The days of sitting down to watch TV in prime time are numbered. Already TV companies have seen the prime watching hours extend while viewing figures fall and more and more viewers are resorting to recording shows harking back to the days of the VHS machine.

However these viewers are not using the old VHS of the eighties and late nineties, indeed they have skipped DVDR’s and other recordable media solutions, the hard disk device is their chosen weapon. The latest to join the ranks of the PVR is the Goodmans GHD8015F2 Freeview PVR, a low cost option providing dual tuners and an 80gb hard drive for under £100.

PVR’s are not that new, but PVR’s that work on Freeview are just taking their first mainstream steps in the UK. With Freeview set to launch their own branded PVR very soon all of the usual names are getting in on the act and this time it is budget manufacturer Goodmans who think they can produce a low cost PVR with sufficient features to tempt us.

The rather badly named Goodmans GHD8015F2 is also a bit dull to look at for a £100 device, the unit measures 50 x 330 x 280mm meaning it fits under the TV and is your average set-top box shape and size. Design is straight out of the cheapo plastic school of thought with swathes of black plastic livened up a bit by some mock metal around the front panel. This panel houses the basic controls and a simple green on black LCD display. The main interaction is really expected to be via the remote, which is also a bit cheap looking although functional.

Fire up the GHD 8015F2 and you’ll notice that it is not the quietest box you have under your telly. It does make a bit of noise which is only noticeable in a very quiet room, compared to other Freeview PVR’s we have tested it is about average and nowhere near as noisy as some units that sound like they are about to take off!

The user interface is pleasant enough if possibly a bit low rent, there are all the controls you could expect of a standard Freeview DTT box, plus the recording features. The heart of the personal video recorder is the 7 day EPG which allows you to mark or tag what programmes you want the Goodmans to record for you. This process is both simple and effective with a single button push marking your chosen recordings, with the ability to review what you have scheduled to record. There is no series link as you get with Sky+ but this is down to the Freeview EPG not containing the necessary data to make this happen. There is an attempt to get round this with a basic timer record which can be scheduled as a daily or weekly repeat but Sky+ it is not.

Now a key bit of info is that the Goodmans unit is a twin tuner model and this had us expecting to be able to record 2 programmes at the same time. But wait this is NOT the case, the twin tuners may be present but only one can record programmes schedule from the EPG and the other is purely for live viewing, this is clearly stated in the manual and even the Goodmans website is very “carefully worded”.

This for us was a massive let down as we had naturally assumed that twin tuner means dual record, sadly this is not the case. Instead you can happily schedule on recording or pause live TV using one tuner and watch TV using the other with free choice of channel. In fact that sounds quite good until we remind you that on the Humax and Topfield units you can record 2 programmes and watch a third channel that is on the same multiplex as either of the recordings.

The Goodmans PVR can site either powered up or in standby waiting for your programme to start and then power up to record, storing the programmes on the 80gb hard drive which should be good for just under 40 hours of TV. Playback is very simple, a simple list of recordings is presented in date order from which you can choose what to play back. Control is via the remote with standard play / pause and FFD / RWD which moves at quite a pace, ideal for skipping some adverts.

Recording quality is quite acceptable and not far off the quality of the more expensive units, the recordings are compressed but not heavily so images while occasionally showing artefacts and the odd glitch are more than acceptable when compared to a VHS recording. The user experience of setting a recording and playing back is quite satisfying and when you consider the price of the unit Goodmans have done a good job in achieving the basics. That is good as there isn’t much else!

For example where most units allow you to pause live TV and rewind to watch something you want to see again (maybe a goal) you can’t do this on the Goodmans, it will only pause and then resume. We can only guess this is because they do not want to tie up the recording tuner all the time and only drop into record if it is available when you it pause.

During our tests we did note some small reliability issues with the unit locking up after we had made a few quick channel changes or dipped in and out of the EPG too quickly. As with most PVR’s the firmware is being updated all the time and no doubt the unit will get more reliable with each release. It did manage to make all of our test recordings although we missed the beginning of Torchwood as it started earlier than the EPG data, again most PVR’s would have also come a cropper on this point. Not until one comes along with PDC (programme delivery control) will recording become less of a lottery and then only on channels like the BC who use PDC!

There is no support for Top Up TV (no cam for the card) and no connection to a PC to lift off recorded files, in fact very few “extras” unlike the toppy or Humax 9200T. However the Goodmans GHD8015F2 is a budget device and what it does do is record TV reliably and in reasonable quality and in a week of solid use it proved itself despite the odd freeze that require a reboot.

Our main gripe has to be selling this device as a twin tuner, yes it has 2 tuners but only one is of any use for recording. We do think Goodmans should be more upfront about this and remove the risk of misleading people. Priced at anywhere between £130 and £100 it is cheaper than a number of the other Freeview PVR’s on the market and yet not the cheapest (the flaky Digifusion box holds that record).

Goodmans have produced a worthy well priced box at the cost of  removing the dual record facility, for most people this will be fine and is a far better option than a VHS player or DVDR. However having tested the top end devices we’d be tempted to spend the extra £50 on a Humax 9200T.

More Freeview PVR Reviews

Published - 14/11/2006

More Freeview PVR Reviews-

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