else and does most of the set-up automatically.

It can be programmed via an iPhone, iPad, iPod or Android device and with an Ice TV subscription allows it to skip advertisements.

Moreover, it can record three programs at once – one that is playing and two that are on another network – meaning that you can record three shows at the one time.

With up to a rather respectable 1 TB of storage space, there is no need to fret about running out of space. And since it uses a Wi-Fi (or Ethernet if you prefer) connection for updates, this too will happen automatically.

In terms of the test, I took it out of the box, plugged all the cables in and then I allowed the PVR to find all the channels. After that, I set it up to record Q & A as well as a couple of other less interesting programs, which I played back at two days later at my sartorial comfort.

The other attributes of the PVR include chasing and time shift playback, 1080p upscaling, 32MB flash memory, 256MB SDRAM, remote and Smartphone control and it also comes with a wireless USB stick for connection to your home network as well as HDMI and RCA cables.

The only downside was that according to several reports, Humax encrypts all its recordings, so if you think you are going to replay last Sunday's Australia vs. South Africa Rugby World Cup game on your PC or iPad, think again.

I did try to prove or disprove this, however in all fairness to Humax, I’m not sure if it was the encryption or just me doing something wrong that prevented playback on my MacBook Pro.

Bar that, the Humax 7500T is a wonderful little PVR that should go far with Australian consumers.

Pros: easy to use, large storage capacity, decent pricing
Cons: won't allow you to reply content on other devices except for the one it’s connected to

4 Shacks out of 5

RRP
500GB $499
1TB $549

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